MXPA97008445A - Lig weight cassette cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a video cassette cartridge for use in a video cassette recorder, the video cassette cartridge being characterized in that it comprises: a video magnetic tape housing, a pair of rolls of video tapes rotatably mounted within the housing for storing and roll up video magnetic tape, the video magnetic tape housing has a slot to expose the magnetic video tape, and a dust cover to cover the slot, to protect the exposed video magnetic tape from damage, the cover against powder includes a base portion coupled to the housing, and a tear-away band releasably attached to the base portion by lines of weakness between the base portion and the tear-away strip, so that the tear-away band covers the slot when it engages the base portion and exposes the magnetic video tape for playback on the video cassette recorder when it is removed from the e said portion ba

Description

LIGHT WEIGHT CASSETTE CARTRIDGE FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a limited-use, inexpensive video cassette cartridge formed of lightweight, recyclable materials, and more particularly to a lightweight video cassette cartridge that includes a dust cover having a tear-off strip , removable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The recent proliferation of video cassette players and recorders has created a new market for announcements and messages recorded on magnetic video tape. This new market has created a huge demand for inexpensive and lightweight limited-use videocassette cartridges that are suitable for mailing. These cassettes are also suitable for non-commercial recordings such as public service announcements and sending personal messages to family and friends. Previous attempts to build limited-use, light-weight cassette cartridges have been REF: 26025 generally unsuccessful. For example, many of the video cassette cartridges of the prior art contain several individual parts formed of various materials. The use of such a large number and variety of parts raises the cost and time of manufacture of cassette cartridges and makes recyclability fail. Additionally, the prior art video cassette cartridges are formed of heavier materials, and thus their transportation and mailing is expensive. Applicants for the present application have designed novel cassette cartridges that successfully overcome many of the problems associated with the limited-use, lightweight cassette cartridges of the prior art. For example, U.S. Patent No. 5,398,881 discloses a lightweight video cassette cartridge that performs all functions of a video cassette cartridge for permanent use, but which comprises only 8 parts, all made of recyclable, lightweight materials. Application Serial No. 08/321 257 discloses a lightweight video cassette cartridge that includes a defined passive reel system that replaces the more expensive and complicated active braking systems found in prior art cassette cartridges. Application Serial No. 08 / 343,369 describes a lightweight cassette cartridge that includes a solid core that adds structural rigidity to the cassette cartridge and at the same time replaces the conventional parts of the cassette cartridges of the prior art. Applicants have recently discovered a new improvement that solves another limitation on the limited-use, light-weight cassette cartridges of the prior art. In particular, limited use cassette cartridges of the prior art include dust covers that are hingedly attached to the cassette housing or formed separately and removably from the cassette housing. The dust covers, particulate, require metal hinges that prevent the cartridge from being recyclable and are expensive. Removable dust covers often slip off the cartridge during transport and handling, resulting in damage to the exposed video magnetic tape. In addition, these removable dust covers are added to the number of cassette cartridge parts and are often lost once removed. Thus, there is a need for an improved lightweight video cassette cartridge that overcomes the limitations described above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION AND OBJECT OF THE INVENTION In view of the limitations of the prior art video cassette cartridges described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a limited use, light weight, improved cassette cartridge that includes a dust cover that protects in a Most effective to magnetic video tape to be damaged during transport and handling. Another object of the present invention is to provide a cartridge of limited use cassette, lightweight, including a dust cover that is fixedly attached to the cartridge housing without the use of expensive metal hinges. Another object of the present invention is to provide a lightweight, limited use cassette cartridge that includes a dust cover that is inexpensive to manufacture. In accordance with these and other obvious objects from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, an improved light weight cassette cartridge is provided. The preferred light weight cassette cartridge broadly includes a magnetic video tape housing and a dust cover having a tear-off, removable band.

In more detail, the video magnetic tape housing includes walls defining an interior chamber for storing and winding the magnetic video tape thereon and the structure defining a plurality of slots in the front wall of the cartridge to expose the magnetic tape. of video contained in it to be reproduced in the VCR. The dust cover is provided to cover the slot in the housing to protect the exposed video magnetic tape from damage during transport and handling. The dust cover includes a base portion and a tear-off strip. The base portion is fixedly attached to the housing of the video magnetic tape by means of cement or other additives and includes an opening that extends substantially along the entire length of the front wall of the housing of the magnetic video tape. The opening is in substantial alignment with the slot in the housing so that the video magnetic tape extending from the slot is not covered by the base portion. The tear-off strip is releasably attached to the base portion and is dimensioned so as to cover the opening in the base portion when attached to it. When the cassette cartridge is ready to be reproduced in a VCR, the tear strip is removed from the base portion, so that the video magnetic tape is exposed for playback. The tear-off strip can be removably attached to the base portion with adhesives or it can be formed integral with the base portion and releasably joined by means of a perforated or matrix-cut edge. By constructing a lightweight video cassette cartridge as described above, numerous advantages are realized. For example, by providing a cassette cartridge having a dust cover that is fixedly attached to the cartridge housing, the dust cover remains fixed to the cartridge housing during transport and handling and thus protects the magnetic tape from video contained in it. Additionally, by providing a cassette cartridge having a dust cover that includes a removable, tear-away band, the mounted cassette cartridge contains fewer parts and thus is less expensive to manufacture. Another advantage is that by providing a cartridge cassette having a removable, tear-away band, the magnetic video magnetic tape contained in the cartridge can be protected during transport and handling without adding significant weight to the cartridge.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is an exploded view of a lightweight video cassette cartridge constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment showing the cover against dust removed from the magnetic tape housing; Figure 2 is a top perspective view of the cassette cartridge showing the dust cover attached to the housing of the video magnetic tape and the tear-off strip partially removed from the dust cover; and Figure 3 is a top perspective view of a second embodiment of the dust cover.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED MODALITY Referring to Figure 1, a lightweight video cassette cartridge 10 constructed according to the preferred embodiment is illustrated. The preferred cassette cartridge 10 is designed for use with a conventional video cassette recorder (VCR) and broadly includes a video magnetic tape housing 12 and a dust cover 14. Both the housing 12 and the dust cover 14 they are preferably formed of recyclable, lightweight materials, such as synthetic resin or cardboard. In more detail, the housing 12 preferably includes a pair of separate upper and lower panels 16 and 13, and a pair of spools of magnetic video tape (not shown) mounted rotatably within the housing of the video magnetic tape 12 for winding the magnetic video tape. The upper and lower panels 16 and 18 are generally rectangular in shape and are spaced apart to define an interior hollow chamber therebetween. A solid core structural member or conventional poles may be placed within this hollow chamber to maintain the separate relationship between the upper and lower panels 16 and 18. The upper panel 16 includes a pair of spool springs 20 integrally molded therein. As discussed in detail in commonly owned US Patent No. 5,398,881, herein incorporated by reference, magnetic video tape reels are subjected to an upward force of the VCR control axes, which tend to push the reels up towards the top panel and out of alignment. The spool springs 20 are configured to exert an opposite downward force on the video magnetic tape reels when they are subjected to an ascending force released by the axes of the VCR. The lower panel 18 includes walls defining a pair of drive openings (not shown) for receiving the drive shafts of a VCR. The drive openings are aligned with the spools of magnetic video tape, so that the axes of the VCR cooperate with the spools of magnetic video tape. The upper and lower panels 16 and 18 are secured together to form the assembled housing 12. The assembled housing 12 has a front wall 22 that includes the structure defining a plurality of slots 24 that extend toward the lower chamber of the housing. The slots 24 are provided for transferring the magnetic video tape between the magnetic video tape reels and for exposing a portion of the magnetic video tape for playback on the VCR. The dust cover 14 is provided to cover the slots of the housing 24, so that the exposed video magnetic tape is protected from damage during transportation and handling and before the video cassette cartridge 10 is reproduced in the VCR. The dust cover 14 roughly includes a base portion 26 and a tear strip 28.

The base portion 26 slides on the front face of the video magnetic tape housing 12 and includes spaced apart upper, lower, left side and right side faces. The most frontal edges of the left and right lateral faces are inclined inwardly so that the base portion 26 does not slide past the front face 22 of the housing of the video magnetic tape 12. To prevent the cover against the powder 14 slides out of the housing of the video magnetic tape 12 during transport and handling, the left and right side faces are fixedly attached to the housing of the video magnetic tape 12 by cement or other conventional adhesives. The housing of the video magnetic tape 12 may include a plurality of raised edges 30 formed on its left and right side walls to facilitate adhesion of the base portion 26 to the housing of the video magnetic tape 12. As illustrated in FIG. Figure 2, the most frontal edges of the upper, lower and left and right lateral faces of the base portion 26 define an elongated opening 34 that extends substantially the entire length of the base portion 26. The elongated opening 34 is aligned with the slot of the housing of the video magnetic tape 24 when the base portion 26 is attached to the housing of the video magnetic tape 12. With this configuration, the base portion 26 does not cover the video magnetic tape that extends from the. slots 24 when the dust cover 14 is attached to the housing of the video magnetic tape 12. The tear strip 28 is removably attached to the base portion 26 and is dimensioned so as to cover the elongated opening 34 of the portion of base 26 when it is attached to it. The tear strip 28 is generally rectangular in shape and has opposite upper and lower longitudinal edges 36 and 38. When attached to the base portion 26, those longitudinal edges 36 and 38 engage the base portion 26 to cover the elongated opening. of the base portion 34. The tear strip 28 can be releasably attached to the base portion 26 in a variety of ways. For example, as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, the longitudinal edges 36 and 38 of the tear strip 28 can be releasably attached within the opening 34 with conventional adhesives such as cement. Alternatively, as illustrated in Figure 3, the tear strip 28 can be formed integrally with the base portion 26 with its longitudinal edges 36 and 38 punched or cut with matrix, so that they are releasably attached to the base portion 26. the base portion 26. The tear strip 28 preferably includes a pull tab 40 on one end thereof to facilitate its removal from the base portion 26. The cartridge cassette described above 10 can be easily assembled in several steps. First, the magnetic video tape reels are loaded into the video magnetic tape containing a pre-recorded message and inserted into the housing of the mounted video magnetic tape 12. The dust cover 14 is then installed on the face front of the video magnetic tape housing and adheres or otherwise attaches to the embossed edges of the side walls of the magnetic video tape housing 12. When the video cassette cartridge 10 is ready to be reproduced in a VCR, the tear-away band 28 is removed from the base portion 26 by holding the pull tab 40 and pulling the tear strip 28 through the length of the video cassette cartridge 12. Although the invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiment illustrated in the figures of the accompanying drawings, it should be noted that equivalents and substitutions made herein can be employed without departing from the scope of the invention, or is set forth in the claims.

Having thus been described, the preferred embodiment of the invention, which is claimed as new and is to be protected by means of a patent, includes the following: It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant for to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention. Having described the invention as above, property is claimed as contained in the following:

Claims (9)

1. A video cassette cartridge for use in a video cassette recorder, the video cassette cartridge is characterized in that it comprises: a magnetic video tape housing for storing and winding the video magnetic tape thereon, the housing has a front face including a structure which defines a slot in it to expose the magnetic video tape contained in such housing to be reproduced in the VCR; and a dust cover to cover the slot in the housing to protect the exposed video magnetic tape from damage, the dust cover includes a base portion attached to the housing, the base portion includes the structure defining an opening in alignment substantial with the groove of the housing, and a tear-away band, releasably attached to the base portion to cover the opening when it is attached to it and to expose again the magnetic video tape to be reproduced on the VCR when it is removed from the base portion.

2. The video cassette cartridge according to claim 1, characterized in that the base portion includes a plurality of joining faces for attaching the handle portion to the housing.

3. The video cassette cartridge according to claim 1, characterized in that the tear-off strip has opposite upper and lower longitudinal edges that are joined within the opening to cover the opening when the tear-off strip is attached to the base portion.

. The video cassette cartridge according to claim 3, characterized in that the tear-off strip is removably attached to the base portion with adhesives.

5. The video cassette cartridge according to claim 3, characterized in that the tear-off strip is formed integrally with the base portion.

6. The video cassette cartridges according to claim 5, characterized in that the upper and lower longitudinal edges are perforated, so that the tear-off strip is removably attached to the base portion.

7. The video cassette cartridge according to claim 1, characterized in that the tear-off strip includes a pull tab on one end of the rim to facilitate removal of the tear-off strip from the base portion.

8. The video cassette cartridge according to claim 1, characterized in that the housing includes a plurality of raised edges formed thereon for coupling the base portion of the cover against the powder.

9. The video cassette cartridge according to claim 8, characterized in that the base portion is fixedly attached to the housing with adhesives applied to the raised edges.