Special receptacle or package – For an annular article
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-14
2002-05-07
Foster, Jim (Department: 3728)
Special receptacle or package
For an annular article
C206S307000, C206S310000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06382413
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to disk holders for holding information storage media and, more particularly, to a disk holder for holding a plurality of disk-shaped (doughnut-shaped) storage disks with an axle hole at the center in parallel at regular intervals.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A magnetic disk mounted on hard disk units, which is used as an external storage device of a computer, etc., requires the surface thereof to have an extremely high degree of flatness and cleanliness. It is required to keep the surface to a certain degree of cleanliness not only during transportation or storage but also during manufacturing.
Such products require extremely careful handling from putting the products into a case to taking the products out of the case.
For cases requiring such careful handling, Japanese Patent Publication No.Hei 5-55395 (prior art example 1) discloses a storage disk package. The storage disk package comprises a combination of an upper cover, a disk box, and a lower cover, adapted to seal a plurality of computer storage disks in a disk box and support the disks with them packaged.
The storage disk package of the prior art example 1 is used not only as an in-process case but also as a delivery case with storage disks accommodated therein.
However, when the disk box is covered with the upper cover and the lower cover, the upper cover and the lower cover of the storage disk package of the prior art example 1 are snapped into the opening rims of the disk box.
Accordingly, when the disk box is to be covered at the time of delivery, such a problem is raised that fitting the upper cover and the lower cover to the box causes dust particles produced by the friction of the members to be adhered to the surface of the storage disks in the box.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No.Hei 10-182846 (prior art example 2) pointed out the aforementioned problem and suggested a storage disk package that did not produce dust particles at the time of covering the disk box with an upper cover.
However, the package of the prior art example 2 is the same as the prior art example 1 in that the combination of the disk box, the lower cover, and the upper cover is used. The disk box has flutes for holding disks and a plurality of disks are accommodated in the disk box by being separated so as not to be in contact with each other and held in each of the holding flutes.
Therefore, even using the package according to the prior art example 2 cannot avoid the problem, so long as this package is used as a delivery case, that storage disks are held in the holding flutes inside the package, so that the outer circumference portions of the disks come to contact with the inner wall of the flutes and this cause dust particles and fine particles produced from the box possibly to adhere to the disks.
Thus, this raises the problem that the outer circumference portions of the disks in contact with the box cannot be used as the recording surface, preventing the amount of recorded information of the disk from being expanded.
On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,724 (prior art example 3) suggested a disk support member (a disk holder) of a mandrel type for supporting the axle hole of a disk.
The disk holder according to the prior art example 3 is inserted into the axle holed of disks accommodated in an in-process case to support the inner peripheries for supporting the disks at regular intervals in parallel to each other. Transferring this holder to a delivery case makes it possible to transport and store the disks without allowing the outer circumference portion of each of the disks to be in contact with the inner wall of the case.
As shown in
FIG. 28
, the prior art example 3 uses a pair of disk support members
621
and
622
(a first core and a second core) combined into a cylinder.
Each of the disk support members
621
and
622
is provided, on the arc-shaped surface thereof, with a number of arc-shaped flutes
623
. The axle hole D
1
of the disk D is received in the arc-shaped flutes
623
at a contracted diameter position where the spacing between both the disk support members
621
and
622
is narrowed. Then, the flutes
623
are pressed against the inner periphery of the axle hole D
1
of the disk D at the expanded diameter position where the spacing between both the disk support members
621
and
622
is widened. Thus, by making use of the expanding force of both the disk support members
621
and
622
, each of the disks D is fixed onto the circumference of the holder.
The manipulation for switching the paired disk support members
621
and
622
from the contracted diameter position to the expanded diameter position, or conversely, from the expanded diameter position to the contracted diameter position is carried out by pushing in or pulling out the paired cam actuators
624
each inserted into the cylinder of the holder formed by the combination of the disk support members
621
and
622
through the both ends thereof.
The cam actuators
624
used in the prior art example 3 have pins
626
on a slide shaft
625
. The pins
626
are inserted into the cam grooves
627
and
628
formed on the paired disk support members
621
and
622
. The slide shaft
625
is pushed into the cylinder of the disk holder to expand the paired disk support members
621
and
622
to the expanded diameter position, while the slide shaft
625
is pulled out of the cylinder to contract the disk support members
621
and
622
to the contracted diameter position.
That is, according to the prior art example 3, the manipulation for expanding or contracting the holder is carried out by sliding the paired cam actuators, which are inserted into the cylinder from the both ends of the holder, along the longitudinal direction of the holder. Pushing in the cam actuators
624
causes the holder (
621
and
622
) to expand in diameter and pulling out the cam actuators
624
causes the holder to contract in diameter. However, the expansion and contraction of the diameter of the holder is carried out by expanding and contracting the paired disk support members
621
and
622
. Accordingly, with both the cam actuators of the holder held by hands, pulling out or pushing in one cam actuator will cause, dynamically, the reaction of the force to act on the other cam actuator, so that the other cam actuator is displaced relative to the holder to be pulled out of the holder or to be pushed into the holder. However, with the paired disk support members (the first core and the second core) of the holder held in place or subjected to resistance in the longitudinal direction, the reaction that is the same in magnitude as the force produced when one cam actuator is pulled or pushed is not necessarily applied to the other cam actuator.
For this reason, when the expanded diameter and contracted diameter of the holder are switched over by means of a robot, such a problem is raised in that the first core and the second core can be balanced with difficulty and thus cannot be kept parallel to each other, making it difficult to expand or contract the diameter smoothly.
Furthermore, cam grooves are provided near the both ends of the holder. Accordingly, when the manipulation for expanding the spacing between the first core and the second core is carried out by means of the pins engaging the cam grooves, both end portions of the first core and the second core are supported by pins and thus both end portions of the first core and the second core can support disks in a stable state. However, the central portion of the first and second cores is not supported by any means, so that such a problem is raised in that this causes deflection to be produced in the first and second cores, thereby making the support of the disks unstable.
The object of the present invention is to provide a disk holder that facilitates the switching manipulation for expansion and contraction of the diameter and provides improved stability of holding disks.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
In order to achieve the aforementioned object, the disk holder according to t
Akou Hiroshi
Fuyumura Masahiko
Habaya Kurao
Nakamura Akira
Sawano Tetsuya
Achilles Corporation
Foster Jim
Kaensaka & Takeuchi
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