Multi-cassette loading system

Abstract: A device for transferring cassettes (30, 40) of different sizes with reels spaced at different distances between loading and operative positions comprises a housing (10) associated to engaging means (60, 61) setting a cassette on reference supports (50, 52), driving means (94) and a mechanism (80) for adjusting the center-to-center distance of said driving means (94). Means (14, 14') such as notches/edges are provided in the transfer device (1) and/or its housing (10) for engagement by said means (60, 61) so that when a small-size cassette is placed in said housing (10), the adjusting mechanism (80) is connected to the housing (10) and thus powered by its movement to adjust the spacing of the driving means (94) while, when a large-size cassette is inserted, the adjusting mechanism (80) stays inoperative, preferably locked by a retainer (108). In the most preferred embodiment, the engaging means (60, 61) consist of two pressure rollers which distribute pressure evenly on any inserted cassette and can temporarily power a lever (120) to ensure perfect horizontal setting of an inserted cassette (30) of small size.

Description: The present invention relates to systems for loading/unloading cassettes in apparatus which record and/or play back data on information carriers that they enclose and more particularly to loading/unloading systems operable with cassettes of different sizes. Mechanisms have been developed for loading cassettes through an introduction slot in a housing which then performs an horizontal and a vertical movement, see f.i. the EP-A- 0463786 reflecting the preamble of claim 1. Unfortunately, they have proven to be poorly suited to operate with cassettes of different sizes having a substantial discrepancy in width because when a large-size cassette is securely held in the housing, then a small-size cassette barely protrudes from it and thus proves difficult to be picked-up by the user or when the small-size cassette protrudes sufficiently, then the large-size cassette is not securely held because of its large overhang. In addition, the device actuating the elements of the unit to be adapted to the size of the inserted cassette can be positioned only laterally with respect to the housing, something not always convenient. Further, the different cassettes of a same family must have the same thickness. To deal with such drawbacks or limitations, housings have been designed for undergoing a movement in a single direction to transfer the cassette to its operative position : the German application DE 33 27 403 discloses a device including a mechanical feeler mounted in the housing which performs just a vertical movement; the U.K. application 2,164,193 discloses a cover embodying rails linked by a movable parallelogram which can be displaced for scanning the format of the inserted cassette, the cover being then pivoted; but they either incorporate a rather complex mechanism to scan the size of the inserted cassette and/or require a large stroke for adjusting components of the unit; accordingly, they have not been successful. In order to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks, loading systems have been proposed embodying a so-called "drawer mechanism" and incorporating either a dedicated housing for each size of cassettes such as disclosed in the EP-A- 0398317 or a single housing which further incorporates positioning and/or driving means for a small-size cassette such as described in the EP-A- 0415411. These loading systems occupy too large a volume, are rather complicated and thus, none has achieved a commercial success. Accordingly, the main object of the present invention is to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks by providing a simple, reliable and compact system which ensures the loading of cassettes of different sizes and simultaneously adapts the driving, recording and/or playback elements of the unit to the size of the inserted cassette. A further object of the present invention is to utilize means already existing in loading systems to minimize increase in the number of parts, costs, required volume or overall height. A device according to the invention is defined in appended claim 1. Further embodiments are defined in dependent claims 2 to 10. Further advantages, particularities and features will appear from the following, non-limiting description to which further improvements, modifications can be brought without departing from the scope of the invention, in conjunction with the drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a top view of a loading/unloading system incorporating the device of the invention in its eject/inoperative position; no cassette being placed therein. Fig. 2 is a lateral end view of the mechanism appearing on Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a partial view similar to Fig. 1, the mechanism having transferred a cassette of large size above its operative position. Fig. 4 is a partial view similar to Fig. 2, the mechanism being in the position of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is similar to Fig. 4, the cassette being a small-size one. Fig. 6 is a partial perspective view of the device shown on Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a detail of some elements of Fig. 5. Fig. 8 is similar to Fig. 4, the cassette being in operative position. Figs. 9 and 9A are similar to Fig. 8 and show a specific element in two different positions. Fig. 10 is a detail of an assembly appearing in Figs. 1 to 6, shown in two operative positions. For clarity and simplicity, only the elements required for the understanding of the invention appear on each figure. In the described embodiment, the cassettes are the Standard (large size) and Mini (small size) ones of the DVC (Digital Video Cassette) format. A Professional DVC is intermediate in plan view but not used for consumer applications. Those cassettes are parallelepiped, different in thickness, their shells being of different sizes in plan view. Turning to Figs. 1 and 2, the loading/unloading system mainly comprises a drawer 1 incorporating a housing 10, the pattern of which is slightly larger than that of the largest cassette and includes peripheral walls 13 defining a cassette location which are slightly tilted outwards to ensure easy centering of such a cassette. This housing 10 includes in its bottom wall, in the portion close to the main frame 90, a shallow recess 11 slightly larger than the Mini cassette with peripheral walls 15, slightly tilted outwards, defining a location for such a cassette. Further, several openings are provided in this bottom wall to allow passage of all elements having to cooperate with any cassette and its information carrier, such as those setting said carrier at the operative level and the driving and/or playback, record means in operation. The housing 10 bears at its corners studs 12 engaging inclined grooves 2 inside lateral elements, such as walls 5, 5', of the drawer 1 to allow a vertical movement of the housing 10 relative to the drawer 1 to lower, upon loading movement, an inserted cassette onto the reference supports 50, 52 and driving means 94 or raise it from there before ejection from the unit. Close to the housing 10, apertures 3, 3' are provided in the drawer to improve pick-up, removal of any cassette therefrom. The drawer 1 is supported horizontally by wheels 56 fixed on the main frame 90 and is driven by an electric micromotor and a gear-train, elements both well-known, thus not shown. As in any cassette/ cartridge apparatus, pressure or engaging means are provided to cooperate with the cassette/cartridge, once in operative position, to push it on reference supports 50, 52 setting its level with respect to the record/playback means. According to a preferred embodiment, those pressure or engaging means consist of two rollers 60, 61, free to rotate, undergoing the action of resilient means 62 pulling them towards the main frame 90. Each roller is guided and supported at its ends by a pair of grooves 82, 83 formed in the lateral walls 81 of a U-shaped support 80 which is movable relative to the frame 90 thanks to studs and grooves, not shown, located at the corners of its horizontal plate 84. A lever 120 is connected to both rollers 60, 61, one serving as a pivot, the other one as a driver. Two symmetrical grooves 86 are provided in the plate 84 for the passage of a pair of shafts 91; each shaft is guided by an arcuate slot 95 in the main frame 90, riveted on a triangular plate 92 (Fig. 10) which rotates around a common shaft 96 mounted on the main frame 90 and supports a driving spool 94 for a cassette reel. Accordingly, a translation of the support 80 for instance in the loading direction of the drawer 1 (Fig. 1- arrow F) powers the simultaneous rotation of the two triangular plates 92 because of the interaction of the grooves 86 and slots 95 on the shafts 91, resulting in a variation of the center-to-center distance of the driving spools 94 between a position shown on Fig. 10 in full line and corresponding to that of the reels of a large-size cassette and the position shown in dash lines for a small-size cassette. The spools 94 can be driven either directly by an electric motor or by gears 100 with their periphery 101 always meshing with the spools 94 when the latter are moved from one position to the other. In carrying out the present invention, the rollers 60, 61 cooperate with the drawer 1 and the housing 10 by providing a connection which can be enabled to coordinate the movements of said drawer and said movable support 80 to adjust automatically the spacing of the driving means 94, or disabled to keep the spacing of said driving means unchanged. As shown on Figs. 2 and 6, the periphery of the two rollers 60, 61 rides on the upper edge of the lateral walls 5, 5' of the drawer 1, the profile of which (Figs. 2, 4, 6, 7) is first horizontal, then tilted in the vicinity of notches 14 located in the lateral walls 13 of the housing 10 and providing edges 14'to let said rollers stay clear of or engage a cassette placed in the housing 10. With a large-size cassette 40 placed in the housing 10, upon inward movement of the drawer (Figs. 3, 4), both rollers 60, 61 leave the edge of the walls 5, 5' and engage the upper surface 41 of the cassette shell. Said surface 41 being at a level equal to or slightly higher than the upper edge of the housing 10, the rollers stay clear of elements such as the notches 14 of the housing. Thus, the support 80 stays inactive in the position shown on Fig. 4 and in the most preferred embodiment, it is locked there by the engagement of the roller 60 or its shaft in the groove 110 provided in a retainer 108 (more visible on Figs. 6, 9) in the form of a lateral vertical plate mounted on the frame laterally and adjacent to the drawer 1. This groove 110 has, viewed from the side, an horizontal T-shape and the roller 60 can exit only when at the level of its horizontal section 112. In case of a large-size cassette or no cassette at all, the roller 60 or its shaft remains engaged in the vertical section 114A resp. 114B (see Figs. 9, 9A), thus preventing any displacement of the support 80 (Figs. 4, 8). Near the end of stroke of the drawer 1, the front part of the housing 10 comes against an abutment 55 mounted on the main frame 90 and further translation of the drawer 1 powers, through the studs 12 guided by the grooves 2, the lowering of the housing 10 and the cassette 40. The rollers 60, 61 undergoing the action of the resilient means 62 push the cassette 40 on its reference supports 50, 52 and driving means 94 with the specified pressure (Fig. 8). As can be acknowledged, the relative position of the rollers 60, 61 ensures an appropriate distribution of the pressure forces on the shell of the cassette 40 while allowing opening of its shutter 42 protecting the information carrier. As shown on Figs. 1 and 6, spaced rubber bands 64 can be placed on the rollers 60, 61 to apply pressure where the established standard requires, f.i. where the cassette shell has thicker walls. Turning now to Figs. 5, 6 with a small-size cassette 30 in the recess 11 of the housing., upon inward movement of the drawer, the roller 61 stays on the edge of the walls 5, 5' while the roller 60 moves down, engages the upper surface 31 of the cassette shell and faces the horizontal section 112 of the groove 110; accordingly the roller 60 can exit from the retainer 108. Because the level of the surface 31 is below the top level of the vertical edges 14', the roller 60 abuts against said edges 14' (Fig. 7) and connect the support 80 to the drawer 1. Then, the support 80 is translated by the drawer in the direction of the arrow F (Fig. 1) and both shafts 91 rotate the plates 92 (Fig. 10). The coordination of the movement of the drawer 1, housing 10 and support 80 sets the driving spools 94 at the appropriate spacing (Fig. 5) before the housing 10 comes against the abutment 55 to lower the cassette 30. Simultaneously, the roller 61 stays clear of the cassette 30, while the roller 60, actuated by the resilient means 62, pushes it on the reference supports 50, 52 and driving spools 94 (Figs. 5,9). Because cassettes 30, 40 are set on reference supports 52 in operative position, it can be advantageous for either improving the efficiency and reliability of the present device or handling different cassettes of similar thickness to space the bottom surfaces of the housing 10 and recess 11 more apart to increase temporarily the difference of levels between the upper surfaces 31, 41 of the different cassettes. It can also be appreciated that, by providing an additional recess with corresponding notches, the present loading system could handle a third cassette, f.i. the Professional DVC. In the DVC format, electronic memories are provided within each cassette 30, 40 with contacts at their rear end for engagement by terminals 130 mounted on the plate 84. However, it has been noted that, because of the resilience of said terminals, the cassette 30 may be tilted (Fig. 9) in operative position and thus playback/ record quality or interface with the electronic memory can be hampered. To overcome such drawback, the lever 120 (Figs. 6, 9, 9A) is actuated by the rollers 60, 61 while its other end 124 has a rounded shape for acting on the upper surface 31 of the housing of a small cassette 30. So, when the roller 60 moves downwards while the roller 61 stays on the edge of the walls 5, 5', the lever 120 is pivoted clockwise around roller 61, slides along the oblong aperture 122 while its end 124 pushes the rear end of the cassette 30 downwards to set it perfectly horizontal and ensure correct engagement of the terminals 130 by the memory contacts. When the cassette reaches its operative position (Fig. 9A), the roller 61 moves slightly downwards along the tilted edge of the notches 14 and thus pivots the lever 120 counter-clockwise as the roller 60 does not move; so its end 124 is clear of the cassette 30 as no pressure should be applied there in operative mode. When any cassette set in operative position (Figs. 8, 9A) has to be ejected, the drawer 1 is translated in the opposite direction, for instance by reversing the polarity of the power supply to its micro-motor. First, the housing 10 is moved upwards, towards the drawer 1 by the studs 12 sliding in the grooves 2 to clear the cassette 30, 40 from the reference supports 50, 52 and driving means 94. Simultaneously, the rollers 60, 61 are moved upwards (Figs. 4,5) and the drawer 1 being still translated, both roll on the edges of the lateral walls 5, 5' which bring them back to their inoperative level. Resilient means attached between the plate 84 and the frame 90 or an abutment fixed on the drawer 1, translates the support 80 back to the position of Fig. 1 if a small-size cassette 30 was in operative position. Upon completing its translation, the drawer brings the cassettes 30, 40 in their eject position (Fig. 1) for pick-up by the user, this being improved by providing additional openings 6, 6' and 16, 16' in the lateral walls of the drawer 1 and the housing 10. Instead of rollers 60, 61, rods or bars, such as presently foreseen in the loading mechanisms of the drawer type designed for a single size of cassette (for instance VHS units), can be used, once fitted with wheels or flanges, to keep the same existing parts. Thanks to this design, the present invention enables the loading mechanisms and thus the existing units to keep their original height, that is to say the one for a large-size cassette and in addition the space that they occupy and is needed for their movement is not increased. Further, no specific part has to be added to coordinate the movement of the drawer and the spacing of the driving means. 1 drawer 2 inclined grooves 3, 3' apertures 5, 5' lateral walls 6, 6' openings 10 housing 11 recess 12 studs 13 peripheral walls 14 notches 14' vertical edge 15 peripheral walls 16, 16' openings 30 small-size cassette 31 upper surface of 30 40 large-size cassette 41 upper surface of 40 42 shutter 50, 52 supports 55 abutment 56 wheels 60, 61 engaging means, rollers 62 resilient means 64 spaced rubber bands 80 U-shaped support 81 spaced rubber bands 81 lateral wall 82, 83 grooves 84 horizontal plate 86 symmetrical grooves 90 main frame 91 pair of shafts 92 plates 94 driving spools 95 arcuate slots 96 common shaft 100 gears 101 periphery of the gears 108 retainer 110 groove 112 horizontal section 114A, 114B vertical sections 120 lever 122 oblong aperture 124 other end of lever 120 130 terminals

Claims: Device for transferring, in a record/playback unit, cassettes (30, 40) of different sizes having reels spaced at different distances between loading and operative positions, said transfer device ( 1 ) comprising : a movable housing (10) associated to engaging means (60, 61) co-operating with a cassette placed therein to push the cassette, when in operative position, on the cassette driving means (94) mounted on a main frame (90), a mechanism (80) adjusting the spacing of said cassette driving means (94) to that of the reels of an inserted cassette, characterised in that said engaging means (60, 61) provide a connection between said adjusting mechanism (80) and said transfer device (1) having a cassette placed therein, said connection being either disabled when the engaging means (60, 61) are at a first level where they stay clear of said transfer device (1) to keep said adjusting mechanism (80) inactive or, enabled when said engaging means (60, 61) are at a second level where they engage the transfer device (1) during its actuation to connect and power the adjusting mechanism (80). Device according to claim 1, characterised in that said engaging means (60, 61) are supported by the lateral walls (5, 5') of the transfer device (1) and guided by said adjusting mechanism (80) and, when set at their second level, engage notches, edges (14, 14') provided on the transfer device (1) and/or its housing (10). Device according to claim 2, characterised in that the transfer device (1) and/or its housing (10) includes a notch (14) providing an edge (14') of an height greater than the one of a small-size cassette (30) placed therein so that said engaging means (60, 61), when engaging said small-size cassette, abut against said edge (14') to connect the adjusting mechanism (80) to the transfer device (1). Device according to claim 3, characterised in that the height of the edge (14') is smaller than or equal to that of a large-size cassette (40) to let said engaging means (60, 61) stay clear of said edge (14') to prevent engagement of the transfer device (1) in the presence of a large-size cassette. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that said engaging means (60,61) include at least one roller. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that said engaging means (60, 61) include a pair of rollers to distribute pressure on the cassette (30, 40) whatever its size. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that said engaging means (60, 61) undergo the action of resilient means (62) to push a cassette placed in the housing (10) on the cassette driving means (94). Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that it further includes a retainer (108) mounted on the main frame (90) laterally and adjacent to the transfer device (1), said retainer having a groove (110) co-operating with the engaging means (60, 61) to lock in inoperative position or release said engaging means (60, 61). Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the engaging means (60, 61) support and power a mobile lever (120) for temporarily pushing a cassette (30) in horizontal position. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the housing (10), having the pattern of a large-size cassette, includes a recess (11) defining a location for a small-size cassette, the bottom walls of said housing and said recess being spaced apart to help discriminate the size of the cassette.

Inventors: D ALAYER DE COSTEMORE D ARC ST, SISOPHA VEOSAMOUTH, D'ALAYER DE COSTEMORE D'ARC, STEPHANE MARIE ANDRE, SISOPHA, VEOSAMOUTH, d'Alayer de Costemore d'Arc, Stéphane Marie André
Applicants: STAAR SA, STAAR SOCIETE ANONYME
Application year: 1996
Main classification: G11B25
IPC codes: G11B15, G11B25