Disc storage cassettes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019325911-A1
Application number	US-201916457629-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 28, 2019
Priority date	Feb 17, 2016
Publication date	Oct 24, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

A disc cassette includes a curved portion configured to hold multiple discs. A platform portion abuts the curved portion. A movable bale is configured to maintain discs securely in the disc cassette except when rotated off the discs.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A disc cassette comprising:
a curved portion including multiple ribs, wherein the ribs define multiple disc slots in the curved portion that are configured to hold multiple discs in place, and the discs are spaced apart by the ribs; and multiple index features positioned on an inside edge of the curved portion, wherein the index features are configured to allow alignment of a kicker device of a disc retrieval unit (DRU) to a disc of the disc cassette to lift the disc into a disc gripper device without disturbing one or more other discs of the disc cassette that are adjacent to the disc.

2 . The disc cassette of claim 1 , wherein positions of the index features on the inside edge of the curved position are relative to positions of the disc slots.

3 . The disc cassette of claim 2 , wherein each edge of each index feature is aligned with a center of a disc slot.

4 . The disc cassette of claim 3 , wherein each index feature is twice as wide as a disc pitch that the ribs provide to keep the discs from contacting one another.

5 . The disc cassette of claim 1 , further comprising:
an optical sensor; wherein the index features enable the alignment utilizing the optical sensor.

6 . The disc cassette of claim 1 , wherein the index features are configured to allow the alignment of the kicker device to the disc within 0.1 mm.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Altknecht David J
• Bethune Donald S
• Dyer William M
• Erpelding A David
• Hetzler Steven R
• Lawson Drew B
• Smith Daniel F

Classifications

• G11B17/08

  from consecutive-access magazine of disc records · CPC title

• G11B23/0325

  comprising latching or movable handling devices (G11B17/038 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G11B17/28

  the magazine having a cylindrical shape with horizontal axis · CPC title

• G11B17/225

  wherein the disks are transferred from a fixed magazine to a fixed playing unit using a moving carriage · CPC title

• G11B17/038 Primary

  Centering or locking of a plurality of discs in a single cartridge · CPC title