Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Unwinding and rewinding a machine convertible information... – Cartridge system
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-22
2004-09-28
Nguyen, John Q. (Department: 3654)
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Unwinding and rewinding a machine convertible information...
Cartridge system
C360S132000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06796521
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic tape cartridge, in which a single reel, a magnetic tape is wound thereon, is rotatably stored, and is composed of an upper half, a lower half, an opening for drawing the magnetic tape, and a slide door for achieving the opening-and-shutting of the opening. More specifically, the present invention relates to a spring member, which impels a slide door to the shutting direction for shutting the opening of the magnetic tape cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the magnetic tape cartridge used as the external recording medium for recording the back up data of a computer etc, a single reel, a magnetic tape is to be wound, is rotatably stored within a cartridge case. This cartridge case is composed of an upper half and a lower half, and has a nearly flat square shape.
In the occasion of using, a magnetic tape is drawn out from the cartridge case, and is wound by the reel mounted on a read-write apparatus. Thus the magnetic tape is traveled.
An opening for drawing the magnetic tape is formed on the sidewall of the cartridge case. This opening is normally covered for preventing the intrusion of the dust, and is opened at the time of drawing a magnetic tape for recording or replaying the data on the magnetic tape using the recording-writing apparatus.
In the magnetic tape cartridge as represented by LTO (Linear tape open circuit) standard among these conventional magnetic tape cartridges, a slide door for achieving the opening-and-shutting of the opening is arranged so as to slide along the inside of the sidewall of the cartridge case.
The slide door is fit with a guide groove formed on the upper half and the lower half, respectively, for smoothly achieving the opening-and-shutting movement along the guide grooves. The slide door is impelled to the shutting direction by the spring member except for at the time of using.
As an construction of such type of magnetic tape cartridge, as shown in
FIG. 17
, an guide groove
101
b
is provided on the lower half
101
along the side wall
101
a
. A hooking part
101
d
having a canaliform shape is formed on a rib
101
c
provided at the inward side of the side wall
101
a.
In this construction, a spring arm
102
a
of the spring member
102
is hooked on the hooking part
101
d
, and a spring arm
102
b
is fit on a notching part
103
a
provided in the opening direction side of the slide door
103
. Thus, the slide door
103
is impelled toward the shutting direction side.
For achieving the certain hooking with the hooking part
101
d
, a tip part
102
c
of the spring arm
102
a
is bent in the perpendicular direction with respect to the rib
101
c.
On the other hand, for achieving the certain contact with the notching part
103
a
, the spring arm
102
b
is bent toward the slide door
103
side, and also for achieving the certain hooking and impelling of the notching part
103
a
, a tip part
102
d
of the spring arm
102
b
is bent in the shutting direction side.
When assembling the magnetic tape cartridge having a conventional construction, after attaching the spring arm
102
a
to the hooking part
101
d
, the slide door
103
is attached to the lower half
101
.
At this time, as shown in
FIG. 18A
, the slide door
103
is pushed toward the opening direction side while keeping the condition that the opening direction side thereof is tilting downwardly, and then engaged to the guide groove
101
b.
In this assembling manner, as shown in
FIG. 18B
, since the bottom end of the slide door
103
is stuck with the tip part
102
d
of the spring arm
102
b
, the opening direction side of the slide door
103
should be picked up for releasing from the stuck condition and for achieving the assembling.
In the assembling of the spring member and the slide door, consequently, thousands of man-hours are required, and the automatization of the product line of a magnetic tape cartridge had been made difficult.
In the assembling of the magnetic tape cartridge having a structure of shown in
FIG. 19
, the magnetic tape cartridge is assembled as below.
First, each parts, such as a reel, a breakable tab for preventing the accidentally erase, and the likes, are disposed at the predetermined position of the lower half. And then, as shown in
FIG. 19
, a spring member
201
and a slide door
202
are placed on the guide groove
203
a
of the lower half
203
. Hereat, the spring member
201
is arranged in the bridging condition so that the slide door
202
is constantly impelled to the shutting direction side.
Until the upper half (not shown) and the lower half
203
are assembled together, however, only the lower part of the slide door
202
is supported by an slider stop
204
of the lower half
203
. To be more precise, about ⅕ of an overall height length of the slide door
202
is supported. In this state, since the upper part of the slide door
202
is not restricted, the slide door
202
tends to be lifted upwardly. This lifting movement is caused by the urging force brought by the spring member
201
which makes the slide door
202
rotate centering on the bottom end in the shutting direction side of the slide door
202
.
When the assembling of the upper half and the lower half
203
is continued as it is, therefore, the engagement of the slide door
202
with the guide groove of the upper half or the lower half
203
is disturbed. As a result of this disturbance, the automatization of the product line of the magnetic tape cartridge becomes difficult.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention aim at providing the magnetic tape cartridge, which can easily assembled using the automated product line by making the assembling operation of the spring member and the slide door easier.
For attaining the above described objects, there is provided a magnetic tape cartridge comprising; an opening provided on one side wall of a cartridge case, and is used for tape drawing; a slide door slidably supported by a guide part disposed along said one side wall, and said slide door is used for achieving the shutting-and-opening operation of said opening; a spring member for impelling said slide door to the shutting direction side, and is placed on said guide part; and a leading part for leading one end part of said spring member to a spring engaging part provided on said slide door, and is provided at one end part of said spring member.
According to the present invention, since the guide part
72
is provided at one end part (end part in the shutting direction side) of the spring member, the tip part of the spring arm is guided to the notching part of the slide door without interference, when the slide door is attached to the guide part of the cartridge case onto which the spring member is disposed.
REFERENCES:
patent: 0924702 (1999-06-01), None
patent: 11-265560 (1999-09-01), None
Kitamura Kouta
Shiga Hideaki
Yamamoto Hidetoshi
Fuji Photo Film Co. , Ltd.
Nguyen John Q.
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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