Patent ID: 6961206

Claim:
A cassette holder into which a large cassette and a small cassette are selectively loaded, the small cassette having a width smaller than a width of the large cassette, the cassette holder comprising: a frame, an upper surface of the frame being a part of a bottom surface of a cassette opening having a size that fits the large cassette, the large or the small cassette being able to be loaded through the cassette opening; a pair of positioning-restriction elements, provided inside the cassette holder when viewed from the cassette opening, a distance between the positioning-restriction elements having a width enough for the small cassette to be loaded therebetween to a predetermined position in the cassette holder; a cassette detector to detect the large cassette when the large cassette is loaded through the cassette opening, at least a part of the cassette detector being positioned as being closer to a front-end section of the cassette opening than the positioning-restriction elements are when viewed from the cassette opening; a drive mechanism to move the positioning-restriction elements from positions at which the positioning-restriction elements allow the small cassette but not the large cassette to be loaded therebetween to other positions at which the positioning-restriction elements do not obstruct the large cassette to be loaded, when the cassette detector detects the large cassette; and first and second flaps, each of the first and second flaps being positioned as being closer to the front-end section of the cassette opening than the positioning-restriction elements are when viewed from the cassette opening, a distance between the first and second flaps being wide enough for the small cassette to be loaded therebetween to the predetermined position in the cassette holder, the first and second flaps being opened to allow the large cassette to be loaded when the first and second flaps are pushed by the large cassette whereas the first and second flaps being engaged with the positioning-restriction elements to obstruct the small cassette from being loaded when at least either of the first or second flaps is pushed by the small cassette.