Cassette container with flexible and hinged drawers

Abstract

A container for holding a cassette that includes a rectangular casing and a spring-biased drawer reciprocally and slidably received in the casing for holding a cassette in either of the short directions of the cassette, wherein the drawer has a front portion which extends downwardly to expose the cassette when the drawer is in its partially outwardly-extended cassette-exposing position from the casing. Hub-lock projections are formed on the pivotal front portion of the drawer to engage the hub-openings of a stored cassette only when the drawer is in its cassette-storing position. The hub-lock projections disengage or drop away from the cassette when the forward portion of the drawer bottom wall extends downwardly in the cassette-exposing position. The drawer is formed either of a single piece of molded material having a reduced thickness to form a hinge line between forward and front sections of the drawer, of two pieces of molded material comprising the front and rear portions of the drawer wherein the front section is mechanically hinged to the rear section, or of a single piece of flexible molded material wherein the drawer bottom wall is molded in the open cassette-exposing position for providing a natural downward bias in the forward portion of the molded material and flexibly upwardly to form a horizontal drawer bottom wall when the cassette is in the cassette-storing position. The container has a stop means and a locking means for limiting the movement of the drawer.