Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval – Record transport with head stationary during transducing – Disk record
Patent
1992-09-04
1994-04-05
Denion, Thomas E.
Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval
Record transport with head stationary during transducing
Disk record
369 36, G11B 1708
Patent
active
053010760
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an automatic disk selecting apparatus for selecting one of a plurality of disks and reproducing information recorded on the selected one of the disks by a player.
BACKGROUND ART
A conventional automatic disk exchanging apparatus as shown in FIG. 11, is disclosed in Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 61-156563.
The automatic disk exchanging apparatus has the following structure. Disks 201 are put in a main tray mechanical unit 200. To select a predetermined disk, a disk playing mechanical unit 700 moves to a predetermined position in the Y directions, and a disk carrying mechanism 600 operates to pick out the disk from the tray mechanical unit, carry the disk in the X directions, and mounts it on the disk playing mechanical unit. Information recorded on the disk is thus reproduced.
The above conventional apparatus has the following drawbacks. handling mechanism cannot be quickly moved since it directly handles the disk which is circular. Since the handling mechanism has to perform two operations of clamping and release in order to handle the disk, time (access time) required for removing the disk from the tray mechanical unit and mounting it on the playing mechanical unit is very long, i.e., about 10 seconds. increased in size. holding mechanisms are complicated, with the result that the apparatus is easy to malfunction and expensive. information recorded on both sides of the disk cannot be reproduced.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been developed to resolve the above drawbacks of the conventional apparatus and its object is to provide a small-sized automatic disk selecting apparatus whose access time is short, structure is simple, and reliability is high.
An automatic disk selecting apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a disk supporting mechanism arranged in front of a body case, for keeping a plurality of storage cases for storing disks in a vertical state and supporting the storage cases movably in right and left directions; a disk selecting unit arranged behind the disk supporting mechanism and driven in the right and left directions, the disk selecting unit including a fixing mechanism for fixing a selected one of the plurality of storage cases supported by the disk supporting mechanism and a pair of select levers for moving the storage cases other than the selected one of the plurality of storage cases in the right and left directions; a player moving unit arranged behind the body case, for keeping a player having a disk clamp mechanism in a vertical state and moving the player in the right and left directions; and a disk returning mechanism arranged above the disk supporting mechanism and including a pair of returning arms for returning the disk storage cases moved in the right and left directions by the disk selecting unit to an initial position.
The disks are stored in the storage cases one by one and supported by the supporting mechanism so that they can be moved in the right and left directions. Since the storage cases other than the selected storage case are moved in the right and left direction by the select levers of the disk selecting unit, the supporting mechanism is considerably simpler than that of the conventional apparatus in which a circular disk is directly handled.
The player is moved by the player moving unit to the selected storage case fixed by the fixing mechanism of the disk selecting unit, and the disk stored in the storage case is clamped by the clamp mechanism, thereby reproducing information from the disk. The apparatus of the present invention can thus be made more compact than the conventional apparatus. By virtue of the structure of the disk selecting unit, the access time can be shortened much more than that of the conventional apparatus.
Furthermore, information recorded on both sides of the selected disk can be reproduced by reversely rotating the player using the player moving unit.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an automatic d
REFERENCES:
patent: 3130393 (1964-04-01), Gutterman
patent: 4504936 (1985-03-01), Faber et al.
patent: 4903252 (1990-02-01), Tanaka et al.
patent: 5001582 (1991-03-01), Numasaki
patent: 5099466 (1992-03-01), Kimura
IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 20, No. 2, Jul. 1977, New York, pp. 691-692, E. D. Barkhuff et al, Transducing Separation of Slidably Mounted Flexible Disk Pack.
Kobayashi Takashi
Ohashi Yoshio
Tamachi Sakae
Tobitani Haruhisa
Yoshino Kouji
Denion Thomas E.
Nikkyo Seisakusho Co., Ltd.
NKK Corporation
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