Disc loading mechanism including a damper mounted in a base plate recess

A disk loading mechanism includes disk cartridge positioning pins integrally formed in the base of a chassis portion thereof. In addition, at one side of the base of the chassis, a hooked portion is provided for securing a printed ciruit board to a lower side of the chassis. In addition, the base plate of the chassis mounts a damper fox smoothly controlling slider movement in a recess such that an overall height of the unit is reduced. According to such construction, reliable operation is assured with a reduced number of parts, such that manufacturing complexity and costs can be significantly reduced.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates generally to a loading mechanism for a data 
disk. Particularly, the invention relates to a disk loading mechanism 
which may be manufactured at low cost due to a simplified design and 
reduced number of parts. 
2. Description of the Related Art 
Floppy disks, optical disks, and other types of disk type data formats have 
become increasingly popular in homes and offices, being used for 
computers, word processors and other types of devices. Thus disk drives 
for reading and writing to such disks are a neccesary part of any 
environment utilizing such devices. One essential component of any disk 
drive is the disk loading mechanism, which allows the disk to be easily 
loaded into and ejected from the disk drive. 
One such conventional disk loading mechanism is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. 
Referring to the drawings, it may be seen that such a mechanism comprises 
a chassis 1 mounting a spindle motor 2 at a central lower side thereof. 
The spindle motor 2 is utilized to rotate a disk 3 for effecting disk 
reading and writing operations. The chassis 1 includes a central space for 
admitting the disk 3, which is usually loaded from an open front side of 
the disk drive (not shown). At a right side of a base plate la of the 
chassis 1, an L-shaped support wall 4 is formed with a opening 4a formed 
therethrough in the forward direction of the loading mechanism. The 
support wall 4 is positioned at a predetermined distance from a shaft 5 
which is projected from the base plate 1a surface of the chassis 1. Also, 
at left and right forward areas of the chassis 1, first spring retaining 
projections 6, 6 are formed. Spaced along inner side walls 13, 13 of the 
chassis 1, vertically oriented inner grooves 7 are provided (in the 
drawing, only two grooves along the left side wall 13 are visible). 
At left and right sides of both front and rear areas of the base plate 1a 
of the chassis 1, two pairs of disk positioning members 8, 8 and 9, 9 are 
disposed. The disk positioning members are mounted with a predetermined 
distance therebetween from right to left, and as seen in FIG. 6, the top 
sides of the rearmost disk positioning members 9, 9 are formed with 
circular cartridge position determining portions 9a, 9a thereon. 
As best seen in FIG. 5, the conventional mechanism includes a slider plate 
10 having an upturned C-shaped cross section. An eject button 11 is 
disposed on a tab 10a provided at a right front side of the slider plate 
10. When the slider plate 10 is set into the chassis 1 as shown in FIG. 5, 
the spindle motor 2 is accommodated by a central U-shaped cut-out 12a, 
while a first pair of elongate grooves 12b, 12b admit the first spring 
retaining openings 6, 6. The slider plate 10 thus rests on the base plate 
1a of the chassis 1 so as to be freely slidable thereon. The disk 
positioning members 8, 8, and 9, 9, engage second and third pairs of 
elongate grooves 14, 14 and 15, 15 for maintaining positioning between the 
chassis 1 and the slider plate 10 during sliding operation. In addition, 
projected from the base 12 of the slider plate 10 at a right rear side of 
the U-shaped cut-out 12a, a lock hook 17 is installed. Also, to the rear 
of each of the first elongate grooves 12b, 12b of the base 12 of tile 
slider plate 10, second spring retaining openings 16, 16 are formed. The 
second spring retaining openings 16, 16 respectively work in conjunction 
with the first spring retaining projections 6, 6 for mounting coil springs 
20, 20 therebetween. The side walls 13, 13 of the slider plate 10 have 
four cam grooves 18 . . . 18 formed therein and, to the rear of the 
rearmost of the left side cam groove 18, a rack 19 is provided. 
Referring to FIG. 6, a trigger arm 21 is pivotally mounted on the shaft 5 
proximate the support wall 4 of the chassis. The trigger arm includes a 
side portion 21a and an end portion 21b as well as a projection 22 
projecting upwardly from the surface of the trigger arm 21. The projection 
22 is formed with a spring retaining opening 22a thereon. Pivotal movement 
of the trigger arm is determined by a torsion spring 5a disposed around 
the shaft 5. The ends of the torsion spring 5 are respectively attacted to 
the spring retaining opening 22a and the support wall 4. 
Numeral 24 indicates a stepping motor for control of a head carriage 27. 
The stepping motor 24 is affixed to a rear side of the chassis 1 as seen 
in FIG. 5. An output shaft 25 of the stepping motor 24 is supported in the 
opening 4a of the support wall 4 and a V-shaped lead screw 25a is movable 
along the output shaft 25 according to a rotation thereof. A guide shaft 
26 is provided extending in the front/rear direction of the mechanism, one 
end off the guide shaft 26 is attached to a rear side of the chassis 1 and 
guides movement of the head carriage 27 while the other end thereof is 
received in a support opening of a bush (not shown). 
As may be seen, the head carriage 27 includes a needle pin 28 engaging the 
thread of the lead screw 25a of the output shaft 25, contact under 
pressure being maintained by a spring 29. Thus the head carriage 27 is 
supported so as to be freely moveable above the chassis 1. 
At a forward side of the head carriage 27, a first disk read/write head 30 
is supported. Opposed to the first disk read/write head 30, a second disk 
read/write head 31 is mounted. The heads 30, 31 are mounted on a head arm 
32 supported by a flexible spring plate 33 so as to be swingably movable. 
Swinging movement of the head arm 32 is biased by a torsion spring 34. A 
stopper 32a projected from the side of the head arm 32 and integrally 
formed therewith is active to limit pivotal movement of the head arm 32. 
Above the slider plate 10, a cartridge holder 36 is movably mounted. 
Rollers 37 of the cartridge holder 36 are rotatably supported between the 
cam grooves 18 of the slider plate 10 and the vertical grooves 7 of the 
chassis 1. Along one side of the cartridge holder 36, a cutout 38 is 
provided for forming a spring retaining projection 38a. The projection 22 
of the trigger arm 21 is moved according to pressure from the insertion of 
the disk cartridge 3 into the loading mechanism such that the lock hook 17 
contacts the side portion 21a of the trigger arm 21. Then, the slider 
plate 10 is brought adjacent to the base plate 1a dependent on forward 
motion of the slider plate 10. On the other hand, when the eject button 11 
is pressed, the slider plate is urged to move rearwardly, causing the 
slider plate 10 to be separated from the base plate 1a. 
A shutter opening/closing arm 39 is pivotally mounted on one side of the 
cartridge holder 36 for acting on a shutter 3a of the disk cartridge 3 for 
effecting opening or closing of the shutter 3a according to a loading or 
unloading operation of the disk loading mechanism respectively. The upper 
side of the shutter opening/closing arm 39 is integrally formed with a 
spring retaining projection 40. A coil spring 41 is held between the 
spring retaining projection 40 and the spring retaining projection 38a for 
biasing movement of the shutter opening/closing arm 39. 
Further provided in such a conventional disk loading mechanism are a disk 
type (2DD, 2HD, 2ED) detecting switch 42 and a disk write protect mode 
detecting switch 43, which are connected to a printed circuit (not shown) 
provided on a circuit substrate 44 mounted at a lower portion of the 
chassis 1. Also, at a rear left portion of the chassis 1 a gear damper 45 
is provided including a gear 46 engaged with the rack 19 of the slider 
plate 10 for smoothly controlling a loading and/of unloading operation. 
Finally, the case 3b of the disk cartridge is provided with indentations 47 
and 48 for engaging with the projecting disk positioning members 9, 9 
mounted on the chassis 1 for suitably positioning the disk cartridge 3 for 
use. 
According to the above structure, since two disk positioning members 8, 8 
are required for height regulation of tile disk cartridge 3, and another 
two disk positioning members 9, 9 are utilized for horizontal positioning 
of the disk cartridge 3, and these members are formed separately from the 
chassis 1, a number of parts required for assembling a loading mechanism 
is increased and the cost and complexity of the mechanism is raised. 
Thus, it has been required to provide a disk loading mechanism in which a 
number of parts and a cost of manufacture can be reduced. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to overcome the 
drawbacks of the related art. 
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a disk loading 
mechanism which may be manufactured at low cost and which utilizes fewer 
parts. 
In order to accomplish the aforementioned and other objects, a disk loading 
mechanism is provided, comprising: 
a chassis with opposing side plates and a base plate having positioning 
pins formed integrally therewith; a slider for receiving a disc cartridge; 
a circuit substrate mounted on a plurality of hook portions formed in said 
side plates; and a recess formed in said base for accommodating a damper 
mechanism.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring now to the drawings, particularly to FIGS. 1-4, a preferred 
embodiment of a disk loading mechanism according to the invention will be 
described hereinbelow in detail. Also, components which are identical with 
those described in relation to the related art of FIGS. 5 and 6 will be 
referred to by identical reference numbers and redundant description will 
be omitted for brevity. 
The chassis 60 according to the invention has a central opening 60a 
receiving an output shaft 61 (see FIG. 3) of a spindle motor (not shown) 
for effecting rotation of a disk cartridge 3. The chassis 60 comprises 
side portions 62, 63 which may be formed of metal plate, for example and a 
base 64 which is preferrably formed of die cast aluminium. The chassis may 
be installed in a personal computer (not shown) or any other type of 
device utilizing a disk drive. 
The side portions 62, 63 are respectively provided with elongate grooves 
65, 66 which regulate front, rear and also upward and downward movement of 
a slider 80, which will be described in greater detail hereinafter. Each 
of the elongate grooves 65 and 66 include larger portions 65a, 66a and 
narrower portions 65b, 66b respectively, giving the elongate grooves a 
roughly T-shaped aspect. Each of the larger portions 65a, 66a of the 
elongate grooves 65, 66 include spring retaining hooks 67, 68 formed 
integrally therewith. 
Further, at a forward end of each of the side portions 62, 63, second 
elongate grooves 69, 70 are provided, also for regulating movement of the 
slider 80. In addition, at a forward lower edge portion of each of the 
side portions 62, 63, respectively adjacent the disk type detecting switch 
42 and the disk write protect mode detecting switch 43, circuit board 
retaining members 71 and 72 are provided. Referring to FIG. 4(A), it may 
be seen that each of the retaining members 71, 72 includes a substrate 
positioning tab 71a, 72a for securely attaching the circuit board 44 to 
the lower side of the chassis 60 in a predetermined position. Further to 
the above, it will also be noted from FIG. 3 that a rear corner retaining 
portion 73 is provided with a substrate positioning tab 73a formed 
integrally therewith. Referring to FIG. 4(B), it may be seen that a rear 
angle portion 74 provided at a rear side of one of the side portions 62, 
63 (63 according to the present embodiment) is formed with an L-shaped 
spacer 75 for determining a horizonal position of the circuit board 44 in 
relation to the side member 63 and the base 64. At this, it will be noted 
that the operability and precision of switches such as a disk type 
detecting switch 42 and a disk write protect mode detecting switch 43, 
mentioned in connection with the related art, is improved since the 
positioning of the mounting substrate is assured. 
It will further be noted that each of the side portions 62, 63 are provided 
with vertical grooves 76a, 76b. 
On the other hand, according to the present embodiment, the base plate 64 
of the chassis 60 is formed of die-cast aluminium. Positioning pins 77, 77 
are integrally formed at forward left and right sides of the base plate 64 
with a predetermined interval therebetween, while rear positioning pins 
78, 78 are integrally formed rearwardly of the positioning pins 77, 77 
with a predetermined interval therebetween. The top of the positioning 
pins 77 are respectively provided with a flat disk positioning surface 77a 
and the rear positioning pins 78 are respectively formed with projecting 
semi-circular positioning members 78a. The positioning surfaces 77a and 
positioning members 78a support a lower portion of a disk cartridge 3 and 
the positioning members engage recesses 47, 48 formed in the lower side of 
the disk cartridge 3 when inserted into the disk drive for stably 
positioning the disk cartridge 3 during use. 
The rear left side of the base plate 64 includes a recess 79 which receives 
a damper 45 associated with a drive gear 46. The damper 45 may be retained 
by screws or the like. 
A C-shaped slider 80 is disposed over the base plate 64 and includes a tab 
130 at a front right side thereof for mounting an eject button (not 
shown). The base surface 82 of the slider 80 includes a C-shaped cut out 
82a for accommodating the output shaft 61 of the spindle motor (not 
shown). The slider 80 further includes side plates 83, 84 set apart by a 
predetermined interval and allowing the slider 80 to slide freely in 
forward and rearward directions on the chassis 60. 
It will further be noted that the above-mentioned drive gear 46 mounted 
atop the damper 45 on the base plate 64 engages a rack 85 formed on the 
inner rear side of the left side plate 83 of the slide 80 to facilitate 
motion control of the slider 80. A trigger arm lock 86 is formed at a rear 
right side of the slider 80. In addition, elongate cut-outs 87, 87 and 
elongate grooves 88, 88 are formed at left and right front and left and 
right mid portions of the base surface 82 of the slider 80 respectively. 
The elongate cut-outs 87 and the elongate grooves 88 respectively engage 
slider posts 131, 131, formed at left and right front sides of the base 
plate 64 behind and proximate the positioning pins 77, 77, and rear 
positioning pins 78 for supporting the slider 80 in correct position for 
allowing sliding operation thereof. It will be noted that each of the 
elongate cut-outs 87 and grooves 88 are provided with projected rim 
portions 87a and 88a respectively, although these may be provided on only 
one side if desired. 
The side plates 83, 84 of the slider 80 have slanted cam grooves 89.sup.- 
92 formed therein. Adjacent the forward cam grooves 89, 90, projections 
120, 121 are formed respectively. The projections 120, 121 engage the 
elongate grooves 69, 70 of the side plates 62, 63 of the chassis 60. 
Further, as seen in FIG. 2, coil springs 95, 96 are disposed between the 
spring hooks 67, 68 provided at the front side of the elongate grooves 65, 
66 of the side plates 62, 63 and spring hooks 93, 94 located at the rear 
side of the side plates 83, 84 of the slider 80. 
Also referring to FIG. 1, a cartridge holder 97 is provided for slidably 
supporting the disk cartridge 3 during an insertion and eject operation. 
At a forward area along one side of the cartridge holder 97, a window 97a 
is formed. The cartridge holder 97 has projections 98.sup.- 101 projected 
from side edges thereof for engaging with the corresponding cam grooves 
89.sup.- 92 of the slider 80. Further, projecting portions 102, 103, 
respectively projected from a central area of each side of the cartridge 
holder 97, engage the vertical grooves 76a, 76b of the side plates 62, 63 
of the chassis 60. At a rear side of the cartridge holder 97 a regulating 
arm 104 is integrally formed projected upward from the cartridge holder 97 
and set at an angle. The regulating arm 104 regulates rotational movement 
of a pivot 105 between the arm 104 and the trigger arm lock 86 of the 
slider 80. An arc shaped groove 106 is formed so as to correspond to the 
pivotal axis of the pivot 105 and includes an end portion 106a. The 
leading edge of the groove 106 is adjacent a spring retaining member 107 
and proximate a second spring retaining member 108. 
An L-shaped trigger arm 109 is disposed about the pivot 105. The trigger 
arm 109 includes a extending portion 109a, which is movable according to 
an insertion operation of the disk cartridge 3, and a substantially 
circular plate portion 109b, which is disposed around the pivot 105. A 
lower side of a distal end of the extending portion 109a of the trigger 
arm 109 is provided with a projecting member 110 having a shutter 
opening/closing member 110a formed on an end thereof which engages a 
shutter of the disk cartridge 3 through the arc-shaped groove 106 of the 
cartridge holder 97. An upper side of the extending portion 109a has an 
upwardly extending spring retaining portion 112 formed thereon, as seen in 
FIG. 1. 
Further, the circular plate portion 109b of the trigger arm 109 includes a 
mating surface 113 and a stopper 114 which contact the trigger lock 86 for 
limiting rotational and/or upward movement of the trigger arm 109. 
A main coil portion 118 of a torsion spring 115 is held by the spring 
retaining member 107, disposed such that spring ends 116 and 117 are 
respectively engaged with the spring retainers 108, 112. The long end 116 
of the torsion spring 115 comprises a first portion 116a and a second 
portion 116b, which are defined by a bend in the long end 116 at the 
location of the spring retaining member 108. A hooked end of the second 
portion 116b engages the open window 97a formed at one side of the 
cartridge holder 97, as best seen in FIG. 1. 
According to this construction, when the disk cartridge 3 is loaded into 
the disk drive, the positioning pins 77, 78 of the chassis 60 accurately 
position the casing 3b of the cartridge and operational performance is 
improved. 
Further, according to the present embodiment, the chassis has relatively 
few parts and assembly is simplified while operation may be reliably 
maintained. 
Also, since the rear positioning pins 78 are respectively formed with 
projecting semi-circular positioning members 78a which lightly contact the 
elongate grooves 88 of the slider, forward and rearward slider movement is 
precisely regulated and operability is assured. In addition, since the 
projections 120, 121 engage the elongate grooves 69, 70 of the side plates 
62, 63 of the chassis 60, upward and downward movement of the slider is 
also precisely regulated. 
It will further be noted that the provision of the rear corner retaining 
portion 73 provided with the substrate positioning tab 73a is effective to 
secure the printed circuit substrate 44 and movement of the substrate in 
the height direction of the side plates 62, 63 is prevented. 
Since the recess portion 79 is provided for mounting the damper 45, the 
slider 80 may movably engage the chassis while an overal height dimension 
of the disk drive may be kept small since the projecting member 110 of the 
trigger arm 109, having the shutter opening/closing member 110a formed on 
an end thereof acts with the trigger lock 86 and the stopper 114 such that 
when the slider 80 moves forward, the cartridge holder 97 is positioned 
closely adjacent the base surface 82 of the slider 80. 
Further to this, when an eject button (not shown) mounted on the tab 130 is 
pressed and the slider 80 moves rearwardly, the trigger lock 86 and the 
stopper 114 are active such that the base surface 82 of the slider 80 is 
separated from contact with the cartridge holder 97. 
As set forth above, the disk drive arrangement of the invention, in which 
disk positioning pins are integrally formed on the chassis is effective in 
providing a reliable disk loading and unloading operation with a 
simplified construction and reduced number of parts. At this, 
manufacturing cost and complexity is significantly reduced. 
Also, since the rear angle portion 74 provided at a rear side of one of the 
side portions 62, 63 is formed with an L-shaped spacer 75 for determining 
a horizonal position of the circuit board 44 in relation to the side 
member 62, 63 and the base 64, the positioning of the disk type detecting 
switch 42 and the disk write protect mode detecting switch 43 at an upper 
side of the circuit substrate 44 is securely determined such that the 
operability of the switches is improved. 
While the present invention has been disclosed in terms of the preferred 
embodiment in order to facilitate better understanding thereof, it should 
be appreciated that the invention can be embodied in various ways without 
departing from the principle of the invention. Therefore, the invention 
should be understood to include all possible embodiments and modification 
to the shown embodiments which can be embodied without departing from the 
principle of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.