OPTICAL DISK CARTRIDGE HANDLING APPARATUS WITH REMOVABLE MAGAZINE

摘要

An optical disk cartridge handling apparatus, which has a removable cartridge magazine (70) for loading and unloading groups of cartridges (10) into the apparatus, for storing, handling, reading and writing of the optical disks stored within the cartridges. A flipper mechanism (122) is provided to receive one of the cartridges from either of the magazine (70) or an optical disk drive (20) within the apparatus. Means are included for rotating the flipper mechanism (122) about a common center line for inverting the cartridge within the flipper mechanism. A picker mechanism (191) is included for moving the cartridge (70) into and out of the flipper mechanism (122) from either the magazine (70) or the optical disk drive (20). A traverse mechanism (300) is provided for supporting and moving the flipper mechanism (122) along an axis of motion to locate the flipper mechanism (122) adjacent either a particular slot (87) of the magazine or the cartridge slot (26) of the optical disc drive (20).