Door assembly with inner shutter for closing opening for cartridge insertion in disk drive device

Claim 1

A door assembly for a disk drive device of the type having a housing, front panel arranged upright in a vertical direction and provided with a transverse opening through which a disk cartridge is inserted by its leading end along a horizontal direction rearwardly into the housing to a full insertion position at which the trailing end of the cartridge is disposed within the housing spaced from an inner side of the front panel, and loading means for moving the cartridge vertically downward from the full insertion position to a loading position in the housing for recording and reproducing operations and then vertically upwardly for unloading and ejecting the cartridge from the housing, wherein said door assembly comprises: a door member supported rotatably on a transverse upper edge defining said opening in the vertical direct ion for closing said opening when no cartridge is inserted for opening inwardly in said housing by abutment with the leading end of a cartridge being inserted therein; first urging means for normally biasing said door member in a direction toward closing said opening; a shutter member arranged upright in the vertical direction in parallel with said front panel and supported for sliding movement along the inner side of said front panel between a lowered positon below a transverse lower edge defining siad opening and a raised position closing said opening; lever means pivotally supported on the inner side of said front panel having a flat shape arranged in parallel with said shutter member, said lever means including a first end connected to a poriton of said shutter member for raising and lowering it reciprocally in the vertical direction, and a second end having a horizontally extending projection which is engaged by the trailing end of the cartridge when the cartridge is moved vertically downward and released from engagement with the cartridge when the cartridge is moved upward; and second urging means for normally biasing said lever means in a direction toward lowering said shutter member and opening said opening, whereby said opening is closed by said shutter member when the cartridge is moved vertically downward and engages said projection on said second end of said lever means to pivot said first end to raise said shutter member, and said opening is opening is opened when the cartridge is moved vertrically upward and released from engagement with said second end of said lever means so that said shutter member is lowered by said second urging means.