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:
Feb. 29, 2000
Filed:
Jun. 25, 1996
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka-fu, JP;
Abstract
An optical disc drive apparatus including a main tray having a stack of subtrays mounted thereon and movable between withdrawn and inserted positions. When the main tray is moved to the inserted position, the subtrays stacked thereon are held at a stand-by position and a selected one of the subtrays is ready to be drawn towards a loaded position so that an optical disc resting on the selected one of the subtrays can be clamped in position and optically read out. When an optical disc resting on one of the subtrays other than the uppermost subtray then held at the loaded position is desired to be removed or replaced, not only can such one of the subtray be returned from the loaded position to the stand-by position, the main tray is allowed to withdraw from the inserted position back to the withdrawn position carrying such one of the subtrays and the subtray or subtrays positioned immediately thereabove while leaving the subtray or the subtrays positioned above such one of the subtrays at the stand-by position, so that such one of the subtrays can readily be exposed to the outside for removal or replacement of the optical disc resting thereon.