This invention relates to a thin-profile flexible disk drive for use in writing and reading information into and from a flexible disk.
As well known, a flexible disk drive (hereinafter may be abbreviated to “FDD”) is an apparatus for writing and reading (recording and reproducing) data into and from a disk-shaped magnetic recording medium of a flexible disk (hereinafter may be abbreviated to “FD”) inserted therein. The flexible disk drive is adapted to be mounted to a portable electronic apparatus, such as a laptop personal computer, a notebook-type personal computer, or a notebook-type word processor.
The flexible disk drive of the type comprises a magnetic head for carrying out data reading and writing operations on the magnetic recording medium of the flexible disk, a carriage assembly for holding the magnetic head at its end so that the magnetic head is movable with respect to the flexible disk in a predetermined radial direction, a stepping motor for moving the carriage assembly in the predetermined radial direction, and a direct drive (DD) motor for rotating the magnetic recording medium while holding the flexible disk. As the DD motor, a spindle motor or the like is generally used.
In recent years, following the reduction in profile of the portable electronic apparatus, the flexible disk drive contained in or mounted to the portable electronic apparatus is also reduced in profile. In addition to the reduction in profile of the flexible disk drive, it is desired to reduce the size in a depth direction.
Proposal has already been made of a flexible disk drive achieving such reduction in size in the depth direction (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. H8-203221). In the flexible disk drive disclosed in JP-A No. H8-203221, an assembly of a stepping motor and a feeding screw is arranged in an inner area of a main frame on a side opposite to an insertion slot of the flexible disk to be adjacent to one of left and right side edges of the main frame. The feeding screw extends in parallel to the one of the left and the right edges of the main frame. The carriage assembly extends in parallel to a principal surface of the main frame and in a direction perpendicular to the feeding screw.
As the above-mentioned flexible disk drive achieving the reduction in size in the depth direction, proposal has also been made of a flexible disk drive which does not require high accuracy in size of a pin formed on a disk holder and a guide groove formed on an eject plate to guide the pin (for example, see Japanese Patent Publication (JP-B) No. 3405374). In the flexible disk drive disclosed in JP-B No. 3405374, the disk holder has opposite side plates each of which is provided with upward-moving and downward-moving pins. The eject plate has opposite side plates each of which is provided with downward-movement and upward-movement guide grooves. Each of the downward-movement guide groove has a slant edge for moving the downward-moving pin downward only when a flexible disk is inserted. Each of the upward-movement guide groove has a slant edge for moving the upward-moving pin upward when the flexible disk is ejected. In detail, at least one of the opposite side plates of the disk holder is provided with two downward-moving pins and one upward-moving pin interposed therebetween. A corresponding one of the opposite side plates of the elect plate is provided with two downward-movement guide grooves corresponding to the two downward-moving pins and one upward-movement guide groove corresponding to the one upward-moving pin.
The existing thin-profile flexible disk drive has an eject base exclusively for an eject mechanism in order to be slidable the eject plate in forward and backward directions. Between the eject base and the eject plate, a pair of eject springs are bridged. In this connection, the eject base is provided with a pair of long holes having a size sufficient to accommodate the eject springs.
In order to slidably hold the eject plate with respect to the eject base, the eject base is provided with four side guides formed in the vicinity of the opposite side plates by cutting and bending. In order to form these slide guides, the eject base is provided with four openings. On the other hand, the eject base is provided with four openings for receiving the slide guides, respectively.
In order to close the long holes and the openings, the existing thin-profile flexible disk drive has an upper cover covering the eject base. The upper cover is designed to have a large size which is sufficient to cover a whole of the eject base. However, such a large cover raises a cost of materials.