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:
Apr. 20, 2004
Filed:
Sep. 13, 2000
Kazunari Kato, Fukushima, JP;
Toshiyuki Fukushima, Fukushima, JP;
Alpine Electronics, Inc., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A head feeding mechanism which includes a screw shaft adapted to rotate in the normal and reverse directions using a motor as a drive source, a nut member engaged with the screw shaft, and a spring member connected to a head and adapted to elastically press the nut member against the screw shaft and which causes the head to reciprocate in the thrust direction of the screw shaft through the intermediation of the nut member through rotation of the screw shaft. The nut member has a substantially cylindrical female screw engaged with a male screw of the screw shaft, and the nut member is elastically biased in both the radial direction and the thrust direction of the screw shaft by the spring member. In this construction, if the elastic biasing force in the radial direction of the spring member holding the nut member in pressing contact with the screw shaft is set small, the female screw of the nut member does not move over the male screw of the screw shaft, so that a small torque suffices for the motor rotating the screw shaft, which is effective in achieving a reduction in the size of the motor and the entire head feeding mechanism including the motor. Further, the thrust play of the nut member due to backlash is removed, making it possible to prevent a malfunction attributable to external vibration, such as a dropout.