US 4,046,334 AGranted

Automatic reversal mechanism

AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.

InventorsSaburo Kato, Takeshi Takemoto

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Abstract

The mechanism is for use with a tape recorder of the cassette type in which the direction of rotation of tape reels within a cassette is automatically reversed at the end of taking up the tape. A drive gear is movably supported between a pair of driven gears engageable with the respective reels, so as to be able to engage with either one of the driven gears, and the drive gear is spring biased toward a line connecting the rotating axes of the driven gears. The rotation of the drive gear in one direction causes its engagement with the corresponding driven gear and, at the end of taking up the tape, a substantial displacement of the drive gear against, the spring bias occurs through an increase in load, thereby changing over the direction of rotation of a motor for driving the drive gear. A mechanism is provided for resetting or maintaining the drive mechanism in a given condition which enables the reels to start to rotate in a given direction whenever a tape cassette is removed from the recorder.

Claims8

Dependent claims

An automatic reversal mechanism comprising, in combination,

(a) a pair of rotatable driven members disposed in a common plane with their axes parallel to each other each;
(b) a rotatable drive member movable between said driven members and in a direction perpendicular to a line connecting their axes, to peripherally engage either driven member to transmit a driving force thereto;
(c) reversible drive means connected to said drive member to rotate said drive member in a selected direction;
(d) means operable, in accordance with the direction of rotation of said drive member, to move said drive member into peripheral driving engagement with a respective one of said driven member;
(e) means biasing said drive member toward said connecting line;
said driving member responsive to the reaction force exerted thereon by the then-engaged driven member, moving away from said connecting line against the force of said biasing means until such reaction force biases the force of said biasing means;
said drive member, responsive to an increase in such reaction force beyond a predetermined value, due to an increased load on the then-engaged driven member, being displaced further from said connection line;
(f) switching means operative, responsive to such further displacement of said drive member, controlling said drive means to interrupt rotation of said drive member in its then effective direction of rotation.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.