U.S. patent number RE33,294 [Application Number 07/340,561] was granted by the patent office on 1990-08-14 for casing for magnetic tape cassette.
This patent grant is currently assigned to TDK Corporation. Invention is credited to Tatsuo Fujii, Shigetomo Takeda.
United States Patent |
RE33,294 |
Fujii , et al. |
August 14, 1990 |
Casing for magnetic tape cassette
Abstract
A casing for holding a magnetic tape cassette which is formed
into a box shape by bending and joining a blank of a transparent
.[.blastic.]. .Iadd.plastic .Iaddend.plate material which has one
surface, constituting the inner surface of a casing, on which
grooves and a minutely roughened area are provided except for on a
predetermined portion including at least one transparent window and
the other surface, constituting the outer surface of said casing,
on which printing and/or an uneven surface pattern is provided in a
predetermined portion except for said transparent window.
Inventors: |
Fujii; Tatsuo (Saku,
JP), Takeda; Shigetomo (Saku, JP) |
Assignee: |
TDK Corporation (Tokyo,
JP)
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Family
ID: |
13757577 |
Appl.
No.: |
07/340,561 |
Filed: |
April 19, 1989 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
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Reissue of: |
606187 |
May 2, 1984 |
04555021 |
Nov 26, 1985 |
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Foreign Application Priority Data
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Jun 1, 1983 [JP] |
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58-81837[U] |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
206/387.1;
206/777 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B65D
5/4204 (20130101); B65D 5/4216 (20130101); G11B
23/0233 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
B65D
5/42 (20060101); G11B 23/023 (20060101); B65D
085/671 () |
Field of
Search: |
;206/45.31,45.33,45.34,307,309,387 ;220/82R |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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0085892 |
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Aug 1975 |
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AU |
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0167081 |
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Dec 1981 |
|
JP |
|
0034607 |
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Jul 1982 |
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JP |
|
0014286 |
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Jan 1983 |
|
JP |
|
0034287 |
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Apr 1983 |
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JP |
|
Primary Examiner: Foster; Jimmy G.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier
& Neustadt
Claims
We claim:
1. A casing for holding a magnetic tape cassette which is formed
into a box shape by bending and joining a blank of a transparent
plastic plate material which has one surface, constituting the
inner surface of a casing, on which grooves and a minutely
roughened area are provided except for on a predetermined portion
including at least one transparent window and the other surface,
constituting the outer surface of said casing, on which printing
and/or an uneven surface pattern is provided in a predetermined
portion except for said transparent window.
2. The casing for holding a magnetic tape cassette according to
claim 1, wherein a window frame of said transparent window is
formed by pressing to have an uneven pattern.
3. The casing for holding a magnetic tape cassette according to
claim 1, wherein the outer surface of a window frame of said
transparent window is printed to form a decorated surface.
4. The casing for holding a magnetic tape cassette according to
claim 1, wherein said minutely roughened area is formed in
.[.said.]. grooved lattice pattern. .Iadd.
5. A casing for holding a magnetic tape cassette, said casing:
(a) being formed into a box shape by bending and joining a blank of
transparent plastic plate material;
(b) having a first surface that constitutes the inner surface of
said casing;
(c) having a lattice pattern on a portion of said first surface
formed by grooves in said first surface;
(d) having minutely roughened areas on said first surface in
between said grooves;
(e) having at least one transparent window where no grooves and no
minutely roughened areas are formed;
(f) having a second surface that constitutes the outer surface of
said casing; and
(g) having printing and/or an uneven surface pattern on said second
surface except for said transparent window. .Iaddend.
Description
The present invention relates to a casing for a magnetic tape
cassette for holding a cassette such as a videotape cassette.
A VHS system or a beta system videotape cassette is normally held
in a casing made of a material such as cardboard or plastic resin
to prevent dust from entering in it, to eliminate flaws caused by
physical contact and to facilitate to putting in and out the tape
cassette. The present invention particularly concerns a casing made
of plastic resin. On the outer surface of casing, a trademark and
design are usually provided; however, there is nothing on the inner
surface. Since the outer surface side of the videotape cassette is
formed by a hard plastic material, slippage of the cassette is too
much when it is put into the plastic casing and the cassette tends
to drop out the casing. Further, since the casing has an opening
through which a tape cassette is inserted and the inner portion of
the casing is visible to considerable extent, it is not
satisfactory from the viewpoint of design. In addition, when a
window is to be formed in the plastic casing to allow observation
of the tape cassette held in the casing, it is necessary to stamp a
plate material (a blank) into the form of a window and to bond a
transparent plastic sheet at the circumferential part of the
window.
It is an object of the present invention to eliminate drawbacks of
the conventional casing and to provide a plastic casing for holding
a magnetic tape cassette which holds therein a magnetic tape
cassette by a proper frictional force and is excellent in
design.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a
casing simplifying its manufacturing process.
The foregoing and the other object of the present invention have
been attained by providing a casing for holding a magnetic tape
cassette which is formed into a box shape by bending and joining a
blank of a transparent plastic plate material which has one
surface, constituting the inner surface of a casing, on which
grooves and a minutely roughened area are provided except for on a
predetermined portion including at least one transparent window and
the other surface, constituting the outer surface of said casing,
on which printing and/or an uneven surface pattern is provided in a
predetermined portion except for said transparent window.
A more complete appreciation of the invention and many attendant
advantages thereof will the readily obtained as the same becomes
better understood by reference to the following detailed
description when considered in connection with the accompanying
drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a front view of an embodiment of the roller for
press-forming a blank for a plastic casing according to the first
embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a flat plate made of plastic resin
for the manufacture of a casing according to the first embodiment
of the present invention and a pattern formed on the flat plate by
pressing operation;
FIG. 3 is a rear view of a blank stamped out;
FIG. 4 is a front view of the blank as shown in FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a plastic casing of the first
embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the blank;
FIG. 7 is a rear view of a blank according to the second embodiment
of the present invention;
FIG. 8 is a front view of the blank as shown in FIG. 7; and
FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a casing according to the second
embodiment of the present invention.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in
detail.
A casing for holding magnetic tape cassette of the present
invention is fabricated by a single transparent blank made of
plastic resin. In the inner surface of the plastic casing, a
grooved lattice pattern and minutely roughened surface are formed
except for an area in which a window is to be formed and which
remains transparent. On the other hand, on the outer surface of the
casing, a lattice pattern, a window frame, decoration, design and
so forth are formed by printing and embossing.
Thus, the plastic casing of the present invention can be fabricated
by a single flat plate and its manufacturing processes can be
remarkably simplified. Transparent windows enable users to
ascertain the volume of the magnetic tape remaining non-used and
description concerning recorded sound or recorded image. Further,
the frame of the transparent windows can be accented by embossing
or depressing operations to increase visual effect of the windows.
The grooved lattice pattern and/or the minutely roughened surface
is formed in the inner surface whereby proper friction is imparted
to prevent the magnetic tape cassette from its droppage and flaws
caused by physical contact between the inner surface of the casing
and the tape cassette.
The first embodiment of the plastic casing of the present invention
will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5 which show
manufacturing processes of the plastic casing and the structure
thereof.
First of all, a flat plastic plate P is prepared. The plastic plate
is of a transparent or a semitransparent plate made of a
cardboard-like, strong and flexible thermoplastic resin material
such as polyester, polypropylene, polycarbonate, polyvinyl chloride
and so on.
On the other hand, a metallic press-forming roller R, as shown in
FIG. 1, heated by means of steam or an electric heater is prepared.
The roller R is provided with a mirror surface part 1 at a portion
corresponding to a transparent part of a plastic blank, a
lattice-shape projecting part 2 at a position corresponding to the
grooved lattice pattern of the blank, and a minutely roughened
surface part 3 at a position corresponding to the areas of the
grooved lattice pattern to be formed in the plastic blank. One or
more number of sets of these parts are repeatedly formed on the
roller R along the axix of the roller to allow the processing of
one or more number of blanks simultaneously. Namely, as shown in
FIG. 2, a transparent plastic plate having a large surface area is
continuously passed between the roller R heated at a high
temperature and a separate roller having a mirror surface (not
shown) to transfer surface patterns formed on the roller R into the
surface of the transparent plastic plate P. That is, a transparent
part 4 in the plastic plate corresponds to the mirror surface part
1; a grooved lattice pattern 5 corresponds to the lattice-shape
projecting part 2 and a minutely roughened surface part 6
corresponds to the part 3 of the roller R respectively. The surface
of the blank having been subjected to press-forming process
constitutes the inner surface of the casing.
As shown in FIG. 6 indicating an example of the grooved lattice
pattern in an enlarged cross-sectional view, it consists of groove
5 in a guadrilateral form and .[.minitely.]. .Iadd.minutely
.Iaddend.roughened surface parts 6 formed between the grooves 5 and
is generally in semi-transparent. The grooves 5 and the roughened
surface parts can be formed by another way and pattern.
In FIG. 2, the line indicated by the reference numeral 10
represents the outline of a blank to be stamped out and the line
indicated by the numeral 11 represents the outline of a window. A
transparent plastic plate P having been subjected to press-forming
operations is stamped out using a suitable stamping mold along the
outline 10, with the result that a blank B is obtainable as shown
in FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 shows the reverse surface and FIG. 4 shows
the front surface of the blank respectively. Then, slits 12 are
formed in the blank B and a heat pressing operation is applied to
the blank B to form a groove 15 along the dotted line 13 so that
the blank is easily bent inwardly. At the same time, the heat
pressing operation is applied to the blank along the line 11, which
corresponds to the outline of a transparent window 7, to form a
window frame 14. Printing may be applied to a predetermined surface
area of the front surface to form decoration surface .Iadd.8
.Iaddend.before or after the heat pressing operation. For example,
printing is made for a lattice pattern, colored strips, a
trademark, indication marks (which are shown by hatched lines for
the purpose of simplification). Alternatively, a heat roller (not
shown) having a lattice-shape emboss pattern may be used for
press-forming instead of a certain step of the printing processes.
Further, it may be that a part being subject neither to printing
nor press-forming is left at a predetermined portion.
Finally, the blank B is bent along the groove 15 into a box form
and overlapping parts are bonded to obtain a completed casing
16.
FIGS. 7 and 8 show a separate embodiment of the casing according to
the present invention and FIG. 9 shows a completed casing 17. The
casing of the embodiment is substantially the same as the casing of
the first embodiment provided that an additional window 9 is formed
in a shoulder portion of the casing. It is needless to say that a
press-forming roller should be modified accordingly.
As described above, the casing of the present invention is
fabricated by a single transparent plastic blank to thereby
simplify manufacturing process. Further, since a grooved lattice
pattern and/or a minutely roughened surface is formed in the inner
surface side of the blank, a proper frictional force is imparted to
the magnetic tape cassette and occurrence of flaws is prevented due
to unevenness of the inner surface of the casing. On the other
hand, the outer surface side on which decoration is provided
imparts beautiful appearance because the transparent windows 7,
.[.8.]. .Iadd.9 .Iaddend.are accented by forming the window frame.
Further, provision of the lattice pattern and the minutely
roughened surface increases itself the value of a product. It is
noted that it is sufficient to form either one of the lattice
pattern and the minutely roughened surface in the inner surface
side as long as frictional property for the magnetic tape cassette
is satisfactorily given.
* * * * *