The present invention relates to a carrier apparatus and a carrier method of a disc tray in a cartridge accommodating a plurality of thin information recording mediums, and more particularly, to a carrier apparatus and a carrier method provided with a mechanism preventing a bending from being generated at a time of containing a disc tray.
In recent years, an information society has been developed, and there is a remarkable improvement in a recording density of an external memory device for storing enormous information. In order to meet the demand of a high density in a field of an optical disc, there have been vigorously conducted a study of a method of making a light spot size small on the basis of making a wavelength of a laser short and making a numerical aperture of an objective lens high, a method of enabling a multilayer recording by increasing a transmission factor of the recording layer or the like. However, as it stands, a method of intending to make a capacity high by making a diameter of the optical spot small or making the recording layer multilayer is under a condition which comes close to a physical limit.
In recent days, in order to increase a storage capacity of the optical disc, there has been vigorously conducted a study of a method of making a volume memory density high on the basis of a multilayer recording or a hologram recording. However, in the multilayer recording, since the light is absorbed to some degree in each of the layers, a structure having several layers is considered to be practical. In the hologram recording, it is hard to anticipate to improve the recording density by making a spot narrow. Accordingly, in these techniques, it is extremely difficult to achieve the optical disc having a high capacity of a terabyte (TB) class.
On the other hand, there has been conducted a study of increasing the volume memory density by reducing a thickness of the information recording medium. In general, there has been widely executed research and development of a recording and reproducing technique using a thin disc constituted by a thin substrate having a thickness of about 0.1 mm. Further, there has been developed a technique of accommodating a plurality of thin discs in a cartridge manner, a technique of drawing the thin discs from the cartridge for recording and reproducing, or the like. In JP-A-2000-57678 and a description of Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-194066, there is disclosed a disc cartridge accommodating a lot of sets of the thin discs and thin disc trays (having a thickness of about some hundreds μm) holding them.
In the disc cartridge accommodating the thin discs and the thin disc trays as shown in the above description of Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-194066, when recording and reproducing information on the individual thin disc, the thin disc tray holding the thin disc to be recorded and reproduced is drawn from the disc cartridge, and the thin disc on the tray is accessed, as shown in
Particularly, in the disc cartridge aiming to achieve a high memory density, there is aimed to increase an accommodating number of the thin discs and make the thin disc tray further thinner, so that the problem mentioned above is considered to be more easily generated.
The present invention is made by taking the actual condition mentioned above into consideration, and an object of the present invention is to provide a carrier apparatus and a carrier method which can contain, in a disc cartridge accommodating thin discs and thin disc trays, the disc tray drawn from the disc cartridge without bending.
As a result of devoting himself to conduct a study while taking the object mentioned above into consideration, the inventor of the present invention achieves a fact that, when the thin disc and the thin disc tray are contained within the cartridge, a certain degree of “deflection” is applied to a plane of the thin disc tray so as to improve a rigidity of the thin disc tray in a direction in which the thin disc tray is pressed at a time of being contained, thereby securely containing the thin disc tray.
Particularly, as shown in
In this case, a description will be given later of a jig for drawing and containing the thin disc tray, and a means for generating the deflection of the thin disc tray as mentioned above. Further, in
As a technical idea based on the conception mentioned above, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a carrier apparatus for carrying a thin disc tray in a cartridge accommodating thin discs and thin disc trays holding the thin discs in a state of laminating a plurality of thin discs and thin disc trays in a non-fixed manner, comprising:
a containing means pressing a drawn end of the thin disc tray in a direction of containing into the cartridge; and
a deflecting means pressing a part of the drawn end of the thin disc tray in such a manner that a deflection is generated on the thin disc tray surface.
In the carrier apparatus of the thin disc tray in accordance with the present invention, the deflecting means may be constituted by a movable arm means brought into contact with one corner or both corners of the drawn end of the thin disc tray so as to press it.
In the carrier apparatus of the thin disc tray in accordance with the present invention, the deflecting means may change a degree of deflecting the thin disc tray surface in correspondence to the contained state of the thin disc tray.
In the carrier apparatus of the thin disc tray in accordance with the present invention, the deflecting means may be constituted by a taper member arranged so as to guide the thin disc tray such that one end or both ends of the thin disc tray which are parallel to a drawn direction thereof are deflected, at a time when the thin disc tray is drawn.
In accordance with the present invention, there is further provided a carrier method of carrying a thin disc tray in a cartridge accommodating thin discs and thin disc trays holding the thin discs in a state of laminating a plurality of thin discs and thin disc trays in a non-fixed manner, comprising the steps of:
pressing a drawn end of the thin disc tray in a direction of containing it into the cartridge; and
pressing a part of the drawn end of the thin disc tray in such a manner that a deflection is generated on the thin disc tray surface.
In the carrier method of the thin disc tray in accordance with the present invention, the deflection may be generated on the thin disc tray surface by using a movable arm means brought into contact with one corner or both corners of the drawn end of the thin disc tray so as to press it.
In the carrier method of the thin disc tray in accordance with the present invention, a degree of deflecting the thin disc tray surface may be changed in correspondence to the contained state of the thin disc tray.
In the carrier method of the thin disc tray in accordance with the present invention, the deflection may be generated on the thin disc tray surface by using a taper member arranged so as to guide the thin disc tray such that one end or both ends of the thin disc tray which are parallel to a drawn direction thereof are deflected, at a time when the thin disc tray is drawn.
As described above, in accordance with the present invention, it is possible to provide the carrier apparatus and the carrier method which can contain the drawn disc tray in the disc cartridge accommodating the thin discs and the thin disc trays without bending them.
A description will be in detail given below of a best mode for carrying out a carrier apparatus and a carrier method of a thin disc tray in accordance with the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in
As described above, it is possible to contain the thin disc tray in accordance with an aspect shown in
As shown in
As described above, it is possible to contain the thin disc tray in accordance with the aspect shown in
The description is given above of the carrier apparatus and the carrier method of the thin disc tray in accordance with the present invention by exemplifying the particular embodiments, however, the present invention is not limited to them. Those skilled in the art can apply various modifications and improvements to the structure and the function of the invention in accordance with each of the embodiment and the other embodiment mentioned above without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2006-017319 | Jan 2006 | JP | national |