Loading patent…
AssigneeMatsushita Electric Industries Co., Ltd.
InventorsYuji Ariyoshi, Toru Tanaka, Masanao Wakikawa, Kiyoshi Ishioka
Estimating the term…
An optical disk drive includes a turntable, a first motor for turntable drive, an optical pickup and a drive mechanism arranged on a drive base and a separate traverse base that floats on the drive base. A loading drive mechanism drives a disk loading mechanism. A second motor can be driven in forward and reverse directions to supply drive power to the loading drive mechanism and a pickup drive mechanism. A drive power transfer path switching mechanism is used to switch the path through which drive power from the second motor is transferred to supply power to the loading drive mechanism and pickup drive mechanism. By continuously driving the second motor in one direction, then moving the optical pickup, raising or lowering the turntable, and transporting a disk can be accomplished in this sequence substantially continuously. By reversing the direction of motor drive, these operations can be accomplished substantially continuously in reverse direction in reverse sequence.
An optical disk drive comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
Drawings are temporarily unavailable. Open the PDF at USPTO
From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Backward citations are indexed for grants only.
With sliding loading means: adapted for discs of different sizes
Of discs rotating during transducing operation: by means for moving the turntable or the clamper towards the disk
Cabinets; Cases; Stands; Disposition of apparatus therein or thereon: insulation or absorption of undesired vibrations or sounds
Information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer
Term end not estimated
The present invention relates to an optical disk drive, also referred to herein as simply a disk drive, for recording a data signal and/or reproducing a data signal recorded to an optical disk, also referred to herein as simply a disc, used as a data storage medium. A Compact Disc or CD is exemplary of such data storage media.
A disk drive typical of those related to the present invention has an opening on the front panel through which a disk tray opens and closes. After the tray is opened and a disk is loaded onto the tray, the tray is automatically closed, that is, retracted into the disk drive to a turntable.
When a disk is loaded into this type of disk drive it is held between the turntable and a clamp and driven at a specific rotational speed so that data signals recorded to the disk can be read by the disk drive, that is recording or reproducing apparatus, during a read operation, for example. More specifically, signals are recorded to tracks within a specific area of the disk, and an optical pickup for signal reading is driven according to the track address of the desired signal so that the desired signal can be reproduced.
FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of the assembled optical disk drive according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the disk drive shown in FIG. 1;
FIGS. 3 and 4 are enlarged views of parts of FIG. 2;
The preferred embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to the accompanying figures. FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of the assembled optical disk drive according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the disk drive shown in FIG. 1, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are enlarged views of parts of FIG. 2.
It should be noted that the terms “optical disk drive”, “disk drive”, and simply “drive” are used synonymously throughout this specification.
As will be known from these figures, an optical disk drive 1 according to this preferred embodiment comprises a drive base 10 as the installation base for major components of the drive 1, and a traverse base 20 as the support base for supporting the major part of the disk drive's drive mechanism.