Electrical connectors – With coupling separator – Nonconducting pusher
Patent
1997-08-19
2000-01-04
Bradley, Paula
Electrical connectors
With coupling separator
Nonconducting pusher
H01R 1362
Patent
active
060103442
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a compartment for a card, particularly an IC card (referred to as simply card below) in a read/write device for a personal computer and the like, more specifically to a mechanism for ejecting or unloading such card from the compartment.
Conventionally, insertion (loading) and ejection (unloading) of a card in a personal computer and the like are made manually in general, thereby allowing an operator to insert or eject the card at any desired time. This means that no mechanism is employed to prevent accidental ejection of the card.
Unfortunately, such conventional manual card insertion/ejection mechanism is unprotected from a thief. More importantly, the ejection mechanism can be operated while reading and writing a signal in the card memory, thereby possibly damaging the stored memory. It is preferable to provide a device where it is not too easy to acuate the manual ejection by mistake. It is, therefore, a feature of the present invention to provide an electrically powered ejection of the card and also an electrically operated protect operation to disable card ejection by mistake.
In order to achieve the above features the present invention is directed to a read/write device of a card including a card compartment and an ejection mechanism to enable ejection of the card by electrically pushing the card manually inserted into the card compartment. The present invention is characterized in the provision of a protect member adjacent to the mouth or entrance of the compartment to open or close as part of the ejection mechanism so that the card can be inserted or ejected freely in the open position while preventing the card from being ejected in the closed position.
The pushing portion of the electrically powered ejection mechanism is engagable with the manual operation portion in the pushing direction by coupling a rack to an electrically operated pinion positioned adjacent to the center portion of one side edge of the card compartment.
Such ejection mechanism preferably comprises a holder having projections engaging the insertion end of the card, a pushing member ganged with the holder, and a shift plate driven in a linear mode and having a rack to engage the pinion and projections engaging only in the pushing direction of the pushing member. The protect member is adapted to engage a cam groove in the shift plate for controlling the operation thereof.
Alternatively, the ejection mechanism may comprise a holder having projections to engage the insertion end of the card, and a shift plate pivotable by a rack in a fan-shape rack engaging the pinion, pivotally supported on a frame of the compartment and engaging projections formed with the holder only in the pushing direction. The protection member engages a cam groove in the shift plate for controlling the operation thereof.
Additionally, the ejection mechanism may comprise a pushing member having projections engaging the insertion end of the card and pivotally supported on a frame of the compartment, and a shift plate having a fan-shape rack engaging the pinion and engaging driving projections on the pushing member only in the pushing direction. The protection member engages a cam groove in the shift plate for controlling the operation thereof.
Preferably, the protect member is formed at each side of the card. Further included are switch means for detecting completion of insertion of the card, switch means for detecting the closed position of the protection member, switch means for detecting complete ejection of the card and switch means for detecting that the card can be inserted or ejected.
The preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the drawing figures where:
FIG. 1 is a plan view of a first embodiment of the ejection protection mechanism of a card according to the present invention in the card loading condition.
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the first embodiment with the protector in operation.
FIG. 3 is a plan view of the first embodiment with the card ejected.
FIG. 4 is a
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Hamada Makoto
Handa Hiroto
Muramatsu Hidenori
Umezawa Hiroyuki
Bradley Paula
Ta Tho D.
The Whitaker Corporation
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