A data recorder/reproducer device for flexible magnetic disc media, has a door-like structure mounted on a supportive frame. The door structure has a hollow interior which receives a recording disc, and is adapted to carry recording heads at each side of the disc. The heads may be articulated for selective controlled movement toward or away from the disc, into or out of transducing relation. The heads are also mounted for translational movement across the face of the disc, generally radially thereof. The device also includes novel linking means for connecting translational drive means to the heads to allow articulated movement of the heads and of the door-like structure without disturbing the translational position of the heads. Referencing means is also provided for positioning the heads with respect to the surface of the disc by establishing a reference position with respect to the door structure.
A flexible magnetic recording disc is brought into transducing relation with a recording head by moving a pressure pad against the disc from the side thereof opposite the recording head, and at a point upstream from the latter, in the direction of disc rotation. This resiliently flexes the disc and deviates part of it from its plane of revolution, causing it to partially wrap over the face of the head, in close transducing proximity, without the requirement of a pressure pad on the disc directly opposite the recording head, leaving that area open for other components. In a preferred embodiment, a separate transducing head is used on each side of the flexible disc, in direct alignment with one another, with a similarly-positioned pair of pressure pads disposed upstream, and all are mounted for articulating movement laterally toward and away from the plane of the disc. Means are provided to prevent simultaneous articulation of both such heads toward one another, to preclude crashing the heads against one another through the recording disc disposed therebetween.
A main frame has a size where only high precision parts are mounted thereon and has structure where a front portion of a frame is deleted. A lower cover, which covers a lower surface of the main frame, has a function as a sub-frame mounting low precision parts corresponding to the front portion of the deleted frame, thereby playing a role as one frame by a combination of the main frame and the sub-frame of the lower cover.
The device comprises a carriage mobile radially relative to the disk, and on which lower and upper opposing magnetic heads are mounted, each for recording and/or reading a corresponding disk face. The upper magnetic head is resiliently mounted at the end of an arm pivoted to the carriage and is urged against the disk with a predetermined load determined by a spring. A flexible joint enables it to rotate in all directions about a central support. The lower magnetic head is connected to the carriage by means of a pair of parallel leaf springs which enable it to move along an axis normal to the plane of the disk without rotation, whereby both heads maintain good contact regardless of the height of the nominal plane of the disk.
