Patent ID: 7180702

Claim:
A data cartridge handling apparatus comprising: a housing; a ring-shaped carousel rotatably mounted within the housing, between an inner periphery and an outer periphery the carousel having a plurality of cartridge-accommodating cells angularly arranged therearound; a transducing drive mounted within the housing outside the outer periphery; a motor which rotates the carousel to facilitate selective alignment of a cell and the drive along a radial dimension of the carousel; a picker mounted within the housing at a point within the inner periphery of the carousel, the picker having a picker arm which linearly translates in the radial dimension; a distal end of the picker arm having a gripper which selectively engages and transports a data cartridge in the radial dimension between the drive and a cell aligned therewith; the gripper comprising a thumb, at least one of the gripper and the thumb being pivotally connected to the picker arm to allow selective engagement and disengagement of the thumb with a feature on a data cartridge; a trip member mounted in the housing between the outer periphery and the drive for actuating pivoting of the gripper and thereby the selective disengagement; wherein the feature is reel lock notch formed on an underside of the data cartridge, and wherein the thumb has a projection formed thereon which extends into the reel lock notch during the selective engagement.