Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval – Record transport with head stationary during transducing – Disk record
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-19
2002-08-20
Evans, Jefferson (Department: 2652)
Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval
Record transport with head stationary during transducing
Disk record
Reexamination Certificate
active
06437940
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a floppy disk drive and, more particularly, relates to a floppy disk drive which is constituted in a light-weight and thin-thickness configuration and arranged so that a disk cartridge is surely held in a non-contact state with a magnetic head until the disk cartridge inserted is loaded from a loading portion to a recording/reproducing portion.
2. Related Art
A floppy disk drive employs a disk cartridge for housing a floppy disk so as to rotate freely therein and is generally used as an external storage device etc. of a personal computer, for example. The floppy disk drive is arranged in a manner that, when the recording/reproducing operation is performed in a state that the disk cartridge is loaded, an information signal etc. is recorded on or an information signal etc. recorded is reproduced from the floppy disk by a magnetic head.
The disk cartridge is arranged to house the floppy disk so as to freely rotate within a cartridge of a thin box shape formed by combining a pair of upper and lower cartridge halves. The disk cartridge is arranged in a manner that at the center portion of one of the cartridge halves, a circular opening portion is formed so as to face a center hub to the outside which fits with the center portion of the floppy disk housed therein. The disk cartridge is further arranged in a manner that the pair of cartridge halves are provided with recording/reproducing opening portions for facing parts of the major and rear surfaces of the floppy disk to the outside from the outer peripheral portion to the inner peripheral portion thereof. A shutter member is assembled to the disk cartridge so as to be able to slide freely such that the shutter member is provided with a property for closing the recording/reproducing opening portion by a spring etc.
The floppy disk drive is arranged in a manner that when the aforesaid disk cartridge is loaded in the loading portion, the disk cartridge is held within a cartridge holder which supports the disk cartridge within a base frame so as to slide freely, and then the disk cartridge is loaded to the recording/reproducing portion through the cartridge holder. The floppy disk drive is provided at the recording/reproducing portion with a disk driving mechanism which includes a disk table, a driving motor etc. and is arranged to magnetically chuck the center hub which moves therein from the circular opening portion of the cartridge.
The floppy disk drive is further provided at the recording/reproducing portion with the pair of magnetic heads which face on the major and rear surfaces of the floppy disk from the recording/reproducing opening portions of the disk cartridge. The magnetic heads are formed by a first magnetic head which is supported through a gimbal spring by a carriage attached to a lower chassis constituting the bottom surface of the recording/reproducing portion and a second magnetic head which is supported by a carriage through the gimbal spring so as to sandwich the floppy disk between the first and second magnetic heads. In the second magnetic head, the carriage is supported by a head supporting mechanism, and the head supporting mechanism is supported by an upper chassis so as to swing freely so that the positions where the head supporting mechanism moves into and moves out of the recording/reproducing portion can changed.
The magnetic heads are arranged in a manner that the carriages thereof are supported by guide mechanisms, respectively, and the magnetic heads move in a radial direction on the major and rear surfaces of the floppy disk by a driving motor such as a stepping motor, a voice coil motor etc. thereby to perform a seek operation. The floppy disk drive generally includes the aforesaid second magnetic head configuration when it is arranged to have such a specification for recording and reproducing the information signal etc. only on and from one of the major and rear surfaces of the floppy disk.
The floppy disk drive includes a shutter opening mechanism having a shutter opening member which drives a shutter member to open the recording/reproducing opening portions at the time of loading the disk cartridge to the recording/reproducing portion. The floppy disk drive further includes an eject mechanism having an eject lever member which slides along the chassis and is locked at a predetermined position in response to the loading operation of the disk cartridge, and is released from the locking state to thereby eject the disk cartridge loaded at the recording/reproducing portion to the loading portion in response to an ejecting operation.
In the floppy disk drive, as described above, the disk cartridge loaded from the loading portion is held by the cartridge holder and loaded to the recording/reproducing opening portions. In this respect, the shutter opening mechanism drives the shutter member to open the recording/reproducing opening portions on the way of loading the disk cartridge to the recording/reproducing opening portions. The floppy disk drive is arranged to move the disk cartridge horizontally from the loading position to the predetermined position and thereafter shifts the disk cartridge in the vertical direction at the position corresponding to the recording/reproducing opening portions. The floppy disk drive is further arranged to perform the locking operation of the eject lever member when the disk cartridge shifts in the vertical direction.
The floppy disk drive is arranged to avoid the hitting between the disk cartridge and the first magnetic head by shifting the disk cartridge in the vertical direction as described above. The floppy disk drive is further arranged to avoid the hitting between the disk cartridge and the second magnetic head by holding the second magnetic head to the evacuated state from the recording/reproducing portion by means of the head supporting mechanism until the disk cartridge is loaded in the recording/reproducing portion.
The floppy disk drive is arranged in a manner that when the disk cartridge is loaded in the recording/reproducing portion, the disk table entering from the opening portion magnetically chucks the center hub thereby to position and hold the floppy disk. In the floppy disk drive, the first and second magnetic heads are positioned in correspondence to the opened recording/reproducing opening portions. The floppy disk drive is further arranged in a manner that when the recording/reproducing operation is performed in this state, the driving motor of the disk driving mechanism is started to drive and rotate the floppy disk, whereby the information signal etc. is recorded or reproduced by the magnetic head.
The floppy disk drive is arranged in a manner that when the predetermined recording/reproducing operation is completed and the ejecting operation is performed, the locking state of the eject lever member is released, whereby the cartridge holder is restored to the loading portion from the recording/reproducing portion to perform the ejecting operation of the disk cartridge. In this case, the floppy disk drive is arranged not only to release the magnetic chucking state of the center hub by the disk table but also to release the opening state of the shutter member by a shutter release member, thereby to perform the ejecting operation such that the disk cartridge is restored to the initial state and to protrude the one end portion thereof from the loading portion.
The floppy disk drive has been intended to be miniaturized and be thin in thickness due to the miniaturization etc. of the main body apparatus of a personal computer etc. In the floppy disk drive, the constructive members such as the main chassis, the cartridge holder, the eject member etc. are formed by the press processing by using a light-weight thin metal plate as the material. The floppy disk drive has been constituted with the requirement of the thinning by forming the respective constituent members using materials with thin thickness. In the floppy disk drive, it is possible to improve the mechanical performan
Kobayashi Noriyuki
Komatsu Hisateru
Takahashi Makoto
Evans Jefferson
Mitsumi Electric Co. Ltd.
Whitham Curtis & Christofferson, PC
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