GB2037475A

GB2037475A - Disk pack cartridge

Info

Publication number: GB2037475A
Application number: GB7901679A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Data Packaging Corp
Current assignee: Data Packaging Corp
Priority date: 1978-12-13
Filing date: 1979-01-17
Publication date: 1980-07-09
Also published as: IE47908B1; FR2444315A1; IE790148L; DE2903348A1; GB2037475B; JPS5580859A

Abstract

The cartridge has a top cover 1 with a handle 3 which can be raised from a horizontal position to a vertical position, a magnetic disk 9 housed within the top cover, and attached to a hub 12 having a magnetizable armature plate, a removable bottom cover 2 having magnets 25 for latching the bottom cover to the armature plate, a lift plate 13 for lifting the hub away from the magnets to unlatch the bottom cover and lift arms 14, 15 attached to the lift plate and extending through the top cover into a chamber in the handle, a yoke housed in the chamber for sliding movement between an unlatch position and a carry position, means pivotally securing the lift arms to the yoke, resilient means urging the yoke to the unlatch position and a slide member in the chamber, having dependent blocking members adapted to block or permit sliding movement of the yoke thus allowing the handle to be raised for carrying the cartridge or for unlatching the bottom cover. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A disk pack cartridge and handle mechanism therefor Magnetic disks are widely used in electronic data processing systems for the storage and retrieval of information. To protect the magnetic disks, the disks are enclosed in housings having iatchable bottom covers. The disks and their housing are known as disk packs. When it is desired to use a disk, the bottom cover is removed from the housing to enable read/write heads to be brought into close proximity to the information surfaces of he disk while the disk is spun. In one type of disk pack having but a single disk in it, a handle on the housing is provided to facilitate carrying of the disk pack. The handle contains a mechanism that enables the bottom cover to be unlatched by moving a steel ring away from magnets embedded in the cover.The mechanism heretofore employed for unlatching the bottom cover has many disadvantages. For example, because of its complexity it is expensive to manufacture. Moreover because that mechanism is not fully confined within the handle a protective shield is provided to protect the hand of the carrier and prevent objects from interfering with the mechanism. Furthermore, the mechanism is not wholly reliable, and when subject to a mechanical shock the latching mechanism may slip and cause the disk to crash against the data processing equipment on which the disk pack is used. Also, the prior art handle most frequently used is unattractive because so much of the operating mechanism is exposed outside the handle.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The principal object of the invention is to provide an unlatching mechanism that is simpler in construction and less expensive to manufacture than the mechanism heretofore employed.

Another object of the invention is to improve the aesthetic appearance of the handle by having the unlatching mechanism enclosed in a chamber of the handle.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide a disk pack latching mechanism which is less susceptible to malfunction than the devices heretofore available.

The invention resides in an improved unlatching mechanism housed in the handle of a disk pack cartridge of the type having a magnetically latched removable bottom cover.

To unlatch the removable bottom cover, a hub carrying the magnetic disk is raised away from magnets secured to the removable bottom cover to break the magnetic linkage between the magnets and a magnetizable armature plate attached the hub. The hub is raised by a lift plate having lift arms extending into a chamber in the handle housing a slidable yoke. The lift arms are pivotally attached to the handle aithebly in a manner enabling the handle to be swung from a horizontal position to a vertical position. The yoke is arranged so slide in the handle from an unlatch station to a carry station upon raising of the haitondle to its vertical position. Sliding of the yoke to the carry station enables the handle to be raised without lifting the lift arms. Consequently, the removable bottom cover remains magnetically latched.When it is desired to unlatch the removable bottom cover, the handle is placed in its horizontal position and a slide button is pushed to place a pair of blocking members in front of the yoke. Upon raising of the handle to its vertical position, the yoke remains at its unlatch station. Consequently, the lift arms are raised as the handle moves to its vertical position and the lift plate pulls the hub away from the magnets of the removable bottom cover. Raising of the lift plate moves the armature plate away from the magnets and so greatly diminishes the magnetic latching force that the removable bottom cover is readily detached.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a single disk cartridge.

Figure 2 is an exploded view showing the arrangement within the cartridge.

Figure 3 is a side view of a single disk cartridge with parts broken away to show the internal arrangement in the assembled unit.

Figure 4 shows the lift plate subassembly employed in the invention.

Figure 5 shows the position of the lift plate subassembly in relation to the top cover of the cartridge.

Figure 6 is an exploded view of the preferred embodiment of the invention.

Figure 7 is a perspective view of the yoke employed in the preferred embodiment of the invention.

Figure 8 shows the arrangement locking the slide button and slide together to enable them to slide as a unit along the cover plate.

Figure 9 is a fragmentary cross sectional view of the handle mechanism with the handle shown in the horizontal position.

Figure 10 is a fragmentary cross sectional view of the handle shown in the raised position in the carrying mode.

Figures 1 1 and 12 show the unlatch mode of the handle.

The general configuration of a single disk cartridge is depicted in the perspective view of Fig. 1. The cartridge has a circular top cover 1 to which a removable bottom cover 2 is secured by a magnetic latch. Disposed in a well 1A in the top cover is a handle 3 which can be raised to a vertical position. In the horizontal position of the handle depicted in Fig. 1, the handle is flush with the upper surface of the top cover. To unlatch the removable bottom cover, a button 4 is slid in the direction of the arrow and the handle is then raised to the vertical position. Upon return of the handle to the horizontal position, the button is automatically restored to its initial station. To facilitate carrying of the cartridge with the removable bottom cover attached, the handle is raised to the vertical position without actuation of button 4.

In the exploded view of the single disk cartridge depicted in Fig. 2, top cover 1 has a pair of circular holes 5 and 6 in the well 1 A which are covered by a protective plate 7. The top cover has a depending skirt 8 in which there are openings to permit reading and writing heads to be brought into close proximity to the information tracks on the magnetic disk 9. That disk, as best shown in Fig. 3 is disposed within the housing formed by the top cover 1 and a protective cover 10 secured to the lower edge of skirt 8. The disk 9 can be of the conventional construction which utilizes an annular flat rigid plate of a nonmagnetic material such as aluminum that is coated on one or both sides with a magnetizable recording medium. The disk is clamped between an annular clamp plate 11 and a disk hub 12.The annular clamp plate 11 has a downturned rim and that plate is bolted to the disk hub 12 as indicated in Fig. 3 to cause the downturned rim to engage the inner rim of the annular magnetic disk and clamp the disk against the hub. The annular clamp plate is sufficiently wide so that its inner portion overhangs a depression in the disk hub. Disposed within the depression and captured in it by the overhang of the clamp plate is a lift plate 13.

As depicted in Fig. 4, the lift plate subassembly includes the lift plate 13 which is an annular member having connecting means in the form of a pair of lift arms 14 and 15 protruding through slots in the plate. The lower ends of the lift arms are bent to provide tabs which engage the underside of the plate and lift the plate when arms 14 and 15 are raised. Surrounding the lift arms 14 and 15 are helical compression springs 16 and 17.

To keep the helical springs in position around the lift arms, circular grooves 18 and 19 are provided in the upper side of the lift plate to receive the lower ends of the compression springs. The upper ends of the compression springs are similarly seated in grooves in bezels 20 and 21 disposed at the upper ends of lift arms. The bezels are circular plugs which fit into holes 5 and 6 in top cover 1 as depicted in Fig. 5. To prevent the bezels from being pushed through the holes by the compression springs, the bezels are provided with shoulders that seat against the underside of the top cover. The bezels are provided with slots that enable the lift arms to pass through the bezels and to move up and down relative to the bezels. When the bezels are positioned in openings 5 and 6 in the cover, the bezels align the lift arms 14 and 15 to insure vertical motion of the lift plate assembly.The holes in the top cover are covered by a protective plate 7 having apertures permitting the lift arms to protrude through the protective plate. The upper ends of the lift arms, as shown in Fig.

4, have bores for receiving pins 22 and 23 that serve as pivotal connections between the lift plate subassembly and handle mechanism to be described presently.

Referring again to the exploded view of Fig.

2 and to the assembled view of Fig. 3, the removable bottom cover 2 has a cylindrical upturned rim dimensioned to fit around the skirt 8 of the top cover. When assembled to the top cover, the edge of the upturned rim of the removable bottom cover seats against a seal 24 to provide a dustproof enclosure for the magnetic disk. As best shown in Fig. 3, the top cover has a peripheral flange providing a groove in which the seal is retained. To keep the removable bottom cover 2 latched to the top cover, the removable bottom cover is provided with magnets 25 that are attracted to an annular armature plate 26 secured to the underside of disk hub 12. The disk hub is contructed of a non-magnetic material whereas the armature plate is made of a magentizable material such as steel.

To enable the bottom cover 2 to be detached, the magnetic attraction between the magnets 25 and the armature plate is broken by moving the disk hub upwardly away from the magnets. The magnets 25 are secured to the bottom of the removable cover 2 and are disposed symmetrically about a central post 27 which is braced laterally by buttresses 28.

The top of the central post 27 engages a stub 29 which extends downwardly from the underside of the top cover. Upon raising of the armature plate, the removable bottom cover is prevented from following the upward movement of that plate by the stub 29 which is disposed directly above the central post.

The mechanism for raising and lowering the lift plate is housed in a chamber in the handle 3. An exploded view of that mechanism is depicted in Fig. 6. The handle has a central opening 30 which enables the fingers to curl under and grasp the crossbar 31 which extends between the side members of the handle. The chamber 32 of the handle has a central pair of rails 33 disposed on the chamber's floor. A carriage or yoke 34 is mounted over the rails. As indicated in Fig. 7, the yoke 34 has a central channel 35 in which the rails are received to permit the yoke to straddle those rails. To facilitate sliding movement of the yoke, a pair of ribs 36 may be provided on the floor of chamber 32 to support the yoke. The yoke may slide on the ribs while the rails restrict the yoke to back and forth transverse motion in the handle chamber 32.

A pair of slots 37 extend completely through the floor of the chamber as well as completely through a portion of the chamber front wall 38. Thus, in Fig. 6, those slots are depicted as being L-shaped. The slots are of sufficient width to permit the lift arms 14 and 15 to extend through the slots into the chamber.

Referring again to Fig. 7, the carriage or yoke 34 has slots 39 which align with the slots 37 of the chamber when the yoke is positioned in the chamber to straddle the rails 33. The upper ends of lift arms 14 and 15, in the assembled handle, are received in the slots 39 and pins 22 and 23 are slid through the bores in those upper ends to lock the lift arms to the yoke while permitting those arms to pivot. The pins 22 and 23 are received in a pair of channels 40 and 41 extended into the yoke. The channels are of sufficient length to permit the pins to be dropped into the channels and then pushed laterally through the bores in the upper ends of the pivot arms. To prevent the pins from accidental disenagagement from the lift arms, a raised stop is provided in the bottom of each channel, as indicated in Fig. 7 by the stop 42 in the bottom of channel 41.Thus yoke 34 serves as a carriage in the handle mechanism for the depending lift plate assembly.

Adjacent to the central channel 35 of the yoke is a receiver aperture 43 which is dimensioned to receive a blocking member carried by the slide 44 (Fig. 6). The slide essentially comprises a control member for the operation of the handle mechanism on the lift plate subassembly. In the assembled handle, the slide is disposed above the yoke 34, and to facilitate assembly of the mechanism the slide is provided with apertures 45 and 46 which can be aligned with the channels 40 and 41 of the yoke to enable the pins 22 and 23 to be dropped into those channels and then moved into engagement with the upper ends of the lift arms. Protruding from the slide 44 is an eye 47 which engages one end of a spring 48 whose other end is anchored to a post 49 in the chamber of the handle.Spring 48 pulls slide 44 to the right as viewed in Fig. 6, and when the slide is at its extreme right station a blocking member 50 which depends from the slide is positioned in alignment with the receiver aperture 43 of the yoke, and the yoke can, consequently, move forwardly toward the front wall 38 of the chamber in the handle. When slide 44 is moved to the left, the spring 48 extends, blocking member 50 is moved out of alignment with the receiver aperture 43 of the yoke, and a second blocking member 51 which depends from the slide is also moved to a blocking position in front of the yoke. The yoke consequently is blocked from forward movement when the slide 44 is moved to the left, as viewed in Fig. 6. At the extreme right position of slide 44, blocking member 51 is beyond the right edge of yoke 34.To prevent the slide 44 from inadvertently being returned to the right by spring 48, the yoke 34 carries a safety stop 52 which protrudes slightly from the front face of the yoke at its right corner.

Thus when the slide is moved to the left and the handle is raised slightly from its horizontal position, the yoke will be pulled forwardly just enough to enable the safety stop to block the slide from being returned to its right station by the spring 48.

The slide 44 is held in place on handle 3 by the nibs 72 on the side edges of the slide, which fit into the grooves 74 on both sides of handle chamber 32. This allows the handle 3, yoke 34, springs 53 and 48 and slide 44 to be preassembled and permits the handle assembly and lift plate assembly to be shipped separately to the customer who may then conveniently connect the two during the assembling of the disk packs with a minimum of loose parts.

Yoke 34 is biased to its rearward position by a spring 53 which acts to press the yoke against the rear wall of chamber 32. Spring 53 is positioned in the channel 35 of the yoke and between rails 33 so that the spring is compressed by the yoke when the yoke moves forwardly toward the front wall 38.

The channel 35 of the yoke has a back wall against which one end of spring 53 seats, and the other end of that spring seats against the front wall 38 of the chamber. At its rear, the yoke has a ledge 54 which is lower than the top surface of the yoke so as to enable spring 48 to extend above the ledge when slide 44 is moved to the left.

Slide 44 and slide button 4 form a unit that slides along cover plate 55. The cover plate, in the assembled handle, is fixed in position and for that purpose carries pins 56 and 57 which are inserted in receptacles 58 and 58A in the housing. The receptacles 58 and 58A are shown in Fig. 6 inside the chamber 32.

The cover plate 55 has a longitudinal aperture 60 which enables the slide button 4 to engage the slide 44.

Extending upwardly along the longitudinal edges of opening 45 of slide 44 are a pair of flanges 61 which are best shown in Fig. 8.

The flanges extend through the opening 60 of cover plate 55 and have sloping faces which are undercut at their lower ends. Slide button 4 has a pair of downwardly depending snap legs 62 which have sufficient resiliency to fit between the sloping faces of the flanges and provide a snap fit with the slide. To keep the button and slide locked together, the snap legs have barbs which extend into the undercuts of the flanges. To enable the button to be pried off, the barbs of the legs have slanted facets. In assembling the sliding unit about the cover plate, the cover plate is placed over the slide 44 with the flanges extending through the aperture 60 of the cover plate.

Button 4 is then pressed down to cause the snap legs 62 to snap into engagement with the flanges. The slide button and slide can therm be moved as a unit along the cover plate. The slide button is sufficiently long to cover the aperture 60 in the cover plate even at the extreme limits of movement of the sliding unit.

In Figs. 9 and 10, the slide is at the station where blocking member 50 is aligned with the aperture 43 of yoke 34, and blocking member 51 is out of the path of forward movement of the yoke. Upon lifting of the handle to the raised position of Fig. 10, the yoke slides forwardly within the chamber 32 against the bias of spring 53 while the handle pivots on its lower, front rounded corner 70 and around the pins 22 and 23 on lift arms 14 and 15, without raising those arms enough to lift the armature plate away from the magnets on the removable lower cover.

Consequently, the removable bottom cover remains magnetically latched.

In the unlatch mode depicted in Figs. 11 and 12, the slide has been moved to position blocking member 50 and 51 in front of yoke 34. Upon lifting of the handle, the yoke is prevented from sliding within the chamber by the blocking members, and consequently, as the handle pivots around rounded corner 70 and on the pins 22 and 23 on lift arms 14 and 15, the lift arms are pulled upwardly and raise the armature plate away from the magnets on the removable lower cover and thereby unlatch the removable bottom cover.

From the foregoing description many of the advantages of this invention will be apparent.

For example, all of the mechanism for controlling the actuation of the lift plate subassembly is retained within the handle. This feature improves the appearance of the device by making it more streamlined and hiding the operating mechanism which obviously does not contribute to the appearance of the pack.

The mechanism is also very reliable, and substantially eliminates the possibility of accidental release of the lift plate subassembly and subsequent crash of the disk against the equipment on which the pack is used. This is achieved by virtue of the intrinsically produced and constantly maintained frictional force between the yoke 34 and the blocking members carried on slide 44 when the slide is in the left side of the handle chamber. The springs 16 and 17 on the lift plate subassembly exert a very much greater pull through the arms 14 and 15 on the yoke to move it toward the front wall 38 of the handle chamber and against the blocking member than the counterdirectional force exerted by spring 53 against the yoke.In addition, the stop 52 on the right end of the yoke which moves behind the right end of the blocking member 51 on slide 44 prevents the slide from moving to the right when the handle is raised even if the pack is subjected to great mechanical shock. When the handle is returned to the horizontal position, spring 48 automatically returns the slide to the right or non-blocking position. The ease of assembly of the handle and lift plate mechanisms also provides substantial benefits. For example, the lift plate subassembly can be put together as suggested in Fig. 4, and when it is to be incorporated into the handle mechanism, the pins 22 and 23 can be easily removed from the arms 14 and 15, and the arms can then be inserted through the holes 5 and 6 in the cover 1 and the slots in protective plate 7, and through the slots 37 in yoke 34.The pins 22 and 23 may be placed in the wells 40 and 41 and moved laterally to reenter the holes in the arms 14 and 15. The absence of screws in the assembly eliminates the possibilities of not properly bottoming the screws during assembly, of the screws later becoming loose, and of cross threading and resulting damage to the parts.

And of course no power driver is needed to assemble the mechanisms. The disk pack assembly of this invention is also free of expensive metal stampings and machined parts which are found in the prior art. The few metal parts are all simple and inexpensive. All of the foregoing advantages are achieved without altering the manual operations required of the end user.

It will also be appreciated from the foregoing description that many changes may be made in this invention without departing from its spirit. Therefore, it is not intended to limit the breadth of the invention to the single embodiment illustrated and described. Rather, it is to be limited only by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. In a disk pack cartridge of the type having (1) a top cover having a handle that can be raised from a horizontal position to a vertical position.

(2) a magnetic disk housed within the top cover, the magnetic disk being attached to a hub having a magnetizable armature plate, (3) a removable bottom cover having magnets for latching the removable bottom cover to the top cover by the magnetic attraction between the magnets and the armature plate.

(4) a lift plate for lifting the hub away from the magnets of the removable bottom cover to unlatch the removable bottom cover, (5) lift arms attached to the lift plate and extending through the top cover into a chamber in the handle, the improvement comprising (a) a yoke housed in the chamber of the handle for sliding movement between an unlatch position and a carry position, (b) means securing the lift arms to the yoke in a manner enabling the lift arms to pivot on the yoke, (c) resilient means urging the yoke to the unlatch position, (d) a slide member in the chamber, disposed above the yoke, the slide member having dependent blocking member adapted to block sliding movement of the yoke from the unlatch position toward the carry position, the slide member being movable to a carry station where the dependent blocking members do not block the sliding movement of the yoke.

2. The improvement according to claim 1, wherein (i) the yoke has a receiver aperture therein situated to receive a blocking member when the slide member is at its carry station.

(ii) the means securing the lift arms to the yoke are pivot pins extending through bores in the upper ends of the lift arms, and (iii) the yoke has longitudinal channels therein for receiving the pivot pins and enabling the pivot pins to be moved longitudinally to project through the bores in the lift arms.

3. The improvement according to claim 2, wherein (iv) the slide member has openings therein which can be aligned with the longitudinal channels of the yoke to enable the pivot pins to be dropped into the channels.

4. The improvement according to claim 3, further comprising (e) a cover plate covering the chamber of the handle, the cover plate being adjacent to the slide member and secured to the handle, the cover plate having an elongate aperture therein, and (f) a slide button, the slide button having dependent means adapted to protrude through the elongate aperture of the cover plate and engage the slide member whereby the slide button and the slide member are movable as a unit along the elongate aperture of the cover plate.

5. The improvement according to claim 4, further comprising (g) resilient means in the chamber urging the slide member to its carry station.

6. A disk pack handle and latching assembly comprising: a cover having a handle on its upper side that can be raised from a horizontal position to a vertical position on the cover, a lift plate disposed below the handle on the bottom side of the cover for carrying the armature forming part of a magnetic latching assembly for connecting the cover to a base of the pack, a chamber within the handle and connecting means secured to the lift plate and extending into the chamber, a carriage confined to the chamber, pivot means within the chamber pivotally connecting the means to the carriage, and control means on the handle movable between a first position wherein raising the handle does not alter the position of the lift plate with respect to the cover so that the armature remains substantially fixed with respect to the base, and a second position wherein raising the handle raises the lift plate with respect to the cover so that the armature moves with respect to the base.

7. A disk pack handle and latching assembly as defined in claim 6 further characterized by said carriage being movable within the chamber and being biased to a first position therein, and means acting on the carriage when the handle is raised urging the carriage to move to a second position wherein the position of lift plate is not altered by raising the handle, said control means when moved to its second position preventing the carriage from moving to its second position and thereby causing raising of the handle to move the lift plate.

8. A disk pack handle and latching assembly as defined in claim 7 further characterized by means in the chamber confining motion of the carriage with respect to the chamber to the plane of the handle.

9. A disk pack handle and latching assembly as defined in claim 6 further characterized by said connecting means comprising a pair of parallel arms perpendicular to the lift plate and extending into the chamber, said pivot means comprising pins extending through the arms and secured to th#e carriage, and springs carried by the arms and urging the lift plate downardly away from the cover.

10. A disk pack handle and latching assembly as defined in claim 9 further characterized by bezels mounted on the arms on the bottom side of the cover, said springs being coil springs on the arms confined between the lift plate and bezels.

11. A lift plate assembly for a disk pack comprising a lift plate for supporting an armature, a plurality of parallel arms secured to the plate perpendicular thereto, compression springs surrounding the arms and bearing at one end against the lift plate, a bezel on each of the arms adjacent to their ends away from the plate and bearing against the other ends of the springs, and pins secured to the ends of the arms away from the plate and retaining the bezels on the arms.

12. A lift plate assembly as defined in claim 11 further characterized by there being a pair of said arms each being a flat member and each having an opening in its end through which the pin is inserted.

13. A disk pack handle and latching assembly as defined in claim 6 further charac prized by spring means secured to the control means causing the control means to return to assume its first position when the handle is moved from the raised to the horizontal position.

14. A disk handle and latching assembly as defined in claim 7 further characterized by said control means including a slide movable in the chamber of the handle, a blocking member carried by and movable with the slide and positioned to engage the carriage and prevent the carriage from moving when the slide is in the second position.

15. A disk pack handle and latching assembly as defined in claim 14 further charac Rerized by spring means in the chamber secured to the slide causing the slide to return to its first position when the handle is moved from the raised to the horizontal position.

16. A disk pack handle and latching assembly comprising a cover having a handle on its upper side that can be raised from a horizontal position to a vertical position on the cover, a lifting means disposed below the handle on the bottom side of the cover for carrying part of a latching assembly for connecting the cover to a base of the pack, a chamber within the handle and connecting means secured to the lift means and extending into the chamber, a carriage confined to and movable in the chamber and movable with the handle, pivot means within the chamber pivotally connecting the connecting means to the carriage, and control means in the chamber for selectively either enabling the carriage to move in the chamber when the handle is raised from the horizontal position whereby the lift means does not affect the condition of the latching assembly or preventing the carriage from moving in the chamber when the handle is raised whereby the lift means does affect the condition of the latching assembly.

17. A disk pack cartridge according to claim 1, substantially as hereinbefore described and with reference to the accompanying drawings.

18. A disk pack handle and latching assembly according to claim 6, substantially as hereinbefore described and with reference to the accompanying drawings.