JP3380967B2 - Tape cartridge - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tape cartridge having a memory element inside a main body case for accommodating a tape and a reel. 2. Description of the Related Art A tape cartridge of this type is disclosed, for example, in JP-A-63-166085. Where I
A memory element is constituted by the C package and a plurality of lead pins protruding from the outer surface thereof. The memory element is embedded and fixed in the lower portion of the rear wall of the main body case, and its lead pins are electrically connected to connection terminals provided on the rear wall. In the use state, the connection terminal on the tape deck side is press-connected to the connection terminal exposed on the rear wall of the case. The present inventor has previously proposed, for example, arranging a switching piece for preventing erroneous erasure by utilizing the installation space of a memory element (Japanese Patent Application No. 5-26841).
issue). There, a connection port for a memory element is opened at a lower portion of a rear wall of a lower case, and an operation port for a switching piece is opened above the connection port. The switching piece is formed in a vertically long shape with an operation portion exposed to the outer surface of the case through the operation port, a base portion for opening and closing a detection hole opened in the bottom wall of the case, and legs connecting the both. [0004] As described above, in a configuration in which the memory element and the operation portion of the switching piece are vertically arranged adjacent to each other, the upper surface and the front surface of the memory element (the inner surface of the case).
Since the switching piece must be arranged avoiding the above, the operation portion is formed at a higher position and is deviated from the base portion. Therefore, there is a problem in that the switching piece is difficult to stand on its own, and it is difficult to assemble, for example, it falls down back and forth. An object of the present invention is to prevent the switching piece from falling down during temporary assembly and to facilitate assembly. A tape cartridge according to the present invention has a main body case 3 for accommodating a tape 1 and a reel 2, and a memory element 4 for storing a digital information signal inside the main body case 3. And a switching piece 5 which can be switched in two lateral directions along an operation port 7 opened in the outer wall 6 of the main body case 3. At the rear corner of the main body case 3, an outer wall 6 and a partition wall 9 connected to the outer wall 6 define a small compartment R accommodating the memory element 4 and the switching piece 5. An operation port 7 and a connection port 8 are vertically opened on the outer wall 6 facing the small room R, respectively. A holding wall 13 is erected from the case bottom wall 12 between the connection port 8 and the partition wall 9. The memory element 4 has a connection terminal 10 that is connected by pressure contact. The connection terminal 10 is inserted between the holding wall 13 and the outer wall 6 with the connection terminal 10 facing the outside of the case via the connection port 8. The switching piece 5 includes an operation unit 16 that faces the outside of the case via the operation port 7, a base 15 that is slid and guided by the holding wall 13 and the partition wall 9, and a leg that connects the operation unit 16 and the base 15. 17 are provided. Then, in the temporarily assembled state, the regulating wall 18 that contacts the upper surface of the holding wall 13 is
It is provided below the inner surface of the operation unit 16. At the time of assembly, the memory element 4 and the switching piece 5 are sequentially assembled to the lower case 3b. Specifically, the memory element 4 is inserted between the outer wall 6 and the holding wall 13.
Next, the base portion 15 of the switching piece 5 is dropped between the holding wall 13 and the partition wall 9 and loaded. At this time, the regulating wall 18 provided below the inner surface of the operation section 16 is received on the upper surface of the holding wall 13, thereby preventing the switching piece 5 from falling outside the case. It is possible that the switching piece 5 will fall into the case in a known manner, but this can be prevented by the partition wall 9. Referring to FIG. 2, a tape cartridge has a main body case 3 for accommodating a tape 1 and a pair of left and right reels 2. An outer wall 6 and a partition wall connected to the outer wall 6 are provided at the inner rear corner of the main body case 3. 9 divides a small room R, and accommodates a memory element 4 for storing digital information signals and a switching piece 5 for preventing erroneous erasure in the small room R. Body case 3
Consists of a hollow case in which the upper case 3a and the lower case 3b are joined together in a lid-like manner, and has a rear outer wall 6 facing the small compartment R.
As shown in FIG. 1, an operation port 7 for operating the switching piece 5 is opened upward, and a connection port 8 for the memory element 4 is opened downward and vertically adjacent to each other. The memory element 4 is for storing information such as tape specification and characteristic data, or recording mode data at the time of recording video and audio, and is formed by enclosing an IC chip in a rectangular parallelepiped plastic package. A plurality of connection terminals 10 are arranged on the outer surface in a state of being partially buried. In order to mount the memory element 4, a case bottom wall 12 is provided between the connection port 8 and the partition wall 9 as shown in FIG.
The holding wall 13 is erected in parallel with the outer wall 6, and a recess 14 is formed along the inner surface of the outer wall 6 on the lower case 3b side. The concave portion 14 is formed wider than the connection port 8 and has the same width as the memory element 4. The facing distance between the concave portion 14 and the holding wall 13 is set to be equal to or slightly smaller than the front and rear thickness of the memory element 4. The memory element 4 has the recess 14 and the holding wall 1 with the connection terminal 10 facing the outside of the case via the connection port 8.
3 and press in from above to assemble. In this assembled state, the memory element 4
The left and right end walls abut, and the memory element 4 cannot move left and right. A switching piece 5 is arranged adjacent to and above the memory element 4. In FIG. 1, the switching piece 5 includes a flat base 15 supported by the case bottom wall 12, an operation unit 16 facing the outside of the case via the operation port 7, and the base 1.
It is made of a plastic molded article integrally formed with a leg portion 17 connecting the 5 to the operation portion 16 and a regulating wall 18 projecting downward along the lower edge of the operation portion 16. Base unit 15 and operation unit 16
And project from the leg portion 17 in opposite directions. Operation unit 1
A protrusion 19 for finger hanging is provided on one side of 6. The switching piece 5 is mounted on the lower case 3 so that the base portion 15 is fitted between the holding wall 13 and the partition wall 9.
b. In this state, as shown in FIG. 4, the regulating wall 18 comes into contact with the upper surface of the holding wall 13, so that the entire switching piece 5 is prevented from falling outside the case. Further, the partition wall 9 receives the leg portion 17 to prevent the entire switching piece 5 from falling down inside the case. Therefore, while the switching pieces 5 are temporarily assembled and sent to the next process, the switching pieces 5 do not fall back and forth even if the traveling vibration of the conveyor line is applied to the lower case 3b. After all the parts are assembled to the lower case 3b, the upper case 3a is assembled to the lower case 3b, so that the protruding pieces 21 protruding from both lower ends of the operation port 7 as shown in FIGS. The memory element 4 is pressed into the recess 14 and fixed. Further, the projection 19 of the operation unit 16 is
The switching piece 5 is exposed to the outside of the case, and the entire switching piece 5 is freely slidably supported within the range of the operation port 7. The base portion 15 can slide left and right in the range indicated by the arrow in FIG.
The detection pin provided on the tape deck side is prevented from entering the small compartment R. Note that the switching piece 5 is slid and guided by the outer wall 6 and the holding wall 13 and the straight wall portion of the partition wall 9 parallel to the outer wall 6. The switching piece 5 is moved to a recordable position (detection hole 2).
2 is closed by the base portion 15) and the leg portion 1 as shown in FIG.
An engagement protrusion 23 is provided on the upper end surface of the upper case 7 near the inner end of the case, and engagement recesses 24 are formed at two places on the inner surface of the upper wall of the upper case 3a facing the leg portion 17. When the tape cartridge is loaded in the tape deck, the connection terminal C provided on the tape deck side is connected by pressure connection to the connection terminal 10 of the memory element 4 as shown in FIG. Read or write recording information data such as recording mode. At this time, a pressing force in the direction indicated by the symbol F acts on the memory element 4, but the memory element 4 is received by the holding wall 13, and is further sandwiched and fixed between the projecting piece 21 and the case bottom wall 12. Therefore, the memory element 4 does not move inward or upward of the case, and the pair of connection terminals 10 and C are securely connected to prevent an erroneous signal from being read from or written to the memory element 4. The memory element 4 can take a form in which an IC package part and a connector part provided with the connection terminal 10 are separately formed, and both are connected by a lead wire. In this case, the connector portion is inserted between the concave portion 14 and the holding wall 13, and the IC package is arranged and fixed in another dead space of the main body case 3. The detection hole 22 is not always necessary. For example, by utilizing the fact that the operation port 7 is opened and closed by switching the position of the operation unit 16 of the switching piece 5, it is possible to determine the difference in the switching state. The switching piece 5 may be provided for a purpose other than prevention of erroneous erasure. The regulating wall 18 can be provided on the same side as the base 15. The joining surface between the regulating wall 18 and the holding wall 13 can be inclined forward or backward, or the cross section can be formed in a mountain shape or a valley shape. According to the present invention, the operation unit 1 of the switching piece 5
When the switching wall 5 is provided between the holding wall 13 and the partition wall 9 in a tentatively assembled state, the switching wall 5 is received by the holding wall 13 so that the switching piece 5 is positioned outside the case. To prevent falling down.
At the same time, the partition wall 9 prevents the switching piece 5 from falling into the case. Therefore, the switching piece 5 incorporated in the lower case 3b is reliably prevented from falling back and forth despite the necessity of disposing the operation unit 16 above the memory element 4 and the switching piece 5 having a shape that is difficult to stand on its own. And the assembly can be facilitated. Since the memory element 4 or its connection terminal 10 and the switching piece 5 are collectively arranged in the small compartment R partitioned by the outer side wall 6 and the partition wall 9, the internal space of the main body case 3 can be effectively used, and the tape cartridge can be reduced in size. Can be easily realized.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a related structure between an upper and lower case and a switching piece. FIG. 2 is an internal plan view of the tape cartridge. FIG. 3 is a main part rear view showing an arrangement of a switching piece and a memory element. FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. [Description of Signs] 3 Main body case 4 Memory element 5 Switching piece 6 Outer side wall 7 Operation port 8 Connection port 9 Partition wall 10 Connection terminal 13 Holding wall 15 Base section 16 Operation section 17 Leg section 18 Restriction wall R

Claims (1)

(57) Claims: 1. A main body case 3 accommodating a tape 1 and a reel 2, a memory element 4 for storing a digital information signal inside the main body case 3, A tape cartridge provided with a switching piece 5 capable of switching between two positions in the left-right direction along an operation port 7 opened in an outer side wall 6, wherein an upper case 3 a and a lower case 3 b are joined in a lid-like manner. hand
In the rear corner of the main body case 3, a small compartment R for accommodating the memory element 4 and the switching piece 5 is partitioned by the outer wall 6 and a partition wall 9 connected to the outer wall 6. In addition, an operation port 7 and a connection port 8 are respectively opened vertically adjacent to each other, and a holding wall 13 is erected from the case bottom wall 12 between the connection port 8 and the partition wall 9, memory element 4 has a connecting terminal 10 which is connected by crimping, in a state where the connection terminal 10 is exposed to the outside of the case via the connecting port 8, upwardly between the holding wall 13 and the outer wall 6 of the lower case 3b
The switching piece 5 has an operating portion 16 facing the outside of the case via the operating port 7 and a base portion supported by the case bottom wall 12 and slidably guided by the holding wall 13 and the partition wall 9. 15 and a leg portion 17 for connecting the operation portion 16 and the base portion 15, and restricting contact with the upper surface of the holding wall 13 in a state where the memory element 4 and the switching piece 5 are temporarily assembled in the lower case 3 b. A wall 18 is provided below the inner surface of the operation unit 16 and the upper case 3a is assembled to the lower case 3b.
The projecting pieces 21 projecting from the lower end of the operation port 7
And the switching piece 5
The body is slidably supported left and right within the operating port 7
There is a tape cartridge.