Abstract: An objective lens driving device includes drive coils mounted on one of a lens holder bearing an objective lens and a stationary member; magnets mounted on the other in such a manner that said drive coils are confronted with the magnets, and the lens holder is moved in a focusing direction and a tracking direction by application of current to the drive coils; and magnetic pieces arranged in magnetic circuits including the magnets, so that magnetic attraction forces acting on the magnetic pieces produce restoring forces two-dimensionally in the focusing direction and in the tracking direction to hold the objective lens at a neutral point. The magnetic pieces are so arranged that, at the neutral point, the drive coils are confronted straightly with the magnets.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a disc reproducing apparatus for allowing a tray that holds a disc to be unloaded and loaded from and in a cabinet. In the disc reproducing apparatus, a motor mount that holds a disc motor and a turn table can be transferred between the tray and a chassis in the cabinet. The tray has a pair of cavity portions functioning as a portion for holding a motor mount. The chassis has a pair of protrusion portions of guide shafts, a pair of lock levers, and a pair of guide protrusions as a portion for holding the motor mount. The lock levers are used as a means for transferring the motor mount between the tray and the chassis.

Abstract: A disc drive unit for driving a disc recording medium such as a magneto-optical disc accommodated in a disc cassette, comprises a chassis, a cassette holder having a pair of wall sections and moveable up and down between upper and lower positions with respect to the chassis, and the disc cassette being injectable into and ejectable from the cassette holder, a disc rotating mechanism being moveable up and down between upper and lower positions with respect to the chassis and chucked with the disc recording medium for rotatively driving the disc recording medium, height-level positioning members provided at the chassis, so that at least their upper ends are located at a higher level than the lower wall section of the cassette holder, when the cassette holder is held at its lower position, and a loading motor unit for shifting the cassette holder from its upper position to its lower position and for shifting the disc rotating mechanism from its lower position to its upper position, during loading of the disc cas

Abstract: A magnetic head for use in an acoustic apparatus having first and second magnetic gaps provided between, and excluding, the head peak on the slidable surface of the magnetic tape and a tape departure point downstream of the running magnetic tape.

Abstract: A magnetic disk unit having a head suspension mechanism which can reduce the flying height of a slider and can stably fly the slider. The head suspension mechanism includes a spring arm having one end portion for supporting the slider so that when a magnetic disk is at rest, the slider is kept in contact with the magnetic disk, while when the magnetic disk is rotated, the slider is moved to fly from the magnetic disk by dynamic pressure due to air flow caused by rotation of the magnetic disk. The spring arm has a bent portion formed so that a transducer mounted on the slider approaches the magnetic disk.

Abstract: A disk cartridge is formed with a slidably mounted metallic shutter for opening and closing a disk access opening formed in the cartridge shell. A stock roll material for forming the shutter is formed of a sheet of metallic base material, such as aluminum, to which upper and lower film layer are applied. The upper film layer is formed of synthetic resin including a lubricant component and a coloring agent while the lower film layer is formed of a synthetic resin which is harder than that of the first film layer and to which no lubricant or coloring is added. The stock material is introduced to punching and bending processing apparatus such that the upper lubricant containing film layer contacts the punch die such that press oil need not be used during fabrication. Bending processing is carried out such that a U-shaped shutter is formed having the lubricant containing film layer at an inner surface thereof, and the harder lower film layer forms the outer surface.

Abstract: A disk device includes a chassis, a replay unit for supporting a disk placed within the chassis, rotating the disk, and reading data from the rotating disk, a vibration-isolating unit for holding the replay unit by connecting the replay unit to the chassis and for isolating the replay unit from vibrations, a carrying unit for carrying the disk between a disk inlet and outlet formed on the chassis and a replay position where the disk is to be fixed in the replay unit, a motor for driving the carrying unit, and a flexible printed circuit (FPC). The FPC is mounted to one lateral surface of the motor and is electrically connected to the motor. The FPC has a projecting portion which projects from an upper surface of the motor toward one surface of the disk fixed in the replay unit. The projecting portion of the FPC is adapted to be brought into contact with the disk to prevent the disk from coming into contact with the motor when the disk moves closer to the motor.

Abstract: A disk drive (30) conforms to the 1.8 inch form factor through of use of, for example, a removable cartridge (200) which has a disk (220) mounted on the hub (226) which hub (226) is manipulatable by a multifunction handle (58) of the disk drive (30), allowing the hub (226) to be seated on the spindle motor nose (56) of the disk drive (30). The multifunction handle (58) of the drive (30) provides for a compact, high capacity design by performing cartridge hub seating operations, cartridge ejection operations, head arm assembly unlocking operations, and handle locking and unlocking operations to ensure proper operation of the disk drive (30). The disk drive (30) includes an inventive ramp (66) design which allows the head arm assembly (64) to be initially received within the cartridge (200) as the cartridge (200) is inserted into its final registration position in the disk drive receiving mechanism (53) and to be more tangent with respect to the disk (220).

Abstract: In an optical or magnetic disk drive, a cartridge access station (CAS) for moving a disk cartridge having a disk therein back and forth includes a belt which is driven by pulleys for conveying the cartridge. Stops for positioning the cartridge and a rubber or similar frictional conveying member are affixed to the outer periphery of the belt.

Abstract: A thin film transformer with improved magnetic properties has a bottom pole member supported over a substrate, a top pole member and an intermediate multi-turn thin film coil. The top and bottom pole members form a closed magnetic path, and the coil surrounds one of the legs of the magnetic path. The top pole member, the bottom pole member or both are formed as a plurality of individual laterally spaced pole elements each forming a closed magnetic path with the other pole member. The lateral spacing of the pole elements substantially reduces eddy current build-up in the magnetic path.The bottom pole member in the region of the leg encircled by the coil has a plurality of spaced support members and the top pole element is formed over the support members to provide additional magnetic material at the join site.

Abstract: A head loading mechanism for a removable cartridge disk drive comprises a support base fixedly mounted in the drive, and a moveable member movably attached to the support base via a pair of elongate flexures. The moveable member has a ramped surface adapted to engage a suspension arm at the distal end of an actuator. A read/write head is mounted on the suspension arm. The moveable member moves upon the flexures in tandem with the actuator as it moves toward and away from the edge of a disk inserted in the drive. The moveable member carries the suspension arm of the actuator to the edge of the disk, at which point the suspension arm can ride up and down the ramped surface of the moveable member in order to load the read/write head onto the surface of the disk and then subsequently to unload the read/write head from the disk.

Abstract: A cartridge body has a disc storing portion for rotatably storing an optical disc, and a disc inlet/outlet port. A lid member for opening/closing the port is mounted on the cartridge body. The port includes a mid portion through which a center portion of the disc passes and a pair of end portions positioned on both sides of the mid portion through which peripheral portions of the disc pass. The width of the port gradually decreases from the mid portion to both end portions. The disc storing portion includes a center region facing the center portion of the disc, a first region extending from the center region to the port, and a second region extending from the center region in a direction opposite to the port. The first region has a cross-sectional shape equal to that of the port, and the second region is formed such that its width decreases in the radial direction from the center portion of the disc toward outer peripheral portions of the disc.

Abstract: A transducer support assembly supports a transducer relative to a disc in a disc drive. The transducer support assembly includes a slider coupled to the transducer and a suspension assembly supporting the slider. The suspension assembly includes a bias member configured such that, upon relative movement of the disc and the suspension assembly toward one another a sufficient distance, the bias member contacts the disc and exerts a bias thereagainst before a remainder of the suspension assembly contacts the disc.

Abstract: An optical disc cartridge provided with a mechanism for preventing incorrect insertion of a cartridge. A cut-off portion is provided at a head and side portion at an inserting side of, for example, a 3.5" erasable optical disc cartridge. The cut-off portion is located at an side opposite to a corresponding cut-off portion used in a 3.5" (86 mm) floppy disc cartridge. A stopper is provided in a cartridge insertion portion of the reproducing apparatus to prevent incorrect insertion of the cartridge and is located to correspond to the location of the cartridge cut-off portion. A depression or the like is provided at a front end of the cartridge and at a portion symmetrical about an axis to an edge of the shutter where the shutter opening lever normally strikes.

Abstract: An optical pickup carrying system includes a base on which a turn table can be disposed rotatably for placing a disk thereon, an optical pickup movably disposed in the base for reading a signal recorded on the disk, a guide rail disposed in the base and provided with sliding surfaces on which a level positioning member secured to the optical pickup and a plate spring can slide, respectively, for guiding and supporting the optical pickup in cooperation with the level positioning member and plate spring when the optical pickup moves, and a groove formed in the sliding surface for storing grease.

Abstract: A GMR element part is formed of a laminated structure which comprises at least one pair of ferromagnetic layers and a nonmagnetic intermediate layer interposed between the pair of ferromagnetic layers. Signal magnetic field detecting ferromagnetic layers will be optionally disposed one each outside the pair of ferromagnetic layers. The GMR element part consists of a laminated structure which is provided with one pair of GMR ferromagnetic layers opposed to each other across a nonmagnetic intermediate layer or a laminated structure which is provided with one pair of GMR ferromagnetic layer opposed to each other across a nonmagnetic intermediate layer and at least one low-permeability ferromagnetic layer disposed there between through the medium of a nonmagnetic intermediate layer.

Abstract: A cartridge handling system utilizing a cartridge locking apparatus adapted to simultaneously lock cartridges within corresponding storage locations and a cartridge engaging assembly lock-down apparatus adapted to secure the cartridge engaging assembly to a fixed housing portion of the cartridge handling system. The cartridge locking apparatus includes a cartridge locking device which, in a locked operating state, coacts simultaneously with resilient cartridge retainers to prevent release of cartridges from their storage locations, and an actuator to selectively lock or unlock the cartridge locking device. The cartridge engaging assembly lock-down apparatus includes a first member which is engageable with the cartridge engaging assembly, a second member attached to both the first member and the fixed housing portion, and an actuator to lock and unlock the lock-down apparatus.

Abstract: A recording and/or reproducing apparatus for discs includes a housing unit housing a large number of discs, a recording and/or reproducing unit on which one of the discs held within a large number of disc holders provided in the housing unit is selectively loaded, and a transporting mechanism for transporting the disc held within a selected one of the holders of the housing unit to the recording and/or reproducing unit. The disc transporting mechanism detects whether or not the disc is held in the holder. A detection switch is activated when no disc is present in the holder. The housing unit includes a plurality of the holders positioned radially such that the disc surfaces are held upright. The selected disc held in the holder of the disc transporting mechanism is transported by the transporting mechanism in the upright position to the disc reproducing unit and loaded therein.

Abstract: A cassette loading device includes a door opening/closing mechanism that includes a single element arm or the like for selectively opening and closing a cassette loading door, in accordance with the movement of a cassette receiving housing between a ejected position and a loaded position. The single element is selectively locked into place so as to not cause the cassette loading door to open, such as when a tape cassette is not inserted into the cassette receiving housing. Therefore, the cassette loading door remains closed until a tape cassette is moved into or out of the cassette receiving housing.

Abstract: An apparatus for sensing a change in a magnetic field is disclosed. The apparatus includes a giant magnetoresistive element positioned adjacent to the magnetic field. First, second, and third electrical contacts are spatially positioned on the giant magnetoresistive element forming a first current path having a first variable resistance between the first and second electrical contacts and a second current path having a second variable resistance between the first and third electrical contacts. The movable magnetic field causes a change in the first variable resistance in the first current path when the field becomes positioned substantially underneath the first current path, and the magnetic field causes a change in the second variable resistance in the second current path when the field becomes positioned substantially underneath the second current path.