Abstract:
A stopper structure is constructed at a lateral side of an upper cover of a disc drive housing to prevent a flying-away disc from leaving the housing. The stopper structure with a predetermined inward-angle tip can generate a lift to drive the disc away from an aperture located between the upper cover and a base tray while hitting the lateral side. Thereby, the straying disc can thus be self-locked inside the housing.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
     (1) Field of the Present Invention 
     The present invention relates to a stopper structure for a disc drive housing and more particularly to a structure that has an upper cover with a lateral side formed with an inward angle to restrict the disk within the drive housing when there is rotating disc or its broken fragment tend to flying out. 
     (2) Description of the Prior Art 
     In computer and media technology, optical disk or the like disk is an excellent medium and data storage means. Data recording and retrieval are generally done by means of a Compact Disk Drive. In the art, a compact disk drive mainly consists of two major parts; one is a data retrieval mechanism which further includes apparatus for supporting the disk and for reading and retrieving data from the disk, and the other one is a control circuitry. The disc drive housing of the present invention relates to the housing of the compact disk drive. 
     Referring to FIG. 1 for a conventional rotating disc housing of the data retrieval mechanism for a compact disk drive, it consists of a base tray  10 , an upper cover  11 , a rotating disc  14  and a clamping mechanism  13 . A disk  14  operates in an accommodation space formed between the base tray  10  and the upper cover  11 . The upper cover  11  functions as a protective lid for the accommodation space and has a lateral side  15  formed as a slanted-seal edge. During operations, the disk  14  is mounted on the turntable  12  inside the base tray  10  and is driven by a driving motor  35 . The clamping mechanism  13  is used to anchor the disk  14  on the rotation disc  12 . 
     When the drive is operating, the disk  14  is spinning to perform data retrieval or writing function. Upon an event of unexpected external impact or failure of the clamping mechanism  13 , the disk  14  may fly away sideward from the turntable  12  due to clamping defect and rotation inertia, and hit the lateral side  15  of the upper cover  11 . 
     Refer to FIG.  2 . When the rotating disk  14  flies away from the turntable  12 , it may hit the lateral side  15  of the rotation disc housing with a great impact. Although the disc drive housing serves as a protective cover device, yet the lateral sides of the upper cover  11  and the base tray  10  are still elastic and can be treated as individual cantilevers. The lateral side  15  of the upper cover  11  could be bent upward by the flying disk  14 , while the base tray  10  is pushed to bend downward, and an aperture  36  is suddenly formed between the upper cover  11  and the base tray  10 . It could result in the disk  14  to be flying out of the aperture  36 . In such circumstances, the disk  14  is highly possible to severely harm the user. To prevent the accidents and possible damages mentioned above, an improvement upon the construction of the disc drive housing is needed. 
     SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
     Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a stopper structure for the disc drive housing. In the present invention, the upper cover of the disc drive housing has a lateral side characterized by an inward-angle bent shape. When a disk flies incidentally away and hits the lateral side of the upper cover, the impact force can positively distribute to deform the lateral side toward a direction of closing the aperture between the upper cover and the base tray. Hence, the disk can be retained inside the disc drive housing. As a result, harm to end users can be reduced greatly. 
     The disc drive housing of the present invention includes a base tray for supporting the disk, and an upper cover for protecting and covering the base tray. The base tray and the upper cover together form an internal accommodation space for the disk. In the accommodation space, a turntable for holding the disk and a clamping mechanism for anchoring the disk on the rotation disc are constructed. Below the base tray, a driving motor is included for driving the turntable as well as the disk mounting on the rotation disc. In the disc drive housing, the aperture is formed between the base tray and the upper cover to allow the disk to move in or out of the disc drive housing. The stopper structure of the present invention is located on a lateral side of the upper cover adjacent to the aperture. The lateral side has a predetermined inward-angle tip (inclining towards the center of the disc drive housing). When the disk in the disc drive housing flies outwards and hits the lateral edge, the inward-angle tip can split the impact force into beneficial force components. As a result, the disk can be tilted upwards and moves away from the aperture, or the aperture becomes narrower while the disk hits. Thereby, the disk can be retained in the disc drive housing. 
     In the present invention, the predetermined inward-angle tip of the stopper may be at any acute angle, but preferably an angle between 5 and 30 degrees. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the lateral side of the stopper structure may further include an end formed a flange jutting inwards for a selected length. The jutting flange is extended in a direction away from the base tray and extended towards the center of the rotation disc housing. 
     The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The present invention will now be specified with reference to its preferred embodiment illustrated in the drawings, in which 
     FIG. 1 is a fragmentary schematic view of a conventional rotation disc housing device; 
     FIG. 2 is a fragmentary schematic view of a rotating disk flying away from the rotation disc housing; 
     FIG. 3 is a fragmentary schematic view of an embodiment of a stopper structure of the present invention; 
     FIG. 4 is a fragmentary schematic view of the present invention, with the stopper structure hit laterally by a disk; and 
     FIG. 5 is a fragmentary schematic view of another embodiment of a stopper structure of the present invention. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The present invention disclosed herein is directed to a stopper structure for the rotation disc housing. In the following description, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that variations of these specific details are possible while still achieving the results of the present invention. In other instance, well-known components are not described in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention. 
     In order to maintain consistency in this descriptions, elements with same or similar function but slightly differences in forms will be marked by same names and numerals in the drawings. 
     The present invention aims to provide an improved rotation disc housing. As previously discussed (referring to FIGS.  1  and  2 ), a rotation disc housing generally consists of a base tray  10  and an upper cover  11  for protecting and covering the base tray  10 . The base tray  10  and the upper cover  11  together form an internal accommodation space to house a disk  14 . In the accommodation space, a turntable  12  for supporting the disk  14  and a clamping mechanism  13  for anchoring the disk  14  on the turntable  12  are constructed. Below the base tray  10 , a driving motor  35  for driving the turntable  12  as well as the disk  14  located thereon is located. In the rotation disc housing, the driving motor  35  drives the turntable  12  and disk  14  to rotate between the base tray  10  and upper cover  11 . The base tray  10  and upper cover  11  further form an aperture  36  therebetween to allow the disk  14  moving in or out of the rotation disc housing. 
     Referring now to FIG. 3 for an embodiment of the present invention, the stopper structure  37  according to the present invention is constructed at the lateral side  15  of the upper cover  11  adjacent to the aperture  36 . The lateral side  15  is extended downwards and inwards at a predetermined inward angle θ (inclining towards the center of the rotation disc housing). In the present invention, the predetermined inward angle θ for the stopper structure  37  may be any proper acute angle. However, considering space limitations, the inward angle θ is preferably ranged between 5 and 30 degrees. 
     Referring now to FIG. 4, when the present invention is applied and in the case that the disk  14  hits the lateral side  15  (i.e. the stopper structure  37 ) due to an accidental or unpredictable reason, the inward angle θ of the lateral side  15  can contribute to split and distribute the impact force to channel the disk  14  upwards. Thereby, the moving direction of the disk  14  can be tilted upwards and thus away from the aperture  36 . In the mean time, for the lateral side  15  is deformed by the impact force of the disk  14  to narrow the aperture  36 , the disk  14  can then be prevented from slipping out and thus remained inside the rotation disc housing. 
     Referring now to FIG. 5 for another embodiment of the stopper structure  37  of the present invention, the end of stopper structure  37  which is inclined inwards for a predetermined angle is extended inwards for a selected length so as to form a jutting flange  371 . The flange  371  is constructed away from the lower hosing  10 . 
     Comparing the second embodiment in FIG. 5 with the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the flange  371  allows the predetermined inward angle θ of the stopper  37  to be made smaller, or even becomes an obtuse angle (applicable as long as the pseudo line connecting the end of the flange  371  and the lateral side of the upper cover  11  can form an acute angle). However, taking into account of the upward lifting effect while being hit by the disk  14 , the predetermined inward angle θ is still preferably ranged between 5 and 30 degrees. 
     By means of the constructions set forth above, the stopper structure of the present invention has a lateral side on the upper cover with an inward-angle tip or an inward flange extending from one end of the lateral side, and can effectively prevent the disk from slipping out through the aperture of the rotation disk housing during operations. 
     While the embodiments set forth above have taken the rotation disc housing of disk drives as examples, the present invention can be adopted equally well for wafer supporting devices (with the wafer acting as the disk), or other similar cover-type rotation support devices (for supporting disk-type articles). 
     While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.