Solid material comminution or disintegration – Processes – Plural successive comminuting operations
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-01
2002-01-01
Rosenbaum, Mark (Department: 3725)
Solid material comminution or disintegration
Processes
Plural successive comminuting operations
C241S030000, C241S260100, C241S279000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06334582
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to high-security erasure of ordinary CD disks, CDRs and CDRWs.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
CD disks include three types: ordinary CD disks, CDRs and CDRWs. These disks store data in little pits burned into a CD ROM. The information is stored in a very thin layer under the label. That stored information theoretically can be scraped off into enough pieces so that the data cannot be read. That is, the data can be mechanically disintegrated.
CDRs are also known as WORMs, i.e., Write Once Read Many. Relatively speaking, for different kinds of CD disks, deletion or erasure of data from CDRs is the most difficult to accomplish.
CDRWs are the modern equivalent of floppy disks. Actual writing is by a laser, and the stored data is covered by a metallized reflective layer which is the label. Rewriteables tend to have data come off in flakes. Also, the mirror image could come off onto the label. Flakes are big enough fragments that data can still be read.
Destruction of data from these three general categories of disks may be further complicated by the fact that particular manufacturers may use different adhesive systems, with some systems more prone to flaking upon grinding off the data. Thus, flaking is a variable problem for which provision must be made, but which is not easily solved, when undertaking data removal by grinding.
In certain applications, erasing or removing sensitive data from disks can be critical for security reasons or necessary for business reasons. As devices for putting information onto CD disks are becoming more common, so, too, the problem of how to effectively remove that stored information from the disks is becoming even more of a concern.
Certain devices for performing such data erasure are known, but respectively suffer from drawbacks.
For example, Proton Engineering Inc. has a declassification system that is a CD-ROM Eraser/Declassifier, for CD-ROMS, WORM CDs and other optical media, that according to its literature reportedly declassifies CD-ROMS in 12 seconds. It is a mini-tower of 18″×18″×9″, 75 lbs, and its power requirements are 120 vac. 50/60 Hz., 8 amperes.
Another example of a known data-erasure device is SEM's model 1200 weighing 75 lbs.
The DX-CDe CD destruction device is 59.4 lbs, 24″ high, 7.5″ in diameter, with electrical operation.
These declassification machines, weighing 75 lbs, almost 60 lbs and 50 lbs, disadvantageously are relatively heavy and not easily portable.
A further example is the DX-CDm™ CD Destruction Device, which is a manual field portable unit that is intended for mounting on the inside wall of a vehicle, bracketed to the side of a vessel, or securely fastened to the bulkhead of an ocean going vessel. The machine is 20 lbs, 10 high, of 7″ diameter. The inner hub of the erased disk remains intact. The machine operates by mechanical operation with a rotating handle. An optional motor drive is included. Although this declassification machine is relatively light-weight, 30 seconds is the operating time, which may be disadvantageously long.
Another consideration introduced into this data destruction area is that in many applications the declassified disk cannot be entirely destroyed, because verification of declassification is needed for the particular exact original disk. Such verification is accomplished by a data destruction method that retains only the disk's inner-hub which bears its identifying information, such as a serial number. A method which destroys the entire disk does not permit this verification of destruction.
There is a need, which has not heretofore been met, for a data erasure machine that declassifies CD disks that meets the following characteristics: short (e.g., less than 10 seconds) cycle time; small size (e.g., such as 10×12×8 inches); pluggable into a wall outlet; light-weight (e.g., less than about 20 lbs); mechanically simple; and, capable of destroying all confidential data on the disk while maintaining intact only the inner hub of the disk, so that the serial number or identifying disk number remains visible to confirm data destruction on the original product.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
After much evaluation by the inventor of potential ways to remove and handle stored material on CD disks, including evaluating cutting, grinding and destroying the whole disk, the present inventor arrived at the following inventive products for removing data from disks while leaving the inner-hub data intact and further arrived at the following inventive methods and machines.
The invention provides a method for security declassification of a disk, comprising the step of contacting a data-containing disk with a rotating cutter having a patterned surface to provide a declassified disk. In one embodiment, the contacting step provides dust. In another embodiment, the contacting step provides dust and flakes. A preferred embodiment of the invention, further comprises grinding the flakes into dust.
In a preferred embodiment, the invention provides a method wherein the declassified disk has an intact center ring. In one embodiment, the intact center ring comprises disk identifying information.
In a preferred embodiment, an inventive method wherein the cutter is cylindrical shaped is provided.
The invention provides a method wherein cutter rotation is provided by a motor.
The invention provides a method wherein the patterned cutter surface comprises a pattern selected from the group consisting of a rotary file, herring bone, cross-cut rotary file, intersecting spiral and non-cross-cut interleave file. In a preferred embodiment, the pattern is cross-cut herringbone.
In a preferred embodiment, the invention provides that the cutter has diameter about ½ inch.
The invention further provides a method wherein the cutter has a length equal to or about corresponding to an exterior data band of the disk. In a preferred embodiment, the cutter length exceeds the exterior data band.
The invention provides that in one embodiment, the cutter is operated at about 10,000-30,000 rpm.
In another embodiment, the disk is rotating while the cutter is contacting the disk.
In another embodiment, the contacting step is performed for about 3-10 seconds.
The invention provides for a method wherein a disk is declassified in as little as 3-6 seconds, to provide products consisting essentially of a declassified disk with intact center-ring and security-standard dust.
In one embodiment, the cutter is driven by a motor run on a timing cycle.
In a further embodiment, the timing cycle is initiated by an arm-actuated microswitch.
The invention provides an embodiment wherein the microswitch is triggered by the disk before the contacting step.
The invention provides a preferred embodiment which is a method further comprising the step of vacuum-collecting the dust.
In another embodiment, the inventive method further comprises capturing the flakes. In a preferred embodiment, flake capturing comprises providing a screen disposed near the rotating patterned cutter. In a most preferred embodiment, the invention further comprises grinding the captured flakes into dust.
The invention provides a method wherein the products consist essentially of a declassified disk with an intact center ring and dust.
The invention includes a method wherein the rotating cutter is provided in a desk-top, portable machine pluggable into a wall outlet.
The invention includes embodiments wherein the disk is an ordinary CD disk, a CDR and a CDRW, etc.
In one embodiment, a vacuum system is applied to hold the disk in contact with the rotating cutter having a patterned surface. In a further embodiment, the disk is held in contact with the patterned cutter surface entirely by the vacuum system.
Additionally, the invention provides a high-security, high-speed disk declassification machine, comprising a patterned-surface cutter, wherein the cutter is of length about corresponding to the exterior data band of a disk; a motor connected to the cutter for rotating the patterned-surf
McGuire Woods LLP
Rosenbaum Mark
LandOfFree
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