Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Unwinding and rewinding a machine convertible information... – Cartridge system
Reexamination Certificate
1997-08-18
2001-10-09
Nguyen, John Q. (Department: 3653)
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Unwinding and rewinding a machine convertible information...
Cartridge system
C242S342000, C242S346000, C242S906000, C360S132000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06299087
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a data cartridge appropriately usable as, for example, an external storage for backing up a hard disk used as a storage for a computer (CPU), and a data cartridge drive used for driving the data cartridge.
A data cartridge and a data cartridge drive for driving the loaded data cartridge have been used conventionally to back up a hard disk used as a storage of a computer. The data cartridge is formed like a flat box provided with a synthetic resin molded top cover attached on an aluminum base plate. Inside the cartridge, a magnetic tape is loaded with the magnetic tape being wound on and between a pair of tape reels (right and left). The data cartridge is further provided with a tape feeding mechanism comprising a driving roller, a pair of corner rollers (right and left), a driving belt for driving the magnetic tape wound on and fed among those three rollers, as well as other associated mechanisms.
On the other hand, inside the data cartridge drive is provided a driving mechanism comprising a magnetic head, a spindle motor, a capstan roller etc. When a data cartridge is loaded in the data cartridge drive, the magnetic tape comes in contact with the magnetic head, the capstan roller is pressed against the driving roller, and the motor drives the capstan roller to rotate, thereby rotating the driving roller so that the driving belt feeds the magnetic tape and the data is recorded on or reproduced from the magnetic tape by means of the magnetic head.
An aluminum base plate is used for such a data cartridge because of its excellent properties such as easiness to machine, light weight, and sufficient rigidity. However, aluminum is liable to suffer corrosion and corrosion of the aluminum has to be prevented by, for example, coating the surface of the base plate with an anodic oxide protection film as disclosed in Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application No. 8-7969. In this disclosed patent, after the base plate material is machined into a flat plate, the surface of the flat plate is coated with an anodic oxide protection film and the external shape, holes, notches, etc. of the flat plate are punched (e.g., die-punching) so as to improve the accuracy of vertically fixing parts such as tape guide pins, on the base plate by press-fitting.
FIG. 1
shows a related art base plate
3
machined as explained in Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application No. 8-7969. Either surface of the aluminum base plate
3
is coated with an anodic oxide protection film
300
. This anodic oxide protection film
300
is a non-conductive film. After this protection film
300
is coated on the surfaces of the base plate
3
, the external shape of the base plate is die-punched, so that only the external periphery end face
3
c
of the base plate, the inside end faces
3
d
of a pair of right and left positioning notches
31
, and the inside end faces of other holes and notches that are die-punched become conductive portions of the base plate
3
. The base plate
3
shown in
FIG. 1
has been die-punched from below to upward, which causes shear drops
300
a
of the protection films
300
wrapping around the lower edges of the outer periphery end face
3
c
, the inside end face
3
d
of the notch
31
, etc.
FIG. 1
also shows how to position a data cartridge loaded in the data cartridge drive. The positioning roller
84
is pressed against the lower edge
31
a
of the positioning notch
31
of the base plate
3
in the direction of arrow mark F (upper oblique portion) to lift the base plate
3
from the chassis
61
in the direction of arrow mark F, then the front end
3
b
of the base plate
3
is pressed against the vertical reference plane
79
a
of the cartridge loading guide
79
and the back-and-forth direction reference plane
83
a
of the cartridge loading stopper
83
in both directions of arrow marks F
1
and F
2
to position the data cartridge.
Data cartridges and data cartridge drives of this type employing the related art have had problems of accumulation of static electricity generated among the driving roller, corner rollers, driving belt, magnetic tape, etc. in the data cartridge while recording data on or regenerating data from the magnetic tape. The accumulated static electricity discharges to sometimes cause data write errors, data damages, etc. and various countermeasures have been taken to solve those problems. In other words, the accumulated static electricity is not easily eliminated since, as shown in
FIG. 1
, both upper and lower surfaces of the base plate
3
are coated with a non-conductive film such as a protection film
300
and only the outer periphery end face
3
c
, the inside end face
3
d
of the notch
31
, etc. that are die-punched are conductive portions of the base plate
3
, and the shear drop
300
a
of the non-conductive protection film
300
wrapping around the lower edge
31
a
prevents stable electrical contact of the base plate
3
to the grounded chassis
61
via the positioning roller
84
even if the roller
84
is pressed against the lower edge
31
a
of the notch
31
in the direction of arrow mark F for the purpose of grounding the base plate
3
. In the related art, therefore, there has been no way other than using a shielding plate of the spindle motor or a circuit for shielding the base plate
3
and using such a shielding plate has expanded the size to cause increased weight and manufacturing cost of the devices.
Under such circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a data cartridge and a data cartridge drive that prevent static electricity from being accumulated in the data cartridge.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a data cartridge having a base plate whose both surfaces are coated with a conductive film for preventing the base plate from corrosion and a data cartridge drive having a grounding means to come in contact with the surface of the base plate when the data cartridge is loaded in the data cartridge drive.
The conductive film coated on the base plate of the data cartridge according to the invention can prevent corrosion of the base plate and enables grounding at any point on the surfaces of the base plate.
Furthermore, the data cartridge drive according to the invention can make the base plate to be grounded to the chassis very easily and surely by contacting the grounding means on the surface of the base plate when a data cartridge is loaded in the drive.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4570197 (1986-02-01), Hakanson et al.
patent: 5322585 (1994-06-01), Stanley et al.
Kananen Ronald P.
Nguyen John Q.
Rader Fishman & Grauer
Sony Corporation
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