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US 6,583,951 B1Granted
Shuttle motion mechanism
AssigneeTerastor Corporation
InventorScot Clifford Fairchild
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and an apparatus to provide controlled horizontal and vertical movements of a disk shuttle inside a disk drive, and also to open/close an access door on the shuttle for accessing one or more recording media inside the shuttle.
Claims19
A shuttle motion assembly, positioned in a disk drive to load and unload a shuttle that holds a disk with recording media comprising:
- a base plate;
- a plurality of circular cams positioned on the base plate whose rotations control movements of the shuttle;
- a hook positioned above the base plate and mechanically driven by the circular cams to remove from a cartridge the shuttle contained therein;
- a horizontal motion assembly positioned on the base plate to receive the shuttle from the hook and mechanically coupled to the circular cams to create horizontal movement of the shuttle within the disk drive;
- a vertical motion assembly positioned on the base plate and mechanically coupled to the circular cams to create vertical movement of the shuttle for mounting the disk contained in the shuttle on a spinning motor;
- and
- a shuttle-door accessing mechanism positioned above and mechanically coupled to the plurality of the circular cams to open a door on the shuttle for accessing the recording media inside the shuttle.
4 more elements
A shuttle motion device positioned in a disk drive for loading and unloading a shuttle containing a disk into and out of the disk drive, comprising:
- a hook configured and operable to attach to the shuttle to remove the shuttle from a cartridge that holds the shuttle in loading the shuttle and to insert the shuttle into the cartridge in unloading the shuttle;
- a base plate;
- a horizontal motion assembly positioned on the plate to move the shuttle along a horizontal plane to place the shuttle into and out of the disk drive for engaging and disengaging a motor for spinning one or more recordable medium contained in the shuttle, wherein the assembly comprises a plurality of channels for guiding a plurality of levers to cause movement of the shuttle along the horizontal plane, and wherein the hook is mechanically coupled to one of the channels and is driven by the one channel;
- and
- a plurality of circular cams positioned on the base plate and mechanically coupled to drive the channels and the levers by rotation to cause movements of the hook and the shuttle.
2 more elements
A method of positioning a disk shuttle inside a disk drive, comprising:
- placing a cartridge that encloses the shuttle at an entry door of the disk drive;
- opening a door in the cartridge;
- moving the shuttle along a horizontal plane to remove the shuttle out of the cartridge and place it over a motor inside the disk drive for spinning a disk contained inside the shuttle;
- lowering the shuttle along a vertical plane to mount the shuttle on the motor;
- providing a plurality of cams with recessed patterns to position the shuttle inside the disk drive with repeatable precision;
- and
- activating a door-access mechanism to open a door on the shuttle to expose the disk.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.