Abstract:
An optical disk drive for improving the snap fit structure of the bezel is provided. The optical disk drive comprises a main body, a top cover and a bezel. The main body further comprises an optical pickup head and a spindle motor. The top cover comprises an aperture. The bezel comprises a snap fit structure for interlocking the aperture. The snap fit structure comprises a snap fit protrusion and a curved surface of the snap fit protrusion is used to engage with the aperture.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to an optical disk drive and more particularly to improving the snap fit structure of the bezel of the optical disk drive. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    With increasing applications of personal computers and multimedia techniques, the data storage media with high data storage density are now rapidly gaining in popularity. Optical disks such as compact disks (CDs), video compact disks (VCDs) and digital versatile disk (DVDs) are widely employed to store considerable digital data due to features of low cost, high capacity and portability. Accordingly, optical disk drives become essential components for reading data from optical disks. 
         [0003]    Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , which shows the conventional optical disk drive and the partially separated view of the optical disk drive, respectively. The optical disk drive  1  has a bezel  11 , a top cover  12 , a tray panel  13 , a main body  14  and a tray  15 . The tray  15  is moveable into/out of the optical disk drive  1  and the tray  15  has a recess for placing an optical disk. When the optical disk is placed on the recess, the tray  15  is moved into the optical disk drive  1  for reading or writing data on the optical disk. The bezel  11  has an opening  111 . After the tray panel  13  is connected to the tray  15  and the tray  15  is moved into the drive  1 , the opening  111  is covered by the tray panel  13 . By the tray panel  13 , the external substances are blocked outside the drive  1 . The main body  14  comprises a pickup head for reading/writing the disk, a spindle motor for rotating the disk. The drive  1  also has other common elements, for example, a stepping motor for moving the pickup head, which are not disclosed herein. 
         [0004]    Referring  FIG. 3 , it shows how the bezel is connected to the top cover. After the top cover  12  is connected to the main body  14 , the bezel  11  is connected to the top cover  12 . Therefore, the bezel  11 , tray panel  13 , and top cover  12  prevent the external substances from going into the drive  1  and destroying the elements inside the main body  14 . In addition, a broken piece of the rotating disk, which has high impact force, is not flying out of the drive  1  so that a user is protected from the flying broken piece of the rotating disk by the protection of the bezel  11 , tray panel  13 , and top cover  12 . Specifically, the metal top cover  12  and the bezel  11  which has a buffer structure can reduce the impact force of the flying broken piece and the flying broken piece is held inside the drive  1 . 
         [0005]    As shown in  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the bezel  11  has a snap fit structure  112  disposed on both sides of the bezel  11 . A snap fit protrusion  113  is positioned in accordance with an aperture  121  on the frame of the top cover  12 . The bezel  11  is connected to the top cover  12  by the snap fit protrusion  113  interlocking the aperture  121 . The top view of the bezel and the sectional view of the bezel being connected to the top cover are shown in  FIGS. 4 and 5 . The snap fit protrusion  113  has a perpendicular surface  1131 . When the snap fit protrusion  113  interlocks the aperture  121 , the perpendicular surface  1131  engages with the edge of the aperture  121 . Therefore, the bezel  11  is not separated from the drive  1  in the direction of arrow X. 
         [0006]    However, the rotating speed of the spindle motor is getting higher so that the drive  1  can access the disk with higher speed and large amounts of data. In the mean while, the broken piece of the optical disk will have higher impact force (momentum). When the flying broken piece hits the bezel  11 , the buffer structure of the bezel  11  cannot totally reduce the impact force of the flying broken piece. Also, a torque is generated so that the snap fit protrusion  113  is not totally engaged with the edge of the aperture  121 . In other words, the perpendicular surface  1131  is not totally engaged with the edge of the aperture  121  as shown in  FIG. 6 . Consequently, the bezel  11  is deformed in the direction of arrow X and a gap  114  is formed between the top cover  12  and the bezel  11  as shown in  FIG. 7 . Because the snap fit protrusion  113  cannot interlock the aperture  121 , when the bezel  11  is continuously hit by the flying broken pieces, the bezel  11  has more deformation in the direction of arrow X. Then the gap  114  becomes larger which increases the possibility of letting the flying broken pieces out of the drive  1  via the gap  114 . Eventually, the flying broken pieces of the disk may injure the user using the drive  1 . 
         [0007]    Therefore, the snap fit protrusion of the conventional optical disk drive is not appropriate for higher rotating speed of the spindle motor. And there is a need to improve the problem described above. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0008]    The present invention provides simple structure of the optical disk drive for preventing the snap fit protrusion from separating an aperture of the top cover. 
         [0009]    In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical disk drive. The optical disk drive comprises a main body, a top cover and a bezel. The main body further comprises an optical pickup head and a spindle motor. The top cover comprises an aperture. The bezel comprises a snap fit structure for interlocking the aperture. The snap fit structure comprises a snap fit protrusion and a curved surface of the snap fit protrusion is used to engage with the aperture. 
         [0010]    In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical disk drive. The optical disk drive comprises a main body, a top cover and a bezel. The main body further comprises an optical pickup head and a spindle motor. The top cover comprises an aperture. The bezel comprises a snap fit structure for interlocking the aperture. The snap fit structure comprises a snap fit protrusion and an inclined surface of the snap fit protrusion is used to engage with the aperture. 
         [0011]    According to an embodiment of the present invention, the curved surface is a single continuous surface or the curved surface is composed of several discontinuous surfaces. 
         [0012]    According to an embodiment of the present invention, a perpendicular surface of the snap fit protrusion connects the curved surface. 
         [0013]    According to an embodiment of the present invention, the snap fit protrusion has a hook shape. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0014]    The above contents of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, in which: 
           [0015]      FIG. 1  schematically illustrates the conventional optical disk drive; 
           [0016]      FIG. 2  shows the partially exploded view of the conventional optical disk drive in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0017]      FIG. 3  schematically illustrates the bezel connecting to the top cover; 
           [0018]      FIG. 4  shows the partially view of the bezel in  FIG. 3 ; 
           [0019]      FIG. 5  shows the sectional view after the bezel is connected to the top cover; 
           [0020]      FIG. 6  shows that the snap fit protrusion does not interlock the top cover; 
           [0021]      FIG. 7  shows that the bezel is deformed by the flying broken piece; 
           [0022]      FIG. 8  schematically shows the optical disk drive of the present invention; 
           [0023]      FIG. 9  shows the bezel of the present invention; 
           [0024]      FIG. 10  shows the top view of the bezel in  FIG. 9 ; 
           [0025]      FIG. 11  shows an enlarge view of the snap fit protrusion of the bezel; 
           [0026]      FIG. 12  shows the sectional view after the bezel is connected to the top cover; 
           [0027]      FIG. 13  shows a second embodiment of the snap fit structure; and 
           [0028]      FIG. 14  shows a third embodiment of the snap fit structure. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0029]    The present invention will now be described more specifically with reference to the following embodiments. It is to be noted that the following descriptions of preferred embodiments of this invention are presented herein for purpose of illustration and description only. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to the precise form disclosed. 
         [0030]    Referring to  FIG. 8 , it shows the optical disk drive of the present invention. In  FIG. 8 , the same numeral of the elements represents the same elements shown in  FIG. 1  so that the descriptions are omitted herein. 
         [0031]    The difference between the conventional drive and the present invention is that there is a curved surface of the snap fit protrusion for engaging with the edge of the aperture of the top cover. The bezel of the present invention is shown in  FIG. 9 . The bezel  21  comprises at least one snap fit structure  211 . The top cover  12  comprises at least one aperture  121  on the frame in accordance with the snap fit structure  211 . The bezel  21  is connected to the top cover  12  via the snap fit protrusion  211  interlocking the aperture  121 . The bezel, top view of the bezel and the enlarge view of the snap fit protrusion is shown in  FIGS. 9 ,  10  and  11 , respectively. The snap fit structure  211  comprises a snap fit protrusion  212 . The snap fit protrusion  212  comprises a perpendicular surface  2121  and a curved surface  2111 . When the snap fit protrusion  211  interlocks the aperture  121 , the curved surface  2122  is engaged with the edge of the aperture  121  so that the bezel  21  is connected to the top cover  12 . 
         [0032]    Referring to  FIG. 12 , it shows the sectional view after the bezel is connected to the top cover. As shown in  FIG. 12 , the curved surface  2122  of the snap fit protrusion  212  is engaged with the edge of the aperture  121  so that the bezel  21  is not separated from the drive  2  in the direction of arrow X. When the flying broken piece of the high rotating speed disk hits the bezel  21 , the curved surface  2122  can resist the impact force of the flying broken piece in the direction of arrow X. Therefore, no gap or maybe a small gap is generated between the top cover  12  and the bezel  21 . Consequently, no flying broken piece of the optical disk is flying out of the drive  2  and the user is not injured by the flying broken piece. 
         [0033]    Although the snap fit protrusion  212  has a perpendicular surface  2121  and a curved surface  2122 , people skilled in the art can change the shape of the surfaces to satisfy their needs. For example, the perpendicular surface  2121  can be changed to a curved surface or the curved surface  2122  is changed to be multiple discontinuous surfaces. Therefore, the contacting surface of the snap fit protrusion between the snap fit protrusion and the aperture can be a single curved surface, two or multiple curved surfaces. Moreover, the curved angle is designed that the snap fit protrusion has a hook shape so that the top cover and the bezel is firmly fixed with each other. In addition, the curved surface  2122  can be changed to an inclined surface connecting to the perpendicular surface  2121 . The inclined surface is a flat surface and the inclined surface is engaged with the edge of the aperture. 
         [0034]    Referring to  FIG. 13 , it shows a second embodiment of the snap fit structure. The snap fit structure  311  has a snap fit protrusion  312  for interlocking the aperture of the top cover. The snap fit protrusion  312  has a larger curved angle of the curved surface  3121  so that the snap fit protrusion  312  has a hook shape. When the snap fit protrusion  312  interlocks the aperture  121  of the top cover  12 , the curved surface  3121  is engaged with the edge of the aperture  121  and a flat surface  3122  is disposed outside the aperture  121 . So that the hook-shaped snap fit protrusion  312  firmly interlocks the aperture  121 . And no gap is formed between the top cover  12  and the bezel by the impact force of the flying broken piece. 
         [0035]    Referring to  FIG. 14 , it shows a third embodiment of the snap fit structure. The snap fit structure  411  has a snap fit protrusion  412  for interlocking the aperture of the top cover. The snap fit protrusion  412  has an inclined surface  4122  and a perpendicular surface  4121 . When the snap fit protrusion  412  interlocks the aperture  121  of the top cover  12 , the inclined surface  4122  is engaged with the edge of the aperture  121 . The inclined surface  4122  acts similarly as the curved surface  2122  so that the snap fit protrusion  412  firmly interlocks the aperture  121 . And no gap is formed between the top cover  12  and the bezel by the impact force of the flying broken piece. 
         [0036]    Therefore, according to the above embodiments of the present invention, the snap fit protrusion has a curved surface or an inclined surface for engaging with the edge of the aperture of the top cover. So that the snap fit protrusion is firmly fixed with the aperture and no gap or maybe a small gap is formed between the bezel and the top cover by the impact force of the flying broken piece of the optical disk. No flying broken piece is flying out of the drive and the user is protected from the flying broken piece. Moreover, the present invention only has small modification of the snap fit protrusion of the conventional drive so that the cost is small but the design is effective. 
         [0037]    While the invention has been described in terms of what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention needs not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.