Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Unwinding and rewinding a machine convertible information... – Cartridge system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-02
2001-04-24
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Unwinding and rewinding a machine convertible information...
Cartridge system
Reexamination Certificate
active
06220539
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information storage media drives and cartridges therefor, and in particular to a computer media drive capable of handling a variety of media cartridges having physically different sizes, as well as cartridges for such a drive.
2. Description of the Related Art
Tape and disk cartridges and cassettes have been used for decades in the computer, audio and visual fields. The cartridges themselves have come in a large variety of sizes and types. However, during this entire period, any individual drive was designed to handle only one physical size media container. The drive might be able to handle different storage capacities within the cartridge, for example, due to varying length, thickness or composition of the media, but any given drive has only been able to handle one physical size cartridge.
There have been suggestions to overcome this drive limitation with alternative cartridge designs in which the part of the cartridge that has to fit into the drive matches the traditional physical cartridge dimensions, but then an extension is added to the back end of the cartridge to hold more media, for example, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,860 (Hurtig et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,436 (Aizawa et al.).
Unfortunately, the extension may stick out so far from the drive that it is unstable, or risks having a user use it as a shelf. The larger shape also can only be used with a drive-type that allows the back end of the cartridge to stick out of the drive during use, that is, it cannot be used with a “softloading” drive which pulls the entire cartridge into the drive for use. It also cannot be used with rotating media, such as diskettes, since for rotating media the sideways dimensions of the media carrier must also be expanded to hold more media, which prevents the carrier from fitting into the traditional drive.
Another concept has been to use adapters to allow drives to handle different tapes. For example, the CVHS videotape is physically smaller than a standard VHS videotape. This means it cannot be played in a standard VHS drive. An adapter therefore was developed. With this adapter, the CVHS tape is placed in the adapter, and the adapter is then placed in the VHS drive. The adapter positions the tape in the correct location for the standard VHS drive to use, and includes mechanical components to connect the drive mechanism of the standard VHS drive to the drive mechanism of the mini VHS cartridge.
More recently, electronic adapters have appeared on the market to connect the outputs of different types of drive components into a tape drive. For example, adapters are available to allow the output of a portable audio CD player to be fed into and read by a tape drive. This can be useful, for example, in an automobile, where it would be difficult to replace the tape drive with a CD player, but it is desirable to use the audio system to which the tape drive is connected to generate sound.
In these last two situations, an adapter has to be used which would fit in the standard tape drive. The drive itself could not accept a variety of physically different size cartridges.
One popular computer tape cartridge and a drive for that cartridge was originally disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,692,255 (Von Behren) in 1972. An adaptation of the original Von Behren tape cartridge and drive for a 5.25 form factor drive has been very popular for some while. More recently, the physically smaller 3.5 form factor drive has become much more popular. (The terms 5.25 and 3.5 originally referred to the physical dimensions in inches of two different size diskettes. The drive bays in computers into which drives for these diskettes fit became standardized. When tape drives then were designed to fit into these same bays, the 3.5 and 5.25 designations carried over as names because the drive bays were commonly referred to by those terms. The numbers have no direct relationship to the physical size of the tape cartridges or the drives. They are just the common names for that size drive and the standard size tape cartridges which will fit into them.)
An example of such a prior art 3.5 form factor cartridge
20
(also referred to as a mini cartridge) is shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
in a schematically represented drive
40
. The mini cartridge
20
includes two hubs
22
about which a tape
23
is wrapped in opposite directions. The tape
23
is guided by guide pins
24
across a media access opening
26
at the front of the cartridge
20
. The media access opening
26
is selectively coverable by a door
27
which is pivotally mounted about a pin
28
at the corner of the cartridge
20
. The pin
28
is spring loaded to bias the door
27
closed.
The tape
23
is moved within the cartridge by an elastic belt
30
. The belt
30
wraps partway around and frictionally engages the tape packs formed by the tape
23
around the hubs
22
. It also is guided by corner rollers
32
and a drive roller
33
. Drive roller
33
has a drive puck
34
fixed atop thereof. As taught by Von Behren, driving of the puck
34
will move the elastic belt
30
, which in turn moves the tape
23
.
The cartridge
20
is shown positioned in a tape drive
40
. Left rail
42
and right rail
43
of the drive
40
engage grooves
36
,
37
in the sides of the cartridge
20
to generally position the cartridge
20
in the drive
40
. When fully inserted, the base plate
38
of the cartridge
20
(best seen in
FIG. 2
) will abut against stops
44
(shown in FIG.
1
). The base plate
38
and the stops
44
are carefully formed to ensure that this positions the front end of the base plate
38
in the reference plane for the drive
40
, thereby precisely positioning the cartridge
20
in the lateral direction indicated by arrow A. When so positioned, a read/write head
45
of the drive
40
will engage the tape
23
through the media access opening
26
, and a drive motor capstan
46
will engage the drive puck
34
to drive the belt
30
.
Precise positioning of the tape cartridge relative to the head
45
and capstan
46
is essential for the drive
40
to be able to read from and write to the tape
23
accurately. The stops
44
position the cartridge
20
laterally, that is, how far the tape cartridge will slide into the drive and how it is positioned angularly within the plane of the drawing in FIG.
1
. However, they do not control the angle of the tape cartridge relative to the head
45
in the direction vertical to the plane of the drawing in FIG.
1
. The industry standards therefore have defined three reference points
50
,
51
,
52
on the upper surface of the base plate
38
of the cartridge
20
. As discussed in more detail below, locators on the lower surface of guide rails
42
,
43
are carefully defined at these three locations to ensure that if pressing of the base plate
38
up against the guide rails
42
,
43
will position the reference points at the correct angle relative to the drive head
45
. Since the base plate
38
is flat and three reference points define a plane, positioning these three reference points properly ensures proper alignment of the cartridge
20
.
As best seen in
FIG. 2
, the cartridge
20
is provided with a notch
54
immediately behind the reference point
51
. The lower surface of right rail
43
then has the very precise locators at positions
55
,
56
corresponding to reference points
51
,
52
on the base plate. A drive then usually has some mechanism, shown here as rollers
57
,
58
to force the cartridge base plate reference points
51
,
52
up against the rail locators
55
,
56
. A similar mechanism is provided with reference point
50
and rail
42
, though it is not shown in the drawings. Roller
57
and the roller on the other side of the cartridge
20
also press the cartridge
20
towards the stops
44
. The net result is that the cartridge is firmly pressed against both the stops and the locator, thereby ensuring completely accurate positioning of the cartridge. A pressure pin sometimes is substituted for roller
Anderson James S.
Gerfast Sten R.
Opheim Warren W.
Tapani Robert W.
Tran Hung T.
Imation Corp.
Levinson Eric D.
Rivera William A.
Walsh Donald P.
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