Dynamic information storage or retrieval – With particular cabinet structure – With mechanism to place disc on a turntable
Reexamination Certificate
1996-09-26
2001-09-18
Renner, Craig A. (Department: 2652)
Dynamic information storage or retrieval
With particular cabinet structure
With mechanism to place disc on a turntable
C369S077210
Reexamination Certificate
active
06292452
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an optical disk apparatus for enabling the use of different optical disk media by one apparatus and, more particularly, to an optical disk apparatus for enabling the use of a compact disc such as a CD-ROM or the like and a cartridge enclosed media such as a magneto-optical disk with a motor hub or the like by one apparatus.
A compact disc (CD) starting from an audio-use has been remarkably developed in ten and a few years and can be regarded as the most popular of the multimedia at present. Particularly, in recent years, a personal computer having therein a compact disc read only memory (hereinafter, simply referred to as a “CD-ROM”) is widely used. It is regarded that the position of a CD player for reproducing a CD-ROM has been established as a third file device subsequent to a floppy disk drive (FDD) and a hard disk drive (HDD). On the other hand, a rewritable type optical disk apparatus using a magneto-optic disk enclosed in a cartridge is also gradually spread by using advantages such that it has a large capacity and it is removable. The use of such a rewritable optical disk apparatus is also being used as a file device using a magneto-optic disk cartridge (MO cartridge) of 5 or 3.5 inches according to the ISO.
In a device using such a conventional optical disk medium, however, an exclusive-use drive exists for every kind of optical disk medium such as CD-ROM or MO cartridge. Therefore, when the user wants to use both the CD-ROM and the MO cartridge, a CD player and an MO drive has to be separately prepared. Particularly, in recent years, in many cases, the CD player or MO drive is built in the apparatus main body as a peripheral device of a personal computer. In such a case, it is difficult in terms of the space to build two devices and there is an inconvenience such that only one of the two devices can be built in the apparatus main body. Toward a full-scale multimedia age, with respect to the CD player, it is not enough to function as a simple reproducing apparatus for the CD-ROM because a rewriting function, which has already been realized in the MO drive, is strongly demanded. With regard to the MO drive, on the other hand, even though the MD drive is not limited to use as a simple file device, it is still strongly demanded that the MO drive can use a CD-ROM, a video CD, and the like which are provided as a part of the multimedia.
Particularly, when considering the MO drive, it is an indispensable condition to make it possible to fetch CD resources provided in the field of a personal computer which is rapidly being spread. In the CD player, in addition to a conventional CD-DA for music and a CD-ROM for reproducing dictionary data, an image data program, and the like, the editing and storage of a large capacity of data using those media simultaneously become the necessary conditions. On the other hand, the MO drive using the readable, writable, and further removable MO cartridge having a large capacity according to the ISO is also a device that is indispensable for processes of a large amount of data which is provided by the CD-ROM or the like.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention, by paying attention to not only that both a CD player and an MO drive uses a laser diode for an optical system but also that there are many similarities in a pickup, a servo control system, and the like, there is provided an optical disk apparatus of the CD/MO common use type in which functions of both of them, particularly, functions regarding a mechanism structure, are made common, and both a CD, as an exposed medium, and an MO cartridge as a cartridge enclosed medium, can be used by one apparatus.
The invention is characterized in that an optical disk apparatus which can use both of a cartridge enclosed medium and an exposed medium which is not enclosed in a cartridge comprises: an inserting/ejecting mechanism for commonly performing an insertion and an ejection of the cartridge enclosed medium and the exposed medium; and a recording and reproducing mechanism for commonly executing a process of the exposed medium and a process of the cartridge enclosed medium. The cartridge enclosed medium is preferably a medium with a hub. The exposed medium is desirably a medium without a hub. The inserting/ejecting mechanism executes an insertion and an ejection of the cartridge enclosed medium as they are and performs an insertion and an ejection of the exposed medium in a state in which it is attached to the hub. More specifically, the cartridge enclosed medium is an optical disk cartridge enclosing the medium with a hub, the exposed medium is a compact disc, and the inserting/ejecting mechanism performs an insertion and an ejection of the optical disk cartridge as they are and executes an insertion and an ejection of the compact disc in a state in which it is attached to a hub of a carrier. Therefore, when the compact disc (hereinafter, referred to as a “CD”) is loaded, the optical disk apparatus of the invention operates as a CD player. When the optical disk cartridge with a hub (hereinafter, referred to as an “MO cartridge”) is loaded, the optical disk apparatus operates as an optical disk drive. The inserting/ejecting mechanism and the recording and reproducing mechanism are enclosed in an optical disk drive. The inserting/ejecting mechanism commonly performs the insertion and ejection of the CD mounted on the CD carrier and the MO cartridge from an inserting/ejecting port. The recording and reproducing mechanism commonly executes a reproduction of the CD and a recording and a reproduction of, for example, a magneto-optical disk enclosed in the cartridge. The inserting/ejecting mechanism comprises: a loading mechanism which is activated when a medium as a CD carrier mounting the CD or a MO cartridge is inserted to the inserting/ejecting port and moves the medium to the position of a spindle motor and attaches the medium to a motor rotary axis; and an ejecting mechanism which is activated on the basis of a medium ejecting instruction and moves the medium to an extracting position of the inserting/ejecting port after the medium was removed from the spindle motor. The loading mechanism comprises: a load motor; a rotary plate whose one end is rotatably attached to a fulcrum; a load roller attached to the rotational edge side of the rotary plate; a rotation transferring mechanism for transferring a rotation from the load motor to the load roller; and a spring member for pressing the load roller to the medium side surface, wherein the load roller is pressed due to the rotation by the rotary plate and a medium pulling-in operation is executed for the positions of the different side surfaces when the CD carrier and MO cartridge having different lateral widths are inserted. The load mechanism has a load detecting switch for detecting the insertion of the CD carrier or MO cartridge and activates the load motor by the detection of the medium insertion by the load detecting switch and executes the loading operation. Further, the loading mechanism comprises: an arm member which is pressed and rotated by the front edge of the CD carrier or MO cartridge pulled in by the load motor; a load plate which is retained at a first position by the arm member and whose retaining is cancelled by the rotation of the arm member for a loading completion position and which is slit to a second position by an urging force of a spring; and a motor elevating mechanism for lifting the spindle motor upward in an interlocking relation with the sliding of the load plate from the first position to the second position, thereby coupling the hub on the spindle side with the hub on the medium side.
The arm member of the loading mechanism is rotatably arranged with respect to a rear corner portion of the apparatus main body as a fulcrum and sequentially forms a first contact portion which comes into contact with the front edge surface of the MO cartridge inserted from the arm front edge side and a second contact portion which comes into contact with the front edge surfac
Endo Tetsu
Hosokawa Yoshiaki
Morita Shigeaki
Naso Hideo
Fujitsu Limited
Greer Burns & Crain Ltd.
Renner Craig A.
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