Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Unwinding and rewinding a machine convertible information... – Including threading
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-23
2003-05-27
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Unwinding and rewinding a machine convertible information...
Including threading
C242S332800, C360S093000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06568618
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to digital tape drive storage devices, and in particular, to a half-inch tape drive having a half high form factor.
PROBLEM
Tape drives have been widely employed in industry for over thirty years due to their ability to store large amounts of data on a relatively small inexpensive removable format. The data is stored on tape drives utilizing a variety of designs, but in all cases, magnetic tape media is wound between a pair of tape reels as data is transferred to or from the tape media. The standard tape media employed in many applications is a one half-inch wide tape media housed in a tape cartridge measuring at or near 1 inch in height. Presently, all tape drives that utilize half-inch tape media are constructed in a full height five and a quarter (5.25) inch or larger form factor as defined by: EIA specification No. 3877-A “Small Form Factor 133.35 mm (5.25) Disk Drives.” One example of a full height five and a quarter (5.25) form factor for tape drives includes a width dimension “W” of 5.75 inches a depth dimension “D” of 8.1 inches and a height dimension “H” of 3.2 inches. Therefore, half-inch tape drives occupy two drive bays when installed in a conventional computer housing.
In the art of data storage, the physical space required to store data is an important concern. Thus, it is desirable to have a half-inch tape drive that is constructed with a half height form factor that can be installed in a single drive bay in a conventional computer housing. The half height form factor, also defined in EIA specification No. 3877-A “Small Form Factor 133.35 mm (5.25) Disk Drives” includes a maximum height of 1.634 inches. Unfortunately, in addition to the fact that half-inch tape cartridges are approximately 1 inch by themselves, several other design requirements make achieving a half-height form factor in a half-inch tape drive extremely difficult.
FIG. 1
illustrates one example of a typical half-inch tape drive
100
. The tape drive
100
is a DLT tape drive that employs a single reel DLT tape cartridge design. This design includes a supply reel located within a tape cartridge (not shown) and a takeup reel
101
located within the tape drive
100
. Referring to
FIG. 2
, the tape media on the tape cartridge is terminated at one end by a tape cartridge leader
201
. The tape cartridge leader
201
is a strong flexible plastic strip containing an ovular aperture
202
on its distal end. A takeup leader
203
, that connects to the takeup reel
101
, is a similar plastic strip that includes a stem
204
and tab
205
designed to buckle with the ovular aperture
202
on the tape cartridge leader
201
to form buckle
200
. The tape cartridge leader
201
also includes a section
206
that is slightly wider than the rest of the tape cartridge leader
201
and the takeup leader
203
. The wider section
206
prevents the tape cartridge leader
201
from being pulled into the tape cartridge after the tape cartridge leader
201
and takeup leader
203
are disconnected for ejection of the tape cartridge.
Upon loading the tape cartridge into the tape drive
100
, the takeup leader
203
and tape cartridge leader
201
are buckled, and the tape media is wound to a start point or read position. To accommodate the slightly wider section
206
during winding of the tape cartridge leader
201
and the takeup leader
203
around the takeup reel
101
, the takeup reel
101
includes a wider stepped area
102
formed in the top and in the bottom flanges,
112
and
113
, of the takeup reel
101
. Unfortunately, the stepped area
102
adds approximately a quarter of an inch to the height of the takeup reel
101
and the overall height of the tape drive
100
.
Another design requirement in half-inch tape drives is the physical size of the tape deck
109
. The tape deck
109
functions as a supporting surface for the various mechanical and electrical components, such as the takeup reel
101
, tape guides
103
-
106
, the read/write head
107
and the printed circuit board (“PC”)
108
mounted on the underside of the tape deck
109
. To maintain an accurate alignment of the takeup reel
101
, tape guides
103
-
106
and the read/write head
107
, during operation of the tape drive
100
requires a rigid tape deck
109
. To achieve the necessary rigidity in the tape deck
109
, typical DLT tape drive decks are approximately one (1) inch in height. Additionally, the PC board
108
is mounted on the underside of the tape deck
109
further adding to the overall height of the tape deck
109
and the tape drive
100
.
Finally, another design requirement in half-inch tape drives is the loading mechanism that engages the tape cartridge drive mechanism
110
through a toothed coupling. The loading mechanism comprises a vertically mounted load motor
111
coupled to a spur gear train (not shown) that engages the cartridge drive mechanism
110
. Unfortunately, the load motor
111
is mounted vertically in order to engage the gear train and move the cartridge drive mechanism
110
vertically up and down to engage and disengage the tape cartridge reel when a tape cartridge is inserted into the tape drive
100
. The vertically mounted load motor
111
again adds to the overall height of the tape drive
100
.
SOLUTION
The present invention overcomes the problems outlined above and advances the art by providing a half-inch tape drive that is implemented in a half height form factor. A first advantage of the present half-inch tape drive is that it accommodates conventional half-inch tape cartridges. It can be appreciated that not modifying the tape cartridge format represents a significant advantage to consumers whose data is currently stored on half-inch tape cartridges. A second advantage of the present half-inch tape drive is that the half height form factor permits installation of this tape drive in a single drive bay in a conventional computer housing. A third advantage of the present half-inch tape drive is improved manufacturability resulting from the reduction in material and design improvements. Additionally, one skilled in the art will appreciate numerous other advantages of the half-height form factor, such as doubling the storage capacity in a single computer by the accommodation of twice as many tape drives and the additional flexibility added to data storage design.
The present half-inch tape drive comprises a novel takeup reel, tape deck, PC board packaging, loading mechanism, and housing. The takeup reel comprises a takeup reel hub connected between a pair of segmented flanges that define first and second tape containment sections. The tape deck is approximately half the height of a conventional tape deck and includes reinforcing ribs that provide structural rigidity to maintain alignment of the moving components of the tape drive during operation. The tape deck also includes a plurality of guiding ribs that cooperate with the takeup reel to vertically align the tape media in the tape path during power interruptions. The loading mechanism comprises a horizontally mounted load motor that connects to a simplified gear train. A worm gear provides the connection between the load motor and the gear train and permits the horizontal mounting of the load motor. The PC board packaging comprises a first PC board section mounted in a first location, a second PC board section mounted in a second location and a third PC board section mounted in a third location on the tape drive. The separate PC board sections and mounting locations maximize spatial efficiencies and reduce the overall height of the tape drive. The first, second, and third PC board sections are electrically connected by flex cables that further improve the spatial utilization in the tape drive. The tape drive housing provides a protective exterior for the present tape drive and provides the structure for mounting the present tape drive in a single drive bay of a computer housing.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3987975 (1976-10-01), Jackson
patent: 4327879 (1982-05-01), Tanny
patent: 4647994 (1987-03-01), Irwin
Daniel David B.
Fletcher Kevin S.
O'Keeffe Michael J.
Vanderheyden William J.
Patton & Boggs LLP
Quantum Corporation
Rodriguez Joseph C
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