Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval – Record transport with head stationary during transducing – Tape record
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-13
2002-02-05
Heinz, A. J. (Department: 2165)
Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval
Record transport with head stationary during transducing
Tape record
C360S095000, C360S132000, C242S336000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06344944
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to data storage media cartridges and cartridge adapters which are compatible with each other and with a standardized full size media cartridge. The present invention describes a pivoting leader guide in a tape cartridge and an adapter for holding a smaller tape cartridge in a housing such that the smaller cartridge may be used in a tape drive which accepts a larger, industry standardized tape cartridge.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Cartridge tape drives are extensively used for archival backup of computerized user digital information, and are increasingly used as an information library tool, particularly on the so-called “world-wide web” or “internet”. The information is typically written onto the tape as a linear track (or tracks) of magnetic flux transitions as the tape is drawn or “streamed” past a write head element. Typically, blocks of tape are successively streamed to the tape as it moves at high speed from a “beginning of tape” or “BOT” indicator, to an “end-of-tape” or “EOT” indicator. Alternatively, the digital information may be written in transverse tracks as the tape is drawn past a helical scan, rotating head array of the type employed in video cassette recording technology.
Since magnetic recording tape is a very thin, flexible plastic strip coated on one side with a magnetic storage material, it is susceptible to damage. The tape may become stretched or warped, and its edges may become damaged or frayed. Accordingly, tape cartridges have been developed in order to minimize physical damage to the tape during loading and unloading of the tape onto the tape drive. There are two basic types of tape cartridge: the self-contained feed and take-up reel cartridge, and the single, feed reel cartridge which includes a coupling or buckling mechanism at a leader end of the tape supply coiled on the single cartridge.
In order to achieve commercial success, it has been necessary for the industry to standardize tape cartridges and tape within the cartridges, so that cartridges following a particular standard may be received and used by tape drives designed to handle the standard cartridge design. Standardization has imposed a second and even more severe design restraint, and that is that newer tape cartridge designs should be backward-compatible with older tape drives (and newer tape drives should likewise be backward-compatible with older tape cartridges), in order to maintain the agreed-to cartridge standards. The present invention provides an improvement to a standardized cartridge design for a single-reel tape cartridge presently marketed by the assignee of this application under the DLT™ Compactape™ brand. This cartridge is standardized e.g. by American National Standards Institute standard ANSI X3.197-1991 standard entitled “Unrecorded Magnetic Tape and Cartridge for Information Interchange—½ inch (12.65 mm), Serial Serpentine, 22-Track, 6 667 ftpi (262 ftpmm) and 48-Track, 10 000 ftpi (394 ftpmm)”. This industry standard cartridge specification is incorporated by reference herein as relevant background material.
The standardized cartridge
10
(shown diagrammatically in FIG.
1
and in greater structural detail in
FIGS. 2 and 3
) is a two-part, generally rectangular box structure containing a single feed reel
16
of tape with five rigid walls and at least a portion of a sixth wall having a door or shutter
34
which opens as the cartridge
10
is inserted into a compatible tape drive in order to enable tape drive access to a coupling end of a tape supply coiled on the reel
16
. The cartridge
10
includes e.g. two defined openings
36
and
38
leading to two internal reel locks
30
and
32
. The reel locks
30
and
32
are located to act on a diameter of the reel
16
and the locks prevent the feed reel from rotating and the tape pancake from unraveling during cartridge handling outside of the standard tape drive. A tape leader includes a buckling mechanism, and the cartridge
10
typically includes features to restrain the buckling mechanism at a defined position adjacent the opening.
A cartridge-handling portion
20
of the standard tape drive is shown functionally in FIG.
1
. The compatible tape drive for the standardized cartridge
10
has a base casting (not shown) to which a molded-plastic cartridge receiver
50
is secured. As viewed from a front opening, the receiver
50
is adapted to receive a standard single reel tape cartridge
10
. The receiver
50
is a generally U-shaped channel structure having a left side
52
, a right side
54
and a top
56
, and defines openings at front and back. A metal plate floor
58
has a spindle opening and is attached to the channel structure to form a box. A molded plastic drive cover (not shown in
FIG. 1
) attaches to the receiver and to a front wall of the base casting. The receiver
50
includes a front opening for receiving the cartridge, and provides journals for a rotatable handle mechanism
66
(shown diagrammatically in FIG.
1
).
The handle mechanism
66
rotates two levers, a first one of which (not shown in
FIG. 1
) has a first finger which enters a standardized locating hole in the bottom of the cartridge when the handle is pushed flush with the front cover after the cartridge
10
is inserted. The other lever
66
has a second finger
68
which is also brought into engagement with the cartridge
10
. While this second finger
68
may have a secondary locating function, a primary function of the second finger
68
is to release one of the feed reel locks within the cartridge
10
.
Suspended between the two levers is a plate
70
with a slight rotational degree of freedom, and with a central opening. When the handle is in the open position, admitting the tape cartridge, the levers are pushed downwardly away from the receiver, and the plate engages a spring-loaded clutch mechanism on the feed reel motor fixed to the drive base. This action pushes the tape spindle assembly downwardly and out of the path of the cartridge
10
. Conversely, when the handle mechanism is returned to its engaged, flush-against-the-front-panel position, the clutch plate
70
releases the spindle, and the plate
70
elevates the spindle into a nominal operating engagement with the single reel within the cartridge
10
.
An annular toothed ring
72
of the spindle engages a complementary annular toothed plate of the feed reel within the cartridge. A feed reel motor
74
is directly coupled to rotate the drive ring
72
and thereby rotate the reel within the standard cartridge
10
. A spring mechanism within the cartridge
10
provides a bias force to the feed reel, and this force is overcome when the spindle ring engages the feed reel toothed plate. Beveling of the ring and plate facilitate centering of the reel on the spindle when the spindle is engaged. One example of a tape cartridge including a spring-biased feed reel in accordance with the published standard is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,249 to Johnson et al., entitled: “Tape Cartridge Bearing”, the disclosure thereof being incorporated herein by reference.
A fixed cartridge door actuation structure
76
on the left sidewall
52
of the receiver
50
cooperates with a door opening structure
78
of the cartridge
10
, so that as the cartridge
10
is pushed into the receiver
50
engagement of the fixed structure
76
with the cartridge door release structure
78
automatically opens the door
34
of the cartridge to expose the tape buckling mechanism. On the right sidewall of the receiver a solenoid-actuated, hinged locking dog
64
extends into a third standardized opening
42
defined in the cartridge
10
. This third opening
42
comprises a notch in the right sidewall of the cartridge
10
. Rotation of the locking dog
64
by the solenoid unlatches the handle mechanism
66
and allows the handle to be opened. Otherwise, once the cartridge
10
is loaded into the receiver
50
the cartridge locking dog
64
prevents the cartridge from coming out. The locking dog structure also carries a second micro switch wh
Albrecht Larry
Hayes Rich
Kozak Joseph
Stabile Joe
Heinz A. J.
Quantum Corporation
Roeder Steven G.
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