JPH1021671A - Tape cassette - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a tape cassette having a lid lock mechanism in which no load is applied to the spring part of the lid lock when a cassette is loaded into a VTR unit and the spring part can be protected against creep deformation due to thermal effect. SOLUTION: In the tape cassette, a lid lock member 13 has a lid lock click 15 to be engaged with the lower end part 9a of a stopper 9 for a front lid 4 in closed state, and a lid lock mechanism 6 having a spring part for urging the lid lock click 15 in the locking direction is provided integrally. A spring part 20 extends from the back side of the lid lock member 13 to a position corresponding to the upper part of the lid lock click 15 while riding over the lid lock member 13. A load fulcrum for applying the spring force of the spring part 20 is imparted to the upper end part 9b of the stopper 9 for the front lid 4 and the lid lock click 15 is urged in the direction being locked thereto.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tape cassette, and more particularly, to a lid lock mechanism for a lid (front cover) for opening and closing a mouse on a front surface of the tape cassette.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An example of a tape cassette having a lid lock mechanism of this type will be described with reference to an external perspective view shown in FIG.

[0003] A cassette housing indicated generally by reference numeral 1 comprises an upper half 2 and a lower half 3, and two tape reels (not shown) are rotatably housed in the cassette housing 1. The front surface of the cassette housing 1 has a mouse section through which a magnetic tape traverses. The mouse section can be opened and closed with two lids 4 and 5 in appearance. Among them, the front lid 4 is a front lid, the upper lid 5 is an upper lid, and both lids 4 and 5 open and close in conjunction with each other. Details of the lids 4 and 5 will be described with reference to FIG.

When the tape cassette is not used, the above-mentioned slot lid 4 is locked by a pair of lid lock mechanisms 6 arranged on both sides of the cassette housing 1 and cannot be opened. Reference numeral 7 denotes a window formed on the upper surface of the upper half 2 so that the inside can be seen through.

Here, FIG. 7 showing the details of the lid lock mechanism 6 in a front side surface portion of the cassette will be described. Here, the flot lid 4 and the upper lid 5 are indicated by virtual lines.

First, the lids 4 and 5 will be described. The front lid 4 has a support shaft 8 provided on a side plate 4a thereof supported by the side surface of the upper half 2 so as to be openable. It is urged in the closing direction by a coil spring. Side plate 4a of this front lid 4
A locking piece 9 to be engaged with a lid lock mechanism 6 to be described later is formed on the back surface of the distal end portion. Also, front lid 4
The upper lid 5 and the upper lid 5 are rotatably connected to each other by a hinge 10, and the upper lid 5 has a pin 11 formed at the rear end thereof engaged with a guide groove 12 formed on a side surface of the upper half 2. Supported. That is, when the front lid 4 is opened around the support shaft 8 as the center of rotation, the upper lid 5 can move the pin 11 along the guide groove 12 via the hinge portion 10 to rise and open.

As shown in FIG. 7, the lid lock mechanism 6 can swing by a shaft pin 14 of a lid lock member 13 being supported on a bearing 3a formed on the lower half 3 by a shaft retainer 2a provided on the upper half 2. It is intended to keep it from falling off. A lid lock claw 15 that engages with the locking piece 9 of the front lid 4 is formed on the front surface of the lid lock member 13, and a stopper pin 16 is formed on the rear surface. The lid lock member 13 is disposed on the rear side of the support member 3 of the lower half 3.
The spring lock 17a is rotated and urged in the direction of the arrow by the leaf spring 17 supported by the spring b to engage the lid lock claw 13 with the locking piece 9 of the front lid 4. At this time, the stopper pin 16 is locked to the wall surface 3c of the lower half 3 to regulate the amount of rotation of the lid lock member 13.

[0008] The lid lock mechanism 6 constructed as described above.
The lid lock member 13 is pushed back to the position of the imaginary line by the lid lock release pin 18 in conjunction with the operation of inserting the tape cassette into, for example, a VTR device. 15 retreats and comes off, and the front lid 4 is unlocked. Thereafter, the upper lid 5 is opened together with the front lid 4, the tape is pulled out from the cassette, and the tape loading operation is performed.

However, the above-described lid lock mechanism requires the leaf spring 17 as a separate member, so that the number of parts increases and the number of assembling steps increases, which increases the cost and is not practically preferable.

Therefore, an integrated lid lock mechanism in which a spring portion is provided integrally with the lid lock member 13 without using the above-described leaf spring 17 as a separate component is conceivable.

FIG. 8 shows a lid lock mechanism with an integral spring portion.
Will be described. Since the structure other than the spring portion is the same as the structure shown in FIG. 7 described above, the same reference numerals are given and the duplicate description will be omitted.

That is, a spring portion 19 is formed integrally with the lid lock member 13 from the rear portion of the shaft pin 14, and the tip of the spring portion 19 is pressed against the wall surface 3 d of the lower half 3 so as to apply a load fulcrum. I have. As a result, the lid lock claw 15 of the lid lock member 13 is spring-biased in a direction in which the lid lock claw 15 is engaged with the locking piece 9 of the front lid 4.

In the thus configured spring lock unit, the lid lock member 13 is pushed back by the lid lock release pin 18, whereby the lid lock claw 15 is retracted from the locking piece 9 of the front lid 4. In the detached state, a large load is applied to the spring portion 19 as shown in FIG.

[0014]

That is, in the above-described lid lock mechanism with an integral spring portion, the spring portion 19 is largely bent when the cassette is loaded. For this reason, since the inside of the VTR device is in a high temperature state due to the heat generated from the motor, the substrate, and the like, the spring portion 19 that is largely bent easily undergoes creep deformation due to the heat. As a result, even if the spring portion 19 is released from the load, the spring portion 19 does not return to the original shape, and the spring action of the spring portion 19 is reduced. Therefore, the effect of locking to the lock is reduced. Moreover, in the worst case, even if the tape cassette is removed from the VTR device, the front lid 4 is not locked, so that the front lid is opened at random and the magnetic tape crossing the mouth part is damaged. I do.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. When a cassette is loaded in a VTR device or the like, no load is applied to the spring portion of the lid lock, and the spring portion is not affected by heat. It is an object of the present invention to obtain a tape cassette having a lid lock capable of preventing creep deformation of the tape cassette.

[0016]

In order to achieve the above object, a tape cassette according to the present invention is provided with a spring portion for urging a lid lock claw of a lid lock mechanism in a locking direction of the lid. In a tape cassette having a lid lock mechanism, the spring portion of the lid lock mechanism applies a load fulcrum for applying a spring force to the lid, and biases the lid lock claw in the locking direction of the lid.

[0017] With this configuration, the lid is separated from the spring portion together with the operation of opening the lid and coming off the lid lock claw, so that no load is applied to the spring portion and no spring force is applied. Becomes Thereby, it is possible to prevent the spring portion from being creep-deformed due to the thermal effect generated from the motor, the substrate, and the like in the VTR device.

The spring portion is biased so as to sandwich the lid from the side opposite to the lid lock claw. This allows the lid lock claw to act in a direction in which the lid is engaged with the lid by the spring urging force generated in the spring portion, thereby stably maintaining the locked state of the lid.

Further, the spring portion does not generate a spring action when the lid is open. by this,
Since the spring portion returns to the original shape without generating a load, creep deformation of the spring portion due to thermal influence can be avoided.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a tape cassette having a lid lock mechanism according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings showing a side portion of a cassette on a lid side. The same parts as those of the configuration of the conventional example described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 2 denotes an upper half of the cassette housing, and reference numeral 3 denotes a lower half. The lid is indicated by a virtual line and is composed of two lids 4 and 5 in appearance, of which the front lid 4 is a front lid and the upper lid 5 is an upper lid. Front lid 4
The support shaft 8 provided on the side plate 4a is supported on the side surface of the upper half 2 and is openably supported, and is normally urged in the closing direction by a not-shown torsion coil spring. A locking piece 9 to be engaged with a lid lock mechanism 6 described later is formed on the back surface of the front end portion of the side plate 4a of the front lid 4. The front lid 4 has upper ends at both ends and an upper lid 5 rotatably connected to each other by a hinge 10, and the upper lid 5 has a pin 11 formed at a rear end thereof.
Are engaged with and supported by guide grooves 12 formed on the side surface of the upper half 2. That is, when the front lid 4 performs the opening operation with the support shaft 8 as the center of rotation, the upper lid 5 can move the pin 11 along the guide groove 12 via the hinge portion 10 to rise and open.

Here, the lid lock mechanism 6 according to the present invention.
Will be described. The lid lock mechanism 6 includes a bearing 3 a formed on the lower half 3 and a shaft pin 14 of the lid lock member 13.
Are supported by a shaft holder 2a provided on the upper half 2. A lid lock claw 15 that engages with the locking piece 9 of the front lid 4 is provided on the front surface of the lid lock member 13, and a stopper pin 1 is provided on the rear surface.
6 are formed.

A spring portion 20 is integrally formed on the back side of the lid lock member 13 described above. This spring part 2
Reference numeral 0 denotes a shape in which the upper end of the shaft pin 14 rides in an arc shape from the rear side and the spring end 21 which is a free end of the spring portion 20 is located above the lid lock claw 15. FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the entire lid lock member 6 configured as described above.

That is, the lid lock claw 15 of the lid lock member 6 is connected to the lower end 9 a of the locking piece 9 of the front lid 4.
In the locked state, the spring end 2 of the spring portion 20
Reference numeral 1 denotes a state where a weak spring force is generated at the upper end portion 9b of the locking piece 9 and serves as a load fulcrum. Accordingly, the lid lock member 6 is rotated in the direction of the arrow around the shaft pin 14 by the spring force of the spring portion 20 to urge the lid lock claw 15 in the direction of engaging with the locking piece 9 of the front lid 4. The front lid 4 is held in a locked state.
At this time, the stopper pin 16 is attached to the wall surface 3c of the lower half 3.
To restrict the amount of rotation of the lid lock member 13.

The lid lock mechanism 6 of the present invention constructed as described above has a lid lock member 13 as shown in FIG. 3, which interlocks with the operation of inserting a tape cassette into a cassette compartment (cassette) of a VTR device, for example. By being pushed back by the lid lock release pin 18 and rotating,
The operation of releasing the lid lock claw 15 from the locking piece 9 of the front lid 4 and disengaging the front lid 4, and the operation of releasing the front lid 4 and releasing the front lid 4 together with the upper lid 5 following this operation. Is done,
Thereafter, the tape is pulled out from the cassette, and a tape loading operation is performed.

That is, when the lid lock member 13 is pushed back and rotated by the lid unlocking pin 18, the spring end 21 of the spring portion 20 applies a load fulcrum to the upper end 9 b of the locking piece 9 of the front lid 4. The spring portion 20 momentarily bends greatly in the applied state, but when the front lid 4 is pushed up and opened in the next operation, the locking piece of the front lid 4 from the spring end 21 as shown in FIG. 9 are separated from each other and no load fulcrum is applied to the spring portion 20, that is, the spring portion 2
0 has a shape state in which no bending deformation occurs.

The operation state shown in FIG. 4 is a tape loading state.
Since no shape deformation due to bending occurs at 0, VTR
Even when the lid lock member 13 is stored for a long time in a high temperature state due to heat generated from the motor and the substrate in the cassette compartment of the apparatus, it is possible to prevent the spring portion 20 from being creeped by the influence of heat, As a result, the problem that the lid lock function is disabled by the subsequent operation of the lid lock member 13 is eliminated.

In the locked state of the front lid 4, the lower end 9 a of the locking piece 9 is locked by the lid lock claw 15, and the upper end 9 b is urged by the spring portion 20 of the lid lock member 13 to apply a load. Since the stop piece 9 is sandwiched, the closed state of the front lid 4 can be stably locked without rattling.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above and shown in the drawings, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

In the embodiment, the case where the spring portion 20 is integrally formed from the rear side of the lid lock member 13 has been described. However, as shown in FIG. Even if the portion 22 is extended above the lid lock claw 15, the same spring action as described above can be obtained. In this case, since the spring portion 22 has a shorter arm, the spring coefficient is higher than that of the above-described spring portion 20, but the spring coefficient can be arbitrarily set by adjusting the thickness of the spring portion.

The tape cassette provided with the lid lock mechanism according to the present invention is widely applicable to a lid lock mechanism such as a digital video cassette or an 8 mm video cassette.

[0032]

As described above, the tape cassette according to the present invention is a tape having a lid lock mechanism integrally provided with a spring portion for urging the lid lock claw of the lid lock mechanism in the locking direction of the lid. In the cassette, the spring portion of the lid lock mechanism provides a load fulcrum for applying a spring force to the lid, and biases the lid lock claw in the locking direction of the lid. Since no load is generated, the spring portion can be prevented from creep deformation due to the heat generated from the motor and the board in the VTR device,
Therefore, there is an effect that the lid lock function is not disabled by the operation after the lid lock.

Further, the spring member is urged to load the lid from the side opposite to the lid lock claw, so that the locked state of the lid can be stably maintained.

Further, the spring member does not generate a spring action when the lid is open, so that creep deformation of the spring portion due to the influence of heat can be avoided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a lid lock state provided with a lid lock mechanism according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a lid lock member according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side view of a lid unlocked state.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a lid open state.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the lid lock member.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an example of a conventional tape cassette.

FIG. 7 is a side view of a tape cassette provided with a conventional lid lock mechanism.

FIG. 8 is a side view of a conventional tape cassette provided with a lid lock mechanism integrated with a spring portion.

9 is a side view of the tape cassette in a state where the lid lock mechanism of FIG. 8 is released.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 cassette housing, 2 upper half, 3 lower half, 4
Front lid, 5 back lid, 6 lid lock mechanism, 9 front lid locking piece, 13 lid lock member, 14 shaft pin, 15 lid lock claw, 16 stopper pin, 20 spring portion, 21 spring end portion, 22 spring portion

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A lid lock mechanism having a lid lock claw for locking a lid openably and closably provided on a front portion of a cassette housing at a closed position, wherein the lid lock claw of the lid lock mechanism is connected to the lid by the lid. In a tape cassette having a lid lock mechanism integrally provided with a spring portion for urging a spring in a locking direction, the spring portion of the lid lock mechanism applies a load fulcrum for applying a spring force to the lid. A tape cassette wherein a claw is biased in a spring direction in a locking direction of the lid. 2. The tape cassette according to claim 1, wherein the spring portion urges the spring so as to sandwich the lid from a side opposite to the lid lock claw. 3. The tape cassette according to claim 1, wherein the spring portion does not perform a spring action when the lid is open.