Patent ID: 8141109

Claim:
A disc drive apparatus, comprising: an outer casing including a disc insertion slot through which a disc-like recording medium is inserted and ejected; a disc drive unit that includes a disc table on which the disc-like recording medium is mounted, a spindle motor for causing the disc table to rotate, an optical pickup that is moved in a radial direction of the disc-like recording medium mounted on the disc table, and a pickup base for supporting the optical pickup such that the optical pickup becomes movable in the radial direction of the disc-like recording medium, the disk drive unit being movable in a direction in which it moves farther away from a recording surface of the disc-like recording medium; a slider that includes a main body and a rack gear and is movable in a first direction that is the same as an insertion direction of the disc-like recording medium with respect to the disc insertion slot and a second direction that is the same as an ejection direction of the disc-like recording medium, the slider being moved in the second direction during loading of the disc-like recording medium and moved in the first direction during ejection of the disc-like recording medium; a drive motor that functions as a drive source for moving the slider in the first direction and the second direction; a deceleration gear group that intermeshes with the rack gear of the slider and to which a drive force of the drive motor is transmitted; a rotatable eject lever that is rotated in one rotational direction to press the disc-like recording medium during the ejection of the disc-like recording medium and causes the disc-like recording medium to be ejected from the disc insertion slot; and a link member that is coupled with the eject lever and to which the drive force of the drive motor is transmitted via the slider so that the link member becomes movable, the slider being provided with a lock plate that is movably supported by the main body and moved between a lock position at which the rack gear is locked with respect to the main body and a lock release position at which the lock of the rack gear with respect to the main body is released to enable the main body to move with respect to the rack gear in the first direction and the second direction, and a slide plate that is supported by the main body while being movable in the first direction and the second direction and includes a pressed portion that is pressed in the first direction, a lock release portion for moving the lock plate from the lock position to the lock release position at a time the pressed portion is pressed and moved in the first direction, and a press portion for pressing the main body and moving it in the first direction at the time the lock plate is moved to the lock release position.