Disc cartridge with slide shutter having catch pieces

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention has accordingly an essential object to provide an improved disc cartridge of a type wherein no separate member such as required in the prior art disc cartridge is employed to mount the slide shutter on the cartridge casing to enable the disc cartridge to be manufactured easily and at a reduced cost.
To this end, the present invention provides a disc cartridge for freely rotatably accommodating a disc-shaped recording medium, which comprises a cartridge casing having top and bottom walls spaced a distance from each other to define a disc chamber for freely rotatably accommodating the recording medium and also having an access window defined therein through which a recording and/or reproducing head is accessible to the recording medium, and a slide shutter assembly slidable in a direction widthwise of the cartridge casing for selectively opening and closing the access window and normally biased to a closed position to close the access window.
The slide shutter assembly is of a generally U-shaped configuration including top and bottom shutter plates and a bridge plate connecting the top and bottom shutter plates together to thereby render the slide shutter assembly to represent the generally U-shaped configuration.
The slide shutter assembly is slidably mounted on a front open portion of the cartridge casing with the top and bottom shutter plates resting exteriorly on the top and bottom walls, respectively.
The bridge plate has an inner surface formed integrally with a plurality of catch pieces.
At least one guide plate extends along the front open portion of the cartridge casing between side walls and has a slot defined therein so as to extend lengthwise of the guide plate.
With the slide shutter assembly mounted on the front portion of the cartridge casing, the catch pieces are slidably engaged in said slot to avoid an accidental separation of the slide shutter assembly from the cartridge casing.