Tape cassette

Abstract: A tape cassette of a small size preventing dust on a tape thereof can be achieved by making a distance between a rotation supporting point of a cassette front lid and a cassette bottom surface larger than that between an extended tape surface and the rotation supporting point.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tape cassette, and particularly to a tape cassette which is desirable for a magnetic recording/reproducing device such as a video tape recorder or the like. 2. Description of the Prior Art Generally, a conventional tape cassette to be inserted into a magnetic tape device such as a video tape recorder (which will be referred to as VTR hereinafter) or the. like has a construction that front and inner lids provided on a front surface of a case cover a magnetic tape extended on the front surface of the case (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 63-175279). The above conventional tape cassette is described hereinafter referring to the drawings. Fig. 27 is a perspective view of the tape cassette of the prior art, and Figs. 28 and 29 are sectional views of an important portion of the tape cassette of the prior art. In Figs. 27 to 29, an opening 61 is provided on a front surface of the tape cassette 64 substantially in a whole width of the cassette 64. A magnetic tape 59 is stretched over the opening 61 and is usually covered with front and inner lids 58 and 57. The front lid 58 is free to rotate about a supporting point pin 65. A coil spring 66 is fitted to the supporting point pin 65 and always urges the front lid 58 toward a closing rotation direction. A pair of brackets 67 are provided at an upper and inner side of the front lid 58. A pair of supporting pins 60 provided at both left and right ends of the inner lid 57 are inserted into the brackets 67, and the inside lid 57 can freely rotate about the supporting pins 60. A pair of guiding pins 55 provided at both ends of the inner lid 57 are inserted into a guiding groove 56, and are free to slide thereon. A locking member 50 is rotatably provided at the cassette case 68. A plate spring 70 is fitted to a rear side of the locking member 50 and urges the locking member 50 toward a forward rotation direction. Usually, a protrusion 52 provided on a side plate 54 of the front lid 58 is engaged with a click 53 of the locking member 50, thus the rotation of the front lid 58 is prevented. Operations of the tape cassette constructed as above are described hereinafter. The tape cassette 64 usually prevents the front lid 58 from carelessly opening by means of the locking member 50. On the other hand, when the tape cassette 64 is inserted into the video tape recorder (which will be referred to as VTR hereinafter), the locking member 50 rotates in the D direction against the force of the plate spring 70 by means of a lock releasing member 71 provided at the VTR, thus the protrusion 52 becomes disengaged from the click 53 to enable the front lid 58 to rotate as shown in Fig. 29. Then, when the front lid 58 is moved in the E direction as shown in Fig. 29, the front lid 58 is opened upward. The supporting pins 60 on the inner lid 57 are moved upward about the supporting point pin 65 and the guiding pins 55 are guided along the guiding groove 56. Thus, the lids 58 and 57 are opened. The above is the opening operations for inserting the tape cassette 64 into the VTR, and is reversed when the tape cassette 64 is being taken out. However, in the above construction, a length from the tape surface extended over the front surface of the cassette to the front lid rotation supporting point is larger than that from the cassette bottom surface, so that a wider cassette opening is necessary and the cassette becomes bigger considering the woundable tape length. The present invention provides a tape cassette comprising: a pair of tape reels having a tape wound thereon and to which the ends of said tape are fixed; a cassette case enclosing said tape reels and having a portion of the tape stretched at a front surface thereof; means defining an opening behind said portion of the tape stretched at the front surface of the cassette case; a front lid supported on side surfaces of said cassette case and rotatable between a closed position in which it covers a front surface of said portion of the tape and an open position in which it does not cover the front surface of said portion of the tape; an inner lid supported on said front lid and rotatable between a closed position in which it coves a back surface of said portion of the tape when the front lid is in its closed position and an open position in which it does not cover the back surface of said portion of the tape when the front lid is in its open position; and a guiding groove provided at a side surface of said cassette case and arranged to restrict the rotation of said inner lid; characterized in that an axis of rotation of said front lid is located such that a distance from said axis to a bottom surface of said cassette case is greater than or equal to a distance form said axis to said portion of the tape. The present invention thus provides a tape cassette which can prevent tape damages due to an inner lid with a narrower cassette opening and has an excellent dust protection by utilizing a simple construction. The present invention also provides a tape cassette which can have smaller stroke for opening lids of the cassette and can realize a thinner VTR deck by providing a protrusion engaged with a cutout of the cassette case and an upwardly and downwardly movable moving member for opening the lids. With the construction defined above the cassette case of the present invention can prevent damages on the tape due to the inner lid even with a small opening by utilizing a simple construction, can make smaller a dead space which is occupied by the front lid when the front lid is opened, and can excellently avoid dust on the tape. As described above, the present invention can provide a tape cassette which is characterized by that damages on the tape can be prevented even with the small cassette opening by utilizing a simple construction, dust on the tape can be effectively avoided, a stroke for opening the lids of the cassette case can be made shorter, a VTR deck is made thinner by providing a protrusion which is to be engaged with a cutout of the cassette case or by providing a moving member, which moves upwardly and downwardly, for opening the lids, and a tape cassette can be located in an appropriate position in one cassette holder even when tape cassettes of different sizes are inserted into the same cassette holder. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a plan view of one embodiment of the present invention without a top cassette case, a front lid, and an inner lid. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a tape cassette. Figs. 3 and 4 are sectional views of a main portion of the tape cassette taken along a line X-X. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a main portion of an engaging portion of the front and inside lids. Figs. 6 and 7 are sectional views of the tape cassette taken along a line Y-Y. Fig. 8 is a plan view of the front and inside lids assembled together. Figs. 9, 10, 11 are sectional views of a main portion taken along a line Z-Z when the lids are open or closed. Fig. 12 is a constructional view of a groove of another embodiment. Fig. 13 is a rear surface view of the tape cassette. Fig. 14 is a side view seen from a direction J1. Fig. 15 is a plan view of a cassette holder. Fig. 16 is a front view of the cassette holder. Fig. 17 is a detailed side view of a stage portion seen from a direction J2. Fig. 18 is a front view showing that the tape cassette of the present invention is inserted into the tape holder. Fig. 19 is a front view showing that a tape of a standard type is inserted into the cassette holder. Figs. 20 and 21 are sectional views of a main portion of a lids opening mechanism of a second embodiment. Fig. 22 is a sectional view of a main portion of a lids opening mechanism of a third embodiment. Figs. 23 and 24 are sectional views of a main portion of a lids opening mechanism of a fourth embodiment. Figs. 25 and 26 are sectional views of a main portion of a lids opening mechanism of a fifth embodiment. Fig. 27 is a perspective view of a tape cassette of prior art. And Figs. 28 and 29 are sectional views of a main portion. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A tape cassette of one embodiment of the present invention is described in details hereinafter referring to Figs. 1 to 7. Fig. 1 is a plan view of one embodiment of the present invention without a top cassette case, a front lid, and an inner lid, Fig. 2 is a plan view of a tape cassette, Figs. 3 and 4 are sectional views taken along a line X-X, Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a main portion of an engaging portion of the front and inner lids, and Figs. 6, 7 are sectional views taken along a line Y-Y. In Figs. 1 to 7, a tape cassette 1 has a bottom cassette case 2 and a top cassette case 3 engaged with each other to form a flat cassette case. This cassette case houses two cassette reals 4a, 4b aligned in a same plane, and a magnetic tape 5. The cassette reels 4a, 4b have a starting or finishing end of the magnetic tape 5 fixed thereto respectively, and have the magnetic tape 5 wound thereon. A front lid 6 covers top and front surfaces of the magnetic tape 5 and has a substantially U-shape as shown in Figs. 3 and 4 which show sectional views taken along the line X-X when the lid 6 is open or closed. A pair of front lid rotation supporting shafts 6a, 6b provided at side plates at left and right ends of the front lid 6 are pivotally supported on the cassette cases 2, 3. The front lid 6 rotates about the rotation supporting shafts 6a, 6b toward an upper surface 3a of the top cassette case 3, and opens. The front lid 6 is always urged in the closing direction by means of a front lid urging spring 7 provided at the rotation supporting shaft 6b. This spring 7 is made of a torsion coil spring. One end thereof is supported on the top cassette case 3 and the other end thereof is supported on a pin 6c provided at the front lid rotation supporting shaft 6b. An inner lid 8 covers a back surface of the magnetic tape 5 at openings 9a, 9b. The inner lid 8 has a pair of inner lid rotation supporting shafts 8a protruding left and right, and the inner lid rotation supporting shafts 8a are pivotally supported on a pair of left and right bearings 6e of brackets 6d integrally provided at the front lid 6. The inner lid 8 can rotate about the rotation supporting shafts 8a. Guiding grooves 2a are provided both at left and right ends of the openings 9a, 9b of the bottom cassette case 2 and guide guiding pins 8b of substantially both ends of the inner lid 8 thereon. The openings 9a, 9b are utilized for having a post (not shown) inserted therein, and this post leads the magnetic tape 5 out of the cassette cases 2, 3. The magnetic tape 5 is extended in front of and in parallel with a front surface 13 of the cassette cases 2, 3 having a distance Sm therebetween and is guided by guiding posts 10a, 10b provided both at left and right ends of the cassette cases 2, 3, a guiding post 11, and a guiding roller 12 provided in the cassette case 2, 3. A pair of front lid rotation supporting shafts 6a, 6b of the front lid 6 are located at positions where there is a distance XL from the magnetic tape 5 surface extended in front of and in parallel with the front surface 13 and there is a distance YL from a bottom surface 2c of the bottom cassette case 2. And that XL ≦ YL. The magnetic tape 5 is wound on the cassette reels 4a, 4b to form tape rolls 14a, 14b. A lighthouse 15 made of photodiode emits a beam to a light receiving element (not shown) in order to detect starting and finishing ends of the magnetic tape 5. The lighthouse 15 is inserted into the tape cassette 1 through an insertion hole 16. The beam from the lighthouse 15 inserted into this insertion hole 16 is lead from insides of the cassette cases 2, 3 to outsides via light paths 17a, 17b. In this embodiment, the light paths 17a, 17b are arranged in asymmetric angular positions. In Figs. 6, 7 showing sectional views taken along the line Y-Y when the lids are closed or open, a restricting plate 18 is provided in the openings 9a, 9b, is adjacent to the back surface of the magnetic tape 5 extended in front of the tape cassette 1, and is standing apparoximately straight up from a base portion 19 of the bottom cassette case 2 substantially in parallel with the magnetic tape 5. In Fig. 7 showing a state when the lids are open, a cutout 8c of a U-shape is provided at a position facing the restricting plate 18 of the inner lid 8 and engages with the restricting plate 18. A position 6f of the front lid 6 and a portion 8d of the inner lid 8 contact each other to cover the substantially whole magnetic tape 5 extended at the front surface of the tape cassette 1. Nevertheless, there is a little space among the front surface 18a of the restricting plate 18, the portion 6f of the front lid, and the cutout 8c of the back surface 8. As described above, the front and inner lids 6, 8 cover the restricting plate 18 as well as the magnetic tape 5. Position determining holes 20a, 20b are guiding holes of the tape cassette 1 and are used when the tape cassette 1 is inserted into VTR (not shown). A plan view when the front and inner lids are assembled is shown in Fig. 8, and sectional views taken along the line Z-Z when the lids are closed or open are shown in Figs. 9, 10. In Figs. 8 to 10, first and second cutouts 21, 21a are provided at the cassette cases 2, 3, and lid opening portions 22a, 22b of a lid opening member 22 provided at VTR are inserted into the cutout 21. The cutouts 21, 21a have shapes which do not interfere with the light path 17b from the lighthouse 15. A bracket 6g is formed integrally at an inside of the front lid 6 and is provided at a position facing the cutouts 21, 21a of the top and bottom cassette cases 3, 2. A groove 23 is defined by the top and bottom cassette cases 3, 2, has a V-shape including portions 23a, 23b, and is arranged at a position which does not interfere with the light path 17b from the lighthouse 15. A lid opening moving member 24 moves upward and downward in the cutouts 21, 21a. The lid opening moving member 24 has a shaft 24a at a substantially central portion thereof. One end of the member 24 is a guiding pin 24b, and the other end thercof a free end 24c. The shaft 24a is rotatably and pivotally supported on a bearing 6h of the bracket 6g. The guiding pin 24b is guided by the groove 23. The free end 24c is located at a position substantially equal to the front surface of the front lid 6 when the lids are closed, and is engaged with a cutout 6i of the font lid 6. A locking member 25 is engaged with a locking portion 6j provided at a side plate of the front lid 6 and locks the front lid 6 so that the lid 6 is prevented from accidentally opening when the tape cassette 1 is not inserted in VTR and damages on the magnetic tape 5 are avoided. A locking member urging spring 6j always urges the locking member 25 in the direction in which the locking member 25 comes to be engaged with the locking portion 6j of the front lid 6. Reel brakes 27a, 27b prevent the tape 5 from being loosed due to accidental rotation of the cassette reels 4a, 4b on which the magnetic tape 5 is wound. The reel brakes 27a, 27b rotate about shafts 28a, 28b provided at the cassette cases 2, 3 and are always urged in the direction in which tip ends thereof come to be engaged with the cassette reels 4a, 4b by means of an urging spring (not shown). An accidental erase prevention switch 19 is provided at a substantially rectangular chamber defined by engagement of the cassette cases 2, 3 and can move freely left and right. Fig. 13 is a back surface view of the tape cassette of one embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 14 is a side surface view seen from the J1 direction. Fig. 15 is a plan view of a cassette holder by which the tape cassette is fitted to VTR (not shown), Fig. 16 is a front view of the cassette holder, Fig. 17 is a side view of a stage portion seen from the J2 direction, Fig. 18 is a front view when the tape cassette of the present invention is inserted into the cassette holder, and Fig. 19 is a front view when a usual standard tape cassette is inserted into the cassette holder. In Figs. 13, 14, the tape cassette 1 is larger than a usual standard tape cassette 30 by B dimension in their width. Namely, the width of the usual standard tape cassette 30 is equal to A dimension. A tape cassette guiding stepped portion 31 is formed at the back surface of the tape cassette 1 and has B dimension in its width and C dimension in its depth. A first taper 32 widens in its Width as it goes toward the front and a second taper 33 diverges in its depth. Reel stand insertion holes 34a, 34b at both supplying and winding sides of the reels 4a, 4b are also shown. A misinsertion preventing groove 35 prevents the tape cassette 1 from being inserted inappropriately upside down or in opposite directions. In Figs. 15 to 17, a bottom holder 36 is provided at a cassette holder 37 and has a substantially U-shape. A cassette holder stepped portion 38 is provided at an inside of the bottom cassette holder 36. Top and side surfaces 38a, 38b of the cassette holder stepped portion 38 are engaged with portions 31a and 31b of the tape cassette guiding stage portion 31 of the tape cassette 1 and guide the tape cassette 1. Tapers 39. 40 widens in their width and height as they go toward a rear surface of the cassette holder 37 along the cassette holder stepped portion 38. A misinsertion preventing click 41 prevents the tape cassette 1 from being inserted inappropriately upside down or in opposite direction. In Fig. 18, a top cassette holder 42 is fixed to the bottom cassette holder 36 by means of fixing members (not shown) to form the cassette holder 37 and has plate springs 43a, 43b at a bottom surface thereof. The plate springs 43a, 43b urge the tape cassette 1 or the usual standard tape cassette 30 inserted into the cassette holder 37 downward. Operations of the tape cassette 1 as constructed as described above are explained hereinafter. Fig. 3 is a view when the lids are open, and the magnetic tape 5 stretched over the openings 9a, 9b is usually covered with the front lid 6 and the inner lid 8. When the lid 6 is tried to be opened upward, the lid 6 will not move and rotate in the direction of an arrow I because the locking number 25 collides with the front lid locking portion 6j. Thus damages on the magnetic tape 5 due to an accidental opening of the front lid 6 are prevented. When the tape cassette 1 is inserted into the cassette holder 37 waiting at a tape cassette insertion opening (not shown) of the VTR (not shown) in the direction of an arrow II, the side surface 36b of the bottom cassette holder 36 and the side surface 38b of the cassette holder stepped portion 38 guide a side surface 44b of the tape cassette 1 and the side surface 31b of the tape cassette guiding stepped portion 31 of the tape cassette 1 in the width of the tape cassette. In the height of the tape cassette 1, the tape cassette 1 is urged downward by means of the plate springs 43a, 43b, and a bottom surface 2c of the bottom cassette case 2 contacts and is restrictively guided by a top surface 36a of the bottom cassette holder 36. The top surface 38a of the cassette holder stage portion 38 does not contact the top surface 31a of the tape cassette guiding stepped portion 31. As for restriction in the width direction, the tape cassette 1 is guided and restricted by the side surface 36b of the bottom cassette holder 36 and the side surface 38b of the cassette holder stepped portion 38, and dimensions are determined so that a side surface 44a of the tape cassette 1 is not guided and restricted by a side surface 36c of the bottom cassette holder 36. When the tape cassette 1 is inserted into the cassette holder 37, malfunction of VTR can be surely prevented as a result of sure lamination of misinsertion of the tape cassette 1 because the tape cassette 1 and the cassette holder 37 are made asymmetrical in left and right in addition to a prevention mechanism of the misinsertion prevention groove 35 and the prevention click 41. The tapers 32, 33, 39, 40 at the tape cassette 1, the tape cassette guiding stepped portion 31 of the cassette holder 37, the cassette holder stepped portion 38 realize a smooth insertion of the tape cassette 1 into the cassette holder 37. When the tape cassette 1 is inserted into the cassette holder 37, movements of the tape cassette 1 in the direction of an arrow II is restricted by means of stoppers 36f, 36g provided at the bottom cassette holder 36. At the same time, the front lid locking portion 25 is released by means of a front lid lock leleasing means (not shown) in the cassette holder 37 and rotates to a position shown as a broken line to be disengaged from the front lid locking portion 6j, so that the front lid 6 can be opened upward. As the tape cassette 1 moves in the direction of an arrow III, the lid opening member 22 provided at VTR comes to be located inside the front lid 6 and also contacts the lid opening moving member 24 which is to be engaged with the first and second cutouts 21, 21a of the cassette cases 2, 3, so that there is generated a force in the lid opening moving member 24 to move and rotate the front lid 6 clockwise about the front lid rotation supporting shafts 6a, 6b. Further movement of the front lid 6 in the direction of the arrow III will open the front lid 6 upward about the supporting shafts 6a, 6b against the front lid urging spring 7. The inside lid 8 rotates integrally with the front lid 6 about the inside lid supporting shaft 8a while being guided and restricted by a pair of guiding grooves 1a, 1b provided at both the left and right side plates of the bottom cassette case 2, thus the state shown in Figs. 4, 7, 10 is achieved. Fig. 11 shows that when the lid opening moving member 24 and the front lid 6 are opened excessively by accident, a contacting portion 23c at an upper portion of the groove 23 contacts the guiding pin 24b of the moving member 24 to restrict further opening of the lid 6. On opening the lids 6, 8, a reel brake releasing member (not shown) provided at VTR makes the reel brakes 27a, 27b rotating in the direction departing from the cassette reels 4a, 4b to release stopping the cassette reels 4a, 4b. The reel stands (not shown) in VTR come to support the cassette. reels 4a, 4b, and the reels 4a, 4b are free to rotate. The lighthouse 15, for detecting the starting and finishing ends of the magnetic tape 5, provided at VTR and a loading post (not shown) for winding the magnetic tape 5 on a rotation cylinder (not shown) are inserted into the lighthouse insertion hole 16 and the openings 9a, 9b. When a usual standard tape cassette 30 is inserted into the cassette holder 37, guiding and restricting of the tape cassette 30 in the width direction thereof is down by means of a side surface 46 of the standard tape cassette 30 and the side surface 36b of the cassette holder 36 at one end thereof and by means of the side surface 38b of the cassette holder stage portion 38 and a side surface 47 of the standard tape cassette 30 at the other end thereof. In the height thereof, the tape cassette 30 is urged downward as well as the tape cassette 1 by means of the plate springs 43a, 43b, so that a bottom surface 48 of the standard tape cassette 30 contacts the top surface 36a of the bottom cassette holder 36 to be guided and restricted. Following operations are the same as the tape cassette 1. Operations for inserting the tape cassette 1 and the standard tape cassette 30 into a cassette insertion position at VTR are explained so far, and to take the tape cassette 1 out of VTR, the above opening operation should be only reversed. Namely, the front lid 6 and the inner lid 8 rotate in the closing direction by means of urging forces of the front lid urging spring 7. If the tape cassette 1 is influenced by some kind of shock at this time and the magnetic tape 5 is loosed, the magnetic tape 5 is restricted by the restricting plate 18 not to be loosed backward too much, so that damages on the tape 5 due to contact of the inner lid 8 with the magnetic tape 5 can be prevented. In the first embodiment of the present invention, the stage portion of the tape cassette 1 is provided only at a lower end of one side surface. However, the stage portion can be provided at both side surfaces or at an upper end or the like for example. In the first embodiment, the substantially V-shape groove 23 is divided into two, top cassette case 3 side and bottom cassette case 2 side, at substantially the central portion thereof, but the position and shape are not limited to the above. For example, as shown in Fig. 12 showing a second embodiment, the groove 23 can be divided so that one side 23d of the groove 23 is provided at the bottom cassette case 2 and the other side 23e is provided at the top cassette case 3. The lid opening mechanism of the first embodiment is constructed by the moving member 24. However, a simple protrusion 49 shown in Figs. 20, 21, is used in the second embodiment. In a third embodiment, as shown in Fig. 22, the protrusion 49 provided at the inside of the front lid 6 in the second embodiment is made of an elastic material, and the front lid 6 is restricted to rotate counterclockwise at a state shown in Fig. 22 by means of a stopper (not shown) provided at the top cassette case 3. Therefore, if a lid opening surface 22b of the lid opening member 22 has an error in the height direction, a front lid elastic protrusion 50 absorbs the error by means of elastic distortion in the arrow IV direction, so that a rotation amount of the front lid 6 does not change. A fourth embodiment is shown in Figs. 23, 24. A first protrusion 51 is provided at the inside of the front lid 6. A second protrusion 52 is slidablly supported on an inside of the first protrusion 51. The second protrusion 52 is always urged in the direction engaging with the second cutout 21a by means of a compression coil spring 53. There is provided a stopper (not shown) at the first protrusion 51 so that the second protrusion 52 will not be disengaged from the first protrusion 51. In this embodiment, as well as the second embodiment, if a lid opening surface 22b of the lid opening member 22 has an error in the height direction, the compression coil spring 53 absorbs the error of the second protrusion 52 by means of elastic distortion in the arrow V direction, so that a rotation amount of the front lid 6 does not change. The fifth embodiment is shown in Figs. 25, 26. As well as the third and fourth embodiments, the front lid 6 is restricted to rotate counterclockwise at the state shown in Fig. 25 by means of a stopper (not shown) formed at the top cassette case 3, and if a lid opening surface 22b of the lid opening member 22 has an error in the height direction, a lid opening moving member 54 only rotates about a rotation pin 54a against an urging member 55 and a rotation amount of the front lid 6 does not change.

Claims: A tape cassette (1) comprising: a pair of tape reels (4a, 4b) having a tape (5) wound thereon and to which the ends of said tape are fixed; a cassette case (2, 3) enclosing said tape reels and having a portion of the tape (5) stretched at a front surface thereof; means defining an opening behind said portion of the tape stretched at the front surface of the cassette case; a front lid (6) supported on side surfaces of said cassette case and rotatable between a closed position in which it covers a front surface of said portion of the tape and an open position in which it does not cover the front surface of said portion of the tape; an inner lid (8) supported on said front lid (6) and rotatable between a closed position in which it covers a back surface of said portion of the tape when the front lid (6) is in its closed position and an open position in which it does not cover the back surface of said portion of the tape when the front lid (6) is in its open position; and a guiding groove (2a) provided at a side surface of said cassette case and arranged to restrict the rotation of said inner lid (8); characterized in that an axis of rotation (6a, 6b) of said front lid (6) is located such that a distance from said axis to a bottom surface of said cassette case is greater than or equal to a distance form said axis to said portion of the tape (5). A tape cassette according to claim 1, further comprising a restriction plate (18) located at a back surface of said tape in said opening so as to prevent a backward movement of said portion of the tape, wherein said inner lid (8) is provided with a cutout portion which engages with said restriction plate when said inner lid is in said closed position. A tape cassette according to claim 2, wherein the front and inner lids in their closed positions cover at least a part of the restriction plate (18). A tape cassette according to claims 2 or 3, wherein said restriction plate (18) is provided adjacent to a position determining hole arranged to position said cassette case. A tape cassette according to claim 1, further comprising: a cutout provided at the front surface, where said tape is not extended, of said cassette case; and a protrusion provided at an inside of said front lid and engaging with said cutout when said lids are closed, said protrusion being adapted to come into contact with a member provided in a cassette loading apparatus in which said cassette is to be loaded so that said lids are opened by the contact of said protrusion with said member when said cassette is loaded into said apparatus. A tape cassette according to claim 5, wherein the protrusion which engages with said cutout when the lids are closed has elasticity. A tape cassette according to claim 5, wherein the cutout is provided at the front surface, where the tape is not extended, of the cassette case so as not to interfere with alight path which extends from a location inside the cassette case to a location outside the cassette case. A tape cassette according to claim 5 further comprising an urging member always urging the protrusion in the direction where the protrusion comes to be engaged with the cutout. A tape cassette according to claim 1, further comprising: a cutout provided at the front surface, where said tape is not extended, of said cassette case; and a moving member engaged with said front lid and movable in upward and downward directions in said cutout by being guided by said cassette case, wherein said front and inner lids are moved between their respective closed positions and open positions by an upward or downward movement of said moving member, said moving member being adapted to come into contact with an opening member provided in a cassette loading apparatus in which said cassette is to be loaded so that said moving member is moved upwardly by the contact thereof with said opening member when said cassette is loaded into said apparatus. A tape cassette according to claim 9, wherein the moving member is rotatably supported on the front lid at one end thereof and is regulated by means of a moving member guiding groove provided at a side surface, in the cutout, of the cassette case at the other end thereof. A tape cassette according to claim 9 further comprising an urging member supported on the front lid at one end thereof and on the moving member at the other end thereof and always urging the moving member downward. A tape cassette according to claim 10 further comprising: a bracket integrally formed at a position, facing the cutout, of the inside of the front lid; a hole, for receiving a light emitting element, provided at an inside of the cassette case; a light path, for passing a light from said light emitting element via a side surface of the cassette case, provided at the cassette case; a groove of a substantially curved shape provided at least at one side surface of the cutout so as not to interfere with said light path; and said moving member rotatably and pivotally supported on said bracket and guided by said curved groove so as to move upward or downward in the cutout. A tape cassette according to claim 12, wherein the moving member is rotatably and pivotally supported by the bracket and has one end guided by the curved groove and the other end free, and said the other end is positioned at a position substantially equal to a front surface of the front lid when the lids are closed. A tape cassette according to claim 10, wherein said pair of tape reels are housed in the cassette case and the moving member guiding groove is defined both by engaging a top cassette case forming a substantially upper half of the cassette case and a bottom cassette case forming a substantially lower half of the cassette case. A tape cassette according to any one of claims 10 to 14, wherein the movement of the moving member is restricted by an upper end of the moving member guiding groove.

Inventors: HONSHO HIRONORI, SAITO FUMINARI, HONSHO, HIRONORI, SAITO, FUMINARI
Applicants: MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC IND CO LTD, MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.
Application year: 1990
Main classification: G11B23
IPC codes: G11B23