Automatic video-tape cassette changing device

Disclosed herein is an automate cassette changing device adapted to be used in combination with a recording and reproducing apparatus, which comprises a main body having a rectangular-shaped open space suitable for receiving one or more stacked cassettes, a cassette entering inlet provided at a rear wall of the body for supplying the cassette to the apparatus therethrough, and a cassette discharging outlet formed at a side wall of the body for discharging cassettes ejected from the apparatus, projecting pieces provided at a front wall of the body for supporting the stacked cassettes, a pair of cassette feeding mechanisms mounted on the side walls of the body in an opposite relationship with each other for dropping the cassettes in sequence on the bottom surface of the body, and a cassette pusher associated with one of the cassette feeding mechanisms for pushing the lowermost one of the stacked cassettes and separating it from the stacked cassettes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a video-tape cassette changer adapted to 
be used in a recording and reproducing apparatus such-as a video cassette 
recorder ("VCR"); and, more particularly, to a video-tape cassette 
changing device capable of feeding automatically and serially a number of 
cassettes to and extracting them from a VCR during the recording or 
reproduction operation. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
In general, a cassette changing device has been used for recording or 
reproducing a number of cassettes in a VCR. In particular, such a cassette 
changing device is of great use in cable TV networks, video 
recording/reproducing operators and the like, because it can exchange 
automatically a plurality of cassettes without any extra manual labor of 
the operator. One example of such automatic cassette changers is disclosed 
in U.S. Pat. No. 4,072,991, which comprises a feed-in magazine for storing 
a number of cassettes, a feed-out magazine arranged to adjoin the feed-in 
magazine for storing a number of cassettes removed from a tape recorder, 
and a cassette pusher for pushing the lowermost cassette in the feed-in 
magazine under the stack of cassettes into the feed-out magazine. However, 
since the cassette changing device is designed to exclusively replace 
audio-tape cassettes, it cannot be employed to exchange the plurality of 
video-tape cassettes. In addition, the manufacturing cost of the changing 
device is relatively high as it is made in a rather complicated structure. 
A typical video-tape cassette changing device known in the art comprises a 
magazine detachably mounted in a VCR, a conveyer for supplying serially a 
number of videocassettes stored in the magazine to the VCR for playing or 
recording the videocassette, and means for ejecting played or recorded 
cassettes from the VCR to discharge them out of the magazine. However, 
this device has the disadvantage in that the cassette dropped on the 
conveyer from the magazine may become misaligned with a cassette access 
opening in a front side of the VCR during the exchanging operation of the 
cassette, thereby failing to insert the cassette into a deck of the VCR. 
Furthermore, since the lowermost cassette is separated from the stacked 
cassettes and dropped on the conveyer by the driving operation of the 
conveyer, the power consumption by the driving motor may be substantial. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel 
automatic video-tape cassette changing device which is adapted to be used 
in a VCR. 
It is another object of the present invention to provide an automatic 
cassette changing device which can drop serially one by one a plurality of 
cassettes in order for the dropped cassettes to be accurately registered 
with a cassette opening of a VCR during the exchanging operation of 
cassettes. 
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an automatic 
cassette changing device capable of speedily feeding a plurality of 
cassettes in sequence into a VCR with lesser power consumption by a 
driving motor. 
The above and other objects of the present invention are accomplished by an 
automatic video-tape cassette changing device adapted to be used in a VCR, 
which comprises: a main body having a rectangular-shaped open space formed 
therein for receiving one or more stacked video-tape cassettes, a cassette 
entering inlet provided at a rear wall of the main body and communicating 
with the open space and a cassette access opening of the VCR, and a 
cassette discharging outlet formed at a side wall of the main body and 
communicating with the open space for discharging the cassettes ejected 
from the VCR; projecting pieces provided at a front wall of the main body 
and adapted for supporting the stack of the cassettes; a pair of cassette 
feeding mechanisms mounted on the side walls of the main body in an 
opposite relationship with each other for dropping the cassettes in 
sequence on the bottom surface of the main body, each of said cassette 
feeding mechanisms including a driving gear driven by a motor, an 
intermediate gear engaged with the driving gear, a driven gear meshed with 
the intermediate gear, and a cutout cylindrical holder integrally formed 
on a first side of the driven gear and suitable for gripping the lowermost 
one of the stacked cassettes; and cassette pushing means associated with 
one of the cassette feeding mechanisms for pushing the lowermost cassette 
and separating it from the stacked cassettes when the lowermost cassette 
is released from the cutout cylindrical holder by the actuating operation 
of the cassette feeding mechanisms. 
The cassette pushing means includes an eccentric cam provided at a second 
side of the driven gear, a cam following slide plate in contact with the 
eccentric cam, a pushing lever hinged at an end portion of the slide plate 
and rotatably pivoted at a pin fixed to a partition of the main body, and 
means for biasing the slide plate against the eccentric cam.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown an automatic cassette changing 
device 10 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present 
invention, which is adapted to be used in combination with a VCR 12. The 
cassette changing device 10 comprises a main body 14 which includes a 
rectangular-shaped open space 16 formed therein for receiving one or more 
video-tape cassettes 18, a cassette entering inlet 20 provided at a rear 
wall 22 of the main body 14 and communicating with the open space 16 and a 
cassette access opening 26 of the VCR 12, a cassette discharging outlet 24 
formed at a side wall 25a of the main body 14 and communicating with the 
open space 16 for discharging recorded or reproduced cassettes ejected 
from the VCR 12. 
Preferably, the cassette entering inlet 20 is arranged at the bottom 
surface 15 of the main body 14 adjoining the open space 16 in a coplanar 
relationship with each other so as to facilitate the insertion of the 
cassette into the cassette access opening 26 of the VCR 12. Provided at 
top edges of the main body 14 adjoining the open space 16 are outwardly 
bent strips 28 adapted to guide the downward movement of the cassettes 18. 
A receptacle 30 is attached to the cassette discharging outlet 24 to 
receive the cassettes ejected from the VCR 12 through the main body 14. 
FIG. 2 shows the cassette changing device 10 in combination with the VCR 
12. As shown in FIG. 2, the cassettes as indicated by the dotted line are 
stacked in the open space 16 of the main body 14. The stacked cassettes 32 
are supported by projecting pieces 34 formed at a front wall 35 of the 
main body 14 and a pair of cassette feeding mechanisms 36 mounted on the 
side walls 25a, 25b of the main body 14. 
FIG. 3 shows the cassette feeding mechanisms 36 of the cassette changing 
device 10 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present 
invention. The respective cassette feeding mechanisms 36 also serve to 
drop serially one by one a number of cassettes on the bottom surface 15 of 
the main body 14 for supplying them to the VCR 12. Since the cassette 
feeding mechanisms 36 are essentially identical both in operation and 
mechanical elements, only one of the feeding mechanisms will be described 
herein with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. 
The cassette feeding mechanism 36 includes a driving gear 38 driven by a 
motor 40, an intermediate gear 42 engaged with the driving gear 38, a 
driven gear 44 meshed with the intermediate gear 42 and a cutout 
cylindrical holder 48 integrally formed at one side 44a of the driven gear 
44. It should be understood that various trains of gears may be employed 
in the cassette feeding mechanism 36. The cassette feeding mechanisms 36 
are actuated synchronously by the motors 40. Preferably, the feeding 
mechanisms 36 may be driven by a common motor instead of the individual 
motors 40. As best shown in FIG. 4, the cylindrical holder 48 has a 
quarter cutout portion 50 adapted to support and grip a rear edge 19 of 
the cassette 18. 
As shown in FIG. 3, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the 
present invention, associated with one of the cassette feeding mechanisms 
36 is a cassette pushing means 52 for assisting the dropping movement of 
the cassettes. That is, the cassette pushing means 52 functions to push 
the lowermost one 18a of the stacked cassettes 32 supported on the 
projecting pieces 34 of the front wall 35 of the main body 14 and to 
separate it from the stacked cassettes 32 during the exchanging operation 
of cassettes. 
As best shown in FIGS. 4 and 6, the cassette pushing means 52 actuated by 
the feeding mechanism 36 includes an eccentric cam 54 provided at the 
other side 44b of the driven gear 44, a cam following slide plate 56 in 
contact with the cam 54, and a cassette pushing lever 58 hinged at an end 
portion 57 of the slide plate 56 and rotatably pivoted at a pin 60 fixed 
to a partition 62 of the main body 14. In addition, attached to the 
partition 62 of the main body 14 are one or more guide brackets 64 for 
maintaining the movement of the slide plate 56 in the forward and backward 
directions as indicated by arrows A,B in FIG. 4 during the rotating 
operation of the eccentric cam 54 (see FIG. 6). As shown in FIG. 4, 
secured to the slide plate 56 is a tensile spring 66 for biasing the slide 
plate 56 against the eccentric cam 54. Therefore, the eccentric motion of 
the cam 54 will cause the cassette pushing lever 58 to be moved forward 
and backward as indicated by arrows C,D through the slide plate 56. 
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the 
procedure of exchanging a number of cassettes will now be described 
hereinbelow. As shown in FIG. 2, in order to feed the lowermost one 18a of 
the stacked cassettes 32 to the VCR 12 for the purpose of recording or 
reproducing the cassettes in sequence, the motor 40 drives to actuate the 
cassette feeding mechanism 36. As a result, the driving force of the motor 
40 is transferred to the driven gear 44 via the driving gear 38 and the 
intermediate gear 42 (see FIG. 4). Therefore, the cutout cylindrical 
holder 48 is rotated, thereby causing the lowermost cassette 18a seated in 
the cutout portion 50 thereof to be moved downward(see FIG. 5). At that 
time, the outer surface of the cutout cylindrical holder 48 commences to 
support the bottom surface of a next cassette 18b. A further rotation of 
the holder 48 will result in the liberation of the rear portion 19 of the 
lowermost cassette 18a from the cutout portion 50 of the cylindrical 
holder 48. In addition, .the rotation of the driven gear 44 causes the 
slide plate 56 to be moved backward as indicated by the arrow B in FIG. 4 
through the actuation of the eccentric cam 54, thereby enabling the 
cassette pushing lever 58 to rotate clockwise about the pin 60 as 
indicated by arrow C in FIG. 4. Accordingly, a free end of the pushing 
lever 58 pushes the lowermost cassette 18a supported on the projections 94 
of the main body 14 in the horizontal direction at, the substantially same 
time as the release of the rear portion 19 of the cassette 18a from the 
cylindrical holder 48, and, thereby, the cassette 18a can be easily and 
speedily dropped on the bottom surface 15 of the main body 14 without 
extra power consumption of the motor. The dropped cassette 18a is inserted 
into the cassette access opening 26 of the VCR 12 through the cassette 
entering inlet 20 of the main body 14 by way of an appropriate actuating 
mechanism(not shown). 
Thereafter, the next cassette 18b becomes seated on the projections 34 of 
the main body 14 and in the cutout portion 50 of the cylindrical holder 48 
immediately after one revolution of the holder 48 has been completed. In 
this case, the eccentric cam 94 is reinstated at an original position and 
the cam following slide plate 56 is moved forward by the restoring force 
of the tensed spring 66 to thereby cause the cassette pushing lever 58 to 
be rotated counterclockwise about the pin 60 as indicated by the arrow D 
in FIG. 4 and to be restored at a retracted position remote from the front 
portion of the cassette. Accordingly, one cassette feeding cycle of the 
cassette changing device 10 is completed through the steps as described 
above. 
On the other hand, the cassette changing device 10 initiates a subsequent 
cassette changing cycle after the fed cassette 18a has been recorded or 
reproduced and ejected from the VCR 12 and then removed from the body 14 
through the discharging outlet 24 of the body 14 by a cassette discharging 
mechanism (not shown). Such cassette changing cycles are repeatedly 
performed for a required number of times. 
While the present invention has been shown and described with reference to 
particular embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art 
that many changes and modifications may be made without departing from the 
spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims that follow.