Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval – Record transport with head stationary during transducing – Tape record
Patent
1990-12-24
1993-07-13
Heinz, A. J.
Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval
Record transport with head stationary during transducing
Tape record
360 965, G11B 5008
Patent
active
052279359
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
1. INTRODUCTION
This invention relates to tape drive machines for magnetic or optical tape, or other types of data storage tape. Various aspects of the invention are concerned with loading a cartridge into a tape drive machine, a hub of a tape drive motor, indexing of a tape drive head, an improved tape path through a tape drive machine, threading of the tape into the tape drive machine, a tape drive motor, a construction of motor stator and a dual performance motor. In this specification, the tape drive apparatus is described in one particular orientation, but the claims should be interpreted to cover the apparatus whether in that orientation or bodily turned, for example, through a right angle.
1.1 Cartridge Loading
This aspect of the invention is particularly concerned with a tape drive for use with a single reel 5".times.4".times.1" (127 mm.times.102 mm.times.25 mm) (nominal sizes) tape cartridge according to, for example, specification IBM GS 32-0048-0, ECMA 120 or ANSI X3B5-87-037. An example of such a product is the IBM 3480 cartridge. Such a cartridge is shown schematically in FIGS. 1A to 1C. The cartridge has a generally flat rectangular housing 10 with upper and lower faces 12, 14 and a peripheral wall 16. At one corner 16 of the housing, a leader block 18 is a snap-fit in the housing, and, in use, the block 18, to which one end of the tape is attached, is unclipped from the housing and is used to withdraw the end of the tape and thread the tape through the tape drive machine and onto a take-up reel. The lower face 14 of the housing has a circular aperture 20 which provides access to a supply reel drive member 22 having a ring of teeth 24. A locking button 26 is formed at the center of the drive member 22. In use, a supply reel hub of the tape drive machine depresses the drive member 22 upwardly into the housing by about 4 mm, and dogs on the supply reel hub engage the teeth 24. Furthermore, a release member on the supply reel hub engages the locking button 26 and depresses it a further 2 mm or so. The supply reel can then rotate in housing 10 and be driven by the supply reel hub through the action of the interengaging dogs and teeth 24.
It is known to provide the tape drive machine in what is termed a 51/4" profile industry standard enclosure, which is so called because it was the size of the enclosure for the initial 51/4" floppy disc drives. Such an enclosure measures 8".times.5.75".times.3.25" (203 mm.times.146 mm.times.83 mm) excluding any fascia. A typical method of loading a 5".times.4".times.1" tape cartridge into such an enclosure is illustrated in FIG. 2. In that drawing, reference numeral 30 denotes the enclosure, which has an aperture 32 in the front panel to receive the cartridge 10 edgeways. A supply reel motor 34 with a drive hub 36 is mounted in the enclosure 30. As the cartridge is slid in edgeways, it is guided for movement along the path indicated by the chain dot lines from position 10(1), through position 10(2) to operating position 10(3), as shown in dashed lines. It will be noted that the cartridge drops downwardly onto the supply reel hub 36 between position 10(2) and 10(3), and this movement is essential to enable the hub 36 to take up engagement with the drive member in the cartridge.
One design desideratum is to make computer equipment as small as possible, but a restraint on this is the need to fit in with existing industry standards. Developments in the design of floppy disc drives have now enabled a drive to be manufactured in an enclosure which is half of the height of the original industry standard. This is termed a half-height 51/4" profile enclosure and thus enables two floppy disc drives to be stacked in the space of a previous full-height 51/4" profile enclosure. The nominal dimensions of the half-height 51/4" profile are 8".times.5.75".times.1.625" (203 mm.times.146 mm.times.41 mm).
Consideration has been given to shrinking the size of a 5.times.4.times.1 cartridge drive so that it fits into the half-height 51/4" profile, but without any success. Indeed, r
REFERENCES:
patent: 3724778 (1973-04-01), Kuhnlein
patent: 4337490 (1982-06-01), Komimura
patent: 5032940 (1991-07-01), Watanabe
Corbett Aubrey E.
Donkin Charles W.
Elliott Robert V.
Gordon Norman
Heinz A. J.
M4 Data Limited
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