The present invention relates to storage cases for media discs. More particularly, although not exclusively, the invention relates to a plastics keep case for point-of-sale distribution of DVD boxed sets, music CDs, software CD-ROMs and the like.
It is known to provide “boxed sets” comprising multiple DVDs or CDs for example in point-of-sale “keep cases”. Such cases as used for DVD movie boxed sets for example, are of standard width and height dimension for distribution and display conformity. Some such keep cases are assembled like a book comprising front and back covers connected by a spine. The back cover supports a number of internal disk-receiving pockets, each receiving a disk. A problem with such structures is in the low durability of the pockets and generally poor selectability of the disks as the pockets do not turn well and do not display the disks well.
A development of the above theme insofar as it relates to DVD keep cases has been in the provision of internal plastics panels attached to the spine and to the front and/or back of which there is/are provided disk-retaining hubs or bosses onto which the discs can be individually mounted for easy display, retrieval and replacement. Such cases are however limited to just several such plastics panels, as standardisation of the external packaging width and height dimensions limits the number of panels that can be properly turned open without clashing with each other to display the discs effectively.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or substantially ameliorate the above disadvantage and/or more generally to provide an improved keep case for multiple media discs capable of storing and displaying when required more than several panels, whilst maintaining standardised case width and height dimensions.
There is disclosed herein a disk case for storing a multiplicity of media discs, comprising:
Preferably, the cover includes a front portion and a back portion between which the disk-mounting panels are located, and a spine hingedly connecting the front and back portions, and wherein the binder extends from the spine.
Preferably, each track comprises a wall and a curved rail, and wherein each slot opens to an edge of its disk-mounting panel at a lip against which the curved rail can bear.
Preferably, each disk-mounting panel comprises a pair of resilient disk-mounting bosses extending from respective opposed faces thereof.
Preferably, the front portion and the back portion each comprise an inward facing resilient disk-mounting boss.
Preferably, the slots are located adjacent to respective top and bottom edges of the disk-mounting panels.
A preferred form of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
In the accompanying drawings there is depicted schematically a disk storage case 10 typically formed of moulded plastics material such as polypropylene. The case 10 comprises a cover having a front portion 11, a back portion 12 and a spine 13 to which the front and back portions are hingedly connected in a continuous moulding.
Attached to or formed integrally with the spine 13 is a binder 14 that includes a pair of spaced apart tracks 15. Each track 15 has an upstanding wall 16 and a curved rail 17 extending partially about its periphery. That is, the rail 17 comprises a curved top portion that extends down each edge of the wall 16.
Attached to the binder 14 are five (although there might be provided fewer or more) individual disk-mounting panels 18 each comprising front and back mutually offset resilient disk-mounting hubs or bosses 19. Each disk-mounting panel 18 might be likened to the page of a book and is just slightly wider than the diameter of a disk. Located nearby the top and bottom edges of each disk-mounting panel 18 are transverse slots 20. The slots 20 extend partially across each disk-mounting panel from the edge 21 of the disk-mounting panel adjacent to the spine 13 and binder 14. At or adjacent to the edge 21, each slot 20 is provided with a lip 22 from the Pru
The slots 20 fit over the respective tracks 15 in such a manner that the lip 22 engages the inside edge of the rail 17. This inter-engagement captures the panel 18 and defines the maximum in-plane extent of the panel away from the binder 14.
As can be seen in
The preferred embodiment as described above comprises many “pages” or disk-mounting panels that can be easily opened out, yet still closed down to a compact package having standard width W and height H (see
It should be appreciated that modifications and alterations obvious to those skilled in the art are not to be considered as beyond the scope of the present invention. For example, the disk-mounting panels might comprise resilient bosses only on one face and the inside faces of the front and back covers might also include resilient bosses. Furthermore, the tracks 15 need not have a curved top rail. Indeed, the tracks could be of any closed shape (e.g. A-shaped, square, polygonal, or otherwise) suitable to the task. Furthermore, the tracks might not need to comprise a wall and the rail. They could instead simply comprise and open-centred arch or loop like the binder of a stationery file.