Head moving device

The disclosed head moving device linearly and intermittently moves a head, such as a recording or reproducing head, a predetermined unit amount. A moving mechanism linearly moves the head in response to the rotation of an output shaft of a motor. A rotation component operatively connected to the output shaft of the motor rotates in response to the rotation of the output shaft so that one revolution of the rotation component corresponds to the predetermined unit amount of movement of the head, and an arresting element arrests the rotation component every revolution.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention: 
The present invention relates to a head moving device, and more 
particularly to a head moving device for linearly and intermittently 
moving a head a predetermined unit amount. 
2. Description of the Prior Art: 
Various devices have been developed for recording signals along concentric 
tracks of a disc-shaped rotary recording medium, for reproducing the 
recorded signals, or for doing both. The medium may be in the form of a 
magnetic or optical disc such as a floppy disc or video disc. In such 
devices it is necessary to move a recording or reproducing head 
intermittently along the radial direction of the record bearing medium, in 
predetermined discrete amounts, that is, the pitch of the recording tracks 
on the record bearing medium. 
It is essential to position the head correctly in order to record a signal 
at a predetermined position on the record bearing medium. Such positioning 
makes the medium interchangeable with other apparatus during recording and 
allows proper reproduction without track deviation. 
A head moving device that linearly moves the head in response to rotation 
of a motor is normally constructed such that an indexing member rotated by 
the motor within one revolution over the head's whole range of movement is 
provided with an arresting element (for example, a click stop element) to 
arrest the rotated member at each track position of the head. Thus, 
movement of the head a predetermined amount is controlled by arresting the 
rotated member in a rotational phase corresponding to each track position 
of the head. 
However, to record signals at, for example, fifty different positions on 
the recording medium, the indexing member must be correctly arrested in 
fifty different rotational phases. Therefore, for example, when a click 
stop element is used as the arresting element, fifty click grooves must be 
correctly indexed and formed on the indexing rotation member. However, it 
is very difficult in practice to index and form this many click grooves 
correctly. First, it is impossible to move the head by a predetermined 
unitary amount with high precision due to inferior indexing accuracy. 
Further, the indexing rotation member is very expensive and its dimension 
or diameter must be unavoidably large to obtain high accuracy. This is 
quite inconvenient. 
Also, this kind of device has to be provided with a mechanism for adjusting 
the head position on the record bearing medium. 
The most conventional head adjusting mechanism positions the head by 
adjusting the position of the head relative to a head carriage which 
supports the head. However, in order to realize this effect, the 
construction for producing the position adjustment becomes large and 
complicated, the contact of the head with the medium is at times inferior, 
and the part to be adjusted is very close to the head, so that the danger 
of damaging the head during adjustment is high, while complicated and 
inconvenient handling is necessary. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a novel 
head moving device capable of positioning a head on a record bearing 
medium correctly. 
It is another object of the present invention to provide a compact and 
economical head moving device for linearly and intermittently moving the 
head, whereby intermittent movement of the head by a predetermined unit 
amount can be obtained very precisely, while indexing means does not need 
such high precision. 
To achieve these objects, according to a preferred embodiment of the 
present invention, a head moving device for linearly and intermittently 
moving a head by a predetermined unit amount includes: a motor having a 
rotatable output shaft; a moving mechanism for linearly moving the head in 
response to the rotation of the output shaft of the motor; a rotation 
device operatively connected to the output shaft of the motor and arranged 
to rotate in response to the rotation of the output shaft so that one 
revolution of the rotation device corresponds to the predetermined unit 
amount of movement of the head; and arresting element for arresting the 
rotation device every one revolution thereof. 
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a novel head 
moving device having a very simple head position adjusting construction 
for linearly moving the head by the rotation of a motor without 
complicated handling, whereby position of the head can be adjusted 
correctly without damaging the contact state between the head and a record 
bearing medium and thereby damaging the head. 
To achieve these objects, according to a preferred embodiment of the 
present invention, a head moving device is constructed with a first 
rotation shaft having a worm wheel; a moving element operatively connected 
to the first rotation shaft for linearly moving the head in response to 
the rotation of the first rotation shaft; a second rotation shaft having a 
worm gear engaged with the first rotation shaft worm wheel and arranged in 
crossing relation with the first rotation shaft in a rotatable and axially 
slidable manner; a motor for rotating the second rotation shaft; and an 
adjusting element for adjusting the second rotation shaft in its axial 
direction. 
Further objects and features of the present invention will be apparent from 
the following description of preferred embodiments with reference to the 
accompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
In FIGS. 1 and 2, 1 is a flexible magnetic disc as, i.e., a disc-shaped 
rotary record bearing medium, and 2 is a disc rotating motor for rotating 
the disc at a predetermined speed of revolution. Motor 2 has a spindle 2a 
on which is mounted a center core provided at the center of the magnetic 
disc 1. A magnetic head 3 for recording and/or reproducing a signal is 
supported on a support plate 4 mounted in an opening 5a of a head carriage 
5. Cylindrical part 5b of carriage 5 is slidably mounted on a first guide 
rod 7a secured on a main body chassis 6, while lever part 5c on the 
opposite side of the head carriage 5 is kept in contact with a second 
guide rod 7b secured on the main body chassis 6 in parallel with the first 
guide rod 7a. A screw shaft 8 is mounted close to the cylindrical part 5b 
of head carriage 5 in parrallel therewith. Screw shaft 8 has a screw 8a 
with a lead for moving the carriage 5 and is supported by bearings 8b on 
the main body chassis 6. A projection 5d is provided on the side surface 
of the cylindrical part 5b of carriage 5 so as to engage the screw 8a. 
Projection 5d engages screw 8a. A head moving motor 9 is secured on the 
main body chassis 6 and has an output shaft 9a with a pinion gear 10. The 
pinion gear 10 is engaged with an intermediate gear 11. A pinion gear 11a 
is attached to the intermediate gear 11 and engages a click gear 12 acting 
as a rotation member for indexing head position. The click gear 12 is 
fixedly attached to a shaft 13 supported by bearings 19 (FIG. 4) on the 
main body chassis 6, while the shaft 13 crosses the screw shaft 8 and is 
provided with a worm gear 14. The worm gear 14 engages a worm wheel 16 
mounted at the end of the screw shaft 8. Consequently, the rotation of the 
motor 9 is reduced via the route 10-11-11a-12-14-16, transmitted to the 
screw shaft 8, and then converted into a linear movement by the engagement 
of the screw 8a with the projection 5d and transmitted to the head 
carriage 5. The screw 8a and the carriage 5 are essential to the mechanism 
for linearly moving the head 3. 
The reduction ratio of the above gear train is selected so that the head 
carriage 5 moves on the magnetic disc 1 by one track pitch for one 
revolution of the click gear 12, namely, one revolution of the worm gear 
14. Click gear 12 has an engaging pin 12a, which is arranged to be 
arrested by a click arm 15 (FIG. 2). Click arm 15 acts as an arresting 
element. 
As shown in FIG. 3 in enlargement, the click arm 15 has a notch 15b for 
engaging the pin 12a, is rotatably supported on a shaft 17 secured to the 
main body chassis 6, and is urged by a spring 24 in the counterclockwise 
direction in FIG. 3, namely, in the direction in which the arm 15 is to 
engages the pin 12a. Further, the click arm 15 is provided with a pin 15a 
extending in the middle between two contacts 18a and 18b of a normally 
close leaf switch 18. Contacts 18a and 18b are normally kept in contact 
with each other by the force of elasticity of the contact 18b. When the 
engaging pin 12a of click gear 12 is arrested by the notch 15b of the 
click arm 15, the pin 15a separates the contact 18b from the contact 18a. 
As click gear 12 rotates and the pin 12a disengages notch 15b, the click 
arm 15 turns by the force of the spring 24 in the counterclockwise 
direction in the drawing, as shown by the two dot line of FIG. 3, and 
keeps in contact with a boss 12b of the click gear 12. 
As shown in FIG. 4, the shaft 13 having the click gear 12 and the worm gear 
14 is rotatably supported on bearings 19 provided on a part of the main 
body chassis 6 so as to be slidable in its axial direction, and is pushed 
at its end to the right by the head of thrust pin 21 urged to the right by 
a spring 20. Against this pushing force, end 22a of a tracking dial 22 
abuts so as the opposite end of the shaft 13 so as to position the shaft 
13 in the thrust direction. A male screw is formed on a shaft part 22b of 
the tracking dial 22 to engage a female screw 6a formed on a part of the 
main body chassis 6. Proper friction opposing the rotation of the tracking 
dial 22 is produced by the elastic force of a spring washer 23. This 
friction is selected in such a range that even if, as stated above, at the 
time of the intermittent movement of the head 3, the shaft 13 rotates, the 
dial 22 does not rotate because of the friction at the contact part of the 
tracking dial 22 with the shaft 13. 
FIG. 5 shows a driving circuit associated with the head moving motor 9, in 
which 51 is a switch for changing the direction of rotation of the motor 
9, 52 is a diode, 53, 54 and 55 are switching transistors, 56 and 57 are 
inverters, and 18 is the leaf switch. 
The operation of the above-described head moving device is as follows. 
In FIG. 5, a trigger pulse for intermittently moving the head 3 is supplied 
to an input terminal 58 connected to the base of transistor 55. This 
trigger pulse has a predetermined width of positive polarity, as shown in 
FIG. 5, and is supplied to move head 3 by one track pitch at the time of 
recording or reproduction. While this pulse is high, the transistor 55 is 
turned on. Accordingly, the transistors 53 and 54 are turned on and off 
through the inverters 56 and 57, respectively, and current then flows 
through the motor 9, in the direction determined by switch 51, from a 
terminal +V of electric power source. The switch 51 determines the 
direction of the rotation of the motor 9, namely, that of the movement of 
the head 3. When the motor 9 is started, as mentioned above, the click 
gear 12 rotates via the pinion gear 10, the intermediate gear 11 and the 
pinion gear 11a. In FIG. 3, along with the rotation of the click gear 12, 
the engaging pin 12a is disengaged from the notch 15b of the click arm 15. 
Click arm 15 turns counterclockwise, as shown in the dotted line in FIG. 
3, and the contact 18b of the leaf switch 18, being released from the 
pressure of pin 15a, comes into contact with the contact 18a because of 
its elasticity. The width of the trigger pulse is selected to guarantee 
the time during which the engaging pin 12a is disengaged from the notch 
15b of the click arm 15 against the force of the spring 24. When leaf 
switch 18 is thus turned on, the transistor 53 is kept on, and while the 
transistor 53 is on, motor 9 continues to run. When the engaging pin 12a 
of click gear 12 again comes to the position facing notch 15b of click arm 
15, the click arm 15 is urged by engaging pin 12a to turn clockwise 
against the force of spring 24 until the engaging pin 12a again engages 
notch 15b of the click arm 15. At this time, the contact 18b is separated 
from contact 18a by pin 15a. Thus, transistor 53 is turned off to cut off 
the current supply to motor 9, while the transistor 54 is turned on to 
short-circuit both terminals of the motor 9. The motor 9 thus brakes. As 
click gear 12 thus rotates one revolution, the head 3 is moved by one 
track pitch relative to the disc 1 because one revolution of the click 
gear 12 corresponds to the movement by one track pitch of the head 
carriage 5. 
When the recorded disc 1 is reproduced, it is often difficult to guarantee 
completely accurate positioning of the head 3 relative to a recording 
track by such a step moving mechanism as mentioned above because of the 
shrinkage of the magnetic disc 1 and the mechanism system caused by either 
the temperature and the humidity difference at the time of recording and 
reproduction or the uneven accuracy among the members. In such a case, it 
is possible to carry out a so-called tracking adjustment in such a manner 
that, by rotating the tracking dial 22, the worm gear 14 moves in the 
axial direction of the shaft 13 to rotate the worm wheel 16. The phase of 
the worm wheel 16 is thus changed relative to engaging pin 12a of the 
click gear 12 arrested by the notch 15b of the click arm 15 to change the 
position of head 3. In this case, the fear of damage to head 3 is 
completely eliminated because the position of head 3 is adjusted at a 
position very far from the head 3, while the head touch is not damaged. 
Handling is easy because the head 3 is moved with the head carriage 5. 
It goes without saying that the above-mentioned construction is effective 
not only for the tracking at the time of the signal reproduction but also 
for the adjustment of the standard position of the head 3 at the time of 
the production of a recording and/or reproducing apparatus. 
As described in detail, according to the present invention, in a head 
moving device for linearly and intermittently moving a head by a 
predetermined unit amount, the intermittent movement of the head by the 
predetermined unit amount is performed very accurately, while index means 
does not need such high accuracy, so that a compact and economical head 
moving device is realized, which is remarkably advantageous. 
Further, according to the present invention, in a head moving device for 
linearly moving a head by rotation of a motor, no complicated handling or 
construction are necessary, whereby the head touch is not damaged, while 
the position of the head is adjusted correctly without danger of damaging 
the head, which is remarkably advantageous for this kind of device. 
The disclosed embodiment describes a case where the present invention is 
applied to a head moving device for a magnetic recording and/or 
reproducing apparatus in which a magnetic disc is used. However, it goes 
without saying that the present invention is not limited to such an 
embodiment. For example, the record bearing medium could be a magnetic 
drum. The present invention can also be applied to a head moving device 
for an optical disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus in which an 
optical disc is used as the record bearing medium. Further, the present 
invention can be applied to a print head moving device for a printer.