Dust door arrangement for video cassettes

Abstract

A dust door arrangement which avoids spring clip malfunction and enhances video cassette longevity. Reduced width of cavities containing first and second side hinges between the dust door and the video cassette cover improve hinge flexibility and operation and eliminate hold down spring clips catching when the video cassette is being withdrawn from a VCR. The dust door, hinge and cover are integrally molded, with the hinge lying below the surface of the cover of the video cassette and providing an axis of rotation for the door with respect to the cover. The hinge and cavity are approximately of the same width and are about two to four times as wide as the thickness of the dust door side walls. A supplemental spring is preferably provided to bias the dust door downward. The dust door first and second thin side walls have bevelled tops with extended steps which form first and second hinges. Flat tops of the hinges oppositely mate with first and second extensions extending down from the cover. The bevelled tops have angles of less than 30% to reduce angle of incidence. The width of the hinge is greater than the width of the thin side walls, but no greater than four times the width of the side walls. The width of the downward extensions approximate the width of the hinges. At least one of the side walls of the dust door has a tape leader viewing access for providing visual access to the tape leader without raising the dust door.