Abstract:
In order to achieve a drive system having a simple structure in which a cartridge having therein a wound magnetic tape can be supplied or replaced in small installation space, a carrier unit structure is employed in which a cartridge is horizontally retracted from a magazine capable of horizontally inserting/removing the cartridge and then held therein. Further, a drive unit is located beneath the carrier unit, and the cartridge held in the carrier unit is released so that the cartridge can be dropped and loaded into the drive unit.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention is effectively applied to a technique for loading a cartridge, particularly a magnetic tape cartridge, into a drive unit. More specifically, the present invention relates to a drive system equipped with an autoloader mechanism, and an autoloading device. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     In this type of technique for loading a cartridge into a drive unit known is a cartridge autoloading device having a mechanism in which a unit capable of accommodating a plurality of cartridges is provided at an insertion/ejection port side of a general-purpose drive unit so that these cartridges may be selectively loaded into the drive unit. 
     FIG. 2 is an example of system overview of a typical cartridge autoloading device. 
     In this figure, reference numeral  21  denotes a drive unit where data in a cartridge  22  mounted therein can be read and written under a control from a host device. 
     An autoloading device  24  includes a magazine  25  capable of accommodating the cartridge in tiers. While a carrier unit  26  is guided by a guide rail  27  to move up and down in the autoloading device, it can selectively remove the cartridge  22  from the magazine  25  and accommodate it therein. In other words, the carrier unit  26  serves to selectively load the cartridge  22  into the drive unit  21  from the magazine  25  and return the cartridge  22  ejected from the drive unit  21  to the magazine  25 . 
     In this arrangement, for replacement of the cartridge  22  in the drive unit  21 , the carrier unit  26  in a standby mode at an insertion/ejection port  21 a of the drive unit  21  receives the cartridge horizontally ejected from the drive unit  21 , and the carrier unit  26  elevates and lowers up to a predetermined position in height where the cartridge  22  is returned to a certain empty tier of the magazine  25  positioned at the side opposite to the drive unit  21 . 
     Also, when a new cartridge is loaded into the drive unit  21 , the carrier unit  26  receives the cartridge  22  from the magazine  25 , and elevates/lowers to the position at the insertion/ejection port  21   a  of the drive unit  21  where the cartridge  22  held by the carrier unit  26  is then ejected to the drive unit  21  side to thereby load the cartridge into the drive unit  21 . 
     Therefore, in both cases of returning and loading the cartridge  22 , a series of the following operations must be repeated: horizontally retracting/advancing the cartridge, elevating/lowering the carrier unit, and then horizontally retracting/advancing the cartridge again. This involves complicated steps, making the structures of the carrier unit  26  and the drive unit  21  complicated, and requires sufficient space to install the entire system. 
     The present invention has been made in view of the above-stated problems, and its technical object is to achieve a drive system having a simple structure in which a cartridge can be supplied or replaced in small installation space. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In order to solve the foregoing technical problems, according to the present invention, a drive unit is positioned beneath a cartridge autoloading device so that the number of steps for conveying a cartridge between a magazine and the drive unit may be reduced. 
     More specifically, a carrier unit structure is employed in which a cartridge is horizontally retracted from a magazine capable of horizontally inserting/removing the cartridge and then held therein. Further, a drive unit is located beneath the carrier unit, and the cartridge held in the carrier unit is released so that the cartridge can be dropped and loaded into the drive unit. 
     Further, the magazine itself is rotated about the pivot portion and falls down to the outside of the drive unit to expose a cartridge receiving section to the external. This allows the magazine or the cartridge received within the magazine to be easily replaced. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     In the accompanying drawings: 
     FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a drive system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a positional relation between an autoloading device and a drive unit in the prior art; and 
     FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the structure of a carrier unit in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention; 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The preferred embodiment of the present intention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     Referring now to FIG. 1, an autoloader system in accordance with the present embodiment is made up of an autoloading device  301  positioned at an upper portion and a drive unit  302  positioned at a lower portion. 
     The autoloading device  301  includes a magazine  25  capable of accommodating a cartridge  22  in seven tiers which is maintained in a magazine tray  303 , and an pivot portion  304  in the vicinity of the bottom of the magazine tray  303 . The magazine  25  is integrated with an opening/closing door  309  so that the opening/closing door  309  is rotated counterclockwise about the pivot portion  304  to open the opening/closing door  309  whereby the cartridge  22  received in the magazine  25  and the cartridge receiving section therefor may be exposed to the external. Under this condition, both the magazine  25  and the cartridge  22  can be replaced. 
     In the autoloading device  302 , a carrier unit  26  is located at a side of the magazine  25 , which is guided by a guide rail  27  so that the it may be elevated/lowered. The carrier unit  26  is fixed to a portion of an elevation/lowering belt  34  juxtaposed with the guide rail  27 , and is operable to elevate/lower as the elevating/lowering belt  34  rotates. The elevation/lowering belt  34  is suspended from a distal end of a driving shaft  33 . Thus, as an elevation/lowering motor  32  is rotated, the carrier unit  26  may be elevated/lowered. An applied voltage to the elevation/lowering motor  32  is controlled by a control unit  41 . 
     A detection flag plate  202  is disposed between the guide rail  27  and the magazine  25 . Cutaway portions  203  are formed in a side of the detection flag plate  202  at a predetermined interval, and are detected by an optical sensor  201  of the carrier unit  26  to thereby control a position of the carrier unit  26  in height relative to the magazine  25 . 
     FIG. 3 shows the structure of the carrier unit  26  in more detail. In this figure, a holding belt  305   a  is suspended by a pair of guide rollers  306   a  and  307   a,  and the guide roller  307   a  is given a rotational force by a holding belt motor  308   a  to rotate the holding belt  305   a.  Also, at a position opposite thereto, a holding belt  305   b  is suspended by a pair of guide rollers  306   b  and  307   b,  and the guide roller  307   b  is given a rotational force by a holding belt motor  308   b  to rotate the holding belt  305   b.    
     As the holding belt motors  308   a  and  308   b  are rotated, the holding belts  305   a  and  305   b  retract (feed upward in FIG. 3) the cartridge  22  into the carrier unit  26  while the cartridge  22  is held therebetween. The inverse rotation of the holding belt motors  308   a  and  308   b  will allow the cartridge  22  held therebetween to be ejected toward the magazine  25 . 
     The holding belts  305   a  and  305   b  are maintained at a certain interval in position by clamping arms  310   a  and  310   b  , and the clamping arms  310   a  and  310   b  are moved so as to approach to or be apart from each other by a clamping motor  311 . In other words, the clamping motor  311  is operable so that the holding belts  305   a  and  305   b  may approach to or be apart from each other. When the holding belts  305   a  and  305   b  are moved to approach to each other, the cartridge  22  is held therebetween with a biasing force. When the holding belts  305   a  and  305   b  are moved to be apart from each other, the cartridge  22  held between these holding belts is released. 
     The drive unit  302  is located therebeneath, and the location which the cartridge  22  is to be loaded into is positioned exactly under the carrier unit  26 , including a clutch mechanism  312  at the bottom of this location. The clutch mechanism  312  can be lifted up and down, under which a drive motor  313  is disposed. The clutch mechanism  312  is appropriately engaged with a reel (not shown) disposed on the bottom surface of the cartridge  22  to rotate the reel so that a magnetic tape wound around the reel may be fed or rewound. 
     The drive unit  302  includes a movable guide pin  314 , and the guide pin  314  allows the magnetic tape in the cartridge  22  to be removed from the cartridge  22 . The removed magnetic tape is guided by a plurality of guide rollers  315 ,  316  to be brought into contact with a magnetic head (not shown), where the data can be read and written. 
     Now, the procedure of loading into the drive unit  302  the cartridge  22  from the magazine  25  with the above-states arrangement will be described. 
     First, the control unit  41  actuates the elevation/lowering motor  32  to stop the carrier unit  26  at a predetermined tier of the magazine  25 . At this time, the control unit  41  enters (counts) a detection signal of the optical sensor  201  and identifies the position of the magazine  25  in height (the number of ties). 
     Then, the control unit  41  actuates the holding belt motors  308   a  and  308   b  to rotate the holding belts  305   a  and  305   b  so that a certain cartridge  22  is retracted to the carrier unit  26  side from the magazine  25 . Accordingly, the cartridge  22  is held between the holding belts  305   a  and  305   b  and maintained in the carrier unit  26 . 
     The control unit  41  then actuates the elevation/lowering motor  32  again to lower the carrier unit  26  up to the lowermost of the guide rail  27 , i.e., up to the position in contact with the drive unit  302 . 
     Under this condition, the control unit  41  actuates the clamping motor  311  to move the clamping arms  310   a  and  310   b  so as to be apart from each other. This makes the holding belts  305   a  and  305   b  open relative to each other while the cartridge  22  held therebetween is released from the holding state to be dropped into the drive unit  302  and loaded. 
     For the cartridge  22  mounted in the drive unit  302 , the clutch mechanism  312  is in contact with a reel (not shown) in the cartridge  22 , and a magnetic tape (not shown) wound on the reel is drawn by the guide pin  314 . The magnetic tape is passed through the guide rollers  315  and  316  and brought into contact with a magnetic head (not shown), where data can be read from and written into the magnetic tape. 
     After the data processing of the cartridge  22  has been performed at the drive unit  302  in this way, the clutch mechanism  312  urges the cartridge  22  to be pushed up toward the drive unit  302 . At this time, the carrier unit  26  in a standby mode at the position in contact with the drive unit  302  operates the clamping motor  311  so that the holding belts  305   a  an d  305   b  clamp therebetween the pushed cartridge  22 . 
     Under a control of the control unit  41 , the carrier unit  26  elevates up to a predetermined position in height, i.e., the tier position of the magazine  25  where the cartridge  22  is to be returned while holding the cartridge  22 . 
     The control unit  41  then operates the holding belt motors  308   a  and  308   b  to eject the held cartridge  22  to the magazine  25  side. 
     As described above, according to the present embodiment, the cartridge  22  can be fed and loaded into the drive unit  302  from the magazine  25  through the following three steps of: (1) retracting the cartridge  22  from the magazine  25 , (2) lowering the carrier unit  26 , and (3) releasing the cartridge  22 . In particular, the releasing step (3) can be handled in a short time. Therefore, the cartridge  22  can be extremely efficiently loaded into the drive unit as compared to the prior art in which the cartridge  22  in the carrier unit is horizontally fed and loaded into the drive unit. 
     With this structure according to the present embodiment, since the drive unit  302  is disposed beneath the autoloading device  301 , the installation area required for the entire system can be reduced.