The invention relates to a storage case for a pluraltiy of record carrier discs, in particular optical discs, comprising a housing with superposed plate-shaped tray bodies. Each tray body has a supporting surface for supporting one of the discs and for moving the discs into or out of the housing is separately pivotable about a pivotal axis which is oriented transversely of the supporting. The housing has side walls and partitions which extend parallel to the supporting surfaces, each partition having a free edge and being adapted to guide and support the tray bodies when the bodies are situated at least partly inside the housing.
Such a storage case is known from European Patent Application No. 0,212,244 (herewith incorporated by reference). The known storage case has a rectangular housing comprising six tray bodies each having a supporting surface for an optical disc. The housing has two open side walls, two adjoining substantially imperforate straight side walls, as a top wall and a bottom wall. One of the side walls carries a pivoting device comprising a pivoting spindle about which the tray bodies can be pivoted parallel to their supporting surfaces to move optical discs into or out of the case. On their inner sides the two imperforate side walls are provided with comparatively narrow thin partitions disposed in five planes which extend parallel to the top wall and the bottom wall and which together with the top wall and the bottom wall form six compartments adapted to receive said six tray bodies. The case has been designed for the storage of optical discs having an outer diameter of 120 mm, referred to as Compact Discs (CDs or CDVs), and is adapted to cooperate with a suitable disc changer, or which an example is shown in said Euorpean Patent Application.
Until recently the above-mentioned Compact Disc was the only type of optical disc carrying audio information. However, recently it has been announced that a smaller version of the Compact Disc will be marketed, which verison has a smaller outer diameter than the normal CD. The new type of Compact Disc, also referred to as CD-single or mini CD, has an outer diameter of 80 mm. As a result of the introduction of the CD-single the problem arises that the smaller optical disc cannot be stored in the known storage case. An obvious solution to this problem would be to scale down the storage case in such a way that it is capable of storing the smaller optical discs. However, a drawback of this is that such a storage case is not compatible with the known commercially available disc changer. An alternative solution, i.e. to maintain the outer dimensions of the known storage case but to widen the partitions, the disadvantage that the partitions become so wide that they lose their rigidity and therefore do not constitute reliable guides for the tray bodies. Moreover, wide partitions are less attractive for production reasons. This is because the partitions are manufactured in an injection moulding apparatus, where it is important that the heat can be discharged rapidly after the partitions have been moulded. In the case of broad partitions, however, problems may arise with respect to the removal of heat, which may lead to long cycle times. Moreover, an irregular heat transfer may give rise to dimensional deviations.