JPH0668147U - Auto changer for optical disc - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide an autochanger for an optical disk having a structure that reduces the occurrence of warpage of the optical disk and the occurrence of scratches when the optical disk enters or leaves. [Structure] In the optical disc storage unit 2, a holding pin 4 is vertically movably mounted in a hole 5a formed in an outer frame 5 of the optical disc storage unit 2. The holding pin 4 has a spherical shape whose tip has a diameter smaller than that of the center hole 3b of the optical disk 3 and whose bottom has a diameter larger than that of the center hole 3b. The horizontal movement of 6 causes it to move up and down. Since the signal recording surface 3a of the optical disc 3 is held on the holding pins 4 without coming into contact with the disc housing portion 2, it is possible to reduce warpage due to the weight of the optical disc. In addition, since the signal recording surface 3a of the optical disc and the outer frame 5 are inserted and removed without coming into contact with each other, it is possible to reduce the occurrence of scratches on the signal recording surface 3a.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to an autochanger for an optical disc, which reduces the occurrence of warp of the optical disc and the occurrence of scratches when the optical disc is taken in and out.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is an optical disc (optical recording medium) in which a signal that can be read by light is recorded on a disc-shaped disc or information can be recorded. Such optical disks include read-only optical disks, write-once optical disks that can be written only once, and rewritable optical disks that can be erased and recorded. These optical discs have a large recording capacity per unit area, have long-term durability, and have a shorter access time to recorded information than recording media such as tapes. Is widely used in the world.

By the way, when a large number of such optical discs are housed and a desired song is requested, an optical disc corresponding to the request is automatically selected from the many optical discs, and the requested song is automatically reproduced. There is a conventional auto changer (hereinafter, simply referred to as an auto changer). This autochanger has a schematic configuration, for example, as shown in FIG. The autochanger 31 shown in the figure has a shelf-like structure, and stores an optical disk 3 in which a large number of optical disks 3 each containing a plurality of songs are stored (hereinafter, also simply referred to as a storage section) 32. A disk transport mechanism 9 that has a clamp arm 9a that can expand and contract in the horizontal direction and that can clamp the optical disk 3 and that is movable between a large number of optical disks 3 and the reproducing apparatus, a reproducing apparatus 13 that reproduces the optical disk 3, The transport mechanism 9, the control device 14 for controlling the drive of the reproducing device 13, and the like are provided in a substantially sealed container 31a.

When the auto changer 31 requests a desired music piece, the optical disc 3 according to the request is taken out by the disc carrying mechanism 9 from the storing section 32 under the control of the control device 14, and is conveyed to the reproducing device 13 for reproduction. The device 13 automatically reproduces the song in the optical disc 3. In this way, the autochanger 31 is an optical disk reproducing device capable of automatically reproducing a song corresponding to a request for a desired song. The conventional storage section 32 has a structure in which the optical disk 3 is placed on a plate-shaped carrier called a tray, or a shelf-shaped structure. The autochanger 11 shown in FIG. 4 has a storage part 32 having a shelf shape.

[0005]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 By the way, as shown in FIG. 5 (A), both the tray method and the shelf method are used to store the optical disk 3 in the storage section 32 of the autochanger 11 as described above. As shown in FIG. 3B, the signal recording surface 3a of the optical disc 3 is in direct contact with the mounting table 12a, such as a device for supporting the peripheral portion of the optical disc. In order to take out the optical disc 3 from the storage section 32 as described above, for example, the optical disc 3 is clamped by the clamp arm 9a of the disc transport mechanism 9 as described above, and the signal recording surface 3a is pulled out while being in contact with the mounting table 32a. However, the signal recording surface 3a of the optical disc 3 has many minute scratches. Therefore, by repeating the insertion and removal many times, many minute scratches are formed on the signal recording surface 3a of the optical disc 3, which causes the quality of the optical disc to be deteriorated.

Further, since the parts and devices that generate heat are included in the closed outer frame 31a while the automatic changer 31 is moving, the inside of the outer frame 31a, which is the storage environment temperature of the optical disk, is stored. The temperature rises. Therefore, the optical disk 3 made of resin gradually warps. This warp has no influence on the signal reproduction of the optical disc 3 as long as it has a low frequency. However, when the warp has a high frequency, the focus acceleration of the pickup is increased and the reproduction of the optical disc 3 becomes unstable. I will make it. However, as shown in FIG. 5, when the optical disk 3 is directly mounted on the mounting table 32a, the warp of the optical disk 3 follows the surface shape. That is, if the optical disc 3 is placed directly on the mounting table 32a, the warp of the optical disc 3 becomes a high frequency, and the reproduction of the optical disc 3 becomes unstable.

In the case of a reflection type optical disc, for example, the structure of the optical disc has a protective film for preventing oxidation on an aluminum reflective film. This protective film usually uses an ultraviolet curable resin. This protective film is formed by applying an ultraviolet curable resin on the aluminum reflective film and then irradiating it with ultraviolet rays to cure the resin. However, this UV-curable resin causes a volume contraction of 5 to 10% during curing, so that the optical disk already warps at that time. Furthermore, the curing reaction of the protective film does not all end at the time of manufacturing the optical disk, and since the curing reaction is also accelerated by heat, the curing reaction progresses with time even after being stored in the autochanger. , Further warped. Further, since the protective film is stored with the protective film side facing up, there is no obstacle in the direction of the warp due to the hardening of the protective film, and the warp further increases.

The above-mentioned problems caused by scratches on the surface of the optical disk and warpage of the optical disk have not been a problem with conventional optical disks having a low recording density, but an attempt is made to increase the recording density of the optical disk. It becomes a very important issue if you do. In order to increase the recording density, it is necessary to make the width of the information track on the optical disc and the width of the adjacent information track narrower than the conventional one, and accordingly, the beam spot diameter of light must be reduced. Therefore, a read error occurs due to a scratch on the surface of the optical disc, which has not been a problem in the past, or a focus error due to uneven warp.

Therefore, the present invention has been made by paying attention to the above points, and the uneven warp of the optical disk due to the change of the storage environment temperature and the optical disk signal recording surface generated when the optical disk is taken out. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic changer for optical discs in which the occurrence of scratches is reduced.

[0010]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 Therefore, the present invention provides, as a means for achieving the above object, an optical disc autochanger that accommodates a large number of optical discs and automatically selects and reproduces the optical discs according to the request among the accommodated optical discs. An optical disc is housed, which has a holding member including a fitting portion that fits into the center hole of the optical disc and a holding portion that holds the optical disc in a state where the signal recording surface of the optical disc and the upper surface of the optical disc mounting table are not in contact with each other. And an optical disk transport mechanism for loading and unloading the optical disk in such a state that the signal recording surface of the optical disk is not always in contact with the top of the holding member and the optical disk mount. It aims to provide an auto changer for optical discs.

[0011]

【Example】

 In order to solve the above problems, the structure that holds the optical disk so that it does not come into contact with the optical disk storage section may be used. However, if the optical disk is held at the center of the optical disk, the weight of the optical disk may decrease. It is possible to prevent warpage. In addition, it is important that the optical disc is taken in and out without rubbing between the optical disc and the storage part. Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention that realizes such a storage state will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The description of the same parts as those described in the above-mentioned conventional example will be omitted.

First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 4. FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing a structure of a main part of an autochanger according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the optical disk storage unit 2 of the present invention, the optical disk mounting base 2a has a shelf shape as in the above-mentioned conventional example (see FIG. 4). In FIG. 1, the optical disk mounting base 2a has a spherical tip 4a and a brim bottom 4b, as shown in FIG. 2 (A). A holding pin 4 for the optical disc 3 which is mounted so as to be movable up and down is provided in a hole 5a provided in the. The shape of the tip portion 4a of the holding pin 4 is not limited to a spherical shape, and may be a cylindrical shape as shown in FIGS. 2B and 2C or a conical shape.

Here, the upper surface portion 4d of the bottom surface portion 4b is an optical disk holding portion 4d that holds the optical disk 3. The diameter of the tip portion 4a is a sphere having a diameter of about 15 mm, which is slightly smaller than the diameter of the center hole 3b of the optical disc 3, and the bottom portion 4b is smaller than the diameter of the center hole 3b of the optical disc 3. It has a slightly larger diameter and a cylindrical shape with a diameter of about 16 mm. The tip 4a of the holding pin 4 is inserted into the center hole 3b of the optical disc 3 and held by the upper portion 4d of the bottom portion 4b, so that the optical disc 3 can be held.

The holding pin 4 is moved up and down by the horizontal movement of the pin up-and-down moving member 6 that is biased leftward in the drawing by the spring 7. The pin up-and-down moving member 6 is locked by the locking portion 5b of the outer frame 5 so as to move leftward in the drawing. Further, the pin up / down plunger 8 moves in the same direction as the pin up / down plunger 8 by protruding in the direction of the arrow in the figure and pushing the left end 6a of the pin up / down moving member 6. Further, the pin up / down plunger 8 is installed in, for example, the optical disc transport mechanism 9, and can be moved together with the optical disc transport mechanism 9 between the many optical discs 3 accommodated therein. The configuration for moving the vertical plunger 8 to the left or right can be performed by using, for example, a motor and a gear. Further, the left-right movement is configured to move separately from the left-right movement of the optical disc clamp arm 9a.

The vertical movement of the holding pin 4 is made by the concave shape of the pin vertical movement member 6. That is, when the holding pin 4 is at the position 6b of the pin up-and-down moving member 6, the holding pin 4 is most protruded from the upper surface of the outer frame 5 (hereinafter, the uppermost position of the holding pin 4, or When the pin up-and-down moving member 6 is at the position 6c, the holding pin 4 is most retracted on the upper surface of the outer frame 5 (hereinafter, the lowermost position of the holding pin 4). , Or simply referred to as the lowermost position). Then, at the uppermost position, the lower surface 3a of the optical disk 3 held on the holding pin 4 is not in contact with the outer frame 5 of the optical disk storage unit 2, and at the lowermost position, the uppermost portion 4c of the holding pin 4 is located. The state is such that it is below the lower surface 3a of the optical disc 3 clamped by the clamp arm 9a.

Next, the operation of taking out the optical disk 3 from the optical disk housing 2 and the operation of housing the optical disk 3 in the optical disk housing 2 will be described with reference to FIG. First, the holding pin 4 is located at the uppermost position as shown in FIG. When the clamp arm 9a clamps the optical disk 3 after the disk transport mechanism 9 has reached the optical disk storage position, the pin up / down plunger 8 projects in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1 to move the pin up / down moving member 6 in the same direction. By moving, the holding pin 4 is lowered to the lowermost position. With the pin up / down plunger 8 kept in this state, the clamp arm 9a takes out the optical disc 3. After the optical disc 3 is completely taken out and before the disc transport mechanism 9 is driven, the pin up / down plunger 8 is retracted and the holding pin 4 is returned to the uppermost position again. After the pin up / down plunger 8 is completely retracted, the disc transport mechanism 9 transports the optical disc 3 to the reproducing device 13 to complete the ejecting operation.

Next, the optical disc 3 is stored before the disc transport mechanism 9 reaches the optical disc 3 storage position and the clamp arm 9a that clamps the optical disc 3 starts transporting the optical disc 3 toward the storage section 2. Then, the holding pin 4 is kept at the lowermost position by the pin up / down plunger 8. In this state, the clamp arm 9a that clamps the optical disc 3 conveys the optical disc 3 to a position where the center hole 3a of the optical disc 3 and the tip portion 4a coincide with each other. After that, when the holding pin 4 is raised by the pin up / down plunger 8, the holding pin 4 fits into the center hole 3a and holds the optical disk. After that, the clamp of the disc transport mechanism 9 is released, and the storage operation of the optical disc 3 is completed.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 is a side sectional view showing a structure of a main part of an autochanger according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Also in the optical disk storage section 12 of the second embodiment, the optical disk mounting base 12a is in the shape of a shelf, as in the above-described conventional example and the storage section 2 of the first embodiment (see FIG. 4). In FIG. 3, in the optical disk storage unit 12, a holding member 15 having the same shape as the holding pin 4 including the tip portion 4a and the bottom surface portion 4b described above is provided on the optical disk mounting base 12a. The optical disk 3 is held by the holding member 15 without the surface 3a and the mounting table 12a contacting each other. The holding member 15 is made of, for example, a member having a shape such as the holding pin 4 separately from the mounting base 12a, and the member is fixed on the mounting base 12a, or is mounted on the mounting base 12a. It is integrally molded.

In order to take out the optical disc 3 from the storage section 12, the clamp arm 9a clamps the optical disc 3 and then the disc recording mechanism 3 causes the signal recording surface 3a of the optical disc 3 to come from the top portion 15a of the holding member 15. The optical disc 3 is lifted until it reaches the upper side, and then the optical disc 3 is taken out in the horizontal direction. Further, in order to store the optical disc 3, the clamp arm 9a that clamps the optical disc 3 is conveyed to a position where the center hole 3a of the optical disc 3 and the tip portion 15a coincide with each other. At this time, the signal recording surface 3a is moved horizontally with the optical disk holding member 15 above the topmost portion 15c. Then, the disc transport mechanism 9 is lowered until the optical disc 3 is held by the holding member 15, and the clamp is released when the optical disc 3 is lowered to the position where the optical disc 3 is held by the holding member 15. The control of the loading / unloading of the optical disc 3 by the disc transport mechanism 9 is performed by, for example, the control device 14 described above.

Next, with respect to the storage portion having a structure in which the occurrence of warpage due to the weight of the optical disc 3 is reduced as described above, the following experiment was performed by using the storage portion having the conventional structure as a comparative example, and the evaluation was performed. Using the optical disk storage unit 2, the above-described operation of inserting and removing the optical disk 3 is performed. This operation is performed using a conventional disc that complies with the standards of current digital audio discs (playback is possible with a pickup wavelength of 780 nm and an objective lens numerical aperture of 0.45), and a high-density disc with a higher recording density than this conventional disc. (With a wavelength of 780 nm of the pickup and reproduction with an objective lens numerical aperture of 0.6), each optical disc was performed 1000 times at an ambient temperature of 60 ° C. The warp angle before and after the experiment, the number of scratches on the disk substrate, and the C1 error amount were measured.

Comparative Example The optical disk 3 is loaded and unloaded by using the optical disk storage section 32 in which the mounting table 32a shown in FIG. 5A has a planar structure. This in / out operation is performed while the signal recording surface 3a of the optical disc 3 is in contact with the mounting table 32a, as described above. The disc carrier mechanism 9 takes out the optical disc 3 from the mounting base 12a of the optical disc housing 32 while rubbing the surface of the optical disc 3 and the mounting base 12a. This operation was performed 1000 times for each of the conventional disc and the high-density disc at an environmental temperature of 60 ° C. for each optical disc. The warp angle before and after the experiment, the number of scratches on the disk substrate, and the C1 error amount were measured. The following are the experimental results. The number of scratches is the average number of one visual field under a microscope with a magnification of 100 times. The optical discs used in the above experiment, both conventional discs and high-density discs, have a warp angle of 0.1 deg (radial and tangential), reproduction C1 error of 0.3%, and two scratches (average value). Was used.

[0022]

[Table 1]

From the above results, the optical discs housed in the storage unit 2 of the embodiment maintain almost the initial state, and both the conventional disc and the high-density disc have favorable numerical values. However, the optical disc housed in the storage unit 32 of the comparative example is warped by placing the optical disc directly on the mounting base 32, and the optical disc is moved in and out from the mounting base 32a while rubbing the optical disc with the mounting base 32a. It can be seen that many scratches have occurred. As a result, the reproduction stability, which has not been a problem in conventional discs, is NG in high-density discs. However, although it is not clear from the experimental results, it is clear that increasing the number of times the optical disc is loaded and unloaded will have an effect on conventional discs. In addition, also in the storage part 12 of the second embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to obtain the same numerical value as the above experimental result. From the above experimental results, the accommodating parts 2 and 12 of the present invention have the effect of reducing the warpage and scratches of the optical disk and prolonging the life of the optical disk even when used in an autochanger. I understand.

Although the above-described first and second embodiments have a shelf type structure for the storage unit, they can be applied even if the storage unit has a tray type structure. Further, the structure of the storage unit described in the above embodiments is an example used for explaining the present invention, and the structure can be variously modified.

[0025]

[Effect of device]

 As described above, according to the optical disc autochanger of the present invention, the optical disc is held in a state in which the fitting portion that fits in the center hole of the optical disc, the signal recording surface of the optical disc, and the upper surface of the optical disc mount are not in contact with each other. The optical disk storage part for storing the optical disk, which has a holding member composed of a holding part for holding the optical disk and the signal recording surface of the optical disk, does not always come into contact with the top of the holding member and the mounting table. Since it has an optical disc transport mechanism, it is possible to reduce uneven warp of the disc due to the weight of the optical disc and scratches when the optical disc is put in and out. The effect is that it can be converted.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing a structure of a main part of an autochanger according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the shape of a holding pin 4.

FIG. 3 is a side sectional view showing a structure of a main part of an autochanger according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an autochanger.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a structure of a conventional disc storage portion.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Auto Changer (Auto Changer for Optical Disk) 2, 12 Storage Section (Optical Disk Storage Section) 2a, 12a Optical Disk Mount 3 Optical Disk 3a Signal Recording Surface 3b Center Hole (Center Hole of Optical Disk) 4 Holding Pin (Holding Member) 4a Tip ( Fitting part) 4b Bottom part 4c Top part 4d Holding part 5 Outer frame (optical disk mounting base) 6 pin up / down moving member 8 pin up / down plunger 9 Disk transport mechanism (optical disk transport mechanism) 13 Playback device 14 Control device 15 Holding member

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An auto changer for an optical disc, which accommodates a large number of optical discs and automatically selects and reproduces optical discs according to a request among the accommodated optical discs, and a fitting portion which is fitted into a center hole of the optical discs. An optical disk storage unit for storing an optical disk, the optical disk storage unit having a holding member configured to hold the optical disk in a state where the signal recording surface of the optical disk and the upper surface of the optical disk mounting base are not in contact with each other; An optical disc auto-changer comprising: an optical disc transport mechanism for loading and unloading an optical disc in a state where it is not always in contact with the top of the holding member and the optical disc mount.