Patent ID: 7876524

Claim:
A transporting mechanism for a library apparatus, comprising a rail; a rotation shaft guided on the rail for movement from a reference position to a standstill position on a straight movement path; a grasping mechanism unit coupled to the rotation shaft for connection to the rail for relative rotation around a longitudinal axis of the rotation shaft, the grasping mechanism unit designed to grasp an object; a contact piece attached to the grasping mechanism unit, the contact piece extending in parallel with the longitudinal axis of the rotation shaft; a cam plate extending within a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the rotation shaft, the cam plate defining a cam groove for receiving the contact piece; and a driving mechanism designed to drive the contact piece toward the standstill position around the rotation shaft when the rotation shaft moves from the reference position to the standstill position, wherein the cam groove includes: a reference groove receiving the contact piece on a perpendicular line set perpendicular to the straight movement path at the longitudinal axis of the rotation shaft when the rotation shaft is positioned at the reference position; a terminal groove receiving the contact piece on an extension of the straight movement path extending from the standstill position when the rotation shaft is positioned at the standstill position; and a guide groove extending from the reference groove to the terminal groove, wherein the guide groove includes: a first guide wall staying outward of a tangent line tangent to a circle, having a center at the longitudinal axis of the rotation shaft and inscribing the contact piece, when the rotation shaft moves from the reference position to the standstill position, the tangent line extending from the contact piece in a direction of advancement of the contact piece; and a second guide wall staying inward of a tangent line tangent to a circle, having a center at the longitudinal axis of the rotation shaft and circumscribing the contact piece, when the rotation shaft moves from the standstill position to the reference position, the tangent line extending from the contact piece in a direction of advancement of the contact piece.