Universal disk shipper

A universal disk shipper for shipping memory disks, the shipper comprising a cassette having opposing side walls and opposing end walls, an open top, and an open bottom,

• a top cover to cover the open top,
• a bottom cover to cover the bottom,
• the opposing side walls of the cassette each having a vertical upper portion and an inwardly converging bottom portion, said sidewalls having a plurality of inwardly facing elongate vertical ribs with adjacent ribs defining slots to hold memory disks;
• and wherein the top cover has an engagement portion that contacts each of the disks in the cassette when said disk are seated therein, and the top cover is attached to the cassette, the top cover not having discrete locators that individually engage each disk whereby the top cover may be utilized on cassettes with different thicknesses of disks and different numbers of disks.

A disk shipping system comprising:

• an inventory of cassettes sized for a specific diameter of disks, the cassettes each having slots that will accommodate at least two of 0.025, 0.0315, 0.040, 0.050, 0.069 inch thick disks;
• an inventory of a universal top cover that has a top edge disk engagement portion and does not have discrete locators for individual disks;
• an inventory of bottom covers;
• and
• an inventory of vacuum bags for sealing assembled and loaded cassettes.

A disk shipping method for shipping disks of specific diameter and at least two different sizes of disk thicknesses, the thicknesses selected from of 0.025 inch, 0.0315 inch, 0.040 inch, 0.050 inch, and 0.069 inch, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing an inventory of single sized cassettes with a single sized slot, the cassette sized for the specific diameter of disks, the cassettes each having slots that will accommodate the at least two thicknesses of 0.025 inch, 0.0315 inch, 0.040 inch, 0.050 inch, and 0.069 inch disks;
• filling a plurality of the cassettes of the inventory with loads of disks;
• providing an inventory of top covers and attaching a top cover to each of said filled cassettes and utilizing a top cover that accommodates each of the at least two thicknesses of 0.025 inch, 0.0315 inch, 0.040 inch, 0.050 inch, 0.069 inch disks;
• and
• attaching a bottom cover to each of the cassette.

A universal disk shipper system for shipping memory disks, the shipper system comprising;

• a cassette having opposing side walls and opposing end walls, an open top, and an open bottom,
• a top cover to cover the open top,
• a bottom cover to cover the bottom,
• a means for accommodating different loads of disks, the loads varying either in different disk thicknesses or in different capacities.