MAGNETIC HEAD ADJUSTING DEVICE

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a magnetic head adjusting device comprising a head retainer for retaining a magnetic head, the head retainer being mounted to a carrier adapted to reciprocate toward a center of a driving shaft for driving a magnetic disc, an azimuth adjusting mechanism for varying a direction of the head retainer with respect to a rotative axis parallel to the driving shaft, and a head attitude adjusting mechanism for letting the head retainer approach to or move away from the magnetic disc and incline relative to the same plane as the magnetic disc. With this arrangement, when a position and attitude of the magnetic head are varied during or after assembling of the device, such variation may be accurately corrected.

Description: The present invention relates to a magnetic recording/reproducing device for magnetically recording and reproducing information by scanning a magnetic head in a radial direction of a circular magnetic disc, and more particularly to a magnetic head adjusting device for adjusting a position and attitude, etc. of the magnetic head relative to the magnetic disc. Conventionally, there exists a magnetic recording/reproducing device for magnetically recording and reproducing information by rotating a driving shaft of the circular magnetic disc and moving the magnetic head retained by a carrier in the radial direction of the magnetic disc. In order to perform accurate recording and reproducing, accuracy of scanning of the magnetic head to the magnetic disc must be high. Concretely, it is necessary to precisely determine a relative positional relation between the driving shaft and the magnetic head. There has been conventionally provided means for properly positioning the magnetic head by a jig upon retaining the magnetic head to the carrier and thereafter fixing the magnetic head to the carrier by adhesive. The aforementioned prior art has the following problem. The adhesive interposed between the magnetic head and the carrier is changed in size upon curing. Especially, the larger is an amount of the adhesive, the more remarkable is the change in size. As a result, a position and attitude of the magnetic head bonded to the carrier are changed in association with curing of the adhesive. In some cases, the amount of change in position exceeds a permissible value. However, even when the amount of change in position of the magnetic head finally exceeds the permissible value, it is impossible to positionally readjust the magnetic head bonded to the carrier. Accordingly, such a poorly adjusted product must be abandoned uneconomically. Another prior art device is disclosed in IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin vol.10 No.12 May 1968 at pages 1906-1907. This shows a magnetic head mounting device which is adjustable to maintain the magnetic head in proper alignment with respect to the magnetic media. This system uses a rocker plate and a socket plate which are adjustable relative to one another via adjusting screws. This allows for angular attitude adjustment in two planes, but does not allow for longitudinal displacement. The present invention aims to solve the problem of providing both angular and longitudinal displacement adjustment. Accordingly the invention provides a magnetic head adjusting device comprising a driving shaft for driving a magnetic disc; a carrier adapted to reciprocate towards a centre of said driving shaft; an azimuth adjusting mechanism having a rotating member mounted on said carrier and adapted to be adjusted in its rotational position about a rotative axis parallel to said driving shaft; and a head attitude adjusting mechanism comprising a head attitude adjustment member retained by said rotating member and a head retainer having a magnetic head which is arranged to let said head retainer approach or move away from one surface of said magnetic disc and incline relative to a parallel plane opposed to the one surface of said magnetic disc, characterised by an off track adjusting mechanism which is displaceable in a direction perpendicular to both a moving direction of said carrier and an axial direction of said driving shaft and fixable at a desired position. Preferably the off track adjusting mechanism comprises a head retainer fastening screw for fixing said head attitude adjustment member to said head retainer in opposed relation to each other and an off track adjustment screw supported to said head attitude adjustment member for displacing said head retainer in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of said carrier. The invention will be more fully understood from the following detailed description and appended claims when taken with the drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a preferred embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a front elevational view of the magnetic head adjusting device in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a rear elevational view of the magnetic head adjusting device in Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken along the line A-A in Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is a horizontal sectional view taken a long the line B-B in Fig. 2; and Fig. 6 is a horizontal sectional view showing a modified embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS There will be now described a preferred embodiment of the present invention with reference to Figs. 1 to 5. Two carrier shafts 2 and 3 are arranged in perpendicular relation to a driving shaft 41 for driving a magnetic disc (not shown), and a carrier 1 is slidably retained to the carrier shafts 2 and 3. The carrier 1 is provided with a rack 4 meshing with a driving gear 40, and is biased to one direction by a spring 6 retained to a frame 5 at one end thereof which frame is partially shown. In a general arrangement, there are connected to the carrier 1 a rotating member 11, a head attitude adjustment member 26, a head retainer 22 and a head base 20 having a magnetic head 19 in this order. The connections of each member constitute an azimuth adjusting mechanism 18, an off-track adjusting mechanism 34 and a head attitude adjusting mechanism 39. A connecting condition of each member and each of the adjusting mechanisms will be explained in the following. The head base 20 is fixed to a bent portion 23 formed at the head retainer 22 by a screw 21. The head retainer 22 is formed with screw holes 31 with which a rod-like off-track adjustment screw 32 is threadedly engaged. The off-track adjustment screw 32 is rotatably supported to projections 33 formed at the head attitude adjustment member 26 with axial movement of the screw inhibited. The off-track adjustment screw 32 is arranged in such a direction that its axial direction is perpendicular to both axial directions of the carrier shafts 2 and 3 and the driving shaft 41. Both of the head retainer 22 and the head attitude adjustment member 26 are fixable by head retainer fastening screws 29. That is to say, the head retainer fastening screws 29 are inserted through washers 27 and spring washers 28 into elongated holes 25 formed at the head attitude adjustment member 26, and are threadedly engaged with screw holes 30 formed at the head retainer 22. Thusly, the aforementioned off-track adjusting mechanism is constituted. The rotating member 11 is formed with three holes 17 at predetermined positions, and the head attitude adjustment member 26 is formed with screw holes 24 at such positions as to mate with these holes 17. First, second and third adjustment screws 35, 36 and 37 are inserted through the holes 17 from the back side of the carrier 1, and are threadedly engaged through elastic members 38 with the screw holes 24. The screw hole 24 engaged with the first adjustment screw 35 is opposed to the center of the magnetic head 19. The screw hole 24 engaged with the second adjustment screw 36 is positioned on a line connecting the center 42 of the driving shaft 41 with the first adjustment screw 35. Finally, the screw hole 24 engaged with the third adjustment screw 37 is positioned on a line perpendicular to a line connecting the first adjustment screw 35 with the second adjustment screw 36, which former line passing through the first adjustment screw 35. Head portions of the adjustment screws 35, 36 and 37 are positioned in a space part of the carrier 1, and has no engagement relation with the carrier 1, The elastic members 38 are formed by spirally winding a steel wire once. Thus, the aforementioned head attitude adjusting mechanism 39 is constituted. The rotating member 11 is rotatable about the first adjustment screw 37 relative to the carrier 1. Further, the carrier 1 and the rotating member 11 are fixable to each other by means of rotating member fastening screws 10. That is to say, the rotating member fastening screws 10 are inserted through washers 8 and spring washers 9 into two holes 7 formed at the carrier 1, and are threadedly engaged with screw holes 12 formed at the rotating member 11. The carrier 1 is formed with a circular hole 13. A base portion of an eccentric cam 15 is inserted into the hole 13 from the back side of the carrier 1 and is rotatably retained in the hole 13. The eccentric cam 15 is provided with a projection 16 formed eccentrically from the axis at the free end thereof. The projection 16 is engaged with an elongated engagement hole 14 formed at the rotating member 11. Thus, the aforementioned azimuth adjusting mechanism 18 is constituted. In operation, when the driving gear 40 meshing with the rack 4 is rotated by means of a motor (not shown) as shown in Fig. 2, the carrier 1 is moved along the carrier shafts 2 and 3. As a result, the magnetic head 19 is moved toward the center 42 of the driving shaft 41 for driving the magnetic disc thereby to carry out recording or reproducing of information. An adjustment operation of the magnetic head 19 is carried out in the following manner. First, the adjustment screws 35, 36 and 37 are rotated to let the head attitude adjustment member 26 approach to or move away from one surface of the magnetic disc, thereby determining a facing position of the magnetic head 19 relative to the magnetic disc. At this time, fastening extent of the three adjustment screws 35, 36 and 37 is adjusted to adjust parallelism of the head attitude adjustment member 26 relative to the one surface of the magnetic disc and thereby obtain a parallel contact condition of the magnetic head 19 to the magnetic disc. In other words, when the second adjustment screw 36 is rotated, the head attitude adjustment member 26 is inclined with respect to the line connecting the first adjustment screw 35 with the third adjustment screw 37 as a fulcrum, while when the third adjustment screw 37 is rotated, the head attitude adjustment member 26 is inclined with respect to the line connecting the first adjustment screw 35 with the second adjustment screw 36 as a fulcrum. In this manner, as the three adjustment screws 35, 36 and 37 are used, parallelism of the head attitude adjustment member 26 to the magnetic disc may be easily obtained. Then, the off-track adjustment screw 32 is rotated to displace the head retainer 22 relative to the head attitude adjustment member 26. As a result, the magnetic head 19 is displaced in such a direction as perpendicular to both the moving direction of the carrier 1 and the axial direction of the driving shaft 41, and is positioned on a line parallel to the moving direction of the carrier 1 and passing through the center 42 of the driving shaft 41. At this time, since the head retainer 22 is displaced in tight contact with the head attitude adjustment member 26 the parallelism of which has been adjusted, the contact condition of the magnetic head 19 to the magnetic disc is not varied. Such adjustment of off-track may be carried out with the head retainer fastening screws 29 remaining fastened because a range of the adjustment is in a micron unit. Finally, the eccentric cam 15 engaged with the circular hole 13 of the carrier 1 is rotated to rotate the rotating member 11 by means of the projection 16 and direct the head gap of the magnetic head 19 toward the center 42 of the driving shaft 41. Thus, an azimuth angle of the magnetic head 19 is adjusted. As the range of such adjustment is also in a micron unit, the adjustment may be carried out with the rotating member fastening screws 10 remaining fastened. At this time, since the rotating member 11 is rotated about the center of the magnetic head 19, that is, the first adjustment screw 35, there is no possibility of the position of the magnetic head 19 being varied. In this way, each of the aforementioned adjusting operations may be carried out at a desired time during or after assembly. In addition, the magnetic head 19 may be displaced to various positions and directions by combining each of the adjusting operations to expectedly attain accurate adjustment. Accordingly, even if it is found that the position of the magnetic head 19 is incorrect after assembling of the device, the magnetic head 19 may be easily corrected to the accurate position, and as a result, defective assembling may be recovered. While the end portion of the rotating member 11 is separated from the rotating member fastening screws 10, the end portion and a part of the carrier 1 are cramped by a leaf spring 43 to prevent floating of the rotating member 11 from the carrier 1. In a modified embodiment as shown in Fig. 6, a first adjustment screw 44 having a head portion 45 adapted to urge the back surface of the carrier 1 may be used in substitution for the first adjustment screw 35 to cramp both the carrier 1 and the rotating member 11 by means of the head portion 45 and the elastic member 38. Further, the elastic member 38 may include a coil spring and rubber, etc.

Claims: A magnetic head adjusting device comprising a driving shaft (41) for driving a magnetic disc; a carrier (1) adapted to reciprocate towards a centre of said driving shaft; an azimuth adjusting mechanism (18) having a rotating member (11) mounted on said carrier (1) and adapted to be adjusted in its rotational position about a rotative axis parallel to said driving shaft; and a head attitude adjusting mechanism (39) comprising a head attitude adjustment member (26) retained by said rotating member (11) and a head retainer (22) having a magnetic head (19) which is arranged to let said head retainer (22) approach or move away from one surface of said magnetic disc and incline relative to a parallel plane opposed to the one surface of said magnetic disc, characterised by an off-track adjusting mechanism (34) which is displaceable in a direction perpendicular to both a moving direction of said carrier and an axial direction of said driving shaft and fixable at a desired position. The magnetic head adjusting device as defined in claim 1 wherein said off-track adjusting mechanism (34) comprises a head retainer fastening screw (29) for fixing said head attitude adjustment member to said head retainer in opposed relation to each other and an off-track adjustment screw (32) supported to said head attitude adjustment member for displacing said head retainer in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of said carrier.

Inventors: AOKI, CHIHIRO, KAWAHIRA, MASAYOSHI, MURAKAMI, KEISUKE
Applicants: TOKYO ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
Application year: 1986
Main classification: G11B5
IPC codes: G11B21, G11B5