Holders for tape cassettes

Abstract

A housing with one side open to form an entrance for a tape cassette, a slider within the housing and movable toward and away from the entrance, a spring pressing the slider toward the entrance, a latch retaining the spring cassette in the housing against the pressure of said spring, reel-retaining inserts for insertion into the hub of the tape spools, the inward and outward movement relative to the spool hubs being controlled by movement of the slider in the housing, in certain instances the insert being mounted on the slider and in other instances the insert being mounted on the housing.

What we claim is: .[.1. A holder for tape cassettes and the like, the holder comprising a housing having at least one compartment with an open front side to slidably receive a slider in the compartment, a slider in the housing and adapted to linearly transport a cassette into and out of said compartment, the slider having a cassette-engaging rear wall spaced inwardly from said open front side of the housing and the slider having an open and unobstructed front side permitting removal of the cassette from the slider by sliding movement and without tilting, stop means to limit the length of sliding movement of said slider, locking means being provided to hold the slider in its compartment against the force exerted by a spring in the housing and urging the slider into its open position, and cassette reel retention members brakingly engaging into the cassette reel apertures when said slider is locked, said retention members being pivotable in a plane perpendicular to the direction of sliding in response to and upon movement of the slider into its open position thereby 
     
        disengaging from said reel apertures..]. 2. A holder .[.according to claim 1, in which.]. .Iadd.for tape cassettes and the like, the holder comprising a housing having at least one compartment with an open front side to slidably receive a slider in the compartment, a slider in the housing and adapted to linearly transport a cassette into and out of the compartment, the slider having a cassette-engaging rear wall spaced inwardly from said open front side of the housing and the slider having an open and unobstructed front side permitting removal of the cassette from the slider by sliding movement and without tilting, stop means to limit the length of sliding movement of said slider, locking means being provided to hold the slider in its compartment against the force exerted by a spring in the housing and urging the slider into open position, and cassette reel retention members brakingly engaging into the cassette reel apertures when said slider is locked, said retention members being pivotable in a plane perpendicular to the direction of sliding in response to and upon movement of the slider into its open position thereby disengaging from said reel apertures, .Iaddend.the reel retention members are on the slider and extend toward the open front side of the housing from said rear wall, said reel retention members being pivotable within the housing to tilt out of the reel apertures, and the housing being divided by means of ribs projecting inwards from walls of the housing into two chambers, said ribs extending toward the open front side and parallel to the direction of sliding movement of the slider and cassette, the first of said chambers accommodating the cassette and the other of the chambers accommodating the tilting movement of said reel retention members as the 
     
     
        transport slider moves in the housing. 3. A holder according to claim 2, in which the transport slider has aligned pin extensions adjacent opposite ends of said rear wall, said pin extensions having associated with them slots in the adjacent side walls of the housing and running in the direction of movement of the slider and cassette to limit the ejection movement of the transport slider, and said pin extensions pivotally mounting the transport slider to permit tilting of the retention members 
     
     
        into and out of the cassette reel apertures. 4. A holder according to claim 3, in which the pin extensions and slots are disposed adjacent both chambers and adjacent the ribs therebetween, and said resilient means bearing against the rear wall of the transport slider in said first chamber and in off-centre relation to the pivot axis extending through said pin extensions whereby to tilt the slider under influence of the resilient means to withdraw the retention members from the reel apertures, and means on the slider and adjacent the retention members to limit 
     
     
        tilting of the slider in the housing. 5. A holder .[.according to claim 1, in which.]. .Iadd.for tape cassettes and the like, the holder comprising a housing having at least one compartment with an open front side to slidably receive a slider in the compartment, a slider in the housing and adapted to linearly transport a cassette into and out of the compartment, the slider having a cassette-engaging rear wall spaced inwardly from said open front side of the housing and the slider having an open and unobstructed front side permitting removal of the cassette from the slider by sliding movement and without tilting, stop means to limit the length of sliding movement of said slider, locking means being provided to hold the slider in its compartment against the force exerted by a spring in the housing and urging the slider into open position, and cassette reel retention members brakingly engaging into the cassette reel apertures when said slider is locked, said retention members being pivotable in a plane perpendicular to the direction of sliding in response to and upon movement of the slider into its open position thereby disengaging from said reel apertures, .Iaddend.the transport slider is L-shaped, with lateral guide walls, forms a drawer which has in its base a pair of counterslots in which retaining levers are pivotably supported as locking members in 
     
     
        alignment with slots in the opposite wall of the housing. 6. A holder according to claim 5, in which stops are moulded on the base to limit the ejection movement of the slider in co-operation with aligned guide slots 
     
     
        in the adjacent covering wall. 7. A holder .[.according to claim 1, in which.]. .Iadd.for tape cassettes and the like, the holder comprising a housing having at least one compartment with an open front side to slidably receive a slider in the compartment, a slider in the housing and adapted to linearly transport a cassette into and out of the compartment, the slider having a cassette-engaging rear wall spaced inwardly from said open front side of the housing and the slider having an open and unobstructed front side permitting removal of the cassette from the slider by sliding movement and without tilting, stop means to limit the length of sliding movement of said slider, locking means being provided to hold the slider in its compartment against the force exerted by a spring in the housing and urging the slider into open position, and cassette reel retention members brakingly engaging into the cassette reel apertures when said slider is locked, said retention members being pivotable in a plane perpendicular to the direction of sliding in response to and upon movement of the slider into its open position thereby disengaging from said reel apertures, .Iaddend.the transport slider is T-shaped and has moulded on the back of its longitudinal shank stop teeth which have guide slots in the side wall of the housing associated with them, and in which tongues are cut out of the covering wall and angled towards the inside of the housing, and have associated with them oblique control surfaces on the 
     
     
        transverse shanks of the transport slider. 8. A holder .[.according to claim 1, in which.]. .Iadd.for tape cassettes and the like, the holder comprising a housing having at least one compartment with an open front side to slidably receive a slider in the compartment, a slider in the housing and adapted to linearly transport a cassette into and out of the compartment, the slider having a cassette-engaging rear wall spaced inwardly from said open front side of the housing and the slider having an open and unobstructed front side permitting removal of the cassette from the slider by sliding movement and without tilting, stop means to limit the length of sliding movement of said slider, locking means being provided to hold the slider in its compartment against the force exerted by a spring in the housing and urging the slider into open position, and cassette reel retention members brakingly engaging into the cassette reel apertures when said slider is locked, said retention members being pivotable in a plane perpendicular to the direction of sliding in response to and upon movement of the slider into its open position thereby disengaging from said reel apertures, .Iaddend.the transport slider is T-shaped and has moulded on the back of its longitudinal shank stop teeth which have guide slots in the covering wall associated with them, and in which tongues are cut out of the transverse shanks of the transport slider and angled towards the inside of the housing, and have associated with 
     
     
        them control surfaces on the covering wall. 9. A holder .[.according to claim 1, in which.]. .Iadd.for tape cassettes and the like, the holder comprising a housing having at least one compartment with an open front side to slidably receive a slider in the compartment, a slider in the housing and adapted to linearly transport a cassette into and out of the compartment, the slider having a cassette-engaging rear wall spaced inwardly from said open front side of the housing and the slider having an open and unobstructed front side permitting removal of the cassette from the slider by sliding movement and without tilting, stop means to limit the length of sliding movement of said slider, locking means being provided to hold the slider in its compartment against the force exerted by a spring in the housing and urging the slider into open position, and cassette reel retention members brakingly engaging into the cassette reel apertures when said slider is locked, said retention members being pivotable in a plane perpendicular to the direction of sliding in response to and upon movement of the slider into its open position thereby disengaging from said reel apertures, .Iaddend.the transport slider has on the back of its longitudinal shank stop teeth which have guide slots in the covering wall associated with them, and in which levers aligned with the core apertures of the cassette are cut out of the longitudinal shank, which are bent out of the plane of the longitudinal shank and when the cassette is pushed in are pivoted with their free ends into the core 
     
     
        apertures to lock the tape spools. 10. A holder .[.according to claim 1, in which.]. .Iadd.for tape cassettes and the like, the holder comprising a housing having at least one compartment with an open front side to slidably receive a slider in the compartment, a slider in the housing and adapted to linearly transport a cassette into and out of the compartment, the slider having a cassette-engaging rear wall spaced inwardly from said open front side of the housing and the slider having an open and unobstructed front side permitting removal of the cassette from the slider by sliding movement and without tilting, stop means to limit the length of sliding movement of said slider, locking means being provided to hold the slider in its compartment against the force exerted by a spring in the housing and urging the slider into open position, and cassette reel retention members brakingly engaging into the cassette reel apertures when said slider is locked, said retention members being pivotable in a plane perpendicular to the direction of sliding in response to and upon movement of the slider into its open position thereby disengaging from said reel apertures, .Iaddend.on the open side of the housing accommodating the cassette, the locking means engages over the inserted cassette and is arranged on one end wall of the housing. .Iadd. 11. A holder for tape cassettes and the like, the holder comprising a housing having at least one compartment with an open front side to slidably receive a slider in the compartment, a slider in the housing and adapted to transport a cassette into and out of said compartment, the slider having a cassette-engaging rear wall spaced inwardly from said open front side of the housing, stop means to limit the length of sliding movement of the slider, locking means being provided to hold the slider with a cassette in its compartment against the force exerted by a spring in the housing and urging the slider into its open position, at least one cassette reel retention member brakingly engaging into a cassette reel aperture when said slider is locked, said one retention member being mounted at said slider rear wall and being pivotable, together with said rear wall in a plane perpendicular to the direction of sliding in response to and upon movement of the slider into its open position and thereby disengaging from said reel apertures. .Iaddend..Iadd. 12. A holder according to claim 11 and including a pair of juxtaposed ribs spaced from each other in the compartment and extending substantially parallel to the direction of sliding movement of the slider and cassette, the ribs dividing the compartment into adjoining first and second chambers, the first of said chambers receiving the cassette and slider to accommodate the sliding movement thereof, and the second of the chambers accommodating the tilting movement of the reel retention member when pivoted out of the reel aperture of the cassette. .Iaddend. .Iadd. 13. The holder according to claim 12 wherein the rear wall of the slider has a side edge confronting and moving along the ribs in the compartment, the slider being pivotable about an axis extending along said elongated side edge of the rear wall, the spring exerting a tilting torque upon said rear wall to tilt the slider and withdraw the retention member from the reel aperture when the slider and cassette move toward the open front side of the housing. .Iaddend..Iadd. 14. A holder for tape cassettes and the like, the holder comprising a housing having at least one compartment with an open front side to slidably receive a slider in the compartment, a slider in the housing and adapted to transport a cassette into and out of said compartment, the slider having a cassette-engaging rear wall spaced inwardly from said open front side of the housing, stop means to limit the length of sliding movement of the slider, locking means being provided to hold the slider with a cassette in its compartment against the force exerted by a spring in the housing and urging the slider into its open position, at least one cassette reel retention member brakingly engaging into a cassette reel aperture when said slider is locked, said slider extending substantially to said open housing front side, at least one cassette reel retention member extending from a slider portion adjacent said open housing front side into a cassette reel aperture in braking engagement therewith when the slider is in its inner position, said reel retention member disengaging from said aperture by tilting in a plane perpendicular to the direction of sliding once the slider has moved along a predetermined path of the housing. .Iaddend.