JP2852099B2 - Tape cartridge - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a tape cartridge, and more particularly to a cartridge case in which rigidity and surface smoothness of a tape guide portion are improved.

[Prior Art] FIG. 5 shows a conventional cartridge in which plastic upper and lower cases 1a and 1b are abutted and integrally joined by screws or the like. Then, a tape guide portion 4 is provided on a traveling path of the tape 3 wound from one hub 2 in the upper case 1a and the lower case 1b to the other hub.
The tape guide part 4 has upper and lower cases.
Guide pins 4a
4b, guide pins 4b and 4b erected on the left and right of the opening of the head insertion window 5 at the center in the left and right direction, and these guide pins 4a and 4b.
Guides 4c and 4c standing between 4a, 4b and 4b, etc.
In each case, it is designed to be integrally molded from the inner surface of the case. In the figure, reference numeral 4d denotes a guide roller shaft for supporting the guide roller 6, which has a specification integrally formed so as to protrude from the inner surface of the case as described above.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been a remarkable spread of cartridges for computer data backup, and there is a tendency to form a larger market in the future. However, when this cartridge is installed in a device and used, the tape is subjected to a large tension that is incomparable to that for general audio. Is added to Therefore, as described above, if the tape guide portions are integrally formed so as to protrude from the inner surface of the case, and the case material itself has a low flexural modulus, there is a problem that the guide pins are bent by the tape tension. The inventor conducted the following experiment in order to further investigate the above points, and the results are shown in FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b). That is, the case portion including the tape guide pin of the tape cartridge is cut out (here, the cut portion is appropriately cut so as to include the portion of the tape guide pin 4a shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 5). It is fixed to an appropriate jig, supports the guide pin horizontally, and applies a load of 200 from the vertical direction (the direction of the arrow in FIG. 4 (a)) of the horizontally supported guide pin.
Guide pin (The diameter of the guide pin was set to 1.8 mm.)
Was measured. The vertical axis in FIG. 4 (b) indicates the amount of bending of the guide pin, while the horizontal axis indicates the flexural modulus of the cartridge case material itself. This experiment revealed that when the flexural modulus of the cartridge is 10 × 10 ⁴ kg / cm ² or less, the tape guide pin bends greatly with respect to the load. It has been found that not only does it affect, but in the worst case it can cause dropouts. Therefore, in order to prevent these problems from occurring, the bending elastic modulus of the cartridge material is 10%.
It is desired to be at least × 10 ⁴ kg / cm ² . As a cartridge case material for obtaining this flexural modulus, a composite plastic in which glass fibers are added to a plastic base material made of a styrene-based resin or an ABS-based resin has been proposed. According to this, a bending elastic modulus of 10 × 10 ⁴ kg / cm ² or more can be obtained. Since the tape is damaged due to the rough contact surface and dropout will occur,
After molding, there is a drawback in that it is necessary to smooth the surface of the case surface, particularly the surface of the tape guide portion, by polishing or the like, and there is room for improvement in this point.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In view of such a fact, an object of the present invention is to secure the rigidity of a cartridge case, particularly a tape guide portion, and to smooth the surface thereof.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, at least the tape guide portion 4 of the cartridge case 1 is formed of a composite plastic obtained by adding glass fibers and whiskers to a plastic base material. It is characterized by the following.
Here, as a plastic base material of the composite plastic, for example, an ABS resin, an AS resin, a styrene resin such as polystyrene, or the like is used. 9Al ₂ O ₃
In addition to 2B ₂ O ₂ , SiC or the like can be applied.

Further, the amount of glass fiber added to the plastic base material is preferably in the range of 10 to 20%, particularly preferably in the range of 12 to 17%. The reason why the amount of glass fiber added is as described above is that if it is less than 10%, a sufficient reinforcing effect cannot be obtained, while if it is more than 20%, the effect of improving the surface properties due to the addition of whisker is not so obtained. Based on the reason.
On the other hand, the addition amount of the whisker to the plastic base material is preferably in the range of 10 to 20%, particularly preferably in the range of 15 to 20%. The reason why the addition amount of whiskers is as described above is that if the amount is less than 10%, the surface properties of the molded product are not improved, while if it is more than 20%, there is a possibility that a problem may occur in the product shape and physical balance of the molded product. Because there is.

In the present invention, the tape guide portion is a tape guide that directly guides a tape to pin-shaped objects protruding from at least one of the upper and lower cases, and a guide roller interposed between these pin-shaped objects, It includes a configuration that can guide the tape along the peripheral surface. In particular, the latter configuration improves the surface smoothness of the pin-shaped object, so that the guide roller can smoothly rotate.

The present invention can be similarly applied to a Philips tape cartridge, a video tape cartridge, and various other tape cartridges in addition to the computer data backup cartridge.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention as described above, by combining glass fiber and whiskers, the surface properties are not impaired and the rigidity of the molded article can be effectively improved. As it is guided smoothly without being hurt,
No dropouts occurred. Further, there is no need to polish the surface after molding as in the prior art.

Embodiment FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. Since the overall configuration of the cartridge case is substantially the same as that of the above-described conventional example, only the differences from the conventional cartridge case will be described.

The cartridge case 1 has at least a tape guide portion 4
This was entirely formed by injection molding using a composite plastic material in which 15% of glass fiber and 20% of whiskers (9Al ₂ O ₃ .2B ₂ O ₂ ) were added to ABS resin.

As a result, an excellent smoothness with little irregularities on the surface of the case, particularly on the surface of the tape guide portion 4, was obtained.

FIG. 2 shows the irregularities on the surface of the tape guide portion 4 molded with the above plastic, and FIG. 3 shows the irregularities on the surface of the tape guide portion of the comparative example molded with the composite plastic in which only the glass fiber is filled with 20% of ABS resin. It is a graph represented.

As is clear from comparison of these graphs, the surface of the tape guide portion formed of the composite plastic containing only glass fiber has a rough surface with many irregularities as shown in FIG. It was confirmed that the tape guide portion 4 of the present invention formed of a composite plastic filled with ₂ O ₃ · 2B ₂ O ₂ ) had little irregularities on its surface and was excellent in smoothness despite containing glass fibers. Also,
As a result of the improvement in the smoothness of the tape guide portion, the occurrence of dropout was completely eliminated.

The reason why the surface properties are improved by filling whiskers (9Al ₂ O ₃ · 2B ₂ O ₂ ) is not clear, but when molding with plastics containing only glass fibers, the orientation of the glass fibers occurs. Although the fluidity is deteriorated, by adding whisker _{(9Al 2 O 3 · 2B 2} O 2), flowability is estimated to be be accelerated with a small orientation of the glass fibers.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cartridge case showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a graph showing the unevenness of the surface of a tape guide portion obtained by the present invention, and FIG. FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b) are graphs showing the relationship between the amount of bending of the tape guide pin and the bending elastic modulus, and FIGS.
FIG. 1 is an internal plan view showing a conventional tape cartridge. 1 ... Cartridge case, 2 ... Hub, 3 ... Tape, 4 ... Tape guide, 4a / 4b ... Guide pin, 4c
…… guide, 4d …… guide roller shaft, 5… head insertion window, 6 …… guide roller.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A composite plastic in which at least a tape guide portion 4 of a cartridge case 1 is filled with glass fibers and whiskers in a plastic base material, wherein each of the glass fibers and whiskers is 10 to 20% of the plastic base material. A tape cartridge characterized by being added. 2. The tape cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the base plastic material of the composite plastic is an ABS resin. 3. The tape cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the base plastic material of the composite plastic is a styrene resin. 4. A tape cartridge according to any one of claims whisker is _{9Al 2 O 3 · 2B 2 O} 2 (1) ~ (3).