1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disc cartridge which contains a disc-like, magneto-optical disc, a magnetic disc or the like and which has an opening section providing access to the recording medium to record and/or reproduce information signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, this kind of disc cartridge comprises a flat rectangular cartridge body consisting of an upper case and a lower case coupled with each other, and a disc such as an optical disc, magneto-optical disc, or an magnetic disc, rotatably contained in the cartridge body. Each of the upper and lower disc cases has an opening portion for exposing that region of the disc which extends from the center portion of the disc to the outer peripheral portion thereof. A pick-up and a turn-table for rotating the disc of a recording reproduction device can access the disc through the opening portions. In addition, the cartridge body is equipped with a slidable shutter for closing and opening the opening sections, which is made of a thin metal plate or hard synthetic resin.
On each of the outer surfaces of the cases is formed a concave label adhering portion recessed from the other portions of the surface, and an indication label for indicating the contents of the disc is adhered on to each of the label adhering portions.
When a disc cartridge having the above-mentioned structure is loaded into a disc recording/reproduction device, the shutter is slid at first to an end side of the cartridge body, thereby opening the opening portions. Subsequently, a turn-table is inserted into the cartridge body through one of the opening portions to support the disc, and a pick-up faces the surface of the disc through the opening portion. The disc is rotated by the turn-table, and recording and/or reproduction is performed by the pick-up.
In this kind of disc cartridge, the disc is contained in the cartridge body and the opening portions are closed by the shutter when the disc cartridge is not used, thus realizing safe disc storage. In addition, since the shutter is slid so that the disc in the cartridge body is exposed through the opening portions, to enable recording and reproduction and long-lasting use of the disc is realized.
In the disc cartridge having the structure as described above, however, the disc cannot be taken out of the cartridge body so that it is difficult to directly load the disc itself to the disc recording/reproducing device, for example. This kind of disc cartridge thus has severe limitations in view of degree of freedom in disc use.
Particularly, in recent years, there has been a demand for a disc cartridge applicable to both a disc recording/reproducing device which is used with one disc singly loaded thereto, and a disc recording/reproduction device which is used with the entire disc cartridge loaded thereto.
In addition, when a continuous indication label is adhered onto first and second label adhering portions on upper and lower cases of a disc cartridge, it is difficult to arrange the label surface of a desired indication label so as to a stick to a precise position, particularly, with respect to the second label adhering surface, thus making the adhering of labels very complicated. If the indication label does not stick to a precise position on the cartridge body, there is a possibility that the indication surfaces of the indication labels cannot be viewed or identified without difficulty when, for example, a plurality of disc cartridges are stacked on one another.