Patent Application
20100199293
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disc pick-and-place device of an automatic disc copier, and more particularly to an inclinable pick-and-place head of the disc pick-and-place device.
2. Description of Related Art
The price of a disc is cheap and convenient for storing a great amount of data such that it is still an important information storing media. There are many automatic disc coping technologies, for example, an automatic disc burning method and apparatus disclosed in Taiwan Patent No. 594693, an automatic disc feeding and disc picking-up system for a disc burner disclosed in Taiwan Patent Publishing No. 200515395 and an automatic multiple discs backup apparatus for a personal computer disclosed in Taiwan Patent No. 1228246. The Taiwan patents mentioned above all disclose a pick-and-place arm and a driving component used for driving the pick-and-place arm to rise and fall vertically and move transversely; the pick-and-place arm is used to automatically pick up a disc from or place a disc in a disc tray of a disc recording device or a disc tray of a disc cassette so as to attain to the automatic disc coping function.
The pick-and-place arm mentioned above comprises a disc pick-and place head. When a detection unit detects the disc pick-and-place head touching a disk in a disc tray of a copier, the disc pick-and-place head then carries out the disc picking and placing action. A side wall of a circumference of a disc mounting accepting groove of the disc tray is usually provided with a plurality of tabs projected out toward the accepting groove to allow the disc to be restricted below the plurality of tabs. Even more, one end of a certain accepting groove close to a panel of the copier is slightly contracted inside the panel. If the disc is caused to move downward vertically from a upper side of the accepting groove, the disc will be blocked by the tabs or the panel and unable to be placed in the accepting groove smoothly and accurately. Moreover, if the disc is caused to mover downward or upward vertically from an inside of the accepting groove, the disc will be blocked by the tabs or the panel and unable to be taken out smoothly.
For solving inconvenience caused from the manner of placing the disc in the accepting groove mentioned above, an action of picking up and placing in a disk directly by a human's hand is simulated to cause the disc to be inclined an angle to shorten a level width thereof, the disc can then be placed into the accepting groove. Vice versa, if the above-mentioned action is reversed, the disc can then be picked up smoothly from the accepting groove. Structures between the current disc pick-and-place head and pick-and-place arm all are a clamping type and lack of inclinable design; it is very difficult to place the disc into the accepting groove with the plurality of tabs or the accepting groove with one end thereof slightly contracted to the inside of the panel of the copier mentioned above.
For allowing a disc pick-and-place head of a disc pick-and-place device to have the inclinable function, the present invention is provided.
The main object of the present invention is to provide an inclinable pick-and-place head of a disc pick-and-place device, capable of smoothly placing a disc in a disc tray of a copier or picking up a disc from the disc tray.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an inclinable pick-and-place head of a disc pick-and-place device, capable of more dependably placing a disc in a disc tray of a copier or picking up a disc from the disc tray so as to prevent the disc coping speed from being decreased because the incapability of the picking-up or the placing-in of the disc does not happen.
For attaining to the objects mentioned above, the present invention proposes an inclinable pick-and-place head of a disc pick-and-place device, used for allowing the pick-and-place head of the disc pick-and-place device to have the inclinable function and comprising:
The present invention can be more fully understood by reference to the following description and accompanying drawings, in which:
Please refer to
An upper end of the first vertical plate 21 of the second frame 20 is coupled to at least one second supporting component 201, for example, pin. A lower end of the first vertical plate 11 of the first frame 10 is provided with at least one first guiding component 102, for example, long slot. A lower end of the first vertical plate 21 of the second frame 20 is coupled to at least one second guiding component 202. The first supporting component 101 is coupled to the second supporting component 201, and the first guiding component 102 is coupled to the second guiding component 202 to allow a lower end of the first frame 10 to be separated from or be near to a lower end of the second frame 20.
In the present embodiment, a C-ring 203 is respectively put around portions of the second supporting component 201 and the second guiding component 202 (pin) respectively passed through the first supporting component 101 and the first guiding component 102 (long slot). Two ends of a second elastic element 25 are respectively coupled to the vertical plates 11 and 21 of the first and the second frames 10 and 20, and the elastic element 25 always exerts a force to move the first frame 10 to be near to a lower end of the second frame 20. Besides, the second elastic element 25 may also be omitted and a gravity force is used to allow the first frame 10 to maintain a downward moving force.
The second vertical plate 22 of the second frame 20 is coupled to a first actuating mechanism 24, for example, first solenoid valve. The first actuating mechanism 24 is placed between the first and the second vertical plates 21 and 22 and above the level plate 23. A movable element 241 and an elastic element 242 are disposed on one end of the first actuating mechanism 24, in which the first elastic element 242 always exerts a force moving the first movable element 241 to be near to the first vertical plate 21 of the second frame 20; as the lower end of the first frame 10 is coupled to the first movable element 241, the first elastic element 242 always exerts a force moving the lower end of the first frame 10 to be near to the first vertical plate 21 of the second frame 20.
When the first actuating mechanism 24, for example, first solenoid valve, is acted, it can generate a force attracting the first movable element 241 to overcome an elastic force of the first elastic element 242 to leave the first vertical plate 21 of the second frame 20, and further to drive a lower end of the first vertical plate 11 of the first frame 10 to leave the first vertical plate 21 of the second frame 20.
As
As
A upper end 151 of a clamping portion 15 is coupled to the second movable element 31, and the clamping portion 15 can be driven to move levelly by the second movable element 31 and a lower end thereof is provided with a clamping element 152 accepted in the first slot 143. A probe rod 16 is accepted in a fourth slot 17 communicated with the upper plate 13, the level plate 12 and the pick-and-place head 14, in which a lower end 161 of the probe rod 16 is finer and a upper end 162 thereof is coarser, and they may respectively be extended out of the fourth slot 17, as
Please refer to
Please refer to
If the pick-and-place head 14 is allowed to pick up the disc 40 placed in the accepting groove 51 according to the present invention, it only needs to carry out each similar step mentioned above reversely; the disc 40 can then be taken out from the accepting groove 51 smoothly.
The inclinable pick-and-place head of the pick-and-place device according to the present invention is mainly capable of executing an similar action of directly picking up and placing in a disc by a human's hand: allowing a first frame to be movably coupled to a second frame; coupling the first frame to a disc pick-and-place head; allowing the second frame to drive the first frame to move vertically and levelly; driving a bottom of the first frame through an actuating mechanism, for example, solenoid valve, to be near to and leave the second frame to cause a pick-and-place of a disc coupled to the pick-and-place head to be inclined to shorten a level width of the disc relative to an accepting groove. Thereby, the disc is not blocked by tabs of a rim of the accepting groove of the disc tray or a panel of a copier and can be placed in the accepting groove or taken out from the accepting groove conveniently.
The inclinable pick-and-place head of the disc pick-and-place device according to the present invention can place a disc in a disc tray of a copier or take it out of the disc tray smoothly and is capable of more dependably placing a disc into a disc tray or taking it out of the disc tray so as to prevent the disc coping speed from being decreased because the incapability of taking out or placing in the disc will not happen. Moreover, the pick-and-place head disposed with the clamping element may also be replaced with a vacuum sucking disc mechanism.
Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific details and representative embodiments shown and described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
