Patent Application
20090193446
The invention relates an apparatus for transportation of a disc in connection with recording data and apparatus for such recording, as specified in the independent claims. More particularly, the invention is directed toward an apparatus enabling automated or semi-automated reproduction of discs.
As is conventionally known Compact Discs (CDs), whether they be recordable or rewritable, are frequently used to record audio and video data. Such discs are also used to record data, including computer software and data of various types. Such discs, like Digital Video Discs (DVDs) and Blu-ray Discs and are characterized by a construction which is formed of a plurality of layers, including a reflective inner layer and a protective top layer upon which characters and graphics can be printed using an appropriate printing mechanism. Such discs are described throughout this application as discs.
Conventionally, various devices are provided for recording discs in an automated manner to provide for disc duplication projects in manufacturing and other industrial and business settings. However, such devices are expensive, large in size and are generally designed for mass production of discs. U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,216 to Hollerich provides such an apparatus configured to pick up and place discs in such equipment.
However, as such discs are used more often in industry, business and in our personal lives, it has been recognized that there is a need for smaller, more economical devices for recording a number of discs in an automated manner. Thus, U.S. Pat. Pub. 20070147191 for Liu et al. provides a recording system that uses a mechanical arm under a computer controlling system to retrieve an unrecorded disc from an unrecorded disc stack and release the unrecorded disc into the disc tray of the optical disc drive. Liu further recognizes that, by the computer controlling system and mechanical arm, the procedures of disc copying can be done automatically, thus faster and more efficiently than in the past.
The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of various invention embodiments. The summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention nor to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description below.
In accordance with at least one embodiment of the invention, an apparatus is provided that is configured to perform disc transportation, for example, disc retrieval and release using an arm for retrieving discs from a disc store and releasing the discs into a disc tray of a disc recordation device, as specified in the independent claims. Accordingly, dependent claims prescribe further detailed implementations of the present invention.
Thus, in operation, the apparatus is configured such that the arm moves in a single plane by performing retrieval of a disc and release of the disc in two dimensions only.
A more complete understanding of the present invention and the utility thereof may be acquired by referring to the following description in consideration of the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numbers indicate like features, and wherein:
In the following description of various invention embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and in which is shown, by way of illustration, various embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It should be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural and functional modifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.
Moreover, it should be understood that various connections are set forth between elements in the following description; however, these connections in general, and, unless otherwise specified, may be either direct or indirect, either permanent or transitory, and either dedicated or shared, and that this specification is not intended to be limiting in this respect.
In accordance with at least one embodiment of the invention, an apparatus is provided that is configured to perform disc transportation, for example, disc retrieval and release using a gripper arm for retrieving discs from a disc store and releasing the discs into a disc tray of a disc recordation device. In operation, the apparatus may be configured such that the gripper arm moves in a single plane by performing retrieval of a disc and release of the disc in two dimensions only. This disc transportation equipment and resulting functionality may be combined with equipment for performing disc recordation to provide a compact disc burner capable of performing recordation of a plurality of discs in an automated or semi-automated manner.
As illustrated in
As is conventionally understood, discs to be recorded (e.g., blank discs) are generally plastic with a hole located in the middle of the disc. Such discs are generally circular; however, they may have various shapes including, for example, rectilinear or with parallel sides and rounded or curved ends. The apparatus may include a housing 116, which may include, as illustrated in
By selectively darkening particular points along the disc track, and leaving other areas of dye translucent, a digital pattern is created that a standard disc player can read. The light from the player's laser beam only bounces back to the sensor when the dye is left translucent, in the same way that it will only bounce back from the flat areas of a conventional disc.
Thus, conventional disc recorders record, or “burn” digital patterns onto blank discs. Therefore, a conventional disc recorder has a moving laser assembly. But in addition to the standard “read laser,” it has a “write laser.” The write laser is more powerful than the read laser, so it interacts with the disc differently: It alters the surface instead of just bouncing light off it. The write laser moves in exactly the same way as the read laser by moving outward while the disc spins. The bottom plastic layer has grooves pre-pressed into it, to guide the laser along the correct path. By calibrating the rate of spin with the movement of the laser assembly, the recorder keeps the laser running along the track at a constant rate of speed. To record the data, the recorder simply turns the laser writer on and off in synch with the pattern of 1s and 0s. The laser darkens the material to encode a 0 and leaves it translucent to encode a 1. Depending on whether a disc is recordable or rewritable, data recorded in a disc can be re-recorded.
As illustrated in the FIGURES, e.g.,
To provide storage of a number of discs to be recorded 108, a first disc store cassette 110 is provided in the blank disc storage station/area 118. The cassette 110 may include one or more vertical supports that attach either to the bottom of the cassette or to the base plate. The curving nature of the disc store cassette 110 enables the gripper arm assembly 176 to more effectively interface with the discs stored in the cassette 10 based on the curvature of the path of the gripper arm 158. That is, as the number of discs stored in the cassette reduces, the placement of the gripper arm 158 will alter because the gripper arm 158 is moved via the dual arm linkage assembly 114. However, it should be appreciated that, in at least one implementation of the invention, the curved nature of the cassette 110 is not necessary.
To provide storage of a number of recorded discs 106, a second disc store cassette 112 may be provided in the recorded disc storage station/area 120. It should be understood that the cassette 112 may be shaped as illustrated in
The disc recorder 104 may include a tray 102 that extends from the housing of the recorder 104 under a control program 9, which may be implemented as machine executable instructions for a control module and/or power module for the recorder 104 (not shown but included in the housing of recorder 104).
The disc support tray 102 may be configured to hold a disc following transport of the disc to the tray 102 via the gripper arm 158 and during recordation of data by the recorder 104. When a disc is in the tray 102, the tray 102 can be moved so that the tray 102 is moved inwardly and outwardly from housing of the recorder 104 to implement loading and unloading of the disc into the housing of the recorder 104. Thus, the tray 102 may extend to a position where a blank disc 108 can be placed onto the respective tray 102. Subsequently, under the direction of the control program, the tray 102 may recede back into the housing 104 for recordation of data on the disc (e.g., using conventionally understood disc writing technology). Following completion of operations performed for recording data on the recorded disc 106, the tray 102 may be controlled by the control program to extend to a position where the recorded disc 106 can be retrieved from the tray 102 and deposited in the disc store 112 by the gripper arm 158.
Thus, after information is recorded on the recorded disc 106 located in tray 102, the tray 102 may be moved back to the extended position where the disc is accessible for the disc gripper arm 158 to be moved in conjunction with operation of the disc gripper arm head assembly 176 to engage the disc hole and pick up the disc for transportation to a post recordation disc store station/area 120. This results in the tray 102 being cleared for insertion of another blank disc 108 to be recorded, once the recorded disc 106 has been released in the post record disc store station 120 by the disc gripper arm head assembly 176.
Thus, operations of various components of the apparatus 100 can be controlled so as to provide a sequence of cooperative actions to facilitate transportation of a disc to be recorded to/from the tray 102 of the disc recorder 104. For example, the disc to be recorded can be picked from the disc storage cassette 110 and moved to a position overlying the tray 102 for the disc recorder 104 when the tray 102 is extended, and then dropped in place by the gripper arm head assembly 176 releasing the disc (as explained in more detail with reference to the other figures). Subsequently, programmed control instructions provided in a control module of the apparatus 100 (not expressly illustrated but included in housing 116) may cause the disc tray 102 to move into the housing of disc recorder 104.
As illustrated in
Individual discs may be lifted with the disc gripper arm head assembly 176 (illustrated in additional detail in
To provide this single plane movement, the gripper arm 158 may be attached to a dual arm linkage assembly 114, which in turn is connected to a gear assembly via interaction with a pulley arm 124 and a slave drive arm 150 at a juncture plate 122 (see
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
Further to the explanation of apparatus operation provided above, it should be understood that, in operation of the apparatus 100, the gripper arm 158 may be moved downwardly so the gripper arm head assembly 176 engages a blank disc 108 from the disc storage cassette 110 located in storage station/area 118 (illustrated in
Once the blank disc 108 is deposited in the tray 102 and released by the gripper arm head assembly 176, the tray 102 may be retracted into the housing of the recorder 104 for the recording operation. That retraction and recording operation may be performed under control of the recorder 104 (more specifically, a controller included in the recorder 104; not shown). Thus, a recording sequence may be selected by machine instructions of the recorder 104, which may be as provided by or specified in a recorder manufacturer.
Once recording of the disc is complete, the tray 102 will be extended back out to the loading/unloading position. The recorded disc 106 may then be picked up with the gripper arm 158 using the gripper arm head assembly 176 in the same manner performed when picking up the disc prior to recordation. Subsequently, the gripper arm 158 may be moved to a position where the recorded disc 106 may be released into a post-record disc store station/area 120 (e.g., in cassette 112) in the same manner as when the disc to be recorded 106 was released into the tray 102 of the recorder 104.
Returning to description of components illustrated in
Likewise, photointeruptor assembly 162 illustrated in
As is conventionally understood, discs have standard or standardized center openings; in order to handle the discs, the apparatus 100 includes a gripper arm 158 coupled via a dual arm linkage assembly 114 to the apparatus gear assembly and motor 154 under control of a control module included in but not shown in housing 116. The control module may be configured to include components enabling control of various operations of the apparatus 100 and interacts with, is controlled by or cooperates/communicates with a recorder control module (included in the housing of the recorder 104 but not shown) configured to control the transportation and recording of discs.
As illustrated in
In additional detail, the disc gripper arm head assembly 176 may include not only the gripper fingers 166, 168 but also a photointeruptor 160 provided to ?. It should also be appreciated that the gripper arm head assembly 176 may be designed so as to aid in the engagement of a single disc by, for example, including a cylindrical portion 170 that has a height equal to the height of a single disc; this portion 170 may be coupled to a stopper portion 172 having a width dimension such that, when a disc is engaged by the separated plurality of fingers 166, 168, the disc is held in place parallel to the disc arm 158 so as to enable effective acquisition and transportation of the disc from/to stations 118, 120 and the disc recorder 104.
This alternative configuration also takes advantage of the single plane movement operation of the gripper arm 158 and its cooperation with the motor (not shown) and gear assembly as illustrated in
While this invention has been described in conjunction with the specific embodiments outlined above, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the various embodiments of the invention, as set forth above, are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
In accordance with at least one embodiment of the invention, and potentially all of the illustrated embodiments, the dual arm linkage assembly may include a built in stop 180 (see
Additionally, in accordance with at least one embodiment of the invention, foam may be provided on the blank disc store cassette 110 as illustrated in
It should be appreciated that the size and shape of the disc may vary in accordance with embodiments of the invention. Therefore, the disc storage cassettes 110 and 112 need not be of a particular size or shape. Moreover, alternative removable disc store cassettes may be provided for an apparatus designed in accordance with the invention such that the apparatus may be used to process different types or sizes of discs.
Further, it should be appreciated that the dimensions of the gripper arm 140 may be designed in accordance with the dimensions of the disc hole (e.g., radius, diameter) and thickness of a disc to be processed. Thus, it should be appreciated that, in accordance with at least one embodiment of the invention, all or part of the gripper arm 140 may be removable and replaceable with components of different dimensions in the event that hole radius or diameter and/or disc thickness change.
It should be appreciated that the particulars of the recording operation form no part of the invention.
Further, in accordance with at least one embodiment of the invention, the components of the apparatus provided for disc transportation may be combined with both a disc recorder and a disc printer that may be configured to cooperate under control of a machine instructions such that a plurality of discs may be transported to/from a disc recorder and to/from a disc printer, while ensuring that movement of one or more of the disc transportation apparatuses is performed in a single plane of operation. Thus, in an implementation where two disc transportation apparatuses are provided, each apparatus may move a transported disc in a single plane of movement. Moreover, in accordance with at least one implementation, both such apparatuses may perform motion in the same plane of operation. Alternatively, various configurations of movement may be provided, e.g., planes of movement that are orthogonal.
As a result, it will be apparent for those skilled in the art that the illustrative embodiments described are only examples and that various modifications can be made within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
