Media cartridge autoloader
AssigneesMitsumi Electric Co., Ltd., Quantum Corporation
InventorsKenichi Hori, Hiromi Tanaka, Paddy Eliot Collins
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A media cartridge autoloader including first and second media cartridge transport magazines is disclosed. A magazine drive includes a drive shaft unit, a drive shaft unit shifting mechanism, and a magazine drive motor module. A mechanism that rotates a turntable of a media cartridge picker is also used to move the drive shaft unit such that the drive shaft unit is selectively coupled with either one of the first or second media cartridge transport magazines. A drive shaft of the drive shaft unit is driven by a magazine drive motor of the magazine drive motor module, so that the coupled media cartridge transport magazine is driven.
Claims12
A media cartridge autoloader, comprising:
- a media cartridge picker that transports a media cartridge;
- a media drive that receives the media cartridge;
- first and second media cartridge transport magazines that are positioned near the cartridge picker, each media cartridge transport magazine being configured to selectively store the media cartridge;
- and
- a magazine drive device that is coupled to the media cartridge transport magazines, the magazine drive device including a magazine drive motor, the magazine drive device alternately driving movement of each of the media cartridge transport magazines with a driving force generated by the magazine drive motor.
A method for operating a media cartridge autoloader including a media drive that receives one of a plurality of media cartridges, first and second media cartridge transport magazines that movably store the media cartridges, and a media cartridge picker that transports the media cartridges, the method comprising;
- alternately coupling a drive motor to the first media cartridge transport magazine and the second media cartridge transport magazine;
- and
- alternately driving movement of a portion of the first media cartridge transport magazine and a portion of the second media cartridge transport magazine with the drive motor to alternately and selectively move one or more of the media cartridges within the first media cartridge transport magazine and the second media cartridge transport magazine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.