IBM Assigned Patent

IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11,238,896) developed by Smith, Daniel, Santa Cruz, CA, Altknecht, David Jame, and Best, John, San Jose, CA, for a “passive retraction of a hub clamp in an optical disc drive.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Embodiments for passive retraction of a hub clamp in an optical disc drive. The optical disc drive may comprise a spindle hub coupled to an optical assembly. The optical disc drive may further include a disc clamp assembly configured to hold an optical disc on the spindle hub, the disc clamp assembly including a hub clamp partially comprised within a clamp carriage. The hub clamp of the optical disc drive may be biasedly drawn toward the spindle hub when in a first position and biasedly drawn toward the clamp carriage when in a second position. The bias may be generated by at least one ferromagnetic material integrated into the hub clamp and at least one ferromagnetic material integrated into the spindle hub.”

The patent application was filed on February 12, 2019 (16/273,982).