Patent ID: 7195324

Claim:
A disc storage unit comprising: a case; a tray supported by the case and configured to support an array of discs in respective parallel substantially vertical planes across which respective coaxial axes of the discs pass substantially horizontally; a disc-raising mechanism comprising: a plurality of fingers activatable to lift one of the discs from the tray within its respective plane to thereby render the disc non-coaxial with other discs that might be supported by the tray, a pivot bar having a slidably mounted carriage beam from which said fingers extend and a crank arm; an indexing mechanism configured to cause the disc-raising mechanism to raise others of said discs in a like manner; an electric motor for pivoting the pivot bar; and a gearbox that reduces output speed of the electric motor and drives the pivot bar, wherein the gearbox comprises an output gear having an eccentric pin to which a link is attached and said link is attached to said crank arm; and the indexing mechanism comprises a shaft extending parallel to the pivot bar and driven by the output gear, having one or more rings affixed thereto and extending thereabout, and a block interacting with the carriage beam and having a plurality of pins extending therefrom, said pins interacting with the rings to transfer the block and the carriage beam linearly along the pivot bar.