Abstract:
A disc case comprising a paper board is provided, which permits smoothly accommodating and taking out a disc without provision of any notch that exposes part of the disc edge, and can perfectly protect the accommodated disc without exposure thereof to the outside.  
     The board has an upper disc accommodation recess  3  for accommodating a disc  4  such as a compact disc, also has flanges  17  extending from the edge top of the disc accommodation recess  3  for being contact with the edge top of the accommodated disc  4  and preventing occasional detachment thereof. The board further has a recess extending as a finger access recess  5  from part of the edge of the disc accommodation recess  3  such as to be flush in the bottom therewith for accommodating and taking out the disc  4.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    This invention relates to disc cases for accommodating such discs as compact discs and, more particularly, to a disc case, which is made of paper, permits smoothly accommodating and taking out a disc and can reliably hold the disc accommodated in a stable state of protection.  
           [0003]    2. Prior Art  
           [0004]    Recently, a variety of discs such as musical compact discs, DVDs and personal computer CD-ROMs are accommodated for circulation in disc cases of various forms. Many usual disc cases for accommodating compact discs and like discs are synthetic resin moldings, which have a center holder part provided at the center for engaging with the center hole of an inserted disc.  
           [0005]    From the standpoint of coping with recent environment pollution, however, such synthetic resin products pose problems in their discarding or disposal. In view of the discarding or disposal, products capable of being recycled or developing products of materials free from generation of harmful matter by burning have been desired. To meet this demand, disc cases made of paper have been developed.  
           [0006]    [0006]FIGS. 5 and 6 show a prior art disc case made of paper.  
           [0007]    The illustrated disc case  100  is in the form of a board, which has a recess  102  formed in its central part for accommodating a disc  101  and a notch  103  formed as a finger access part, which exposes part of the edge of the accommodated disc  101 , that is, which is formed for accommodating and taking out the disc  101 . This disc case  100  of paper is manufactured by bonding together a plurality of paper sheets, for instance a bottom, an intermediate and a top sheet  100   a  to  100   c , to provide a predetermined thickness.  
           [0008]    However, this prior art disc case has the following problems. Bonding together of a plurality of sheets individually having the notches  103 , causes expansion or contraction of the individual sheets and results in a wavy form of the resultant board without alignment of the individual component sheets. That is, it is extremely difficult to line up the edges of the notches  103 . Therefore, it is inevitable to carry out, in addition to the operation of forming the notches in the individual component sheet, a difficult shaping operation of lining up the individual component sheets after the bonding thereof.  
           [0009]    In addition, although the prior art disc case having the notch as the finger access part permits conveniently accommodating and taking out a disc, it has a demerit that the accommodated disc is subject to scars and scratches from the outside due to partial exposure in the notch. This is the most significant drawback in view of the function of perfect protection, which is required for this type of disc cases. Besides, dust particles may enter through the notch and be attached to the accommodated disc. It is thus difficult to maintain the seal which is most necessary for this type of disc case.  
           [0010]    Furthermore, disc cases of the type to be filed in books have like problems. Specifically, the presence of the notch as the finger access part gives rise to the fatal drawbacks from the standpoint of the disc protection, although it is convenient for accommodating and taking out the disc.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0011]    A first object of the invention is to provide a disc case, which precludes the above drawbacks inherent in the prior art owing to the absence of any notch in the bottom, intermediate and top sheets that are bonded together in manufacture so as to be capable of being manufactured readily and accurately in a desired shape and to have desired dimensions, and permits smoothly accommodating and taking out the disc without presence, unlike the prior art disc case, of any notch as the finger access part exposing part of the accommodated disc.  
           [0012]    A second object of the invention is to provide a disc case, which can accommodate and protect a disc in a board without exposure of any disc edge part from it but in a perfect protection state free from attachment of dust particles and also always in a stable state without possibility of occasional detachment.  
           [0013]    A third object of the invention is to provide a disc case, which is made of paper so as to be able to sufficiently meet the demands of coping with environment pollution, as well as having the thickness and rigidity comparable with those of the disc cases made of synthetic resin, being capable of being manufactured to have the same dimensions as those of the disc cases made of synthetic resin so that it can be put together with CDs in the same rack in any shop, permitting smoothly accommodating and taking out the disc and sufficiently providing various functions required for this type of disc cases.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]    [0014]FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the disc case according to the invention;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing the disc case according to the invention;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the disc case according to the invention in the disc accommodation state;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the disc case according to the invention in the disc accommodation state;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a prior art disc case; and  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view showing the prior art disc case. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0020]    An embodiment of the disc case according to the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. Referring to the Figure, reference numeral  1  designates the disc case fully made of paper according to the invention. The disc case comprises a board  2 , which has a central circular disc accommodation recess  3  for accommodating a disc  4  therein. Reference numeral  5  designates a recess as a finger access recess for accommodating and taking out the disc  4 . The recess  5  has its bottom flush with the bottom of the disc accommodation recess  3  extends from part of the edge of the recess  3 . Reference numeral  6  designates a ring-like edge formed on the bottom center of the disc accommodation recess  3 . The ring-like ridge  6  serves to have the accommodated disc  4  raised from the bottom of the disc accommodation recess  3 .  
         [0021]    Reference numeral  7  designates a ridge formed in the neighborhood of the boundary between the bottom of the finger access recess  5  and the bottom of the disc accommodation recess  3 . The ridge  5  also serves to have the accommodated disc raised from the bottom.  
         [0022]    The ridge  7  has a central curved portion  7   a , which is curved or convex toward the center, i.e., toward the disc accommodation recess  3 .  
         [0023]    Reference numeral  8  is a lid fully made of paper. The lid can also function as a cover, and it is foldably joined to one side of the disc case  1  to cover the disc accommodation surface of the disc case  1 .  
         [0024]    Reference numeral  9  designates a jacket accommodation pocket provided on the inner surface of the cover  8 .  
         [0025]    As shown in FIG. 2, the disc case  1  is formed by bonding together a bottom, an intermediate and a top member  10  to  12 . To provide a predetermined thickness of the disc case  1 , the bottom, intermediate and top members  10  to  12  each may not be a single sheet but may be formed by bonding together a plurality of sheets.  
         [0026]    As described before, the bottom member  10  has the central ring-like ridge  6  for holding the disc  4  raised and also has the ridge  7 , which is spaced apart from and has the same role as the ring-like ridge  6  and has the central curved portion  7   a  convex toward the disc accommodation recess  3  so that a finger can be inserted, when taking out the accommodated disc  4 , sufficiently deeply to easily take out the disc  4 .  
         [0027]    The intermediate member  11  has a circular opening  13 , which forms part of the peripheral wall of the disc accommodation recess  3 , and a semi-circular opening  14 , which is continuous to the circuit opening  13  and forms part of the wall of the finger access recess  5 .  
         [0028]    The top member  12  likewise has a circular opening  15  forming the wall of the disc accommodation recess  3  and a semi-circular recess  16  forming the wall of the finger access recess  5 .  
         [0029]    The diameter of the circular recess  13  in the intermediate member  11  is set to be greater than the outer disc diameter only very slightly in order to prevent as much as possible the movement of the disc  4  accommodated in the disc accommodation recess  3  in the clearance between the disc  4  and the wall of the disc accommodation recess  3 .  
         [0030]    The circular opening  15  in the top member  12  for forming the disc accommodation recess  3  is actually oval in order to form diametrically opposed side flanges  17  extending toward the accommodated disc from the edge top of the circular opening  13  in the intermediate member  11 .  
         [0031]    The flanges  17  are formed oppositely on both sides of the opening  16  in the top member  12  constituting the finger access recess. The other sides of the recess  15  than the sides with the flanges  17  may be flush with the peripheral wall of the circular opening  13  in the intermediate member  11  and free from any flange, or they may be formed with disc engagement flanges, which is very slight in width compared to the flanges  17 .  
         [0032]    As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the two flanges  17  of the top member  12  extending form the edge top of the circular opening  13  intermediate member  11  on both sides of the opening  16  of the top member  12 , engage the top of opposed edge portions of the accommodated disc  4 , and the disc  4  can be reliably prevented from its occasional detachment. In addition, the accommodated disc  4  is held raised by the ring-like ridge  6  formed in the recess  3  at the center thereof and also held raised, in the finger access recess  5 , by the ridge  6  formed in the boundary between the bottom of the finger access recess  5  and the bottom of the disc accommodation recess  3 . Thus, the disc can be smoothly raised by inserting a finger in the finger access recess  5 .  
         [0033]    Particularly, the ridge  7  in the finger access recess has the central curved portion  7   a  convex toward the disc accommodation recess  3 . Thus, when inserting a finger, the pawl can be deeply inserted to be under the bottom of the disc  4 , and the disc  4  can be more reliably raised and smoothly taken out.  
         [0034]    The accommodation and the take-put of the disc  4  according to the invention will now be described.  
         [0035]    To accommodate the disc  4  in the disc case  1 , the user holds the disc  4  with fingers, and inserts the disc  4  with the front end thereof downwardly tilted into the underside of one of the flanges  17  in the disc case  1 . When the front end of the disc has reached the wall of the circular opening in the intermediate member  11 , the user gradually lowers the rear end of the disc. In this way, the disc  4  is automatically accommodated in the disc accommodation recess  3  in the disc case  1 .  
         [0036]    To take out the disc accommodated in the disc case  1 , the user inserts a finger into the finger access recess  5 , and raises the rear end of the disc in the state held raised by the ridge  6 . Then, once pushing the disc  4  against the other flange  17  than on the side of the finger access recess, the user holds a portion of the disc between the center hole and the edge thereof with fingers, and pulls out the disc  4  obliquely upward form the finger access recess  5 . In this way, the disc  4  can be readily taken out.  
         [0037]    As has been described in the foregoing, the disc case according to the invention is made of paper, and thus it can be readily recycled without generation of harmful matter by burning.  
         [0038]    Also, the disc case can be manufactured to have the same dimensions as those of disc cases made of synthetic resins so that it can be put together with CDs in the same rack in any shop. Furthermore, since the top member, the bottom member and the lid which also serves as cover are made of paper, the disc case is capable of printing, that is, it is possible to provide an integral design print on the entire disc case surfaces.  
         [0039]    Still further, without presence of any center holder part, which is provided in a disc case of a synthetic resin and liable to cause scars and scratches on the disc around the center hole thereof and have adverse effects on the read-out performance of the disc, the disc can be smoothly accommodated and taken out, and the accommodated disc can be reliably kept without possibility of occasional detachment.  
         [0040]    Particularly, without presence of any notch, which is present in the prior art disc case as a finger access part for accommodating and taking out the disc and exposing part of the edge of the accommodated disc, it is possible to accommodate and take out the disc more smoothly owing to the finger access recess and the ridge having the central curbed portion, which is formed on the boundary between the finger access recess and the disc accommodation recess and serves to hold the disc raised.  
         [0041]    Since no notch exposing part of the disc is thus present, unlike the prior art, no such difficult operation is necessary as lining up a plurality of sheets individually having notches into a neat state with aligned notch ends.  
         [0042]    Moreover, it is possible to obviate the prior art drawbacks of generation of scars and scratches on the disc from the outside and attachment of dust particles on the disc due to partial exposure thereof in the notch. This effect, together with the integrally joined lid, permits maintaining the seal, which is most necessary for the protection of this type of discs, thus permitting perfect protection of the disc.