Disc changer

A disc changer for storing a plurality of discs, transporting a disc selected from the plurality of discs, and performing recording/reproducing information on the disc, the disc changer comprising:

• a plurality of trays which respectively can be loaded with discs, can be moved substantially in a horizontal direction parallel to main surfaces of the discs, and are stacked substantially in a vertical direction perpendicular to the main surfaces of the discs;
• a tray driving gear unit which has a plurality of driving gears capable of respectively engaging with a rack provided on each tray, such that the tray driving gear unit is capable of shuttling the trays between a standby position in which the trays are stored in a mechanical chassis as a housing of the disc changer and a disc exchange position in which the trays are protruded outward from the mechanical chassis such that the discs can be put on the trays and removed from the trays;
• a gear driving mechanism driven by an electrical motor to generate a driving force for driving the tray driving gear unit;
• a tray triggering unit capable of locking/unlocking the trays in the standby position, the tray triggering unit being capable of pushing all trays at a same time so as to engage the rack provided on each tray with a respective driving gear of the tray driving gear unit after unlocking the trays;
• a recording/reproducing unit for recording and/or reproducing information on a disc placed on a turntable;
• and
• an elevation unit capable of moving the recording/reproducing unit with the turntable in a the vertical direction to align the recording/reproducing unit to a tray and place a disc on the tray onto the turntable,
• wherein the tray triggering unit, the tray driving gear unit and the gear driving mechanism are configured such that, in a state in which all the trays are locked in the standby position, all the trays are unlocked at a same time and all trays other than a tray on which the disc is under a recording/reproducing operation are pushed at a same time so as to engage the rack provided on each tray with the respective driving gear of the tray driving gear unit by operating the tray triggering unit, and all trays other than the tray on which the disc is under the recording/reproducing operation are protruded outward from the mechanical chassis at a same time by a predetermined uniform tray stroke due to the driving force of the gear driving mechanism, thereafter each tray other than the tray on which the disc is under the recording/reproducing operation is sequentially driven by the respective driving gear of the tray driving gear unit back to the standby position one by one from top to bottom, and such that the tray triggering unit locks all trays other than the tray on which the disc is under recording/reproducing operation in the standby position upon the last tray reaching the standby position.

A disc changer for storing a plurality of discs, transporting a disc selected from the plurality of discs, and performing recording/reproducing information on the disc, the disc changer comprising:

• a plurality of trays which respectively can be loaded with discs, can be moved substantially in a horizontal direction parallel to main surfaces of the discs, and are stacked substantially in a vertical direction perpendicular to the main surfaces of the discs;
• a tray driving gear unit which has a plurality of driving gears capable of respectively engaging with a rack provided on each tray, such that the tray driving gear unit is capable of shuttling the trays between a standby position in which the trays are stored in a mechanical chassis as a housing of the disc changer and a disc exchange position in which the trays are protruded outward from the mechanical chassis such that the discs can be put on the trays and removed from the trays;
• a gear driving mechanism driven by an electrical motor to generate a driving force for driving the tray driving gear unit;
• a tray triggering unit capable of locking/unlocking the trays in the standby position, the tray triggering unit being capable of pushing all trays at a same time so as to engage the rack provided on each tray with a respective driving gear of the tray driving gear unit after unlocking the trays;
• a recording/reproducing unit for recording and/or reproducing information on a disc placed on a turntable;
• and
• an elevation unit capable of moving the recording/reproducing unit with the turntable in the vertical direction to align the recording/reproducing unit to a tray and place a disc on the tray onto the turntable,
• wherein the tray triggering unit is provided with a triggering plate which is driven by a cam gear, the triggering plate having trigger level profiles provided so as to respectively correspond to each of the trays, the trigger level profiles being arranged to move concurrently with the triggering plate,
• and wherein the tray triggering unit and the trigger level profiles are configured such that the tray triggering unit locks all the trays at the standby position and moves all the trays to an unlock position, and the trigger level profiles push all the trays at a same time so as to engage the rack provided on each tray with the respective driving gear at a same time so as to unlock all the trays at an engaging position of the trays.

A disc changer for storing a plurality of discs, transporting a disc selected from the plurality of discs, and performing recording/reproducing information on the disc, the disc changer comprising:

• a plurality of trays which respectively can be loaded with discs, can be moved substantially in a horizontal direction parallel to main surfaces of the discs, and are stacked substantially in a vertical direction perpendicular to the main surfaces of the discs;
• a tray driving gear unit capable of shuttling the trays between a standby position in which the trays are stored in a mechanical chassis as a housing of the disc changer and a disc exchange position in which the trays are protruded outward from the mechanical chassis thereby the discs can be put on the trays and removed from the trays;
• a gear driving mechanism driven by an electrical motor to generate a driving force for driving the tray driving gear unit;
• a tray triggering unit capable of locking/unlocking the trays in the standby position, the tray triggering unit being capable of pushing all trays to engage with the tray driving gear unit after unlocking the trays and being capable of driving the trays outward from the mechanical chassis toward the disc exchange position;
• a recording/reproducing unit for recording and/or reproducing information on a disc placed on a turntable;
• an elevation unit capable of moving the recording/reproducing unit with the turntable in the vertical direction to align the recording/reproducing unit to a tray and place a disc on the tray onto the turntable;
• and
• a tray driving rack unit for driving a selected one of the trays between the disc standby position and a disc recording/reproducing position, a driving force for driving the tray driving rack unit being generated by the gear driving mechanism;
• and
• wherein the tray driving rack unit includes a tray driving rack which is always engaged with a driving gear of the gear driving mechanism, and a tray catch lever which is provided on the tray driving rack, wherein the tray driving rack is driven by the driving gear to move in the horizontal direction so as to drive the selected one of the trays between the disc standby position and a disc recording/reproducing position, and wherein the tray catch lever is capable of moving in the vertical direction so as to catch the selected one of the trays.

An optical disc changer for performing at least one of the operations of reproducing information from an optical disc or for recording information thereto, the disk changer comprising:

• a turntable;
• a recording/reproducing unit operative to perform at least one of the operations of recording and/or reproducing an information signal on an optical disc placed on the turntable;
• a plurality of trays for carrying respective optical discs, the trays being arranged in parallel;
• a housing for receiving the plurality of trays;
• a tray driving rack unit operative to drive a selected one of the trays from a standby position to a recording/reproducing position in which the disc carried by the selected tray is placed onto the turntable;
• and
• a gear driving mechanism for generating a driving force for driving the tray driving rack unit
• wherein the tray driving rack unit comprises a tray driving rack which is always engaged with a driving gear of the gear driving mechanism, and a tray catch lever which is provided on the tray driving rack, wherein the tray driving rack is driven by the driving gear to move in a horizontal direction so as to drive the selected tray between a disc standby position and a disc recording/reproducing position, and the tray catch lever is capable of moving in a vertical direction so as to catch the selected tray,
• wherein the tray catch lever catches the selected one of the trays by translating transversely to a plane of the trays, and the tray driving rack translates the selected tray caught by the tray catch lever parallel to the plane of the trays towards or away from the recording/reproducing unit.