TAPE CARTRIDGE TRANSPORT MAGAZINE FOR AUTOMATED TAPE CARTRIDGE AUTOLOADER/LIBRARY SYSTEM

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tape cartridge transport magazine for a tape cartridge library enabling fast and efficient exchange and storage of cartridges. SOLUTION: The tape cartridge transport system 103 receives and stores tape cartridges 106 in a horizontal orientation relative to the tape cartridge transport system 103 to achieve a substantially smaller form factor. Once loaded into the magazine 103, the tape cartridges 106 are shuffled in a vertical closed loop within the magazine 103 so that any one of the tape cartridges 106 can be positioned for selection by a cartridge picker 102. During shuffling within the magazine 103, individual tape cartridges 106 are not flipped or reoriented, but remain properly oriented for selection by the cartridge picker 102.