Slot-in optical disk drive with lifting ejection device

A slot-in optical disk drive with lifting ejection device is disclosed. A sliding device which has a first guiding slot and a second guiding slot is driven by a transmission unit. A sliding bolt protruded from a traverse is inserted into the first guiding slot, and the traverse connects with the sliding device. A lifting ejection device has a column vertically set in a housing and a sleeve which covers the column. A guiding pin protruded from the sleeve is inserted into the second guiding slot and is driven by the sliding device to disengage an optical disk.

This application claims the benefit of Taiwan application Serial No. 98134445, filed Oct. 8, 2009, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates in general to a slot-in optical disk drive, and more particularly to a lifting ejection device of a slot-in optical disk drive which disengages an optical disk from a clamping device disposed on a spindle motor.

2. Description of the Related Art

Along with the rapid advance and popularity in consumer electronic products for information and communication, optical disk drives are also directed towards the trend of slimness, thinness, lightweight and compactness. Despite the reduction in the thickness of the optical disk drive is conducive to portability, the contraction in the internal space of the optical disk drive makes the layout of internal parts and elements even more difficult.

As indicated inFIG. 1, a slot-in optical disk drive10of prior art is shown. When the slot-in optical disk drive10loads in an optical disk, the traverse11rotates and ascends, and the optical disk14clamped by a clamping device12is rotated by the spindle motor13, wherein one end of the traverse11is pivotally disposed on the slot-in optical disk drive10, and the clamping device12is located on the other end of the traverse11. When unloading an optical disk, the traverse11rotates and descends, an unloading lever16pushes against the non-data region18set in the inner tracks of the optical disk13for disengaging the optical disk14from the clamping device12so that the optical disk14can be unloaded from the slot-in optical disk drive10, in which the unloading lever16is fixed on a housing15and passes the through hole17set on the traverse11, and the through hole17is set near the peripheral of the spindle motor13.

However, the manufacturing quality of the optical disk is inconsistent. The standard thickness of the optical disk is 1.2 mm. Thinner optical disks are provided in commercial market due to cost-down consideration, or even have non-uniform thickness due to manufacturing factors, making the optical disk too thin and too soft. When the slot-in optical disk drive10unloads an optical disk, the unloading lever16with fixed length cannot smoothly disengage the optical disk14clamped by the clamping device12due to the pushing height being too short. Thus, the disk unloading movement may fail easily. In addition, since the height of the unloading lever16is fixed, when the traverse11ascends and rotates the optical disk14, the optical disk14needs to be higher than the protruded unloading lever16to avoid interfering with the rotation of the optical disk14. Thus, the thickness of the slot-in optical disk drive10needs to satisfy the above requirement, and cannot be too thinned further. Therefore, the slot-in optical disk drive of prior art still has many issues to be resolved when it comes to the structure of disengaging the optical disk with the unloading lever.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a slot-in optical disk drive with lifting ejection device is provided. In the present invention, the thickness of the slot-in optical disk drive is reduced by shortening the height of the lifting ejection device and reducing the rising height of the traverse.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a slot-in optical disk drive with lifting ejection device is provided. In the present invention, the force for disengaging the optical disk is increased by lifting the lifting ejection device to increase the pushing height.

To achieve the above objects, a slot-in optical disk drive with lifting ejection device is disclosed in the invention. A sliding device which has a first guiding slot and a second guiding slot is driven by a transmission unit. A sliding bolt protruded from a traverse is inserted into the first guiding slot, and the traverse connects with the sliding device. A lifting ejection device has a column vertically set in the slot-in optical disk drive and a sleeve which covers the column. A guiding pin protruded from the sleeve is inserted into the second guiding slot and the sleeve is driven by the sliding device to disengage an optical disk when the traverse ascends and lower the height of the lifting ejection device when the traverse descends.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The technologies and their effects adopted in the invention for achieving the above objects are disclosed below in a number of preferred embodiments with accompanying drawings.

Referring toFIG. 2, a top view of a slot-in optical disk drive20with lifting ejection device of the invention is shown. The slot-in optical disk drive20includes a housing21, a traverse22, a transmission unit23and a lifting ejection device24. The housing21has a hollowed inside, and the front end of the housing21has an entrance/exit25for an optical disk D (referring toFIG. 5) to pass through. The traverse22is disposed in the housing21, wherein one end of the traverse22is pivotally connected to one side of the housing21towards the entrance/exit25and forms a pivotal end26, which is used as a pivotal point for the traverse22to rotate upward and downward. The other end of the traverse22near the center of the slot-in optical disk drive has a spindle motor27, and a clamping mechanism28is disposed on the spindle motor27for fixing the optical disk. A first sliding bolt29and a second sliding bolt30are protruded from an edge side of the traverse22near the spindle motor27.

The transmission unit23disposed near a side of the traverse22provides a power source for transmitting the slot-in optical disk drive. The transmission unit23includes a transmission motor31, a gear set32, a first sliding device33and a second sliding device34. The transmission motor31disposed near the entrance/exit25drives one end of a gear set32, which is composed of a plurality of gears. The other end of the gear set32is engaged with the rack35of the first sliding device33for driving the first sliding device33to slide forward and backward along a lateral side of the housing21, wherein the first sliding device33is disposed near a side edge of the first sliding bolt29of the traverse22. The first sliding device33further connects with the first sliding bolt29via a guiding slot (not illustrated in the diagram). The second sliding device34is slidably disposed on the housing21in a transverse direction and near the back end of the second sliding bolt30of the traverse22. One end of the second sliding device34has a sliding pin36, which is horizontally moved along the guiding slot37of the first sliding device33. The lifting ejection device24is disposed between the traverse22and the second sliding device34.

Referring toFIG. 3andFIG. 4.FIG. 3shows a cross-sectional view of a lifting ejection device along the A-A line ofFIG. 2. The lifting ejection device24ofFIG. 3, being a sleeve-like column, includes a column38vertically set on the housing21and a sleeve39which covers the column38. The sleeve39is driven upward or downward by the column38. A guiding pin40protruded from a lateral side of the sleeve39is inserted into a side surface of the second sliding device34. The second sliding device34ofFIG. 4has a first guiding slot41and a second guiding slot42rolling up and down near a side surface of the second sliding bolt30. The first guiding slot41has a single peak, wherein the peak41ais in the middle, and a stand-by end41band a play end41chigher than the stand-by end41bare disposed at the two ends of the first guiding slot41for receiving the second sliding bolt30and enabling the second sliding bolt30to move along the first guiding slot38and the second sliding bolt30connects with the traverse22to move upward and downward. The second guiding slot42is like a slanting L, wherein a lifting end42aand a narrow end42blower than the lifting end42aare disposed at two ends of the second guiding slot42for receiving the guiding pin40to drive the sleeve39upward and downward.

The movements of the lifting ejection device24of the invention are disclosed inFIG. 2,FIG. 3,FIG. 4andFIG. 5.FIG. 5shows a slot-in optical disk drive20being in a stand-by state. The slot-in optical disk drive20ofFIG. 2has a sliding pin36located at the front end of the guiding slot37of the first sliding device33, and the second sliding device34is moved towards the right hand side of the slot-in optical disk drive20, so that when the second sliding bolt30is located at the left end (the stand-by end41b) of the first guiding slot41, the traverse22descends to the stand-by position. When the guiding pin40is located at the highest left end (the lifting end42a) of the second guiding slot42, the sleeve39of the lifting ejection device24is lifted for putting the slot-in optical disk drive20in a stand-by state as indicated inFIG. 5. When the slot-in optical disk drive20detects that an optical disk D is loaded into the slot-in optical disk drive20, the transmission motor31is activated to rotate the gear set32, which further drives the rack35of the first sliding device33to move forward to load in the optical disk. Then, the optical disk is guided to be positioned at a predetermined position. The guiding slot37is driven to move forward along with the first sliding device33, and the sliding pin36connects with the second sliding device34to move leftward.

Referring toFIG. 6andFIG. 7.FIG. 6shows a second sliding device34being moved leftward.FIG. 7shows a slot-in optical disk drive20having loaded in a disk D. As indicated inFIG. 6, as the second sliding device34is moved leftward, the second sliding bolt30passes the peak41aof the first guiding slot41and lifts the traverse22to clamp the optical disk D with the clamping device28, then the second sliding bolt30descends towards the play end41cof the first guiding slot41for putting the traverse22in a play position. As the second sliding device34is moved leftward, the guiding pin40is moved to the narrow end42balong the second guiding slot42, so that the sleeve39descends, the height of the lifting ejection device24is reduced, and more space is provided for the optical disk D to rotate safely. Thus, the rotated optical disk D can avoid the sleeve39as long as the play position of the traverse22is slightly higher than the stand-by position, and such design further reduces the thickness of the slot-in optical disk drive20.

Referring toFIG. 2,FIG. 4andFIG. 8.FIG. 8shows a lifting ejection device24ejecting an optical disk D. When the slot-in optical disk drive unloads an optical disk, the transmission motor31ofFIG. 2is inversely rotated, and drives the rack35of the first sliding device33through the gear set32, so that the first sliding device33, which has been moved to the front end, moves the guiding slot37backwardly, and the second sliding device34connected via the sliding pin36moves rightward to the stand-by position. InFIG. 4, the traverse22is lifted to the peak41aas the second sliding bolt30slides along the first guiding slot41. When the traverse22is lifted to the highest point, a space is created for the lifting ejection device24to lift the sleeve39as the guiding pin40slides along the second guiding slot42. The sleeve39, being supported by the column38, can be lifted to the highest point with respect to the traverse22. Then, the guiding pin40further horizontally slides to the lifting end42balong the second guiding slot42for allowing the sleeve39to maintain at the highest point. Meanwhile, the traverse22passes through the peak41aof the first guiding slot41along with the second sliding bolt30and descends to the stand-by end41bfor creating a path for unloading the optical disk D. As indicated inFIG. 8, the optical disk D, being clamped by the clamping device28of the traverse22, cannot be descended accordingly because the lifted sleeve39exactly pushes the non-data region D0at the inner tracks of the optical disk D. Thus, the optical disk D is disengaged from the clamping device28of the traverse22to be unloaded.

The lifting ejection device24of the slot-in optical disk drive of the invention, being lifted by the sleeve39, becomes higher than the traverse22to an extent that the lifting ejection device24can disengage the optical disk D more forcefully, hence improving the defect of the prior art in which the unloading lever is fixed. Furthermore, since the sleeve39descends, the height of the lifting ejection device24is reduced, and the thickness of the slot-in optical disk drive can be further reduced and will not be restricted by the height of the unloading lever which is fixed in the prior art. The present embodiment of the invention is exemplified by the example of driving the lifting ejection device24to ascend/descend by the second sliding device34, but is not limited thereto. The lifting ejection device24of the invention can also be driven to ascend/descend by a first sliding device33, and the objects and effects of the invention still can be achieved.