This Non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) on Patent Application No(s). 093141757 filed in Taiwan, Republic of China on Dec. 31, 2004, the entire contents of which are thereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a tray door guiding mechanism for optical disc device, particularly to a tray door guiding mechanism for optical disc device which guides the tray door before the tray door inserts into the front panel of the optical disc device.
Optical disc devices based on their disc carrying manners could be classified into cover-lifting type, slot-in type, single-disc type, and multi-disc type optical disc devices. Among them, the single-disc type optical disc device mainly includes a tray for carrying the disc and a tray door provided in front of the tray for providing dust-proof and ornamental functions. On the outer surface of the tray door, a decorative panel is optionally provided. Carrying the disc tray into/out from the optical disc device is normally performed by electric-mechanical action.
As mentioned above, the tray door provides an ornamental function in addition to the dust-proof function, thus a stage difference between the tray door and the front panel of the optical disc device should be prevented. To meet a good quality requirement, the gap between the tray door and the front panel of the optical disc device is also required as small as possible. But during assembling optical disc devices, occurrence of assembling error is incidental, which results in relative stage error between the front panel position and the tray door position. Due to such relative stage error, a stage difference interference between the tray door and the front panel will occur or an uneven gap between them is found.
In the current optical disc devices, a simple mechanism for guiding disc tray is provided. However, such a guiding mechanism starts to guide the disc tray when the tray door arrives at the front panel. In this time, a stage difference between the tray door and the front panel has been already occurred. Thus it also encounters problems of non-planar surface between the tray door and the front panel and a large or uneven gap between them.
In view of the above problems, the present inventor has conducted an investigation on the disc tray structure of optical disc device and thus completed this invention.
The object of the present invention is to provide a tray door guiding mechanism for optical disc device, which uses a simple guiding mechanism to eliminate the relative stage error between a tray door and a front panel of the optical disc device. Accordingly, the tray door guiding mechanism of the present invention will start to exactly guide the tray door before entering it into the optical disc device completely to avoid the occurrence of stage difference interference between the tray door and the front panel. Additionally, it is easy to control the gap between the tray door and the front panel in a desired range.
According to the above objects, the present invention provides a tray door guiding mechanism for optical disc device having a disc tray for carrying the disc, the tray door guiding mechanism includes: a front panel and a tray door, in which the front panel is provided with a tray in-out window for allowing the tray to carry into/out from the optical disc device, at least one side of the tray in-out window is provided with a guiding trench; the tray door is provided in front of the disc tray, at least one side of the tray door is provided with a guiding rib; wherein the guiding rib is exactly guided in the guiding trench when the tray is carried into the optical disc device.
The present invention is illustrated more detail by reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
a is a side sectional view showing the tray door guiding mechanism shown in
b is a top sectional view partially showing the tray door guiding mechanism shown in
a is a top sectional view partially showing the tray door guiding mechanism shown in
b is a side sectional view partially showing the tray door guiding mechanism shown in
a-4e are flow charts showing the tray door guiding mechanism of the present invention how to guide the tray door; and
The present invention is illustrated in more detail by reference the following examples which are only used for illustration without limiting the scope of the present invention.
In the following examples, the left and right sides of the tray door are each provided with a guiding rib and the left and right sides of the tray in-out window are each correspondingly provided with a guiding trench.
First please refer to
The tray door 1 is loosely assembled with the disc tray 6, i.e. the tray door 1 is slightly moveable relative to the disc tray 6. When the disc tray 6 enters into the optical disc device, since the guiding ribs 11 are intended to be guided exactly into the guiding trenches 22, the tray door 1 is thus moved to an appropriate position to allow the tray door 1 being exactly inserted into the front panel 2 without interference with each other.
Moreover, a guiding angle 12 is provided on the end of the guiding rib 11 to provide a tolerance for guiding the guiding rib 11 exactly into the guiding trench 22 during carrying the tray door 1 into the optical disc device.
The tray door 1 further includes a tray door panel 13. A recess 23 for accommodating the tray door panel 13 is further provided in the outer portion of the tray in-out window 21. When the disc tray 6 enters into the optical disc device completely, the tray door panel 13 is completely accommodated in the recess 23 to allow the surface of the tray door panel 13 being at the same plane with the surface of the front panel 2.
Next please refer to
Please also refer to
Furthermore, the deviation in traverse direction between the edge of tray door panel 13 and the edge of the recess 23 is less than E+r, in which E represents the length in traverse direction of the guiding angle of the guiding rib 11 and r represents the length in traverse direction of the guiding angle of the guiding trench 22. The term “traverse direction” used herein means the direction of arrow B shown in
b is a side sectional view partially showing the tray door guiding mechanism shown in
The more the length of the guiding angles in either longitudinal or vertical direction provided in guiding rib 11 and guiding trench 22, the more the tolerance in either longitudinal or vertical direction between the edge of tray door panel 13 and the edge of the recess 23 that the guiding mechanism can overcome.
Therefore, the tolerance caused by the assembling of the disc tray is easily overcome by designing the length of the guiding rib, the guiding trench, and the guiding angle according to the relation between them.
Next please refer to
Finally, please refer to
Furthermore, the diameter of the screw holes 31 and 41 provided on the tray mount 3 and buffer panel 4 is larger than the diameter of the screw to be screwed, so that the tray door 1 is allowed to move in up, down, right, and left directions relative to the tray mount 3 and the buffer panel 4 corresponding to the movement of the guiding rib 11.
According to the guiding mechanism of the present invention, a decorative panel 5 is further provided on outer surface of the tray door panel 13 to give the optical disc device an ornamental function and variability.
According to the tray door guiding mechanism for optical disc device of the present invention, by interaction between the guiding trench on the front panel and the guiding rib on the tray door, an effect for guiding the tray door exactly is attainable. Therefore, the gap between the tray door and the front panel is controllable by adjusting the tolerance between the guiding rib and the guiding trench. Also, the assembling error between the tray door and the front panel is modified to avoid the tray door being interfered with the front panel during carrying the tray into the optical disc device. Therefore, the tray is smoothly carried into the device and yields a uniform gap between the tray door and the front panel of the optical disc device.
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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093141757 | Dec 2004 | TW | national |