Disk storage apparatus and disk changer apparatus with enhanced access to disks

As a front panel of a disk changer apparatus is moved to an open position, a disk rack moving in response to the movement of the front panel operates to hold a plurality of disks in a staggered configuration. Such a staggered configuration of the disks allows a user to easily pick up and take out any desired disk from the disk rack.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an improved disk storage apparatus for CDs (Compact Disks) or DVDs (Digital Versatile Disks) and a disk changer apparatus using such a disk storage apparatus.

Disk changer apparatus for CDs or DVDs include a disk storage apparatus in the form of a disk rack with a plurality of storage slots or cells for storing a plurality of disks in one or more stacked arrays, and any designated one of the stored disks is taken out from the disk rack for reproduction of recorded information on the disk or other purpose. FIG. 1 is a side view schematically showing an example of a conventional disk rack 1 of a type where a plurality of disks D are stored in the storage cells in a stacked array.

As in many other disk racks for disk changer apparatus, the storage cells in the disk rack 1 shown in FIG. 1 are provided at short intervals in order to store as many disks D as possible, and thus the disks D stored in the respective storage cells are spaced from each other by a considerably small distance d. Even with such a small distance d between the disks D, no significant problem would arise when a designated disk D is taken out from the disk rack 1 via an automatic hand member of the disk changer apparatus. However, when a designated disk D is taken out from the disk rack 1 manually by a user, the small distance d between the stored disks D would make it difficult for the user to pick up the designated disk D with fingers. If the disk rack 1 is constructed to provide a greater distance d between the stored disks D with a view to allowing the user to easily pick up the designated disk D with fingers, then the number of the disks D storable in the disk rack 1 , i.e. storage capacity of the disk rack 1 , would have to be reduced.

To avoid the aforesaid problems, an improved disk rack 1 has been proposed which has a disk pusher lever 2 as illustrated in FIG. 2 . In this case, a separate disk pusher lever 2 is provided for each of the storage cells in the disk rack 1 . By the user only operating the disk pusher lever 2 associated with a desired disk D, the desired disk D can be mechanically pushed forward (i.e., from a position denoted by solid line to a position denoted by dot-and-dash line), so that the user can easily pick up and draw the disk D out of the storage cell.

However, the provision of the movable disk pusher lever 2 for each of the storage cells as mentioned above significantly increases the number of component parts, which would thus lead to a complicated structure of the disk rack.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved disk storage apparatus which allows a user to easily take out a desired disk therefrom only with a simplified structure and without having to reduce the number of disks storable therein, and a disk changer apparatus using such an improved disk storage apparatus.

In order to accomplish the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an improved disk storage apparatus which comprises a disk holding mechanism, preferably in the form of a disk rack, including a plurality of storage cells arranged to store a plurality of disks in a stacked array, the disk holding mechanism being movable between a disk loading/unloading position to allow a user to load or unload a desired disk to or from one of the storage cells and a disk storing position, When the disk holding mechanism is in the disk storing position, the disk holding mechanism holds the disks in substantial alignment as viewed in a direction of the stacked array, while when the disk holding mechanism is in the disk loading/unloading position, the disk holding mechanism holds the disks in a staggered configuration as viewed in the direction of the stacked array.

Each of the storage cells has a disk-supporting surface of either of first and second shapes, and the storage cell having the disk-supporting surface of the first shape and the storage cell having the disk-supporting surface of the second shape alternate in the direction of the stacked array in such a manner that the disks can be held in the staggered configuration by the respective disk-supporting surfaces of the storage cells.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disk changer apparatus which comprises: the above-mentioned disk storage; a hand member arranged to take out a designated one of the disks from the disk storage apparatus and place the taken-out designated disk at a predetermined position; and an optical pickup unit arranged to perform either or both of reproduction and recording processes on the designated disk having been placed at the predetermined position by the hand member.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 3 is a sectional side view of a disk changer apparatus including a disk rack 30 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the disk changer apparatus includes the disk rack 30 as a disk storage apparatus having a plurality of storage slots or cells 29 for storing a plurality of disks D (only one disk and storage cell 29 are shown in FIG. 3 ), and an optical pickup unit 31 that takes out a designated disk D from one of the storage cells 29 and performs recording or reproduction to or from the taken-out disk D.

More specifically, the optical pickup unit 31 includes an automatic hand member 32 taking out any one of the disks D that are stored in the disk rack 30 in a stacked array extending in a direction normal to the sheet of the figure. The hand member 32 picks up and takes out a designated disk D from the disk rack 30 to a predetermined location on the right of the figure. Optical pickup 33 performs a recording or reproduction process on the disk D at the predetermined location by irradiating a laser light beam onto the disk D. Construction of the optical pickup 33 is conventional and thus will not be described here.

The disk rack 30 has a dogleg shape as viewed in the direction of the stacked array (i.e., in the direction normal to the sheet of the figure), and the disk rack 30 is pivotably supported by an axis 40 near its dogleg bent point. Here, the disk rack 30 , as a disk holding mechanism, is movable together with an openable/closable front panel 21 provided on the front (left in the figure) end of a housing 20 of the disk changer apparatus. Namely, in response to the movement of the front panel 21 , the disk rack is movable between a disk loading/unloading position to allow a user to load or unload a desired disk D to or from one of the storage cells and a disk storing position. More specifically, as the front panel 21 is opened as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 , the disk rack 30 pivots about the axis 40 in a counterclockwise direction of FIG. 4 , so that all the disks D stored in the respective storage cells 29 of the disk rack 30 are exposed from within the housing 20 to a user. Note that FIG. 3 shows the front panel 21 in its closed position, by which the disk rack 30 is accommodated within the housing 20 as shown. When the recording or reproduction process is performed on a designated one of the stored disks D, the designated disk D is taken out from the disk rack 30 by means of the automatic hand member 32 . It should be appreciated that the front panel 21 and disk rack 30 may be constructed to move independently of each other, rather than moving together as described above. In another alternative, an arrangement may be made to select whether the front panel 21 and disk rack 30 should move together or independently of each other.

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the disk rack 30 when the front panel 21 is in its open position. When the front panel 21 is in the open position, the disks D stored in the disk rack 30 are held in a staggered configuration as viewed in the direction of the stacked array direction (hereinafter stacked array direction ); that is, every other disk D is projected forward or toward the user (leftward in the figure), as illustrated in FIGS. 4 to 6 . Each of the disks projected forward (projected disk) is represented by reference character Da while each of the disks other than the projected disks (non-projected disk) is represented by reference character Db. When the front panel 21 is in the closed position as shown in FIG. 3 , all the disks D stored in the disk rack 30 are held in exact alignment in the stacked array direction. The staggered configuration or arrangement of the stored disks D is achieved by two different shapes of disk-supporting surfaces of the storage cells 19 in the disk rack 30 that contact the outer edges of the corresponding disks D to thereby position the disks D in the predetermined configuration. More specifically, in the disk rack 30 , every other storage cell 29 has a disk-supporting surface of a first shape while each of the other storage cells 29 has a disk-supporting surface of a second shape. That is, in the instant embodiment, the storage cells 29 having the disk-supporting surfaces of the first and second shapes alternate in the stacked array direction as will be later described in detail, so that the disks Da and Db are displaced from each other in the front-rear direction of the disk rack 30 when the front panel 21 is in the open position. The following paragraphs describe in greater detail the construction of the disk rack 30 .

As best shown in a top plan view of FIG. 6 , the storage cells 29 of the disk rack 30 comprise planar partition walls 30 a intervening between the disks D with each of the disks D held widthwise between a pair of opposed partition walls 30 a constituting one of the storage cells 29 . Thus, the partition walls 30 a hold the disks D in respective stacked positions, i.e. respective vertical positions of FIG. 6 . Specifically, the storage cells 29 a having the first-shape disk-supporting surface (hereinafter first-type storage cells 29 a ) and the storage cells 29 b having the second-shape disk-supporting surface (hereinafter second-type storage cells 29 b ) differ from each other in the shape and arrangement of disk rest portions that are provided on the disk-supporting surface for contacting the outer edge of the corresponding disk D to thereby rest the disk D at the predetermined position along the direction of the general plane of the disk D. More specifically, FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the first-type storage cell 29 a , which is taken along the planar surface of the disk Da of FIG. 6 . As shown in FIG. 7 , when the front panel 21 is in the open position, the disk Da stored in the first-type storage cell 29 a abuts against two rest portions 50 a and 51 a by its own weight so that it is fixedly supported at the predetermined projected position by the two lower portions 50 a and 51 a . The first-type storage cell 29 a also has a rear rest portion 52 a that does not contact the disk Da when the front panel 21 is in the open position as shown in FIG. 7 .

Further, FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the second-type storage cell 29 b , which is taken along the planar surface of the disk Db of FIG. 6 . As shown, the disk Db stored in the storage cell 29 b abuts against three rest portions 51 a , 50 b and 52 a . The rest portion 51 a has the same shape as the rest portion 51 a of the above-described first-type storage cell 29 a , the rest portion 50 b projects higher than the rest portion 50 a of the first-type storage cell 29 a , and the rear rest portion 52 a has the same shape as the rest portion 52 a of the first-type storage cell 29 a . The disk Db stored in the second-type storage cell 29 b abuts against the rest portions 50 a and 51 a by its own weight so that it is fixedly supported at the predetermined position primarily by the two lower rest portions 50 a and 51 a . In this case, the rear rest portion 52 a contacts the disk Db as an additional positioning element.

With the rest portion 50 a of the first-type storage cell 29 a having a smaller height than the rest portion 50 b of the second-type storage cell 29 b , each disk Da stored in the first-type storage cell 29 a can be held forward of each disk Db stored in the second-type storage cell 29 b while the front panel 21 is open.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view showing the disk changer apparatus when the front panel 21 is in the closed position and thus the disk rack 30 is completely accommodated within the housing of the disk changer apparatus. As shown, when the front panel 21 is in the closed position, all the disks Da and Db abut against the rest portions 51 a and 52 a by their own weight without contacting the rest portion 50 a , so that they are all fixedly supported by the two rest portions 51 a and 52 a , irrespective of whether the storage cells receiving the disks are of the first type or second type. Thus, when the front panel 21 is in the closed position, all the disks Da and Db are held by the rest portions 51 a and 52 a in substantial alignment in the stacked array direction.

As has been described above, the disk rack 30 according to the embodiment of the present invention is constructed in such a manner that as the front panel 21 is opened, the disks D stored in the disk rack 30 are brought into the staggered configuration by virtue of the different heights of the rest portions 50 a and 50 b of the first-type and second-type storage cells 29 a and 29 b . Thus, if the distance d between the disks D stored in the adjoining first-type and second-type storage cells 29 a and 29 b is represented by d , every adjoining projected disks Da are spaced from each other by two times the normal distance d (i.e., 2 d ), and similarly every adjoining non-projected disks Db are spaced from each other by two times the normal distance d (i.e., 2 d ). By the staggered configuration of the disks D stored in the disk rack 30 and hence the increased distance 2 d between the adjoining projected disks Da and between the adjoining non-projected disks Db, the user is allowed to pick up and take out any desired one of the stored disks with utmost ease. In this case, it is not necessary to construct the disk rack 30 in such a way as to increase the distance d between the disks D (i.e. Da and Db), and thus the disk rack 30 can maintain the same storage capacity (i.e., can store the same number of the disks D) as the conventional counterpart without an increase in its size.

Further, because the disks D are held in the disk rack 30 in alignment in the stacked array direction while the front panel 21 is closed, i.e. while the disk changer apparatus is operable condition, it is only necessary that the hand member 32 of the optical pickup unit 31 have the same function as in the conventional disk changer apparatus in order to take a designated disk D from the disk rack 30 , so that complication of the construction can be avoided.

Furthermore, because the staggered configuration of the disks D stored in the disk rack 30 can be provided by just forming the disk-supporting surfaces of the storage cells 29 a and 29 b into different shapes, the present invention allows the user to readily take out a desired disk from the disk rack 30 without increasing the number of the component parts and hence the cost of the disk rack 30 .

Whereas the preferred embodiment has been described above in relation to the disk rack 30 with the first-type and second-type storage cells 29 a and 29 b shaped as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 , the disk rack 30 may be formed into any other shape, as long as the disk rack 30 can hold the disks D in the staggered configuration when the front panel 21 is in the open position and can store the disks D in alignment in the stacked array direction.

In summary, the present invention arranged in the above-described manner allows the user to easily pick up and take out a desired disk from the disk rack, without requiring a complicated structure and without having to reduce the storage capacity of the disk rack.