WO1993026008A1

WO1993026008A1 - Video cassettes

Info

Publication number: WO1993026008A1
Application number: PCT/AU1993/000285
Authority: WO
Inventors: John Michael Woodbury
Original assignee: John Michael Woodbury
Priority date: 1992-06-15
Filing date: 1993-06-15
Publication date: 1993-12-23

Abstract

A video cassette (10) is folded from a moulded one piece plastics casing comprising an open housing (12) in which the reels (13 and 14) are supported, a closure part (11) for closing the open housing (12) and connected thereto by an integral hinge (18). A cover flap (9) is moulded integrally with the closure part (11). The cover flap (9) which is separable from the closure part (11) includes hinge pins (35/58) which nest within saddles (36) formed in the open housing (12). The hinge pins (35/58) are retained within the saddles (36) by a transparent closing panel (28/66) which also closes viewing windows (27/73) in the closure part (11) and provides reel biasing arms (29), reel pawl members (30) which engage with protrusions (15) to lock the reels when the cover flap (9) is closed.

Description

"VIDEO CASSETTES"

— BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION —

This invention relates to tape cassettes such as video, audio and computer tape cassettes, as well as cassettes for typewriter and printer ribbons. However for illustrative purposes only, particular reference will be made hereinafter to video cassettes.

Home video recording and replay systems were originally introduced so that users could record programmes they were unable to watch, and replay those programmes at a later date. This "time shifting" of televised programmes led to acceptance of home video systems which far exceeded original expectations. The resultant market competition resulted in video cassettes which mostly conform to an industry stereotype cassette which is of a very high standard of construction.

— DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART — Cassettes for tape storage-for video tape recorders, hereinafter termed video cassettes, typically contain two spools. The ends of a length of tape are connected to the hubs of the spools, and during use the tape unrolls from one spool and reels onto the other. In order that playing of the tapes and rewinding after use may proceed unhindered, the spools must rotate freely within the video cassette housing while a video cassette is in use. However, it is necessary that a video cassette be fitted with a brake system to lock the spools when a video cassette is not in use, so that loose tape cannot unroll from the spools during handling and transport of the video cassette. A section of the tape passing between the spools is routed along one edge of the video cassette from where it can be drawn into contact with the recording and playback heads. A hinged closure flap covers this section of tape when the video cassette is not in use, and this flap is automatically swung away from the tape when the video cassette is inserted in the tape player. A video cassette also applies a downward force to the top of the reels to assist their engagement with the drive shafts of a host video cassette recorder. The casings of the presently available video cassettes are formed as complex shell mouldings in mating halves which must be screwed together. The casing halves must be formed precisely to maintain operative alignment of the parts as well as correct alignment of tape guides for minimising frictional tape drag in use. Most video cassettes also have a separate reel tension spring, a separate cover flap locking mechanism and complex multi component reel braking devices to provide optimum performance over a long period of recording, playback and re-recording. In particular the casing halves include mating column parts which interlock to ensure correct alignment of the column parts whereby each may support a sleeve bearing for use as a tape guide. A disadvantage of such video cassettes is that they must be manufactured to high standards and are thus expensive to manufacture and assemble.

The demand for movies pre-recorded on video cassettes grew with the increase in numbers of home video systems and to date film makers have released a large range of movies on the accepted high standard video cassette which, as mentioned above, is specifically designed for long life and "time shifting". Because of this the cost of production of each movie cassette is relatively high. Movie cassette rental libraries have been established to overcome this problem and to meet the demand for the home movie cassette market.

— SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION — Aspects of the present invention aim to alleviate at least one of the abovementioned disadvantages and to provide tape cassettes and or casings therefore which will be economical to manufacture and reliable and efficient in operation.

With the foregoing in view, this invention in one aspect resides broadly in a moulded one piece plastics casing for a video cassette including:- an open housing which provides first and second chamber portions between which video tape may be transferred, and a leading wall assembly provided with pathways through which the video tape may pass externally of the housing between the chamber portions; a closure part for closing the open housing and connected to the open housing by hinge means; a cover flap for covering the leading wall assembly and formed integrally with the closure part, and hinge means for hingedly connecting the cover flap to the closure part.

The hinge means may be an integral integrally formed or live hinge forming a connection between the cover flap and the closure part. Preferably the cover flap is connected to the closure part by temporary connector pieces which may be cut, broken or melted, and the hinge means includes hinge pins formed integrally with the cover flap and pin supports formed integrally with the open housing. Suitably the hinge pins extend inwardly from end walls of the cover flap and beneath open access portions provided in the closure part whereby respective die portions of a two piece die may extend through the open access portions of the closure part to form the pins and whereby a two piece die may be utilised to mould the integral closure part and cover flap.

It is also preferred that the closure part be formed with an open window into the housing and that a separate closing member be provided to close the open windows as well as the open access portions to hold the hinge pins captive in the pin supports. Suitably the closure part is provided with locating means on its underside for operatively locating the closing member.

While conventional spring biassing means may be used to apply a downward force to the top of the reels to assist their engagement with the drive shafts of a host video cassette recorder it is preferred that the biassing be provided by keeper arms formed integrally with the closing member. It is also preferred that the closing member be provided with pawl members formed integrally therewith and adapted for engagement with ratchet means in the tape reels for immobilising the reels when not in use. Suitably the pawl members are urged into engagement with the ratchet means by projections on the underside of the cover flap and release from the ratchet means upon opening of the cover flap. If desired the closing member may be moulded integrally with reel covers as will hereinafter become apparent.

In a further aspect, this invention resides broadly in a 5 moulded casing for a tape cassette including:- a one piece plastics moulding forming an open housing which provides first and second chamber portions between which tape may be transferred; a leading wall assembly provided with pathways through which the tape may pass 10 externally of the housing between the chamber portions; respective reel portions extending from the open housing; a closure part for closing the open housing and connected to the open housing by an integrally formed hinge and being formed with an open window into the housing, and 1.5 a separate closing member for closing the open windows, and being formed integrally with reel portions complementary to the reel portions integral with the open housing.

This arrangement provides two moulded components which may be assembled to form a tape cassette. For this purpose 20 the reel portions are formed so as to be readily separable from the mouldings whereby they may be interconnected to form the reels for the cassette. The cassette may be an audio cassette or it may be a video cassette according to this invention as defined above. In the latter application a 25 series of brake lugs or ratchet stops are formed around the periphery of the top surface of the tape reels which are engaged by the pawls when the front cover flap is in its closed attitude.

— BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS -- 30 In order that this invention may be more readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate typical embodiments of the present invention, and wherein:-

FIG. 1 is a pictorial view of a video cassette in a 35 partly folded attitude;

FIG. 2 is a pictorial part sectional view of the front cover flap;

FIG. 3 is a pictorial view of the window closing part with the pawls thereof in a locked attitude; FIG. 4 is a plan view of the video cassette in its pre- assembled state, and

FIG. 5 is an exploded view of preferred form of video cassette formed from two plastics mouldings.

— DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT -- Referring to FIG. 1 it will be seen that the video cassette 10 has a lower housing assembly 12 supporting two reels 13 and 14 provided with brake stops 15 around their top peripheral edge. The housing assembly 12 is closed by a closure part 11 formed integrally therewith and connected thereto by an integral hinge 18 and an front cover flap 9. The housing assembly 12 provides a front cover flap retaining latch 16 which engages with a catch 17 on the front cover flap 9.

When the front cover flap 9 is in its closed attitude, the latch 17 engages behind the latch 17 and is thus retained in the closed position. Inward movement of the latches 17 by the mechanism of the host video cassette recorder releases the latches 17 from the catches 18 and permits the cover flap 9 to move to its open position. The cover flap opens against the influence of a coil spring, not shown, which biases the cover flap 9 to the closed position.

It will be seen that this arrangement enables the integral lower housing assembly 11, the closure part 11 and the cover flap 9 to be moulded using a two piece die and thus minimises costs in the injection moulding process.

The spaced pairs of video tape guide posts 19, 20 extend the full height of the lower housing assembly 12 and are supported by webs 23 which act to stop deflection of the posts from their correct attitude. The guide posts 19, 20 can be sleeved in conventional manner if required. However as the posts are not discontinuous along their length, as they are in conventional video cassettes, they may be used directly as guide posts.

The closure part 11 is interconnected with the lower housing assembly 12 along a reduced thickness line which forms an integral hinge 18 and which acts to retain matching components from the time they are moulded, to the time they are assembled, and of course assists during the assembly process, requiring only that the parts be folded into position. The front cover flap 9, is moulded integrally with the closure part 11 and connected thereto by fine webs 21 which act to retain matching components and assist the assembly process. The webs 21 are cut during the assembly process so that the front cover flap 9 is free to move relative to the closure part 11. The front cover flap 9 has integral side elements 22 connected thereto by a reduced thickness fold line 24 and provided with ramped nodes 25 which engage and lock with the indentations 26 in the housing 12 when the side elements 22 are moved into their closed attitude during the assembly process.

The closure part 11 is formed with open windows 27 which are closed by a transparent closing member 28. This member 28 also provides integral downwardly inclined resilient spring biassing arms 29 which apply a downward force to the top of the reels 13 and 14 to assist their engagement with the drive shafts of a host video cassette recorder.

The closing member 28 is also provided with pawl members 30 formed integrally therewith and adapted for engagement with the brake stops 15 formed around the outer periphery of the top discs 31 of the reels 13 and 14. The pawl members 30 are reduced in section towards their outer brake stop engaging ends 32, as illustrated, and are pushed into engagement with the brake stops 15 for immobilising the reels when not in use by projections 33 on the underside of the cover flap 9 when the cover flap is retained in the closed position by the latches 16.

Upon release of the catches 17 from the latches 16, the cover flap opens and the brake stop engaging ends 32 are released from the stops 15 and the pawl members 30 assume their originating attitude, flat against the inner surface of the closure part 11.

The side elements 22 support pivot pins 35 which, in use, extend inwardly and nest within saddles 36 formed in the lower housing assembly 12. The saddles are covered by the closure part 11 whereby the pivot pins 35 are held captive in the saddles 36 enabling the cover part 9 to pivot between its closed and open positions. The closure part 11 and the housing 12 may be formed with snap together fastenings or they may be secured together by screws if desired.

The coil spring which biases the cover flap 9 to the closed position, which is not illustrated, is of conventional type and is mounted about the longer of the pivot pins 35. Fig. 4 illustrates the assembly of the lower housing assembly 12, the closure part 11 and the front cover flap 9 in their as moulded configuration with the reels 13, 14 supported in the housing 12. It will be seen that a video cassette formed therefrom will have all the functions and features necessary for operation with a standard video cassette recorder.

Furthermore while video cassettes currently manufactured are assembled from many individual components in plastic, sheet spring steel and spring wire springs as are the two video tape reels, and their cost of manufacture is accordingly relatively high and automation of assembly is difficult, from the above it will be seen that the video cassettes of the present invention retain the desired features and functions of video cassettes while reducing the components and thus manufacturing cost. Further because of the simple configuration, automation of assembly should be greatly enhanced.

The tape pathways are formed by the guide posts 19, 20 which extend from the base wall 38 to the full height of the housing 12. The posts 19, 20 are braced in a vertical attitude by the webs 23 which eliminates the current need to perfectly match the retaining means in the top shell of the casing, with the bottom shell retaining lugs.

The video cassette 10 also includes a front cover flap lock which is designed so that it may be moulded as an integral part of the casing during the injection moulding process without the need for additional cores, thereby simplifying the configuration of the injection moulding die which may be a simple single core design. This reduces the complexity of the die and minimises costs while increasing serviceability and allowing for a tool which can be used to produce a number of items from a single moulding. The embodiment illustrated in Fig. 5 has many components which correspond to the embodiment illustrated in Figs. 1 to 4 and thus detail reference to the common features will not be made thereto, but for clarity corresponding numerals designate corresponding components. However it will be seen that the video cassette 50 is formed to facilitate assembly of the reels and the cassette case from two mouldings, namely the case moulding 51 and the transparent covering moulding 52, the only additional item required being the coiled cover flap opening spring 53. In addition it will be seen that the cover flap 54 has the end walls 55 moulded integrally with the front wall 56 and the top wall 57 and thus special provision has to be made to mould the pivot pins 58 without adding to the complexity of the dies. For this purpose each hinge pin 58 extend inwardly from a respective end wall 55 and beneath a die access openings 59 provided in the top wall 57 whereby respective die portions of a two piece die may extend through the access openings 59 to the pins and whereby a two piece die may be utilised to mould the integral closure part and cover flap. As illustrated the spring 53 engages about the pin 58, which is slotted to retain the spring non-rotatably thereon, and has a tail 60 which engages under the closure part 11 to bias it to an closed position.

The case moulding 51 is also provided with integral reel members 61 having a bottom disc 62 co-planar with the apertured base wall 63 and an upstanding hub 64 provided with a lead-in ramp portion to accept the tape end without kinking tape wound over the end portion. The tape end may be glued or welded to the hub or otherwise connected thereto as desired. The discs 62 are connected to the base wall 63 by breakaway portions 65 and extend from opposite ends thereof.

The closing panel 66 has correspondingly formed discs 67 connected thereto by break away connectors 79 and having snap together connectors 68 which engage with complementary connectors 69 on the hubs 64 such that each reel may be assembled by snap fitting a disc 67 to a hub 64. Thus all plastics components for forming a cassette case and reels may be provided by the two mouldings which may be readily positioned for access by robotic assembly apparatus and easily manipulated for repetitive assembly.

The closing panel 66 is also provided with filler lands 71 which extend into the respective access openings 59 and protrusions 72 which protrude into the windows 73 to cover the openings 74 beneath the reel retaining arms 75 of the closing panel 66. Thus assembly may take place by supplying two components to robotic apparatus or to jigs for manual assembly and simply severing, shifting and folding of components.

It will of course be realised that the above has been given only by way of illustrative example of the invention and that all such modifications and variations thereto as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art are deemed to fall within the broad scope and ambit of the invention as is defined in the appended claims.

Claims

THE CLAIMS DEFINING THIS INVENTION ARE AS FOLLOWS:-

1. A moulded one piece plastics casing for a video cassette including:- an open housing having first and second chamber portions between which video tape may be transferred, and a leading wall assembly provided with pathways through which the video tape may pass externally of the housing between said chamber portions; a closure part for closing said open housing and connected to said open housing by hinge means; a cover flap for covering said leading wall assembly and formed integrally with said closure part, and hinge means for hingedly connecting said cover flap to said closure part.

2. A video cassette casing as claimed in claim 1, wherein said cover flap is connected to said closure part by temporary connector pieces and wherein said hinge means includes hinge pins formed integrally with said cover flap and pin supports formed integrally with said open housing.

3. A video cassette casing as claimed in claim 2, wherein said hinge pins extend inwardly from end walls of the cover flap and beneath respective die access openings in said closure part.

4. A video cassette casing as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said closure part is formed with an open window into said housing and said closure part is formed to accommodate a separate transparent closing member for closing said open window.

5. A video cassette assembly including a video cassette casing as claimed in claim 4, a pair of tape reels and a closing member for closing said die access opening, wherein said closure part is formed to accommodate said closing member on its operative inner surface and wherein said closing member includes a panel portion which cover said die access openings.

6. A video cassette assembly as claimed in claim 5, wherein said closing part includes resilient keeper arms which in use apply a downward force to the top of the reels.

7. A video cassette assembly as claimed in claim 6, wherein said resilient keeper arms are formed integrally with said closing part.

8. A video cassette casing as claimed in any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein said closing member is provided with pawl members biassed into engagement with ratchet stops in the tape reels by said cover flap when said cover flap is in its closed position.

9. A video cassette assembly as claimed in claim 8, wherein said resilient pawl members are formed integrally with said closing part.

10. A moulded casing for a tape cassette including:- a one piece plastics moulding forming an open housing which provides first and second chamber portions between which tape may be transferred; a leading wall assembly provided with pathways through which the tape may pass externally of the housing between said chamber portions; respective reel portions extending from said open housing; a closure part for closing said open housing and connected to said open housing by an integrally formed hinge and being formed with an open window into the housing, and a separate closing member for closing said open window and being formed integrally with reel portions complementary to the reel portions integral with said open housing whereby said reel portions may be separated from the mouldings and interconnected to form tape reels.

11. A video cassette casing including a moulded casing as claimed in claim 10 and adapted as a video cassette and wherein said reel portion associated with said housing includes a hub portion and for a tape cassette and said reel portion associated with said closure part is transparent and connects to said hub portion.

12. A video cassette casing as claimed in claim 11, wherein said transparent reel portion is formed with brake lugs or ratchet stops around the periphery of its outer surface.