WO1999042997A1

WO1999042997A1 - An id board of a magnetic tape cassette

Info

Publication number: WO1999042997A1
Application number: PCT/JP1999/000726
Authority: WO
Inventors: Tatsuya Yamaguchi; Akihisa Kita
Original assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co Ltd
Current assignee: Fujifilm Holdings Corp
Priority date: 1998-02-20
Filing date: 1999-02-18
Publication date: 1999-08-26
Anticipated expiration: 2000-08-20
Also published as: JPH11238356A

Abstract

A magnetic tape cassette comprises a cassette case including a partition wall formed therein, and a storage space sandwiched by the partition wall and a rear end wall of the cassette case, the rear end wall having a plurality of openings formed therein, a magnetic tape accommodated in the cassette case, and an ID board including a short-circuit pattern and a plurality of contacts through which information regarding at least the magnetic tape is read by a hardware. The ID board is mounted into the storage space of the cassette case so that the contacts are exposed through the openings. In the magnetic tape cassette, the contacts and the sort-circuit pattern are formed on a common plane of the ID board, and at least two of the contacts are electrically connected through the short-circuit pattern. Furthermore, the short-circuit pattern bypasses the opening so as to be located behind the rear end wall when the ID board is mounted into the storage space of the cassette case.

Description

DESCRIPTION

AN ID BOARD OF A MAGNETIC TAPE CASSETTE

[Technical Field]

The present invention relates to an ID board mounted into a magnetic tape cassette as a recognition component for identification of the type, use, etc. of a magnetic tape for recording, in addition to the magnetic tape. More specifically, the present invention relates to a structure of contacts which are formed on one plane of the ID board. The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. Hei. 10-39205, which is incorporated herein by reference .

[Background Art]

Conventionally, a magnetic tape cassette case, to which a plane IC board for storage of management information etc. of record contents, or an ID board exclusively for identification of the type, use etc. of the magnetic tape is attached, is known. The IC board or ID board is attached to an inner side of the cassette case so as to be exposed to the outside for transmission and reception of signals for management information or for type, use etc. of the magnetic tape with a recording and reproducing apparatus (hardware) via the exposed contacts of the IC board or ID board. Either of these boards is fitted from the rear side into a storage space that is defined at a predetermined position inside the cassette case. Figs. 4 and 5 show a magnetic tape cassette M which comprises a cassette case 1 made of resin. A magnetic tape (not shown) is accommodated in the cassette case 1. The cassette case 1 includes a lower half 2 and an upper half 3.

5 The lower half 2 has a management-data storage portion 5 at an end portion of a rear end wall 2a thereof for storage of management information on the recorded contents, types, uses, etc. of the magnetic tape. On the other hand, the upper half 3 has a faulty-erasure prevention portion 6 at an end portion o of a rear end wall 3a thereof. The management-data storage portion 5 and the faulty-erasure prevention portion 6 are disposed adjacent to each other. A faulty-erasure prevention piece 20 is provided in the faulty-erasure prevention portion 6 and includes a nail portion 22 exposed through an opening s 21 which is formed in the rear end wall 3a of the upper half 3.

In the magnetic tape cassette M, an ID board 10 is mounted in the rear end wall 2a of the cassette case 1 so as to form the management-data storage portion 5. A storage o space 15, in which the ID board 10 is thus mounted, is sandwiched by the rear end wall 2a of the lower half 2 and a partition wall 16 which is parallel to the rear end wall 2a. Further, a storage space 28, in which the faulty-erasure prevention piece 20 is accommodated, is formed behind the 5 partition wall 16 and is sandwiched between the partition wall 16 and the backside wall 29. Four openings 11 are formed in the rear end wall 2a of the lower half 2. The openings 11 are divided by frames 17, and correspond to contacts 12a to 12d so as to expose them to the outside as shown in Fig. 5.

If the equipment of the management-data storage portion 5 is not required, a dummy board (not shown) may be assembled instead of the ID board. In this case, the purpose of the dummy board is to close the openings 11 for exposing the contacts 12a to 12d, and therefore, contacts etc. are not required for the dummy board but the configuration is the same as the ID board. The ID board 10 shown in Figs. 5 and 6 is manufactured in the procedures as below.

A semi-L-shaped plane substrate 13 is formed of a glass- epoxy plate with copper foil thereon. Unnecessary portions of the copper foil are removed by etching so that the printed pattern is formed on the glass-epoxy plate. After washing the glass-epoxy plate, the four rectangular copper foils appear at predetermined positions on the front side of the substrate 13. Afterwards, the four rectangular copper foils are gold-plated to form the four contacts 12a to 12d. As shown in Fig. 5, through holes are respectively formed in predetermined portions of the second and fourth contacts 12b and 12d. The through holes respectively penetrate the substrate 13, and are electrically connected to each other by a short-circuit pattern 14 formed on the back side of the substrate 13. Finally, protective covering is coated on the both sides of the substrate 13 except for the portions of the contacts 12a through 12d. Thus, the manufacturing of the ID board 10 is completed. When the ID board 10 is fitted in the storage space 15 which is an ID board assembling position provided along the rear end wall 2a of the lower half 2, the contacts 12a to 12d are exposed through the openings 11 that are formed in the rear end wall 2a of the lower half 2. Accordingly, it is a condition that contacts of the hardware can contact with the contacts 12a to 12d through the openings 11.

See Fig. 6. As for the dimension of the ID board 10, a horizontal length L0 is 23.5 mm while a vertical height HO' is 9.8 mm and a vertical height HO on the side where the contacts are provided is 4.6 mm while a horizontal length LO ' is 10.7 mm. The four contacts 12a to 12d are of the same dimensions that a horizontal length is 2.9 mm while a vertical height is 4.05 mm. Functions of the contacts 12a to 12d of the ID board 10 will be described. The first contact 12a identifies whether the tape thickness is 7 microns or not. The second contact 12b identifies whether the tape type is ME tape, MP tape or cleaning tape. The third contact 12c identifies whether the tape use is for civil hardware, for business-use hardware or for computers . The fourth contact 12d serves as a ground (GND) .

The tape thickness is identified by reading a resistance value between the first contact 12a and the fourth contact 12d (GND). In the example shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the first contact 12a and the fourth contact 12d are in an open state. The tape type is identified by reading a resistance value between the second contact 12b and the fourth contact 12d (GND). In the example shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the second contact 12b and the fourth contact 12d are in a short- circuited state. The tape use is identified by reading a resistance value between the third contact 12c and the fourth contact 12d (GND). In the example shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the third contact 12c and the fourth contact 12d are in an open state. These resistance values are read by a hardware (not shown) . However, the above-described ID board 10 needs to be processed for through holes at the second contact 12b and the fourth contact 12d, formed with the short-circuit pattern 14 on the back side of the substrate 13 and coated with the protective covering. Therefore, there is a problem in that processing of both the front and back sides of the substrate 13 increases the number of the processes, and accordingly increases the manufacturing costs .

[Disclosure of the Invention]

The present invention has been made in order to overcome the above problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic tape cassette which realizes reduction of the manufacturing costs through reduction of the number of the processes for the ID board.

To achieve the object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a magnetic tape cassette which comprises: a cassette case including a partition wall formed therein, and a storage space sandwiched by the partition wall and a rear end wall of the cassette case, the rear end wall having a plurality of openings formed therein; a magnetic tape accommodated in the cassette case; and an ID board including a short-circuit pattern and a plurality of contacts through which information regarding at least the magnetic tape is read by a hardware, the ID board being mounted into the storage space of the cassette case so that the contacts are exposed through the openings , wherein the contacts and the short-circuit pattern are formed on a common plane of the ID board, and at least two of the contacts are electrically connected through the short-circuit pattern.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that the short-circuit pattern bypasses the openings so as to be located behind the rear end wall when the ID board is mounted into the storage space of the cassette case.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that the ID board has a plate-like shape. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that the openings each has a semi- rectangular shape .

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that the contacts are aligned on the ID board .

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that at least one of the contacts is located between the at least two of the contacts . According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that the at least two of the contacts are next to each other.

According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that a number of the contacts is four.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that at least one of the contacts serves as a ground .

[Brief Description of Drawings] Fig. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of an ID board according to the present invention;

Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing significant portions of a magnetic tape cassette into which the ID board of Fig. 1 is mountable; Fig. 3 is a partial sectional view illustrating the magnetic tape cassette of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing the magnetic tape cassette having the management-data storage portion and faulty-erasure prevention portion; Fig. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing significant portions of the magnetic tape cassette into which the ID board of Fig. 4 is mountable; and

Fig. 6 is a plan view showing the ID board of Fig. 5.

[Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention] An embodiment of the magnetic tape cassette of the present invention will now be described in detail with references to Figs . 1 to 3. The components which have the same structures as in the magnetic tape cassette of the background art are given the same symbols to omit the detailed explanations . As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the significant portions of the cassette case 1 of the magnetic tape cassette M are disclosed. The cassette case 1 includes the lower half 2 and the upper half 3. As described above, the lower half 2 has the management-data storage portion 5 at the end portion of the rear end wall 2a thereof for storage of the management information on the recorded contents, types, uses, etc. of the magnetic tape. Incidentally, the upper half 3 has the faulty-erasure prevention portion 6 at the end portion of the rear end wall 3a thereof as shown in Fig. 4. The management- data storage portion 5 and the faulty-erasure prevention portion 6 are disposed adjacent to each other. The faulty- erasure prevention piece 20 is provided in the faulty-erasure prevention portion 6 and includes the nail portion 22 exposed through the opening 21 which is formed in the rear end wall 3a of the upper half 3.

An ID board 40 is mounted in the rear end wall 2a of the cassette case 1 so as to form the management-data storage portion 5. The storage space 15, in which the ID board 40 is thus mounted, is sandwiched by the rear end wall 2a and the partition wall 16. Further, the storage space 28, in which the faulty-erasure prevention piece 20 is accommodated, is formed behind the partition wall 16 and is sandwiched between the partition wall 16 and the backside wall 29. The four

8 openings 11 are formed in the rear end wall 2a of the lower half 2. The openings 11 are divided by the frames 17, and correspond to contacts 42a to 42d so as to expose them to the outside as shown in Fig. 2. As shown in Fig. 1, the ID board 40 according to this embodiment includes the four contacts 42a to 42d which are formed on the front side of a substrate 43 and only the contacts 42b and 42d are electrically connected through a short-circuit pattern 44 on the same surface of the substrate 43. In this embodiment, since the contacts 42a to 42d and the short-circuit pattern 44 are formed only on the one surface at the front side of the ID board 40 without use of the back side of the ID board 40, it is not necessary to provide the through holes penetrating the ID board 40 and the coating process for forming the protective covering over the back side of the ID board 40.

As for the dimension of the ID board 40, a horizontal length Li is 21.0 mm while a vertical height Hi' is 9.8 mm and a vertical height Hi on the side where the contacts 42a to 42d are provided is 5.0 mm while a horizontal length Ll ' is 11.0 mm. The four contacts 42a to 42d are of the same dimensions that a horizontal length is 2.9 mm while a vertical height is 4.05 mm and the width of the short-circuit pattern 44 is 0.45 mm. As compared the dimension of the ID board 40 with those of the ID board 10 described in the background art section, the horizontal length Ll is smaller than the horizontal length LO (i.e., Ll < LO) but the vertical height is tho same. The vertical height Hi is larger than the vertical height HO due to the provision of the short-circuit pattern 44 (i.e. , Hi > HO) . The functions of the contacts 42a to 42d are similar to those of the ID board 10 discussed in the background art section. The first contact 42a is for identification of the tape thickness, the second contact 42b is for identification of the tape type, the third contact 42c is for identification of the tape use, and the fourth contact 42d serves as a ground (GND) . The tape thickness is identified by reading a resistance value between the first contact 42a and the fourth contact 42d. The tape type is identified by reading a resistance value between the second contact 42b and the fourth contact 42d. The tape use is identified by reading a resistance value between the third contact 42c and the fourth contact 42d. These resistance values are read by a hardware (not shown) .

The ID board 40 is manufactured in the following procedures. Similar to the substrate 13 discussed in the background art section, a semi-L-shaped plane substrate 43 is formed of the glass-epoxy plate with copper foil thereon. Unnecessary portions of the copper foil are removed by etching so that the printed pattern is formed on the glass- epoxy plate. After washing such the glass-epoxy plate, four rectangular copper foils and a pattern for electrically connecting two of the rectangular copper foils appear at

10 predetermined positions on the front side of the substrate 43. Afterwards, the four rectangular copper foils and the pattern are gold-plated to form the four contacts 42a to 42d and the short-circuit pattern 44. Finally, the protective

5 covering is coated on the front side, except for the contacts

42a to 42d, to complete the manufacturing of the ID board 40.

As shown in Fig. 3, when the ID board 40 is fitted in the storage space 15 which is provided along the rear end wall 2a of the lower half 2, the contacts 42a to 42d are o exposed through the openings 11 that are formed in the rear end wall 2a of the lower half 2. Accordingly, it is a condition that contacts of the hardware (not shown) can contact with the contacts 42a to 42d through the openings 11. Incidentally, when the ID board 40 is mounted into the s storage space 15, the short-circuit pattern 44 bypasses the openings 11 so as to be located behind the rear end wall 2a of the lower half 2 (i.e., the short-circuit pattern 44 is not exposed through the openings 11) .

According to the ID board 40 of this embodiment, since o the contacts 42b and 42d of the four contacts 42a to 42d are electrically connected by the short-circuit pattern 44 on the same (common) plane at the front side of the substrate 43, the use of the back side of the substrate 43 is not required. Accordingly, through holes penetrating the ID board 40 need ₅ not to be formed and thus there is no need for such a process as coating for formation of the protective covering over the back side thereof. As a result, the number of processes for

11 manufacturing the ID board can be reduced, and therefore the manufacturing cost thereof is reduced.

The present invention is not restricted to the above- described mode of embodiment but possible to be embodied in the other modes with appropriate changes. For example, although the second contact and the fourth contact are electrically connected to each other through the short- circuit pattern in the above embodiment, the first contact or the third contact may be connected to the fourth contact by the short-circuit pattern. Alternatively, the first contact may serve as the ground (GND) . In this case, the first contact (GND) and the fourth contact may be electrically connected through the short-circuit pattern.

[Industrial Applicability] As described above, according to the magnetic tape cassette of the present invention, the contacts and the short-circuit pattern are formed on one common plane at the front side of the ID board. Therefore, since the back side of the ID board is not used, neither the through holes penetrating the ID board nor the protective covering for coating the back side. As a result, the number of processes for manufacturing the ID board can be reduced, and therefore the manufacturing cost thereof is reduced.

12

Claims

1. A magnetic tape cassette, comprising: a cassette case including a partition wall formed therein, and a storage space sandwiched by the partition wall and a rear end wall of the cassette case, the rear end wall having a plurality of openings formed therein; a magnetic tape accommodated in the cassette case; and an ID board including a short-circuit pattern and a plurality of contacts through which information regarding at least the magnetic tape is read by a hardware, the ID board being mounted into the storage space of the cassette case so that the contacts are exposed through the openings, wherein the contacts and the short-circuit pattern are formed on a common plane of the ID board, and at least two of the contacts are electrically connected through the short-circuit pattern.

2. The magnetic tape cassette of claim 1, wherein, when the ID board is mounted into the storage space of the cassette case, the short-circuit pattern bypasses the openings so as to be located behind the rear end wall.

3. The magnetic tape cassette of claim 1, wherein the ID board has a plate-like shape.

4. The magnetic tape cassette of claim 1, wherein the openings each has a semi-rectangular shape.

13

5. The magnetic tape cassette of claim 1, wherein tho contacts are aligned on the ID board.

6. The magnetic tape cassette of claim 5, wherein at least one of the contacts is located between the at least two of the contacts .

7. The magnetic tape cassette of claim 5, wherein the at least two of the contacts are next to each other.

8. The magnetic tape cassette of claim 1, wherein at least one of the contacts is located between the at least two of the contacts .

9. The magnetic tape cassette of claim 1, wherein the at least two of the contacts are next to each other.

10. The magnetic tape cassette of claim 1, wherein a number of the contacts is four.

11. The magnetic tape cassette of claim 1, wherein at least one of the contacts serves as a ground.

14