Disk cartridge, disk recording medium device, and disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present invention relates to a disk cartridge for use in accommodating a disk-like recording medium such as an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk and a magnetic disk within a disk compartment of a cartridge housing, a disk recording medium device in which a disk-like recording medium is accommodated into a disk compartment so as to become freely rotatable and a disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information on and/or from a disk-like recording medium, and particularly to a disk cartridge, a disk recording medium device and a disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus in which dust-proof performance at a portion in which a member having an opening portion to expose a disk-like recording medium of a cartridge housing comprising a disk cartridge and a shutter member are overlapping with each other can be improved.

BACKGROUND ART

[0002] As a disk recording medium device in which a disk-like recording medium capable of recording and/or reproducing information such as audio data, video data or computer data is accommodated within a cartridge housing so as to become freely rotatable, there is known a disk recording medium device having an arrangement shown in FIG. 32, for example. This disk recording medium device 1 is an information recording media which incorporates therein a write once magneto-optical disk 4 on which users are able to record (write) information such as computer data later on.

[0003] This disk recording medium device 1 comprises a cartridge housing 2 composed of a pair of upper shell 2a and lower shell 2b, the magneto-optical disk 4 accommodated within a disk compartment 3 of this cartridge housing 2 so as to become freely rotatable and so forth. The cartridge housing 2 has on its upper and lower surfaces provided an upper and lower opening portion 5 that extends from a central portion to one side. This opening portion 5 can be opened and closed by a shutter member 6 that can slide along one side. The shutter member 6 is constantly spring-biased in the direction to close the opening portion 5 under spring force of a spring, not shown. Reference numeral 6a denotes a presser member for preventing a tip end portion of the shutter member 6 from being disengaged from the opening portion inadvertently.

[0004] The magneto-optical disk 4 has at its central portion provided a disk-like center hub 7 made of metal. This center hub 7 is located at the position opposing to the inner end portion of the opening portion 5, i.e. located at substantially the central portion of the cartridge housing 2. A turntable provided on the main body side of an information recording and reproducing apparatus is mounted to the center hub 7. The magneto-optical disk 4 is chucked to and fixed to the turntable and thereby the magneto-optical disk is rotated at predetermined velocity (e.g. constant linear velocity). At that time, a magneto-optical pickup device of which the head portion is inserted into the opening portion 5 functions to record or reproduce an information signal on or from the magneto-optical disk 4.

[0005] However, in the conventional disk recording medium device having the above-mentioned arrangement, a shutter member 6 for opening and closing an opening portion 5 is slidably engaged with one side of the cartridge housing 2 and this shutter member 6 is spring-biased in one direction under spring force of a spring to close the opening portion 5. On the other hand, the shutter member 6 is moved against spring force of this spring to open the opening portion 5. Therefore, since the surface in which the cartridge housing 2 and the shutter member 6 are overlapping with each other is formed of the flat surface, there arises a problem in which dusts may enter into the disk compartment from such clearance relatively easily from the outside.

[0006] In view of the aforesaid problems and the like encountered with the prior art, since the portion in which the shutter member and the cartridge housing are overlapping with each other is formed of the flat surface and the dusts and smudges may enter into the disk compartment relatively easily from the clearance of that portion, it is an object of the present invention to provide a disk cartridge, a disk recording medium device and a disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus which are excellent in dust-proof performance and in which a dust-proof clearance that is concaved and convexed in the thickness direction is provided by forming corresponding convex rib and concave groove on the overlapping portion, the labyrinth-like dust-proof clearance can suppress small dusts and smudges from passing and in which dusts and smudges can be made difficult to enter into the disk compartment.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

[0007] In a disk cartridge according to the present invention, there is provided a disk cartridge comprising a cartridge housing in which a disk compartment is formed by combining an upper shell and a lower shell and a shutter member for opening and closing an opening portion provided on the cartridge housing to expose a part of the disk compartment and in which a dust-proof clearance formed of a convex rib and a concave groove is provided on the portion in which the upper shell or the lower shell having the opening portion and the shutter member are overlapping with each other by forming a convex rib or a concave groove on one member and by forming a concave groove or a convex rib corresponding to this convex rib or concave groove on the other member.

[0008] Further, in a disk cartridge according to the present invention, there is provided a disk cartridge comprising a cartridge housing in which a disk compartment is formed within an upper shell and a rotary member or the rotary member and a lower shell by combining the upper shell, the rotary member and the lower shell and in which the rotary member is supported by at least either the upper shell or the lower shell so as to become freely rotatable and a shutter member for opening and closing an opening portion provided on the cartridge housing to expose a part of the disk compartment and in which a dust-proof clearance formed of a convex rib and a concave groove is provided on the portion in which the upper shell or the lower shell having the opening portion and the shutter member are overlapping with each other by forming a convex rib or a concave groove on one member and by forming a concave groove or a convex rib corresponding to this convex rib or concave groove on the other member.

[0009] In a disk recording medium device according to the present invention, there is provided a disk recording medium device comprising a cartridge housing in which a disk compartment is formed by combining an upper shell and a lower shell, a disk-like recording medium accommodated within the disk compartment so as to become freely rotatable and which is partly exposed from an opening portion provided on the upper shell or the lower shell and a shutter member for opening and closing the opening portion. In this disk recording medium device, a dust-proof clearance formed of a convex rib and a concave groove is provided on the portion in which the upper shell or the lower shell having the opening portion and the shutter member are overlapping with each other by forming a convex rib or a concave groove on one member and by forming a concave groove or a convex rib corresponding to this convex rib or concave groove on the other member.

[0010] Further, in a disk recording medium device according to the present invention, there is provided a disk recording medium device comprising a cartridge housing in which a disk compartment is formed within an upper shell and a rotary member or the rotary member and a lower shell by combining the upper shell, the rotary member and the lower shell and in which the rotary member is supported by at least either the upper shell or the lower shell so as to become freely rotatable, a disk-like recording medium which is partly exposed from an opening portion provided on the rotary member and the upper shell or the lower shell and a shutter member for opening and closing the opening portion. In this disk recording medium device, a dust-proof clearance formed of a convex rib and a concave groove is provided on the portion in which the upper shell or the lower shell having the opening portion and the shutter member are overlapping with each other by forming a convex rib or a concave groove on one member and by forming a concave groove or a convex rib corresponding to this convex rib or concave groove on the other member.

[0011] Furthermore, in a disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus according to the present invention, there is provided a disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus comprising a disk recording medium device in which a disk-like recording medium is accommodated within a disk compartment formed on a cartridge housing so as to become freely rotatable and in which an opening portion provided on the cartridge housing so as to expose a part of the disk-like recording medium is freely opened and closed by a shutter member, a shutter open and close means for opening and closing the opening portion by moving the shutter member in response to insertion and eject operations of this recording medium device and a disk recording and reproducing apparatus to which the disk recording medium device is attached detachably and which is inserted from the opening portion opened by the shutter open and close means to chuck and rotate the disk-like recording medium when the disk recording medium device is attached thereto. In this disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus, the cartridge housing is comprised by combining an upper shell and a lower shell or by combining the upper shell, a rotary member and the lower shell, the disk compartment is formed within the upper shell and the lower shell or within the upper shell and the rotary member or within the rotary member and the lower shell and a dust-proof clearance formed of a convex rib and a concave groove is provided on the portion in which the upper shell or the lower shell having the opening portion and the shutter member are overlapping with each other by forming a convex rib or a concave groove on one member and by forming a concave groove or a convex rib corresponding to this convex rib or concave groove on the other member.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0012]
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a disk recording medium device according to an embodiment of the present invention from the upper surface side in an exploded fashion.

[0013]
FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing a disk recording medium device according to an embodiment of the present invention from the lower surface side in an exploded fashion.

[0014]
FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an upper shell of a disk cartridge for use with a disk recording medium device according to the present invention from the upper surface side.

[0015]
FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a chucking ring and a ring holder attached to the upper shell of the disk cartridge for use with the disk recording medium device according to the present invention from the upper surface side.

[0016]
FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a rotary member of the disk cartridge for use with the disk recording medium device according to the present invention from the upper surface side.

[0017]
FIG. 6 is a plan view of the rotary member of the disk cartridge for use with the disk recording medium device according to the present invention.

[0018]
FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a pair of shutter members of the disk cartridge for use with the disk recording medium device according to the present invention from the upper surface side.

[0019]
FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the assembled state of the pair of shutter members of the disk cartridge for use with the disk recording medium device according to the present invention from the upper surface side.

[0020] FIGS. 9 are perspective view to which reference will be made in explaining the disk cartridge for use with the disk recording medium device according to the present invention, wherein FIG. 9A is a perspective view showing a mis-erase prevention member and FIG. 9B is a perspective view showing a lock member from the upper surface side, respectively.

[0021]
FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a lower shell of the disk cartridge for use with the disk recording medium device according to the present invention from the upper surface side.

[0022]
FIG. 11 is a bottom view of the upper shell of the disk cartridge for use with the disk recording medium device according to the present invention.

[0023]
FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing the state in which a pair of shutter members is attached to the rotary member of the disk recording medium device shown in FIG. 1 to thereby close the inside opening portion.

[0024]
FIG. 13 is a perspective view showing an outward arrangement of the disk recording medium device shown in FIG. 1.

[0025]
FIG. 14 is a perspective view showing the disk recording medium device shown in FIG. 13 from the lower surface side and illustrates the state in which the opening portion is closed by closing a shutter mechanism.

[0026]
FIG. 15 is a perspective view showing the disk recording medium device shown in FIG. 13 from the lower surface side and illustrates the state in which the opening portion is opened by opening the shutter mechanism.

[0027]
FIG. 16 is an explanatory cross-sectional view taken along the lines connecting a pair of positioning holes of the disk recording medium device shown in FIG. 13.

[0028]
FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view to which reference will be made in explaining chucking in the disk recording medium device according to the present invention and illustrates, in a cross-sectional fashion, the state obtained before an optical disk is attached to the turntable.

[0029]
FIG. 18 is a cross-sectional view to which reference will be made in explaining chucking in the disk recording medium device according to the present invention and illustrates, in a cross-sectional fashion, the state obtained after the optical disk has been attached to the turntable.

[0030]
FIG. 19 are perspective views to which reference will be made in explaining the manner in which the rotary member is elevated and lowered relative to the upper shell when the opening portion of the disk recording medium device according to the present invention is opened and closed, wherein FIG. 19A is an exploded perspective view, FIG. 19B is a perspective view showing the state in which the rotary member is lowered relative to the upper shell and FIG. 19C is a perspective view showing the state in which the rotary member is elevated relative to the upper shell.

[0031]
FIG. 20 is a diagram to which reference will be made in explaining how to calculate clearances among a cam portion of the upper shell and a cam protrusion of a rotary member of the disk cartridge according to the present invention and shows sizes of the upper and lower shells, the rotary member and the shutter member in the form of reference numerals.

[0032]
FIG. 21 is a diagram to which reference will be made in explaining how to calculate a clearance between a cam portion of the upper shell and a cam protrusion of a rotary member of the disk cartridge according to the present invention and shows its clearance in the form of reference numerals.

[0033]
FIG. 22 is a perspective view showing a disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0034]
FIG. 23 is a perspective view showing a feed screw drive device of the table drive apparatus according to the present invention and illustrates a part of a power transmission member and so forth in a cross-sectional fashion.

[0035]
FIG. 24 is an explanatory diagram showing, in block form, a circuit arrangement of a disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0036]
FIG. 25 is a perspective view showing the state presented before the inventive disk recording medium device is inserted into the disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.

[0037]
FIG. 26 is a perspective view showing the state presented when the inventive disk recording medium device is being inserted into the disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.

[0038]
FIG. 27 is a perspective view showing a shutter opening and closing means that opens and closes a shutter mechanism of the disk recording medium device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0039]
FIG. 28 is a diagram to which reference will be made in explaining the manner in which the shutter mechanism of the disk recording medium device according to the present invention is opened and closed and illustrates the state obtained until an initial operation convex portion of a rack rod reaches to an opening window of the lower shell after the pair of shutter members had closed the opening portion of the lower shell and the opening portion of the rotary member completely.

[0040]
FIG. 29 is a diagram to which reference will be made in explaining the manner in which the shutter mechanism is opened and closed in the state in which the lower shell is removed from the disk recording medium device according to the present invention and illustrates the state obtained when the pair of shutter members is slightly opened (approximately 5°) after the initial operation convex portion of the rack rod had engaged with the initial operation concave portion of the rotary member to enable the rotary member begin to rotate.

[0041]
FIG. 30 is a diagram to which reference will be made in explaining the manner in which the shutter mechanism is opened and closed in the state in which the lower shell is removed from the disk recording medium device according to the present invention and illustrates the state obtained when the pair of shutter members is largely opened (approximately 30°) after a rack portion of the rack rod had meshed with a gear portion of the rotary member.

[0042]
FIG. 31 is a diagram to which reference will be made in explaining the manner in which the shutter mechanism is opened and closed in the state in which the lower shell is removed from the disk recording medium device according to the present invention and illustrates the state obtained when the pair of shutter members opens the opening portion completely (approximately 55°) after a stopper convex portion of the rack member had engaged with a set position concave portion of the rotary member.

[0043]
FIG. 32 is a perspective view showing a disk cartridge according to the prior art.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0044] Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIGS. 1 to 31 are diagrams showing embodiments of a disk cartridge, a disk recording medium device and a disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.

[0045] In the present application, “disk cartridge” refers to such a disk cartridge having a main arrangement comprising an upper shell, a lower shell or an upper shell, a lower shell and a rotary member and one or a pair of shutter members (two shutter members are generally used but a combination of more than three shutter members may also be possible) and a housing presented before a disk-like recording medium is accommodated. A “disk recording medium device” refers to such a disk recording medium device in which a disk-like recording medium is accommodated within a disk compartment and which comprises a combination of a cartridge housing and a disk-like recording medium. Further, “disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus” refers to such a disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus which comprises a disk recording medium device, a table drive apparatus and the like.

[0046] A disk recording medium device 10 including a disk cartridge according to the present invention accommodates therein a read-only optical disk in which various information signals such as a music signal as audio information and a video signal and a music signal as video information are recorded in advance or an optical disk in which information signals such as audio information and video information can be recorded only once (write once optical disk) or an optical disk 11 in which information signals such as audio information and video information can be recorded repeatedly (rewritable optical disk) as a disk-like recording medium.

[0047] However, the disk-like recording medium is not limited to the above-mentioned optical disks and a magnetic disk having a magnetic thin film layer formed on the surface of a thin disk to store information based upon the magnetization state of the specific position, a magneto-optical disk capable of writing or reading information in or out of a similarly formed magnetic thin film layer by the use of an optical head and a magnetic head and other disk-like recording mediums can be applied to the present invention.

[0048] The disk recording medium device 10 comprises, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a cartridge housing 12 formed by combining a pair of an upper shell 13, a rotary member 14 and a lower shell 15, an optical disk 11 accommodated within a disk compartment 16 formed within this disk cartridge 12 so as to become freely rotatable, a pair of shutter members 19a, 19b for opening and closing an inside opening portion 18 and an outside opening portion 17 formed in the rotary member 14 and the lower shell 15 and the like. The disk cartridge is obtained by removing the optical disk 11 from this disk recording medium device 10.

[0049] Since the disk recording medium device 10 generally uses the optical disk 11 such that the optical disk is placed in the horizontal state, the shell disposed on the upper side of the optical disk 11 is referred to as the “upper shell 13” and the shell disposed on the lower side of the optical disk 11 is referred to as the “lower shell 15”. However, the disk recording medium device 10 is also able to use the optical disk 11 such that the optical disk 11 is placed in the vertical state or in the oblique state. In such case, the upper shell 13 in this embodiment may be referred to as a “first shell” and the lower shell 15 may be referred to as a “second shell”.

[0050] As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 and FIG. 11, the upper shell 13 is formed of a thin dish-like member having substantially a square shape of which the front side is shaped like an arc. This upper shell 13 has a lower surface (surface appearing as a front surface in FIG. 11) in which an annular upper inner surface wall 21 continued in the circumferential direction is formed at the central portion thereof. A circular upper concave portion 16a is set on the inside of this upper inner surface wall 21. Then, an annular cam groove 22 is provided on the outside of the upper inner surface wall 21 so as to be continued in the circumferential direction to surround the upper inner surface wall 21. As shown in FIG. 19A, cam portions 22a of predetermined lengths (portions hatched in a cross-stripes fashion in FIG. 11A) are provided at three portions of the circumferential direction of the cam groove 22 with substantially an equal interval. The cam portion 22a is adapted to lift up the rotary member 14 so that the rotary member may approach the lower shell 15 when the rotary member 14 is rotated, displaced and moved to a predetermined position of the upper shell 13. Actions of the cam portion 22a will be described in detail later on.

[0051] On the outer peripheral edge of the upper shell 13, there are formed an upper front edge 13a, left and right upper side surface edges 13b, 13c and an upper rear surface edge 13d. The upper front surface edge 13a has a first concave portion 23a formed at its substantially central portion to properly position the lower shell 15 and to insert and eject an optical head which will be described later on. A central portion of the upper rear surface edge 13d is concaved in the inside to provide a concave portion 13d0 to which the lower rear surface edge of the lower shell 15 is attached. Further, the upper rear surface edge 13d has a second concave portion 23b formed at its substantially central portion to properly position the lower shell 15. Then, the upper inner surface wall 21 has recesses 21a, 21b of shapes and sizes corresponding to the respective concave portions 23a, 23b formed at its positions opposing to the first and second concave portions 23a, 23b.

[0052] Two front upper surrounding walls 24a, 24b are formed on one upper front surface edge 13a and between the upper side surface edge 13c and the cam groove 22 of the upper shell 13 with a predetermined clearance. Further, among the upper rear surface edge 13d, the upper side surface edge 13b and the cam groove 22, there are provided two rear upper surrounding walls 24c, 24d with a predetermined clearance. Then, two rear side upper surrounding walls 24e, 24f are formed on the upper rear surface edge 13d and between the upper side surface edge 13c and the cam groove 22d with a predetermined clearance. These upper surrounding walls 24a to 24f are set to be higher than the upper inner surface wall 21. In particular, the three upper surrounding walls 24a, 24c and 24e located at the respective corner portions are set to be high enough to contact with the inner surface of the lower shell 15 upon assembly-process.

[0053] Further, on the inside of the rear upper surrounding wall 24e of the upper shell 13, there is provided an upper concave portion 26a of a plug housing portion 26 to which a mis-erase prevention member 25, which will be described later on, is attached slidably. This upper concave portion 26a is formed of the upper rear surface edge 13d with an upper recess 27a for forming the upper half of the opening window 27 for sliding the mis-erase prevention member 25 and an upper housing wall 28a provided so as to surround the inside of the upper recess 27a. Then, the upper concave portion 26a is provided with a guide portion 29 having two notches formed thereon to intermittently render the mis-erase prevention member operative. Further, the upper shell 13 has screw fixing protrusions 30 formed at its four corner portions to fix the lower shell 15 by screws.

[0054] As shown in FIG. 3, the upper surface of the upper shell 13 is slightly expanded upwardly from the central portion to the rear surface, and an expanded portion 31 of the upper shell has a nonskid holding concave portion 31a formed at its rear surface to prevent a user from slipping the disk recording medium device when a user holds the disk recording medium device. This expanded portion 31 has a triangular instruction mark 31b formed at its front surface to indicate the correct insertion direction in which the disk recording medium device 10 should be inserted into the disk recording and reproducing apparatus. An upper surface attachment surface 31c is provided between the instruction mark 31b and the holding concave portion 31a to attach a label where users can write recorded contents and other necessary items.

[0055] A chucking ring 33 is supported at the central portion of the inner surface of this upper shell 13 by a ring holder 34 so as to become freely rotatable. The chucking ring 33 and the ring holder 34 have arrangements shown in FIGS. 4, 17 and the like in an enlarged-scale. Specifically, the chucking ring 33 is shaped like a disk made of a magnetic material that can be attracted by a magnet. Then, a plurality of annular concave and convex portions having different diameters is provided at concentric circles, whereby the chucking ring 33 is provided with a flange portion 33a located at the outermost periphery of the concentric circle, a holding portion 33b that contacts with the optical disk 11, a tapered portion 33c set between the holding portion 33b and the flange portion 33a and a position restriction portion 33d located at the innermost periphery of the concentric circle.

[0056] The ring holder 34 is generally shaped like a ring and includes an inward inside flange 34a formed at one surface side of a cylindrical body and an outward outside flange 34b formed on the other surface side of the cylindrical body. The ring holder 34 supports the chucking ring 33 such that the chucking ring is accommodated therein so as to become freely rotatable. The chucking ring has the outside flange 34b integrally fixed to substantially the central portion of the inner surface of the upper shell 13 by a fixing means such as fusion or adhesion using an adhesive agent. In order to make the surface of the outside flange 34b of the ring holder 34 become flush with the inner surface of the upper shell 13, the upper shell 13 has an attachment hole 13e to which the outside flange 34b is fitted (see FIG. 2).

[0057] The diameter of the hole 34c of this ring holder 34 is slightly smaller than the outside diameter of the chucking ring 33. Accordingly, within the ring holder 34, the chucking ring 33 can be moved in the diameter direction within a predetermined range. Further, the inside of the radius direction of the chucking ring 33 is inserted into the hole 34c of the ring holder 34 and the tapered portion 33c of the chucking ring 33 is supported from the underside by the inner peripheral edge of the inside flange 34a. Accordingly, within the ring holder 34, the chucking ring 33 can also be moved in the thickness direction (axis direction) perpendicular to the plane direction within a predetermined range.

[0058] The lower shell 15 is combined with the lower surface of the upper shell 13. As shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 10, the lower shell 15 has the outside shape approximately similar to that of the upper shell 13 and is formed of a thin dish-like member of approximately square-shape of which the front surface side is shaped like an arc. This lower shell 15 is provided with the outside opening portion 17 that is opened in the front surface side. The outside opening portion 17 comprises a table opening portion 17a provided at substantially the central portion of the lower shell 15 and a head opening portion 17b extended from this table opening portion 17a along the radius direction and which is opened in the front surface.

[0059] The outside opening portion 17 is adapted to enable a turntable of a disk rotation drive device, which will be described later on, and an optical head of an optical pickup device, which will also be described later on, to face the optical disk 11 accommodated within the disk compartment 16. The outside opening portion is wide enough to enter and eject the turntable of the disk rotation drive device and the optical head of the optical pickup device. Specifically, the turntable is entered into and ejected from the table opening portion 17a and the optical head is entered into and ejected from the head opening portion 17b.

[0060] The lower shell 15 has lower inner surface walls 36a, 36b, 36c and 36d of arc-shapes formed at its four corners, and the lower concave portion 16b is set on the inside of the inner surface walls 36a to 36d. Further, the outside opening portion 17 of the lower shell 15 has a rib 37 formed at its inner surface peripheral edge to decrease a clearance between it and the shutter member for increasing airtight property.

[0061] The rib 37 includes an arc-like rib portion 37a formed along the peripheral edge of the table opening portion 17a in a semicircle fashion, linear rib portions 37b, 37b formed along the two edges of the head opening portion 17b in parallel to each other and symmetrical rib portions 37c, 37c extended in the opposite direction so as to well balance with the linear rib portions 37b. The two linear rib portions 37b and the two symmetrical rib portions 37c have shield portions 38a, 38b formed at their outside portions to close clearances formed at the outside portions of the two shutter members 19a, 19b.

[0062] Further, within the lower concave portion 16b of the lower shell 15, there is provided a pair of operation convex portions 39a, 39b for opening and closing the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b based upon the rotation movement of the rotary member 14. The pair of operation convex portions 39a, 39b is disposed at both sides of the outside opening portion 35 so as to sandwich the table opening portion 17a.

[0063] The lower shell 15 has a lower front surface edge 15a, right and left lower side surface edges 15b, 15c and a lower rear surface edge 15d formed at its outer peripheral edge. These lower front surface edge 15a, lower side surface edges 15b, 15c and lower rear surface edge 15d have stepped structures in which stepped portions are formed on the intermediate portions of the height directions and in which the upper portions increase in thickness. The respective thin portions of these lower front surface edge 15a, right and left lower side surface edges 15b, 15c and lower rear surface edge 15d enter the inside portions of the upper front surface edge 13a, the upper side surface edges 13b, 13c and the upper rear surface edge 13d of the upper shell 13 to cause the respective stepped portions to come in contact with the respective lower end faces of the upper front surface edge 13a, the upper side surface edges 13b, 13c and the upper rear surface edge 13d.

[0064] An opening end 40a of the head opening portion 17b defined at substantially the central portion of the lower front surface edge 15a of the lower shell 15 engages with the first concave portion 23a of the upper shell 13 so that the front side is properly positioned. The lower rear surface edge 15d has a positioning portion 40b (see FIG. 28) formed at its central portion to engage with the second concave portion 23b of the upper shell 13 so that the rear side is properly positioned. This positioning portion 40b has a label attachment wall 41 provided at its outside and the outer surface of the label attachment wall serves as a label attachment surface. This label attachment wall 41 considerably projects toward the side of the upper shell 13 so as to become able to keep a flat surface portion as wide as possible. Upon assembly, this label attachment wall is inserted into the concave portion 13d0.

[0065] The lower front surface edge 15a, the lower side surface edge 15c and the inner surface wall 36b of the lower shell 15 constitute a front lower surrounding wall 42a. Further, the lower rear surface edge 15d, the lower side surface edge 15b and the lower inner surface wall 36c constitute a rear lower surrounding wall 42b. Then, the lower rear surface edge 15d, the lower side surface edge 15c and the lower inner surface wall 36d constitute a rear lower surrounding wall 42c. As a result, when the upper and lower shells 13, 15 are assembled, the front upper surrounding wall 24a of the upper shell 13 is fitted into the inside of the front lower surrounding wall 42a. Then, the rear upper surrounding wall 24c is fitted into the inside of the rear lower surrounding wall 42b, and the rear upper surrounding wall 24e is fitted into the inside of the rear lower surrounding wall 42c.

[0066] Further, on the inside of the rear lower surrounding wall 42c of the lower shell 15, there is provided the lower concave portion 26b to which the mis-erase prevention member 25 is attached. This lower concave portion 26b is composed of the lower rear surface edge 15d in which the lower recess 27b forming the lower half of the opening window 27 is formed and the lower housing wall 28b provided so as to surround the inside of the lower recess 27b. This lower concave portion 27b has a guide groove 43 formed on its lower surface to guide the mis-erase prevention member 25 to thereby restrict the slide direction. This lower concave portion 26b and the upper concave portion 26a constitute the plug housing portion 26.

[0067] This mis-erase prevention member 25 has an arrangement that is shown in FIG. 9A in an enlarged-scale. Specifically, the mis-erase prevention member 25 is generally shaped like a cube and the front portion 25a is provided with a projection portion which projects to one side. The opposite side of the projection portion of this front portion 25 is provided with an operation protrusion 25b that is used by users to slide the mis-erase prevention member 25. Further, the mis-erase prevention member 25 has a guide protrusion 25c formed on its lower surface to slidably engage with the guide groove 43 of the lower shell 15. The mis-erase prevention member has an engagement portion 25d provided on the rear surface opposite to the front surface portion 25a to engage with the guide portion 29 to prevent the mis-erase prevention member from being dropped. Although not shown, in the vicinity of this engagement portion 25d, there is provided a resilient member that is resiliently engaged with the recess of the guide portion 29. Resilience of this resilient member may enable users to feel sense of clicking when users slide the mis-erase prevention member.

[0068] Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the lower shell 15 has front attachment holes 44a and back attachment holes 44b provided at four corner portions to fasten the lower shell 15 to the upper shell 13 by screws. The respective rear attachment holes 44b are provided at their insides with cylindrical cylinder shaft portions 45 as shown in FIG. 10, and the tapping protrusions 30 of the upper shell 13 are fitted into the respective cylinder shaft portions 45. Further, in the vicinity of the respective cylinder shaft portions 45, there are provided positioning shaft portions 46a, 46b. Reference protrusions 47 for properly positioning the upper and lower shells 13, 15 are provided on the upper ends of the respective positioning shaft portions 46a, 46b, respectively.

[0069] The upper shell 13 has a pair of reference holes 48 corresponding to the pair of reference protrusions 47, 47 as shown in FIG. 16. In order to avoid interference with the respective reference protrusions 47, the rear upper surround wall 24c and the rear upper surround wall 24e are provided with escape portions 49a, 49b curved like an arc. The respective positioning shaft portions 46a, 46b are provided with positioning holes 50a, 50b which are opened to the lower surface of the opposite side of the reference protrusions 47. These positioning holes 50a, 50b are adapted to properly locate the disk recording medium device 10 to the predetermined position of the disk recording and reproducing apparatus. To this end, while the first positioning hole 50a is a circular hole, the second positioning hole 50b is an oblong ellipse hole so as to absorb size error of the lateral direction when the disk recording medium device is properly positioned to the predetermined position of the disk recording and reproducing apparatus.

[0070] The rotary member 14 is made freely rotatable within the upper and lower concave portions 16a, 16b formed when the upper shell 13 and the lower shell 15 having the above-mentioned arrangements are combined together. The upper and lower shells 13, 15 and the rotary member 14 constitute the cartridge housing 12.

[0071] One side edge portions 13b, 15b of the upper and lower shells 13, 15 thus combined have an opening window 52 formed at approximately their central portions to expose a part of the outer peripheral surface of the rotary member 14. This opening window 52 consists of an upper recess portion 52a provided at the joint portion of the upper shell 13 and a lower recess portion 52b provided at the joint portion of the lower shell 15. Further, the upper and lower shells 13, 15 have a loading guide groove 53 provided at their one side edge portions 13b, 15b to extend along their joint surface in the front and rear direction. The loading guide groove 53 is provided in order to enable a shutter opening and closing means, which will be described later on, to rotate the rotary member 14 when the shutter opening and closing means is inserted into the loading guide groove.

[0072] The other side edge portions 13c, 15c have a mis-insertion detection groove 54 extended in somewhere of the front and rear direction along the joint surface in an opposing relation to this loading guide groove 53. Half portions of the loading guide groove 53 and the mis-insertion detection groove 54 are provided on the upper shell 13 and the lower shell 15 so that square grooves are respectively formed when the two shells 13, 15 are fastened together. According to the combination of the loading guide groove 53 and the mis-insertion detection groove 54, the disk recording medium device 10 can be prevented from being erroneously inserted into the disk recording and reproducing apparatus and hence the disk recording medium device 10 can constantly be loaded onto the disk recording and reproducing apparatus with correct attitude.

[0073] Further, a lock housing portion 55 is formed on the inside of one front edge portions 13a, 15a of the upper and lower shells 13, 15. Then, the lock housing portion 55 has a lock member 56 swingably provided thereon to lock the rotary member 14 at predetermined position. The lock housing portion 55 is communicated with the lower concave portion 16b and is also communicated with the loading guide groove 53 through an opening hole 57 bored on one side edge portions 13b, 15b. A support shaft 58 which swingably supports the lock member 56 is provided on the lower shell 15 forming one of the lock housing portion 55 in such a manner as to protrude toward the side of the upper shell 13.

[0074] As shown in FIG. 9B in an enlarged-scale, the lock member 56 is formed of a lever-like member that is fitted into the support shaft 58 so as to become freely rotatable and which can swing in the plane direction. Specifically, the lock member 56 consists of an annular rotary shaft portion 56a, an operation arm 56b projecting to one side from this rotary shaft portion 56a and a lock arm 56c and a resilient arm 56d, both of which are projecting to the other side from the rotary shaft portion 56a. The operation arm 56 has an input portion 56b1 provided at its tip end to project in the lateral direction. The lock arm 56c and the resilient arm 56d have a clearance of a proper size formed therebetween. The lock arm 56c has a lock claw 56c1 provided at its tip end, and the resilient arm 56d has a support head portion 56d1 provided at its tip end.

[0075] The lock member 56 having the above-mentioned arrangement is attached to the support shaft 58 in the state shown in FIG. 28. Specifically, in the state in which the lock claw 56c1 is directed toward the side of the lower concave portion 16b, the rotary shaft portion 56a is fitted into the support shaft 58 and the support head portion 56d1 of the resilient arm 56d is brought in contact with the inner surface of the front edge portion 15a of the upper shell 15. As a consequence, the lock arm 56c is inwardly spring-biased under spring force of the resilient arm 56d,whereby the lock claw 56c, at the tip end of the lock arm is protruded into the lower concave portion 16b. At the same time, the input portion 56b1 of the operation arm 56b is inserted into the opening hole 57 from the inside and the tip end of the input portion 56b1 is projected into the loading guide groove 53. The lock member 56 that is the above-mentioned spring member may be suitably made of polyacetal (POM), for example. It is needless to say that other engineering plastics can be applied to the lock member and that a metal spring member can be used as the material of the lock member.

[0076] The rotary member 14 that is made freely rotatable within the upper and lower concave portions 16a, 16b of the upper shell 13 and the lower shell 15 has the arrangement shown in FIGS. 1, 2, 5 and 6. This rotary member 14 has a flat surface portion 14a formed of a disk-like thin plate member and a ring portion 14b continued to the outer peripheral edge of this flat surface portion 14a. The inside opening portion 18 is formed on the flat surface portion 14a of this rotary member 14. This inside opening portion 18 is substantially equal to the outside opening portion 17 of the lower shell 15 in shape and in size.

[0077] Specifically, similarly to the outside opening portion 17, the inside opening portion 18 also includes a table opening portion 18a set at the central portion of the flat surface portion 14a and into and from which the turntable is inserted and ejected and a head opening portion 18b continued to the table opening portion 18a and into and from which the optical head is inserted and ejected. Then, the table opening portion 18a of the flat surface portion 14a has the support edge portion 14c provided at its inner peripheral edge to support the inside non-recording area of the optical disk 11 from the underside in the free condition.

[0078] At one portion of the outer peripheral surface of the ring portion 14b of the rotary member 14, there is provided an operated portion 60 that is engaged with the rotary member by the shutter opening and closing means to rotate the rotary member 14 within a predetermined angular extent when the shutter opening and closing means is moved in a reciprocation fashion. As shown in FIGS. 5, 6 and the like, this operated portion 60 includes a gear portion 60a having a large number of gear teeth formed over the circumferential direction in a predetermined angular extent (approximately 30°), a front slide portion 60b continued to one side of this gear portion 60a, a rear slide portion 60c continued to the other side of the gear portion 60a and a land portion 60d provided at the position distant from the gear portion 60a in the circumferential direction by a predetermined distance.

[0079] The outer peripheral surface of the front slide portion 60b of the operated portion 60 is substantially the same as the addendum circle of the gear portion 60a in height, and the outer peripheral surface of the rear slide portion 60c is substantially the same as the bottom circle of the gear portion in height. Then, the front slide portion 60b has an initial operation concave portion 61a formed of a recess having an arc-like cross-section provided at its approximately central portion of the circumferential direction, and the rear slide portion 60c has a set position concave portion 61b formed of a recess having a trapezoidal cross-section provided at its approximately central portion of the circumferential direction. Since the gear portion 60a and the front and rear slide portions 60b, 60c of this operated portion 60 are protruded from the outer peripheral surface of the ring portion 14b to the outside, the upper shell 13 (the lower shell 15 also) has an escape portion 62 provided at its corresponding portion to avoid them from contacting with these protruded portions and to allow them to pass therein as shown in FIG. 11.

[0080] Thus, the lower shell 15, the rotary member 14 and the lock member 56 are placed in the following positional relationship upon assembly. As shown in FIG. 28, in the shutter closed state in which the outside opening portion 17 of the lower shell 15 and the inside opening portion 18 of the rotary member 14 are rotated and displaced most largely, the front slide portion 60b of the operated portion 60 is opposed to the opening window 52 of the cartridge housing 12 and the rear end edge 63b of the rear slide portion 60c is brought in contact with the opening end 40a of the lower shell 15. At that time, the end face edge 63c on the side of the front slide portion 60b of the land portion 60d is opposed to the positioning portion 40b of the lower shell 15. The lock claw 56c1 of the lock member 56 is engaged with the set position concave portion 61b of the rotary member 14, and the rotary member 14 is locked by this lock member 56.

[0081] In this state, when the rotary member 14 is released from being locked by the lock member 56 and is rotated in the predetermined direction by a predetermined angle, the inside opening portion 18 agrees with the outside opening portion 17 and hence the two outside and inside opening portions 17, 18 are opened largely. As a result, the disk housing portion 16 is opened through the two outside and inside opening portions 17, 18 to expose a part of the information recording surface of the optical disk 11. At that time, the front end edge 63a of the front slide portion 60b contacts with the positioning portion 40b of the lower shell 15 to prevent the rotary member 14 from being rotated more. The set position concave portion 61b of the rear slide portion 60c is opposed to the opening window 52 and the lock claw 56c1 of the lock member 56 is engaged with the rear end edge 63b, whereby the rotary member 14 is held in the locked state.

[0082] Arc-like cam protrusions 64 which are disposed at two places in the circumferential direction are provided on the end face of the opening side of the ring portion 14b of the rotary member 14. These cam protrusions 64 are engaged with the cam grooves of the upper shell 13 when the rotary member 14 is assembled with the upper shell 13 and the like. Then, when the rotary member 14 is rotated a predetermined angle, the respective cam protrusions 64 are slid over the cam portions 22a of the cam grooves 22, whereby the rotary member 14 is urged against the side of lower shell 15.

[0083] This rotary member 14 has a pair of support shafts 14d, 14d provided at its flat surface portion 14a to support the pair of shutter members 19a, 19a such that the shutter members can be freely rotated in the plane direction of the flat surface portion 14a. The pair of support shafts 14d, 14d is disposed about the center of the table opening portion 18a in a point symmetry fashion so that one of the support shafts may be located at the edge portion of the head opening portion 18b.

[0084] The pair of shutter members 19a, 19b consisting the shutter mechanism 19 attached to the rotary member 14 through the pair of support shafts 14d, 14e is comprised of the two shutter members 19a, 19b which are the same in shape and in size. The pair of shutter members 19a, 19b has a shape and a structure shown in FIGS. 7, 8 and so forth. Specifically, the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b is formed of an approximately semicircular thin plate member.

[0085] Bearing holes 65a are formed on the respective shutter members 19a, 19b at their one side portions of the chord sides. The pair of support shafts 14d is engaged with the respective bearing holes 65a so as to become freely rotatable, respectively. When the tip end portions of the respective support shafts 14d are caulked, the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b is placed over the flat surface portion 14a of the rotary member 14 and thereby attached so as to turn freely. At that time, the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b is attached in such a manner that their chord sides may oppose to each other.

[0086] Stepped portions 66 having predetermined lengths in the direction perpendicular to the chord lines are provided on the chord sides of the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b. The stepped portions 66 form a convex-side joint portion 66a and a concave-side joint portion 66b at their respective sides. The respective joint portions 66a, 66b have overhang portions 67a, 67b provided thereat so as to overhang in the directions perpendicular to the directions in which the chords are extended. As a consequence, in the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b, the end face of the convex-side joint portion 66a and the end face of the concave-side joint portion 66b are opposed to each other with the result that the overhang portion 67a of the convex-side joint portion 66a and the overhang portion 67b of the concave-side joint portion 66b are fastened together.

[0087] As shown in FIG. 12, the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b is attached to the rotary member 14 in such a manner that their chord sides may be opposed to each other. Accordingly, when the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b is rotated to the outside so as to be detached from each other, the respective shutter members 19a, 19b are moved on the flat surface portion 14a outwardly, by which the inside opening portion 18 is opened completely. On the other hand, the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b is rotated toward the inside to cause their joint portions 66a, 66b to contact with eachother, whereby the shutter mechanism 19 is shaped like approximately a circle. As a result, the central portion of the inside opening portion 18 is completely closed by the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b.

[0088] Further, the respective shutter members 19a, 19b have open and close grooves 68 provided thereon to allow the shutter members 19a, 19a to open and close the opening portions 17, 18 through the rotation movement of the rotary member 14. One ends of the respective open and close grooves 68 are set at substantially the central portions of the respective shutter members 19a, 19b and the respective open and close grooves are formed so as to be extended to the outside of prolonged lines which connect one ends and the bearing holes 65a. At the outside end portions of the pair of open and close grooves 68, there are provided resilient members 69a which are formed by recessing the above outside end portions and concave portions 69a which are used to escape the operation convex portions 39a, 39b of the lower shell 15. Corresponding operation convex portions of the pair of operation convex portions 39a, 39b of the lower shell 15 are slidably engaged with the pair of open and close grooves 68.

[0089] Furthermore, the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b has rib-escape grooves 70 that are shaped like concave grooves corresponding to the ribs 37 serving as the ribs of the lower shell 15 in the state in which the opening portions 17, 18 are closed completely. Specifically, the rib-escape grooves 70 are formed like substantially U-shaped grooves corresponding to the arc-like rib portions 37a and the pair of linear rib portions 37b, 37b of the ribs 37. On the opposite sides of the rib-escape grooves, there are provided flat-surface-like escape surfaces 70a corresponding to the symmetrical rib portions 37c, 37c. The rib-escape grooves 70 and the ribs 37 constitute a labyrinth-like dust-proof clearance 71 having a crank-like shape as shown in FIG. 17.

[0090] This dust-proof clearance 71 has the above labyrinth-like clearance to prevent dusts and smudges from entering the disk compartment. The dust-proof clearance 71 is formed when the rotary member 14 is rotated in predetermined direction to allow the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b to completely close the opening portions 17, 18. The labyrinth-like clearance having the crank-like shape is formed at the joint surface between the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b and the lower shell 15, whereby dusts and smudges can be prevented from passing thereto without difficulty. Thus, dusts and smudges can be prevented or effectively suppressed from entering the disk compartment 16.

[0091] Conversely, the above-mentioned ribs may be provided on the pair of shutter members and corresponding rib-escape grooves may be provided on the lower shell with similar effects being achieved. Although a clearance is set between the outer peripheral edge and the shutter members 19a, 19b on the side of the flat surface portion 14a of the rotary member 14, since such clearance is closed by a shielding portion 38a provided on the lower shell 15, it is possible to prevent dusts and smudges from entering into the disk compartment from the above clearance.

[0092] The pair of shutter members 19a, 19b having the above-mentioned arrangement is assembled on the rotary member 14 with a predetermined positional relationship such that the pair of shutter members can open and close the inside opening portion 18 as shown in FIG. 12. Then, the rotary member 14 having the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b is assembled with a predetermined positional relationship relative to the upper and lower shells 13, 15 as shown in FIG. 16.

[0093] Specifically, when the cartridge housing 12 is assembled, the upper and lower shells are fastened together in such a manner that the inside opening portion 18 of the rotary member 14 may oppose to the outside opening portion 17 of the lower shell 15. At that time, of the operated portions 60 of the rotary member 14, the front slide portion 60b continued to one side of the gear portion 60a is disposed on the opening portion 52 of the cartridge housing 12, whereby the initial operation concave portion 61a is disposed at substantially the central portion of the opening window 52.

[0094] This rotary member 14 and the upper shell 13 constitute the disk compartment 16 formed of a circular space portion. This disk compartment 16 accommodates therein the optical disk 11, which shows a concrete example of the disk-like recording medium, in such a manner that the optical disk can be freely rotated with predetermined clearances in the outside of the radius direction and in the thickness direction. At that time, when the optical disk 11 is of the single side recording system in which an information recording surface is formed on only the single side, the optical disk is accommodated within the disk compartment in such a fashion that the information recording surface thereof may be opposed to the opening portions 17, 18. As a result, a label attachment surface, which is the other surface of the optical disk 11, is set on the side of the upper shell 13 and the chucking ring 33 is opposed to the central center hole 11a of the disk.

[0095] The optical disk 11 is formed of a thin disk-like recording member having the center hole 11a bored at its central portion. A turntable of a disk rotation drive apparatus housed within the disk recording and reproducing apparatus is fitted into the center hole 11a of the optical disk 11. The chucking ring 33 is attracted by magnetic force of a magnet 97 incorporated within this turntable and the optical disk 11 is held by the chucking ring 33 and the turntable and thereby formed as one body in the rotation direction. Then, the turntable and the optical disk 11 may be rotated together at predetermined speed (e.g. constant linear velocity) by driving the spindle motor to which the turntable is attached.

[0096] Synthetic resins such as ABS resin (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene resin) and HIPS (high impact polystyrene resin), for example, may be suitable as materials of the upper shell 14, the rotary member 14, the lower shell 15, the shutter members 19a, 19b and the mis-erase prevention member 25. However, it is needless to say that other engineering plastics may also be used suitably as the above-mentioned materials and that other metal materials such as aluminum alloy and stainless steel can also be used suitably as the above-mentioned materials.

[0097] The disk recording medium device 10 having the aforementioned arrangement can be assembled with ease as follows. The assembly work of this disk recording medium device 10 is carried out in the state in which the upper shell 13 is faced downward. First, the optical disk 11 is set within the upper concave portion 16a of the upper shell 13. At that time, the optical disk 11 is inserted into the upper concave portion 16a in the state in which the information recording surface is faced downward.

[0098] Next, the opening side of the rotary member 14 is fitted into the upper concave portion 16a in such a manner as to cover the optical disk 11, whereby the optical disk 11 is rotatably accommodated within the disk compartment 16 formed of the rotary member 14 and the upper shell 13. At that time, the direction in which the inside opening portion 18 of the rotary member 14 is extended is made coincident with the front and rear direction of the upper shell 13 and the front slide portion 60b of the operated portion 60 is faced to the opening window 52.

[0099] It is desired that the shutter mechanism 19 should be assembled to the rotary member 14 in advance. In that case, the chord sides of the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b are opposed to each other, and the respective bearing holes 65a are fitted into the respective support shafts 14d of the rotary member 14, thereby the shutter members being set on the flat surface portion 14a. Then, the tip end portions of the respective support shafts 14d are caulked to allow the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b to be attached to the flat surface portion 14a in such a manner that the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b can open and close the inside opening portion 18.

[0100] Next, the lock member 56 is attached to the support shaft 58 of the lock housing portion 55. At that time, the support head portion 56d1 of the resilient arm 56d of the lock member 56 is brought in contact with the inner surface of the upper front edge portion 13a of the upper shell 13 and the input portion 56b1 of the operation arm 56b is protruded into the loading guide groove 53 from the opening hole 57 of the cartridge housing 12 under spring force of this resilient arm 56d. Then, the lock claw 56c1 of the lock arm 56c of the lock member 56 is engaged with the set position concave portion 61b of the operated portion 60. As a result, the rotary member 14 is locked by the lock member 56.

[0101] At the same time or before and after the rotary member is locked by the lock member, the mis-erase prevention member 25 is attached to the plug housing portion 26. In this case, the mis-erase prevention member is inserted from the side of the guide protrusion 25c, the engagement portion 25d is engaged with the guide portion 29 and the operation protrusion 25b is engaged with the lower recess 27b of the opening window 27.

[0102] Next, the lower shell 15 is laid over the rotary member 14 including the shutter mechanism 19 and this lower shell 15 is combined to the upper shell 13. At that time, the opening end 40a of the lower shell 15 is fitted into the first concave portion 23a of the upper shell 13, and the positioning portion 40b of the lower shell 15 is fitted into the second concave portion 23b of the upper shell 13. At the same time, the respective positioning shaft portions 46a, 46b of the lower shell 15 are fitted into the respective escape portions 49a, 49b of the upper shell 13. Then, the reference protrusions 47 provided on the respective positioning shaft portions 46a, 46b are fitted into the respective reference holes 48 of the upper shell 13, whereby the lower shell 15 may be properly positioned to the upper shell 13 automatically.

[0103] At that time, if the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b is set in the state shown in FIG. 12, then the pair of operation convex portions 39a, 39b provided within the lower concave portion 16b of the lower shell 15 can be respectively opposed to the concave portions 69b of the open and close grooves 68 provided on the respective shutter members 19a, 19b. As a result, regardless of the exact positions of the pair of open and close grooves 68, the pair of operation convex portions 39a, 39b can be engaged with the pair of open and close grooves 68, 68 with ease only by combining the lower shell 15 with the upper shell 13 together.

[0104] Thereafter, by the use of a plurality of stationary screws, the lower shell 15 can be fastened and fixed to the upper shell 13, whereby the assembly work of the disk recording medium device 10 having the outside appearance and shape shown in FIG. 13 and which has the cross-sectional arrangement shown in FIG. 16 is completed.

[0105] In this case, without using a fixing means consisting of separate members such as stationary screws, the joint surfaces of the upper shell 13 and the lower shell 15 can be directly bonded together by a suitable means such as an adhesive agent. As described above, according to the disk recording medium device 10 of this embodiment, the number of used assemblies is relatively small and the assembly work can be carried out with ease.

[0106] Although not shown, if the cartridge housing is provided with an opening portion of size corresponding to two of the above-mentioned opening portions 17, 18, then the disk recording medium device becomes able to use two optical heads simultaneously. In this case, the opening portions of the size corresponding to two opening portions may be disposed at a right angle and thereby shaped as an L-like opening portion. Alternatively, the above-mentioned opening portions of the size corresponding to two opening portions may be disposed on a straight line in an opposing relation to each other and thereby shaped as an I-like opening portion.

[0107] In this case, if the rotary member 14 and the lower shell 15 for use with one head are used instead of the rotary member and the lower shell for use with two heads, then while a new information signal is being recorded by one optical head, an information signal that has been just recorded by the other optical head can be processed in such various manners as to confirm the recorded state of the information signal. If the rotary members and the lower shells are exchanged with each other for one head or two heads, then the manufacturing process of the disk recording medium device can cope with the manufacturing process for use in one head and the manufacturing process for use in two heads with ease. Thus, the manufacturing and assembly lines can be made common and hence the disk recording medium device according to the present invention can properly meet the needs of users.

[0108] According to the disk recording medium device 10 having the aforementioned arrangement, the rotary member 14 can be rotated by small force, accordingly, the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b can be opened and closed by small drive force. In addition, the rotary member 14 can generate resistance to impacts and vibrations inputted from the outside so that the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b may become difficult to open.

[0109] The disk recording medium device 10 can be used by a disk recording and reproducing apparatus 73 which shows a concrete example of the disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus having the arrangement shown in FIG. 22, for example. The disk recording and reproducing apparatus 73 includes the tape drive apparatus 78 to chuck and rotate the optical disk 11 and the optical pickup device 79 to read an information signal from the optical disk and to write an information signal on the optical disk by radiating laser beams on the information recording surface of the optical disk 11 and is mounted on a chassis 74.

[0110] The chassis 74 is shaped like a flat surface having approximately a square shape and includes a reinforcement rib 74a that is obtained by continuously bending the peripheral edge of the chassis upward. The reinforcement rib 74 includes support protrusions 74b provided at its four positions to support the chassis 74 to the members on the side of the apparatus body shown in FIGS. 25 and 26.

[0111] A motor base plate 76 having the spindle motor 75 mounted thereon is fixed to approximately the central portion of the chassis 74 by a fixing means such as stationary screws. A first opening portion 77a and a second opening portion 77b, both of which are shaped like squares, are provided on the chassis 74 at its respective sides of the longitudinal directions across the spindle motor 75. Then, the table drive apparatus 78 is attached in association with the first opening portion 77a. The second opening portion 77b is used to attach another table drive apparatus, not shown.

[0112] The disk recording and reproducing apparatus 73 consists of the table drive apparatus 78 for rotating the optical disk 11 at predetermined speed (e.g. constant linear velocity), an optical pickup device 79 which shows a concrete example of a pickup device for writing an information signal on the optical disk and for reading an information signal from the optical disk and a pickup movement apparatus 80 for moving this optical pickup device 79 close to or away from the table drive apparatus 78 and so forth.

[0113] The table drive apparatus 78 is comprised of the spindle motor 75, a turntable 81 integrally provided at the rotation portion of this spindle motor 75 and the like. The spindle motor 75 is attached onto the motor base plate 76 made of a thin plate metal, and a flexible wiring plate 76a is fixed to the upper surface of the motor base plate 76 by a fixing means such as an adhesive agent. Then, wiring of the spindle motor and wiring of the table drive connector are connected to the wiring circuit of the flexible wiring plate 76a. Further, a plurality of flexible wiring plates 76b are fixed to the connector.

[0114] As shown in FIGS. 17, 18 and so forth, the spindle motor 75 includes a stationary portion 75a fixed to the motor base plate 76 and a rotary portion 75b rotatably supported by the fixing portion 75a. The turntable 81 is integrally provided with a rotary shaft that serves as a rotation center of the rotary portion 75b. The turntable 81 includes a fitted portion 81a fitted into the center hole 11a of the optical disk 11 and a table portion 81b disposed at the lower portion of this fitted portion 81a and on which the peripheral edge portion of the center hole 11a is held and the like. Then, the fitted portion 81a incorporates therein a magnet, not shown. The chucking ring 33 is opposed to this turntable 81 and the optical disk 11 set on the table portion 81b is held under attraction force of the chucking ring 33 attracted by the magnet, whereby the optical disk 11 can be chucked and rotated in unison with the turntable 81.

[0115] As shown in FIG. 22, a pair of guide shafts 82a, 82b is disposed in parallel to each other so as to sandwich the spindle motor 75 from both sides. The pair of guide shafts 82a, 82b is formed of a round bar-like member whose the outer peripheral surface is made smooth. Then, the first guide shaft 82a is supported at its respective ends by an adjustment plate 83. The second guide shaft 82b is supported at its respective ends by the chassis 74. The adjustment plate 83 is attached to the chassis 74 in such a manner that its attitude can be changed. By changing the attitude of the adjustment plate 83, it becomes possible to adjust degree of parallelism between the pair of guide shafts 82a and 82b.

[0116] By the pair of guide shafts 82a, 82b, the optical pickup device 79 is supported so as to move close to or away from the turntable 81. One end portions of the pair of guide shafts 82a, 82b are disposed at both sides of the spindle motor 75 and the other end portions are made parallel to each other and extended in the direction in which they are moving away from the spindle motor 75.

[0117] The optical pickup device 79 comprises a slide member 84 guided and slid by the pair of guide shafts 82a, 82b, an optical head set on this slide member 84 and which can be moved back and forth in a reciprocation fashion and the like. The slide member 84 is large enough to cross the pair of guide shafts 82a, 82b and is formed as a block-like shape in order to increase rigidity. A pair of bearing portions 84a is provided at one side of the longitudinal direction of this slide member 84 in the width direction crossing the longitudinal direction. The first guide shaft 82a is slidably inserted into these bearing portions 84a. Further, on the other side of the longitudinal direction, there is provided an insertion hole, not shown, into which the second guide shaft 82b is inserted slidably. This insertion hole is larger than the diameter of the second guide shaft 82b and hence the slide member 84 can be rotated about the first guide shaft 82a so that the slide member can be inclined an amount corresponding to such clearance in the upper and lower direction.

[0118] The optical head of the optical pickup device 79 includes a biaxial actuator having an objective lens 79a, an optical control unit having a semiconductor laser, a photo-electric conversion element or the like for recording and reproducing an information signal through this biaxial actuator and so forth. Most of the biaxial actuator is covered with a head cover 79b and the objective lens 79a is exposed from an opening portion formed on this head cover 79b. This objective lens 79a is opposed to the information recording surface of the optical disk 11 set onto the turntable 81.

[0119] Of the pair of guide shafts 82a, 82b, the first guide shaft 82a is supported by a pair of shaft support members 83a, 83a provided on the adjustment plate 83. The respective shaft support members 83a are provided with a pair of shaft presser plates 83b and the first guide shaft 82a is fixedly supported by fixing these shaft presser plates with screws 83c. The second guide shaft 82b is supported by the pair of shaft support members 74c, 74c provided on the chassis 74 and fixedly supported by screwing with fixing screws 74e. Then, a feed screw drive device 98 serving as a pickup movement device is attached to the adjustment plate 83.

[0120] The feed screw drive device 98 is comprised of a feed screw 85, a feed motor 86, a support plate 87, a power transmission member 88 and the like as shown in FIG. 23 in an enlarged-scale. The feed screw 85 is obtained by forming a streak of screw groove 85a, which is spirally extended, on an outer circumference surface of a round bar slightly shorter than the guide shafts 82a, 82b along substantially the whole length of the axis direction. A trapezoid shape of which the cross-section is trapezoid having slight inclination angles on both side surfaces of the groove may be suitable as the screw shape of this feed screw 85 and a square thread whose cross-section forms a square may be suitable as the above-mentioned screw shape of the feed screw. Moreover, a semicircular thread of which the cross-section forms a semicircle may be applied to the above-mentioned screw shape of the feed screw, and other screws of well-known shapes can be applied to the above-mentioned screw shape of the feed screw.

[0121] The feed screw 85 may serve as a rotary shaft of the feed motor 86, which is a drive source, as well. The feed screw is directly rotated by the feed motor 86. The feed motor 86 includes a cylindrical motor case 86a and a case cover 86b that closes one opening portion of the motor case 86a. The motor case 86a is fixed to a motor supporting member 87a of a support plate 87 by a fixing means such as caulking and thereby configured integrally therewith. A coil portion that was wound in an annular fashion is fitted into and fixed to the inner peripheral surface of this motor case 86a and an annular magnet is fitted into the inside of the coil portion by a fixing means such as insertion with pressure.

[0122] The support plate 87 is formed of a long and slender plate material made of plate metal having approximately the same length as that of the feed screw 85. The support plate 87 has a motor support member 87a and a screw support member 87b provided at its respective ends in the longitudinal direction, and the motor support member and the screw support member are opposed to each other when they are erected in the same direction. The motor support member 87a has an aperture 88a bored at its central portion and has also a fitting aperture 88b bored at its height position corresponding to the aperture 88a in the upper portion of the screw support member 87b. The feed motor 86 is fixed to the outer surface of the motor support member 87a and the feed screw 85 is inserted into the aperture 88a. Then, a tip end portion of the feed screw 85 is supported by a bearing member, which is fitted into and fixed to the fitting aperture 88b, so as to become freely rotatable.

[0123] The support plate 87 has a guide rib 87c that is one side of the support plate obtained after one side of the width direction of the support plate has been continuously erected along the longitudinal direction. This guide rib 87c is disposed substantially just under the feed screw 85 and is also extended in substantially parallel to the axis line of the feed screw 85. Further, the support plate 87 has two insertion apertures 87d and two positioning apertures 87e defined therein. The two positioning apertures 87e are used to properly locate the support plate 87 at predetermined position, and the support plate is attached to the adjustment plate 83 by attachment screws 89a inserted into the insertion apertures 87d.

[0124] A feed nut 90, which shows a concrete example of a power transmission member, is used to convert rotation force of the feed screw 85 into rectilinear motion and to transmit the rectilinear motion to the slide member 84. The feed nut is composed of a first nut member 90a, a second nut member 90b and a coil spring 90c for spring-biasing the two nut members 90a, 90b in the direction in which they are moved away from each other.

[0125] The first nut member 90a includes a nut body shaped like a block and a cylindrical cylinder shaft portion continued to one surface side of this nut body and has also at its one side of the axial direction aperture extending through the nut body and the cylinder shaft portion a first screw portion 90a1 that is screwed with the screw groove 85a of the feed screw 85. Further, the first nut member 90a is provided with a protrusion portion 90a2 that is protruded in the lateral direction perpendicular to the axis direction. This protrusion portion 90a2 has a slit extended in the direction in which the cylinder shaft portion is extended. The guide rib 87c of the support plate 87 is engaged with this slit so as to become freely slidable.

[0126] The second nut member 90b is formed of a sleeve-like cylindrical member and has an axis direction aperture bored at its central portion. The axis direction aperture has a second screw portion 90b1 formed at one side thereof to be screwed into the screw groove 85a of the feed screw 85. Further, the axis direction aperture has a fitting aperture into which the cylindrical shaft portion of the first nut member 90a is fitted detachably. This fitting aperture has a key-like protrusion that is protruded in the inside of the radius direction. A coil spring 90c is interposed between the second nut member 90b and the first nut member 90a. Under spring force of this coil spring, the pair of nut members 90a and 90b is spring-biased in the direction in which the nut members are made distant from each other to thereby absorb axis-direction fluctuations generated between the feed nut 90 and the feed screw 85.

[0127] The first and second nut members 90a, 90b and the coil spring 90c having the above-mentioned arrangements are integrally combined and assembled on the feed screw 85. The assembly work of the first and second nut members and the coil spring will be described below, for example. First, after the coil spring 90c had been inserted into the cylinder shaft portion of the first nut member 90a, the cylinder shaft portion is fitted into the fitting aperture of the cylinder shaft portion of the second nut member 90b. Next, the feed screw 85 is inserted into the feed nut 90 where the two nut members 90a, 90b had been assembled.

[0128] In this case, the coil spring 90c is slightly contracted by moving the two nut members 90a, 90b close to each other. In the state in which this compressed state is being held, the feed screw 85 is turned and inserted into the feed nut 90. As a result, the thread portion of the first nut member 90a is meshed with the screw groove 85a of the feed screw 85 and the thread portion of the second nut member 90b is simultaneously meshed with the screw groove 85a. As a result, under spring force of the coil spring 90c, the first nut member 90a is spring-biased in the direction in which it is moved away from the feed motor 86, whereby the second nut member 90b is spring-biased in the direction in which it is moved close to the feed motor 86.

[0129] As a result, in FIG. 23, in the screw portion of the first nut member 90a, the thread surface of the left-hand side in the sheet of drawing is urged against the left-hand side thread surface of the feed screw 85 so that a clearance is produced between the right-hand side thread surface and the left-hand side thread surface. Similarly, in the thread portion of the second nut portion 90b, the thread surface of the right-hand side shown in the sheet of drawing is urged against the right-hand side thread surface of the feed screw 85 so that a clearance is produced between the left-hand side thread surface and the right-hand side thread surface. As a result, a clearance on the whole of the feed nut 90 can be removed and hence fluctuations between the feed nut and the feed screw 85 can be absorbed. Then, since the slit provided on the protruded portion 90a2 of the first nut member 90a is engaged with the guide rib 87c of the support plate 87, the feed nut 90 can be linearly moved to the axis direction of the feed screw 85.

[0130] Further, the first nut member 90a is provided with a drive protrusion 90d that protrudes in the lateral direction. This drive protrusion 90d is engaged with a protrusion reception member 91 secured to the slide member 84, and movement force of the feed unit 90 is transmitted through this protrusion reception member 91 to the slide member 84. The protrusion reception member 91 includes a fixing member 91a for fixing the protrusion reception member to the slide member 84, a support member 91b continued to this fixing member 91a and a resilient member 91c continued to the support member 91b.

[0131] The fixing member 91a is formed of a long and slender plate member and includes the L-like support member 91b provided at its one side of the width direction in somewhere of the longitudinal direction. Then, the support member 91b includes a support portion 91d formed of a recess provided at its tip end corner portion of the free end side to receive and support the drive protrusion 90d. The resilient member 91c has resiliency of proper strength given by two corner portions formed of a bent triangle, and a bent portion at the tip end is formed as a presser portion 91e and opposed to the support portion 91d. Further, the fixing member 91a has a plurality of insertion apertures to attach the protrusion reception member 91 to the slide member 84 and the protrusion reception member is attached by a fixing means such as fixing screws.

[0132] The drive protrusion 90d of the feed nut 90 attached to the feed screw 85 is inserted into a clearance between the support portion 91d of the protrusion reception member 91 thus attached and the presser portion 91e. Then, the drive protrusion 90d is held between the support portion 91d and the presser portion 91e under spring force of the resilient member 91c, whereby force can be transmitted between the feed nut 90 and the slide member 84.

[0133] A stainless steel plate may be suitably used as materials of the adjustment plate 83 and the support plate 87, for example. It is needless to say that a steel plate and other metal plates may also be used suitably as the materials of the adjustment plate and the support plate and that engineering plastics having large strength may also be used suitably as the materials of the adjustment plate and the support plate. Further, metal materials such as stainless steel that is difficult to gather rust and which has sufficiently large strength may be suitably used as a material of the feed screw 85. Furthermore, a stainless steel plate having large strength may also be suitably used as a material of the protrusion reception member 91 and other plate materials also may be used as the material of the protrusion reception member.

[0134] The aforementioned pair of guide shafts 82a, 82b, the adjustment plate 83 and the feed screw drive apparatus 98 constitute the pickup movement apparatus 80 that can move the optical pickup device 79 close to or away from the turntable 81.

[0135] Next, a recording and reproducing apparatus body 92 of the disk recording and reproducing apparatus 73 will be described. FIG. 24 shows a concrete example of the recording and reproducing apparatus body 92. The recording and reproducing apparatus body is comprised of the following constituents. Specifically, the recording and reproducing apparatus body 92 includes three control apparatus of a system controller S1, a memory controller S5 and a drive controller D1.

[0136] The system controller S1 and the memory controller S5 are directly connected and the connected line therebetween is connected to a read-only memory device (ROM) S2 and a random-access memory device (RAM) S3. Further, the memory controller S5 is connected with a memory S4, an encoder S6 for MPEG2 (moving picture compression system applied to the existing television broadcasting that corresponds to 3M to 40 Mbps, HDTV and a broadband ISDN) and an MPEG2 decoder S7. Furthermore, the system controller S1 is connected with a control panel S8 and a remote control reception unit S9.

[0137] The drive controller D1 is connected with an error-correction processing circuit (ECC) D4 and the connected line therebetween is connected with a memory device (ROM) D2, a memory device (RAM) D3, a servo circuit D6 and an address decoder D7. Further, the drive controller D1 is connected with a recording error judgment circuit D8 for judging whether or not error occurs in the recording mode. This drive controller D1 is connected through a command interface to the system controller S1.

[0138] The correction processing circuit D4 is connected through a data interface to the memory controller S5 and is also connected to a modem circuit D5. Then, the modem circuit D5 is connected to the optical head including the objective lens 79a of the optical pickup device 79. Further, the servo circuit D6 is connected to the spindle motor 75 that is the disk rotation and drive apparatus, the optical pickup device 79 and the recording error judgment circuit D8. Then, the optical pickup device 79 is connected to an address decoder D7, and this address decoder D7 is connected to the recording error judgment circuit D8.

[0139] The recording and reproducing apparatus body 92 having the above-mentioned arrangement is accommodated within an armor case 93 formed of a hollow housing shown in FIGS. 25 and 26, for example, and is used as a constituent of the disk recording and reproducing apparatus 73. The armor case 93 includes a case body 93a that is opened to the upper surface and the front surface, a case lid body 93b detachably attached to the upper portion so as to close the upper surface of the case body 93a, a front panel 93c detachably attached to the front portion so as to close the front surfaces of the case body 93a and the case lid body 93b and so forth. The recording and reproducing apparatus body 92, the above-mentioned disk recording and reproducing apparatus 73 and so forth are accommodated within this armor case 93.

[0140] The case body 93a of the armor case 93 has leg members 93d provided at its four portions to project downward. The front panel 93c of the armor case 93 is formed of an oblong plate member and has an oblong cartridge entrance and exit slot 94 provided at its upper portion. The cartridge entrance and exit slot 94 has approximately the same size as that of the front surface side of the disk recording medium device 10. This cartridge entrance and exit slot 94 is constantly closed by an open and close door 94a disposed in its inside.

[0141] The open and close door 94a is spring-biased in the closing side under spring force of a spring, not shown. As shown in FIG. 26, when the disk recording medium device 10 is inserted into predetermined position by pressing the open and close door 94a at the front portion of the disk recording medium device, the disk recording medium device 10 can be automatically loaded onto the disk recording and reproducing apparatus body by a loading mechanism, not shown. Then, the disk recording medium device 10 that has been transported by the loading mechanism is properly located at predetermined position within the armor case 93 and fixed. At the same time or before and after the disk recording medium device is properly located and fixed, the shutter mechanism 19 of the disk recording medium device 10 is opened by the shutter open and close means provided within the armor case 93, whereby the inside and outside opening portions 17, 18 of the cartridge housing 12 are opened.

[0142]
FIG. 27 shows a rack rod 95 that shows a concrete example of this shutter open and close means. This rack rod 95 includes a rack portion 95a meshed with the gear portion 60a of the operated portion 60 of the rotary member 14, a front resilient member 95b provided at the tip end side of this rack portion 95a and a rear resilient member 95c provided at the base end side of the same rack portion 95a. The rack portion 95a of the rack rod 95 is formed of a straight rod material and is protruded at its intermediate portion to one surface side. The rack portion has gear teeth the number of which is approximately the same as that of the gear portion 60a.

[0143] The front resilient member 95b of the rack rod 95 is extended in the same direction of the rack rod 95 and is made resilient properly. An initial operation convex portion 96a is provided at the tip end portion of the front resilient member. The rear resilient member 95c is similarly extended in the same direction of the rack rod 95 and is made resilient properly. A stopper convex portion 96b is provided at the tip end portion of the rear resilient member. The initial operation convex portion 96a and the stopper convex portion 96b are protruded in the same direction as that of the gear teeth of the rack portion 95a and these initial operation portion and stopper convex portion are set on the same straight line.

[0144] Further, although the initial operation convex portion 96a has an arc-like cross-section, the size and height of the initial operation convex portion are approximately the same as those of the gear teeth of the rack portion 95a. On the other hand, although the stopper convex portion 96b has a cross-section that is an angle form similarly to the gear teeth of the rack portion 95a, the size and height of the cross-section of the stopper convex portion are formed slightly larger. Then, the front and rear resilient members 95b, 95c are given resiliency of proper strength, whereby the initial operation convex portion 96a and the stopper convex portion 96b can be moved rearward with resiliency. In FIG. 27, reference numeral 95d designates a guide portion that serves as a reinforcement portion for use with the rack rod 95 as well. This guide portion 95d is engaged with the loading guide groove 53 of the disk recording medium device 10.

[0145] The manner in which the rotary member 14 of the disk recording medium device 10 is rotated and the shutter mechanism 19 is opened and closed in unison with actions of the rack rod 95 having the above-mentioned arrangement will be described with reference to FIGS. 25 and 26 and FIGS. 28 to 31.

[0146] As shown in FIG. 25, the inside and outside opening portions 17, 18 of the disk recording medium device 10 are completely closed by the shutter mechanism 19 until the disk recording medium device is inserted into the cartridge entrance and exit slot 94 of the armor case 93. In this state, as shown in FIG. 26, when the disk recording medium device 10 is inserted from the cartridge entrance and exit slot 94 of the armor case 93 into the disk recording and reproducing apparatus 73, the lock member 56 is released from the locked state by the rack rod 95 disposed within the armor case 93. Thereafter, the rack rod 95 acts to open the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b to allow the inside and outside opening portions 17, 18 to be opened, thereby a part of the information recording surface of the optical disk 11 being exposed.

[0147] First, as shown in FIGS. 26 and 28, when the disk recording medium device 10 is inserted into the cartridge entrance and exit slot 94 of the armor case 93 a predetermined amount, the initial operation convex portion 96a of the rack rod 95 is entered into the loading guide groove 53 formed on one side surface portion of the disk recording medium device 10. As a result, although not shown, the initial operation convex portion 96a inserts the input portion 56b1 of the lock member 56 protruded in the loading guide groove 53 into the lock housing portion 55 with pressure against spring-biasing force of the resilient arm 56d, whereby the lock member 56 is rotated about the support shaft 58 to allow the lock claw 56c1 to be disengaged from the set position concave portion 61b. As a result, the rotary member 14 is released from the locked state and thereby becomes able to rotate freely.

[0148] Next, as shown in FIG. 29, the disk recording medium device 10 is inserted into the cartridge insertion direction F and the disk recording medium device 10 is advanced relative to the rack rod 95, whereby the initial operation convex portion 96a is brought in contact with the front slide portion 60b of the operated portion 60 of the rotary member 14 and slid over the front slide portion 60b. At that time, since the front resilient member 95b has resiliency of proper strength, when the front resilient member 95b is flexed, the initial operation concave portion 96a is flexed backward, moved and slid over the front slide portion 60b. As a result, the initial operation convex portion 96a is entered into the initial operation concave portion 61a of the operated portion 60.

[0149] This convex portion 96a is engaged with the concave portion 61a, whereby the rotary member 14 is rotated in the counter-clockwise direction in the sheet of drawing by repulsive force from the rack rod 95. As a result, the rotary member 14 is rotated a predetermined angle in response to a relative movement amount between it and the rack rod 95, whereby the rack portion 95a is meshed with the gear portion 60a of the operated portion 60 before the convex portion 96a is disengaged from the concave portion 61a. Thus, a power transmission route becomes strong so that movement force of the rack rod 94 is positively transmitted to the rotary member 14, thereby the rotary member being rotated a predetermined angle.

[0150] Then, as shown in FIG. 30, before the rack portion 95a that linearly advances and the gear portion 60a that advances in a curved fashion are released from being meshed with each other, the stopper convex portion 96b is engaged with the set position concave portion 61b provided on the rear slide portion 60c of the operated portion 60. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 31, when the stopper convex portion 96b is firmly meshed with the set position concave portion 61b, the rack portion 95a and the gear portion 60a are released from the meshed state.

[0151] Thus, the insertion operation of the disk recording medium device 10 is completed and the disk recording medium device 10 is set to the cartridge loading portion that is the predetermined position of the disk recording and reproducing apparatus 73. In this state in which the disk recording medium device is set, since the stopper convex portion 96b is firmly meshed with the set position concave portion 61b, there is then no risk that the rotary member 14 will be rotated. At that time, in the initial state in which the rotary member 14 begins to rotate, as shown in FIGS. 19C and 21, the cam protrusions 64 provided on the end face of the ring portion 14b of the rotary member 14 are slid over the cam portion 22a provided on the cam groove 22 of the upper shell 13.

[0152] As a result, the flat surface portion 14a of the rotary member 14 is moved toward the side of the lower shell 15, whereby the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b is held between the flat surface portion 14a and the lower shell 15. Thus, friction force is generated between the rotary member 14 and the lower shell 15 so that force necessary for rotating the rotary member 14 should increase unavoidably. If the rotary member 14 is rotated against friction force generated when the cam protrusions are slid over the cam portion 22a, then the cam protrusion 64 passes the cam portion 22a as shown in FIG. 19B. In consequence, since friction force generated when the cam protrusion 64 passes the cam portion disappears, the rotary member 14 becomes able to rotate very easily and smoothly from now on.

[0153] The pair of shutter members 19a, 19a is rotated about the support shaft 14d in unison with the rotation of the rotary member 14. At the same time, the operation convex portions 39a, 39b of the lower shell 15 are slidably engaged with the open and close grooves 68 provided on the respective shutter members 19a, 19b. Consequently, when the rotary member 14 is rotated, the respective open and close grooves 68 are rotated relative to the pair of operation convex portions 39a, 39b. As a result, a pair of shutter members 19a, 19b is moved toward the inside (toward the center of the rotary member 14) in which they are moved close to each other in response to the rotation amount of the rotary member 14.

[0154] Thus, a pair of shutter members 19a, 19b is changed from the state shown in FIG. 28 (see FIG. 12) through the states shown in FIGS. 29 and 30 to the state shown in FIG. 31 to open the inside and outside opening portions 17, 18 and thereby moved to the positions opposing in the right and left. Thus, since the inside opening portion 18 of the rotary member 14 and the outside opening portion 17 of the lower shell 15 are opened completely, a part of the optical disk 11 accommodated within the disk compartment 16 is exposed from the inside and outside opening portions 17, 18 (see FIG. 15).

[0155] As a result, a pair of shutter members is changed from the state shown in FIG. 17 to the state shown in FIG. 18 with the result that it becomes possible to insert the turntable 81 and the optical head having the objective lens 79a into the inside and outside opening portions 17, 18. Accordingly, the turntable 81 or the like is moved toward the side of the disk recording medium device 10 or the disk recording medium device 10 is moved toward the side of the turntable 81, whereby the turntable 81 is entered into the table opening portions 17a, 18a provided at the central portion of the cartridge housing 12 and the optical head is entered into the head opening portion 17b, 18b.

[0156] Consequently, the fitting portion 81a of the turntable 81 is fitted into the center hole 11a of the optical disk 11 and the peripheral edge portion of the center hole 11a is held on the table portion 81b. At the same time, the chucking ring 22 held on the upper shell 13 is attracted by magnetic force from the magnet incorporated within the fitting portion 81a and the optical disk 11 is sandwiched between the chucking ring 33 and the table portion 81b. As a result, the optical disk 11 is chucked onto the turntable 81 and the like and thereby the optical disk is integrated with the rotation direction of the turntable. At the same time, the objective lens 79a is opposed to the information recording surface of the optical disk 11 with a predetermined clearance. Thus, the disk recording and reproducing apparatus 73 becomes able to reproduce or record an information signal from or on the information recording surface of the optical disk 11.

[0157] Accordingly, the table drive apparatus 78 is operated, the spindle motor 75 is driven to rotate the optical disk 11 through the turntable 81. At the same time, the optical pickup device 79 is driven to allow the objective lens 79a of the optical head to irradiate laser beams on the information recording surface of the optical disk. Thus, the information signal can be read out from the information recording surface of the optical disk 11 or a new information signal can be written on the information recording surface. In this manner, the information signal can be reproduced or recorded by the disk recording and reproducing apparatus 73.

[0158] Next, the manner in which the disk recording medium device 10 is ejected from the armor case 93 will be described. After the information signal had been reproduced or recorded, when a user operates a cartridge eject button (not shown) provided on the armor case 93, for example, the loading mechanism is activated to disengage the disk recording medium device 10 from the disk recording and reproducing apparatus 73 so that the disk recording medium device is ejected from the armor case 93.

[0159] Specifically, when the disk recording medium device 10 is moved in the eject direction by eject operation of the loading mechanism, the rack rod 95 is relatively move rearward. When the disk recording medium device 10 is moved rearward relative to this rack rod 95, the rotary member 14 is rotated by the stopper convex portion 96b engaged with the set position concave portion 61b. Then, before the convex portion 96b is disengaged from the concave portion 61b, the rack portion 95a is meshed with the gear portion 60a and the rotary member 14 is continued to rotate by the meshed state between the rack portion and the gear portion.

[0160] At that time, since the tip end of the stopper convex portion 96b of the rack rod 95 has already been inserted into the opening window 52 of the cartridge housing 12, the convex portion 96b is brought in contact with the edge of the opening window 52. However, since the rear resilient member 95c that was formed with the convex portion 96b as one body has resiliency of proper strength, this rear resilient member 95c is flexed and deformed with the result that the convex portion 96b is deformed to the outside with resiliency and passed through the edge of the opening window 52. Therefore, even though the height of the convex portion 96b is higher than the height of the gear teeth of the rack portion 95a, the convex portion 96b distant from the concave portion 61b can be easily extracted from the opening window 52. Accordingly, the rotation of the rotary member 14 will be maintained later on.

[0161] When the rotary member 14 is rotated, the initial operation convex portion 96a is engaged with the initial operation concave portion 61a before the rack portion 95a is disengaged from the gear portion 60a within the opening window 52. The convex portion 96a is engaged with the concave portion 61a, whereby the rotary member 14 is continued to rotate and the rotary member 14 is rotated to the initial position. As a result, since the end face of the rear slide portion 60c of the operated portion 60 is brought in contact with the positioning portion 40b of the lower shell 15, this contact will hinder the rotary member 14 from rotating later on.

[0162] On the other hand, since the disk recording medium device 10 and the rack rod 95 are continued to move relatively, the rotary member 14 is given rotation force by movement force of the convex portion 96a engaged with the concave portion 61a. Repulsive force of this rotation force is given to the convex portion 96a, the front resilient member 95b is flexed and deformed by this repulsive force and the convex portion 96a is moved to the outside, thereby the engagement between the convex portion and the concave portion 61a being released.

[0163] Thereafter, the initial operation convex portion 96a of the rack rod 95 is passed through the opening hole 52, whereby the input portion 56b1 of the lock member 56 is protruded from the opening hole 57 into the loading guide groove 53. At the same time, the lock claw 56c1 of the lock member 56 is moved to the inside and thereby meshed with the set position concave portion 61b of the operated portion 60 of the rotary member 14. As a result, the lock member 56 locks the rotary member 14 to stop the rotation of the rotary member.

[0164] At that time, the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b executes operations opposite to those executed when the disk recording medium device is inserted into the armor case to thereby close the inside and outside opening portions 17, 18 completely. Since the cam protrusion 64 of the rotary member 14 is located within the cam groove 22, the rotary member 14 can be rotated by small force. Further, since the cam protrusion 64 is brought in contact with the cam portion 22a and slid over the cam portion, the above-mentioned friction force will be applied to rotation of the rotary member 14 later on. Then, immediately before the shutter mechanism 19 is closed, the operation convex portion 39b (or 39a) moves the open and close groove 68 to the outermost side portion so that the operation convex portion contacts with and presses the resilient member 69a. Thus, spring force is generated in the resilient member 69a by pressing force of the operation convex portion 39b (or 39a).

[0165] Under spring force of this resilient member 69a, urging force for acting on the other shutter member 19a (or 19b) is generated in the central stepped portion 66. Since this urging force is produced in both of the shutter members 19a, 19b, an air-tight property of the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b can be improved more by their urging force. As a result, a dust-proof property at the joint portion between the pair of shutter members 19a and 19b can be improved so that dusts and smudges can be prevented from entering the disk compartment 16 more effectively.

[0166] In this manner, the whole of the inside and outside opening portions 17, 18 is completely closed by the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b (see FIG. 14), and in this closed state, the disk recording medium device 10 is ejected from the cartridge entrance and exit slot 94 of the armor case 93 to the outside of the case. Thus, the eject operation of the disk recording medium device 10 is completed.

[0167] In the above-mentioned disk recording medium device 10, the sizes of the thickness direction among the upper shell 13, the rotary member 14, the lower shell 15 and the shutter members 19a, 19b should preferably be set so as to satisfy the relationships shown in FIGS. 20 and 21 and an equation •. Meanings of reference letters A to K shown in FIG. 20 and reference symbol Σ shown in FIG. 21 are as follows:

[0168] (1) A: height from the end face of an upper front surface edge 13a of the upper shell 13 or the like to the surface of the cam groove 22

A=
2.9 mm+0.1/0 mm

[0169] (2) B: height from the end face of the upper front surface edge 13a of the upper shell 13 or the like to the upper surface

B=
3.85 mm+0.05 mm (reference size)

[0170] (3) C: height from the end face of the lower front surface edge 15a of the lower shell 15 or the like to the lower surface

C=
4.15 mm+0.1/−0 mm (reference size)

[0171] (4) D: height from the end face of the lower front surface edge 15a of the lower shell 15 or the like to the bottom surface

D=
3.3 mm±0.05 mm

[0172] (5) E: thickness of the shutter members 19a, 19b

E=
1.1 mm+0/−0.05 mm

[0173] (6) F: height from the lower surface of the rotary member 14 to the end face

F=
4.7 mm+0/−0.1 mm

[0174] (7) G: height of the cam protrusion 64 of the rotary member 14

G=
0.2 mm+0/−0.05 mm

[0175] (8) H: height of the cam portion 22a of the upper shell 13

H=
0.2 mm+0/−0.05 mm

[0176] (9) J: height of the rib 37 of the lower shell 15

J=
0.2 mm+0/−0.05 mm (reference size)

[0177] (10) K: depth of the rib escape groove 70 of the shutter members 19a, 19b (reference size)

K=
0.2 mm+0.05/−0 mm (reference size)

[0178] (11) Σ: ideal clearance produced between the cam portion 22a and the cam protrusion 64 upon assembly

\begin{matrix} \sum = - H + A + D - E - F - G \dots . \\ = 0 mm + 0.45 / - 0 mm (accumulated tolerance) \\ 0.064 mm + 0.322 / - 0 mm (mean square \times 1.66) \end{matrix}

[0179] As is clear from the above-mentioned equation •, the ideal clearance Σ should preferably be selected in a range of from 0 mm to 0.45 mm and the most preferable value of the ideal clearance is approximately 0.2 mm.

[0180] In the present invention, the rotary member 14 that rotates to open and close the shutters may be operated in a clearance of approximately 0.4 mm (center value of tolerance) between the upper shell 13 and the lower shell 15. The clearance is narrowed to approximately 0.2 mm when the disk recording medium device is preserved. When the clearance ranging from 0 mm to 0.45 mm (optimum value is about 0.2 mm) is set while the rotary member 14 is not urged against the upper shell 13 as described above, the route in which dusts and smudges may enter the disk recording medium device can be narrowed as much as possible so that dusts and smudges can be prevented from entering the disk compartment 16 effectively.

[0181] Moreover, in this invention, since the rib 37 (arc-like rib portion 37a and linear rib portion 37b) is provided on the peripheral edge portion of the outside opening portion 17 of the lower shell 15, the rib escape groove 70 is provided at the portion opposing the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b that opposes the rib 37 in the shutter closed state and the rib 37 and the rib escape groove 70 constitute the dust-proof clearance 71, dust-proof performance obtained when the disk recording medium device 10 is preserved in which the opening portions 17, 18 are completely closed by the shutter members 19a, 19b can be improved and hence dusts and smudges can be effectively prevented from entering the disk compartment 16.

[0182] The cartridge housing can be configured by combining the upper and lower shells without the rotary member. Then, as shown in FIG. 32 which shows an example of the prior art, if a cartridge housing includes a shutter member that can linearly move to open and close an opening portion, the shutter member is provided the above-mentioned convex rib and concave groove and corresponding concave groove and convex rib are formed on the peripheral edge of the opening portion, then similar effects to those of the above-mentioned embodiment can be achieved.

[0183] The present invention has been described so far but the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment. For example, while the present invention is applied to the example in which the optical disk is used as the information recording medium as described above, the present invention can be applied to magnetic disks such as a magneto-optical disk and a flexible disk and other various kinds of disk-like recording mediums. Further, while the present invention is applied to the example in which the disk recording and reproducing apparatus capable of both of record and reproduction is used as the disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus as described above, it is needless to say that the present invention may be applied to a disk recording apparatus or a disk reproducing apparatus that is capable of either record or reproduction.

[0184] While the lower shell 15 and the rotary member 14 of the cartridge housing 12 are provided with the opening portions 17, 18 as described above, the present invention is not limited thereto and the upper shell 13, for example, may be provided with an opening portion to enable users to access the disk recording medium device from the upper and lower directions of the cartridge housing 12. In this case, the above-mentioned convex rib and concave groove may be set on the rotary member and the shutter member. Further, the rotary member and the lower shell may constitute a disk compartment, a disk-like recording medium may be accommodated within this disk compartment and the upper shell may be provided with an opening portion. In this case, the above-mentioned convex rib and concave groove may be set on the upper shell and the shutter member or the rotary member and the shutter member.

[0185] Furthermore, while the rib 37 is provided on the peripheral edge portion of the opening portion 17 of the lower shell 15 and the rib escape groove 70 corresponding to this rib 37 is provided on the pair of shutter members 19a, 19b to thereby form the dust-proof clearance 70 in the above-mentioned embodiment, it is needless to say that a pair of shutter members may be provided with the convex rib and the lower shell may be provided with the corresponding concave groove.

[0186] While the shutter opening and closing means is fixed and the opening portion is opened and closed by moving the disk recording medium device when the shutter is opened and closed as described above, the present invention is not limited thereto and the shutter member may be opened and closed by relatively moving the shutter opening and closing means and the disk cartridge. For example, the shutter member may be opened and closed by moving the shutter opening and closing means with a suitable means such as a motor after the disk recording medium device has been fixed to the disk loading portion.

[0187] As described above, the present invention can be variously modified without departing from the gist thereof.

[0188] Industrial Applicability

[0189] As described above, according to the disk cartridge of the present invention, in the disk cartridge comprising the cartridge housing including the disk compartment and the shutter member for opening and closing the opening portion, since the corresponding convex ribs and concave grooves are formed on the portion in which the upper shell or the lower shell or the upper shell, the rotary member or the lower shell and the shutter member are overlapping with each other to thereby form the dust-proof clearance, the dust-proof performance of the cartridge housing can be improved by minimizing the clearance of the overlapping portion. Accordingly, it is possible to effectively prevent dusts and smudges from entering into the disk compartment.

[0190] Further, according to the disk recording medium device of the present application, in the disk recording medium device comprising the cartridge housing including the disk compartment, the disk-like recording medium and the shutter members for opening and closing the opening portion, since the corresponding convex ribs and concave grooves are formed on the portion in which the upper shell or the lower shell, the rotary member or the lower shell and the shutter member are overlapping with each other to thereby form the dust-proof clearance, the dust-proof performance of the cartridge housing can be improved by minimizing the clearance of the overlapping portion in the cartridge housing. Accordingly, it is possible to effectively prevent dusts and smudges from entering into the disk compartment.

[0191] Furthermore, according to the disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus of the present application, in the disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus comprising the disk recording medium device including the disk compartment in which the disk-like recording medium is accommodated and the opening portion for exposing a part of the disk-like recording medium, the shutter members for opening and closing the opening portion, the shutter open and close means for opening and closing the shutter members and the table drive apparatus for chucking the disk-like recording medium so as to rotate the disk-like recording medium, since the corresponding convex ribs and concave grooves are formed on the portion in which the upper shell or the lower shell or the upper shell, the rotary member or the lower shell and the shutter member of the cartridge housing are overlapping with each other to thereby form the dust-proof clearance, the dust-proof performance of the disk recording medium device can be improved by minimizing the clearance of the overlapping portion in the cartridge housing. Accordingly, it is possible to effectively prevent dusts and smudges from entering into the disk compartment. Moreover, the information signal can be recorded and reproduced with high accuracy without being affected by dusts and smudges.

Disk cartridge, disk recording medium device, and disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus

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