Dynamic information storage or retrieval – Information location or remote operator actuated control – Selective addressing of storage medium
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-08
2003-11-04
Cao, Allen (Department: 2652)
Dynamic information storage or retrieval
Information location or remote operator actuated control
Selective addressing of storage medium
Reexamination Certificate
active
06643227
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus and a disc exchanging mechanism, the apparatus and the mechanism being for performing the recording and/or the reproducing of a plurality of discs housed therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an apparatus to be mounted on a vehicle for sound recording and/or reproduction (playback) for recording and/or reproducing a disc, there is a disc player. The disc player adopts a system in which a plurality of compact discs (CD's, Compact Disc is a trademark) are stored in a magazine and the plural CD's are exchanged collectively at once for the magazine as a whole. Accordingly, as the size of the disc player is large, its body portion is housed in the trunk of a vehicle and only the portions necessary for the operation thereof are provided in the cabin of the vehicle. However, in the system, the CD's cannot be exchanged while the vehicle is moving, so it is necessary for the exchange of the CD's to stop the vehicle and open the trunk. Consequently, such exchange of the CD's is troublesome.
As a consequence, in recent years, an on-vehicle disc player for being housed in a cabin has been developed. As the on-vehicle disc player, one that can accommodate a plurality of CD's is required, and the on-vehicle disc player is housed in an in-dash fixed space within the cabin of the vehicle. Consequently, it is an important problem to make the size of the on-vehicle disc player small.
In the on-vehicle disc player, a disc housing section is formed by, for example, six superposed trays for placing a CD thereon in a frame body having a fixed size, for example, the so-called one-DIN size. The on-vehicle disc player is structured so that the six CD's can be inserted or discharged (unloaded) separately and one of the six sheets of CD's can be selected at a time for reproduction (playback) (of sound, image or the like).
For the discharge of a disc in the disc housing portion, a structure for performing the following operation is adopted: moving a tray on which a disc that is required to be unloaded is placed so that the disc is situated at the position of insertion/discharge (unload included), and then pushing out the disc from the disc housing portion to the outside portion of the frame body to make the disc be engaged between a pair of rollers for discharging (unloading) the disc to the outside of the frame body by the pair of rollers.
As pushing-out means for pushing out a disc from the surface of a tray, a structure can be considerable that a single lever is disposed at either of the right and the left sides to the direction in which the disc is pushed out and the disc is pushed out by the turning of such lever. The reason why the lever is disposed at either of the right and the left sides is that it is necessary to engage reproducing means for reproducing the disc with the disc and the lever cannot be disposed at the center.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
However, because the vector of the pushing-out force applied from the lever to the disc does not pass through the center of the disc in the aforesaid single lever structure, the disc escapes to the other side opposite to the lever's disposed side, and the disc is pushed while rotating in a state in which the center of the disc is shifted. For that reason, it is apprehended that the disc is not pushed out to a position where the disc is engaged with the rollers, and that the disc is discharged in the state in which the center of the disc is shifted even if the disc can be pushed out. In such a state, it is apprehended that the disc is caught without being discharged or that the disc is damaged.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus and a disc exchanging mechanism, an apparatus and a mechanism for solving such problems.
According to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus, including: a plurality of stacked disc placing means for placing discs; and a pair of pushing-out means for pushing out a disc at a position of insertion/discharge from disc placing means placing thereon the disc at the position of insertion/discharge.
According to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus, further having: a pair of position controlling means for controlling insertion, discharge and support of the disc, the position controlling means being provided on both sides of the disc placing means, and each of the pushing-out means is engaged with each of the control means.
According to a third preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus, further having: a pressing means for returning the pushing-out means to an original position after the pushing-out means pushed the disc out.
According to a fourth preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a disc exchanging mechanism comprising: a plurality of stacked disc placing means for placing a disc thereon; and a plurality of pushing-out means for pushing out a disc at a position of insertion/discharge from disc placing means placing thereon the disc at the position of insertion/discharge.
According to a fifth preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a disc exchanging mechanism, further comprising: a pair of position controlling means for controlling insertion, discharge and support of the disc, the position controlling means being provided on both sides of the disc placing means, and each of the pushing-out means is engaged with each of the control means.
According to a sixth preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a disc exchanging mechanism, further having: a pressing means for returning the pushing-out means to an original position after the pushing-out means pushed the disc out.
According to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, because a pair of pushing-out means for pushing out a disc from a disc placing means is provided on both sides of the disc placing means, the pushing-out force of the disc becomes twice as large as that in a case in which the pushing-out means is single, and a case in which the center of the disc is shifted, thus a situation in which the disc is pushed out while rotating does not occur.
Moreover, because the pushing-out means is engaged with a pair of control means for controlling the insertion, the discharge and the suspension of a disc, the control means becomes a driving source. Consequently, the riscs of malfunction are reduced.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5038337 (1991-08-01), Muramatsu et al.
patent: 5150349 (1992-09-01), Takai et al.
patent: 5828641 (1998-10-01), Abe et al.
patent: 6256280 (2001-07-01), Sakurai et al.
patent: 6473372 (2002-10-01), Yoshida et al.
Cao Allen
Maioli Jay H.
Sony Corporation
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