Front loading device of a video cassette tape recorder

Claim 1

A front loading device in a video cassette tape recorder comprising a cassette holder having a pin outwardly protruded from one side wall of said cassette holder and inserted into a guide slot formed in a housing bracket of said the body of recorder, thereby enabling said cassette holder to be guided between ejecting and operating positions thereof; a gear mounted adjacent one side of said housing and being freely rotatable and adaped to move said cassette holder by the rotation thereof; and a loading motor fixedly mounted to the bottom of said housing bracket and adapted to provide a driving force for rotating a cam gear with a vortex cam slot in order to operate a connecting plate for changing the operating mode of the recorder, which connecting plate is operatively connected to said cam gear by means of a pin protruded from said connecting plate and guided along said vortex cam slot of cam gear, said loading motor connected to said cam gear by means of a belt-pulley device and transmission gears, said device being characterized by further comprising a mechanism for transmitting the drive force of said loading motor to said gear for moving the cassette holder during the loading and unloading operations thereof, comprising: a lever pivotably mounted at one end thereof to the bottom of said housing bracket by means of a shaft mounted to be freely rotatable and extended upwardly therefrom, the other end of said lever extending to the position where said connecting plate can contact with said other end of said lever; a first connecting gear mounted to an extension from one end of lever to be freely rotatable and selectively connected with said belt-pulley device on the pivoted position of said lever, so as to selectively receive the driving force of said loading motor; a second connecting gear fixedly mounted to said shaft functioning as the pivot axis of said lever and engaged with said first connecting gear; a worm gear fixedly mounted to the upper end of said shaft and engaged with said gear for moving the cassette holder; a spring supported at one end thereof to said lever and at the other end thereof to the bottom of said housing bracket and adapted to urge the lever in a direction that said first connecting gear engages with said belt-pulley device to receive the driving force of said loading motor; and said vortex cam slot having a slot portion adapted to cause said connecting plate to push said other end of said lever such that said lever pivots in a direction that said first connecting gear engages with said belt-pulley device to receive the driving force of said loading motor and adapted to maintain the engagement between said first connecting gear and said belt-pulley device during the loading and unloading operations of the front loading device.