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. 12, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 09, 1999
Tetsuhiro Shiomi, Kanagawa, JP;
Takuya Niitsu, Kanagawa, JP;
Sony Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A disc cartridge housing a disc-shaped recording medium in its main cartridge body portion is disclosed. The disc cartridge includes the main cartridge body portion having a circular medium housing section rotationally housing the disc-shaped recording medium and an opening for exposing at least a portion of the disc-shaped recording medium to outside, and first and second shutter members rotated along the major surface of the main cartridge body portion to open/close at least the above opening. The first shutter member is supported for rotation along the circular medium housing section provided on the main cartridge body portion. The second shutter member is supported by the main cartridge body portion for rotation in conjunction with the rotation of the first shutter member. When the first shutter member is moved to a first position overlying the opening, the second shutter member is intimately contacted with a lateral side of the first shutter member to overlie the opening. When the first shutter member is rotated to a position of exposing the opening, the second shutter member is rotated, along with the first shutter member, to a position of opening the above opening. Since the opening provided in the main cartridge body portion is opened/closed by the first and second shutter members moved along the major surface of the main cartridge body portion, the opening can be larger in size than the main cartridge body portion. The large-sized opening is positively opened/closed by the first and second shutter members.