Disk drive enclosure with disk holders

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a disk drive enclosure, and in particular, to a disk drive enclosure with a disk holder.

2. Description of the Related Art

Conventionally, disks to be used in a disk drive are stored in a separate disk holder. However, using a separate disk holder is inconvenient if a small number of disks are used mostly, especially when the disk holder is not placed in the vicinity of the disk drive enclosure.

One embodiment of the present invention is to provide a disk drive enclosure with a disk holder provided as an integral part of the enclosure. Thus, for example, one embodiment of the present invention includes a disk drive enclosure comprising a top panel and a disk holder for holding disk products. One aspect of the present invention is a disk holder provided on the top panel as an integral part of the enclosure. The disk holder has a shape for receiving and fitting thereto a side of each disk product. Thus, in one embodiment, a user who uses a disk drive (e.g., an optical disk drive) can handle disk products easily and efficiently, without using a separate disk holder.

The disk holder may be constituted by grooves, slots, continuous ridges, discontinuous ridges, and/or a plurality of projections. The direction of holding disk products can be parallel to the front panel, parallel to the side panels, or offset, depending on the target user's preference. The offset direction may be such that the proximal end of the disk product is directed toward the right (or the left) of a user who is right-handed (or left-handed). The disk products can be held vertically on the top panel or slanted toward the user in view of ease of handling disk products. The disk product can be a disk itself, a hard case thereof, and a soft case thereof.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating one embodiment of the disk drive enclosure according to the present invention.

FIGS. 2A-2E are schematic perspective, cross-sectional views, indicating various structures of the disk holder.

FIGS. 3A-3C are schematic plan views indicating various structures of the disk holder according the present invention.

The present invention relates to a disk drive enclosure, and in particular, to a disk drive enclosure with a disk holder.

The disk drive enclosure may be an enclosure for any disk drive such as an optical disk drive and floppy disk drive. The enclosure may be named a housing, a case, or a box. The enclosure comprises at least a top panel, and normally but not necessarily, further comprises a bottom panel, side panels, a front panel, and a rear panel. Located in the enclosure is a drive. Depending on the intended use of the drive, the enclosure may not have a bottom panel, of side panels.

In one embodiment, the disk drive enclosure comprises a disk holder on the top panel. FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view illustrating an embodiment of the disk drive enclosure according to the present invention. A disk holder ( 1 ) is provided as an integral part of an enclosure ( 2 ). In the disk holder, a hard case ( 3 ) including a disk ( 4 ) is held. As explained below, the disk holder can be in various shapes, and can be designed to hold a disk without a hard case or a disk with a soft case.

FIGS. 2A-2E are schematic perspective, cross-sectional views indicating various structures of the disk holder according to the present invention. As indicated in the figures, the disk holder can be comprised of grooves or slots (FIGS. 2 A and 2 B), continuous ridges (FIG. 2 C), discontinuous ridges (FIG. 2 D), or projections (FIG. 2 E). In FIG. 2A, the sides of grooves are perpendicular to the surface of the top panel. However, as shown in FIG. 2B, the sides of grooves can be slanted with respect to the surface of the top panel. When slanted, a user of the disk drive can easily grasp the disks with fingers or can see the side of the hard case indicating the name or subtitle of the disk. The angle of the sides with respect to the surface of the top panel can be selected based on the user's preference. In one embodiment, the angle is in the range of 45°-90°. The depth of the grooves is adapted to hold a disk itself, a hard case, or a soft case. In one embodiment, the depth is in the range of 2-20 mm, in another embodiment 5-10 mm. The width and length are adapted to hold a disk itself, a hard case, or a soft case. If a disk itself is supported, the shape of the groove must be designed accordingly, for example, in one embodiment, the groove has a slit-like rounded longitudinal cross-section. The groove can alsos be square- or round-bottomed. Further, in order to protect the disk, hard case, or soft case or other storage containers, protective padding (not shown) can be provided on the sides and/or the edges. Although the disk holder is formed on the top panel, if the holder is not used, another device or enclosure can be placed on top. Thus, in one embodiment, the disk holder does not interfere with placing something on top of the disk enclosure.

In one embodiment, as long as the disk, hard case, or soft case is securely held in the disk holder, the disk holder can be of any shape. For example, FIGS. 2C and 2D show ridges, instead of grooves or slots which are used to hold the disk. When using ridges, the ridges can be discontinuous (FIG. 2 D). The shape of the ridges can be selected in a manner similar to that of the grooves or slots described above.

Further, in another embodiment, simple projections can be used to hold disks and/or disk containers as shown in FIG. 2 E. As many projections as necessary can be formed to hold the disk, hard case, or soft case. The projections can be aligned with a selected direction or can be formed at random. When formed at random, a disk can be held in any direction. For example, the disk can be oriented in any direction around an axis parallel to the enclosure top surface. The projections may be made of a resilient resin. The projections are especially useful for storing disks themselves without cases.

FIGS. 3A-3C are schematic plan views indicating various structures of the disk holder according to several embodiments of the present invention. The grooves, slots, ridges or projections (longitudinal sections) can be arranged along parallel lines. The number of longitudinal sections can be selected based on the user's preference. For example, 2-20 longitudinal sections are formed as an integral part of the enclosure. In another embodiment, 4-10 sections are provided. If the enclosure is large enough, more than one column can be formed on top. The direction of the longitudinal sections can be formed at an angle with respect to the front of the enclosure, as shown in FIG. 3A so that the user can easily grasp the disk. If the user is right-handed, a direction wherein the proximal end of the disk case (or disk) is directed toward the user's right is preferable since the right hand of the user can easily access the proximal end (FIG. 3 A). FIG. 1 shows slots arranged in a direction which may be preferred by a user who is left-handed since the proximal end of the-disk case is directed toward the user's left. The longitudinal sections can be parallel to the front panel (FIG. 3B) or side panels (FIG. 3 C). The direction can be selected based on the user's preference.

It will be understood by those of skill in the art that numerous and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Therefore, it should be clearly understood that the forms of the present invention are illustrative only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.