The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 11, 1997
Filed:
May. 09, 1995
Stephen H Miller, Rochester, NY (US);
Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY (US);
Abstract
A tape cartridge, e.g. for containing a spirally wound optical recording tape, is provided with safety details to prevent access to the tape by a cartridge user or by an unintended tape drive, e.g., a magnetic tape drive. According to a preferred embodiment, a movable door-locking member on the cartridge's tape access door is normally covered by a movably mounted gate member which blocks physical contact by a user, or by a door-unlocking mechanism of the tape drive. When the cartridge is loaded into an appropriate tape drive, gate-moving structure associated with such tape drive operates to move the gate member to an unblocking position in which the door-locking member is accessible to the unlocking mechanism of the tape drive. The invention enables a single tape cartridge to be used in different types of tape drives, such as optical or magnetic tape drives, with only minor modification to the cartridge's access door.