Apparatus and method for stabilizing a data tape cartridge for transport

A data tape cartridge, comprising:

• a housing having an opening;
• a reel of media tape located within the housing and having an axis;
• and
• an apparatus formed from a compliant foam material and having a solid, cylindrically-symmetrical, puck-like shape with a symmetrical, substantially consistent diameter and axial dimension, the apparatus being mounted to, closely received by, and retained in the opening of the housing and located between the housing and the reel for isolating the reel in three degrees of freedom relative to the housing in order to prevent damage to the media tape during handling of the data tape cartridge in non-operational use.

A data tape cartridge, comprising;

• a housing having an opening;
• a reel of media tape located within the housing and having an axis and grooves on an axial face thereof;
• an apparatus having a solid, cylindrically-symmetrical, puck-like shape with a substantially consistent diameter and axial dimension, the apparatus being formed from compliant foam material and mounted to, closely received by, and retained in the opening of the housing by interference fit, and located between the housing and the reel in direct physical contact with both the housing and the reel for isolating the reel in three degrees of freedom relative to the housing including axial, rotational, and radial motion for preventing damage to the media tape during handling of the data tape cartridge in non-operational use;
• grooves on an axial face of the apparatus that are complementary in shape to the grooves on the reel;
• and wherein
• the apparatus protrudes from an exterior of the housing to facilitate compliant isolation of the data tape cartridge in a stack of a plurality of the data tape cartridges.

A method of packaging data tape cartridges, comprising:

• (a) providing a plurality of data tape cartridges, each having a housing with an opening, and a reel of media tape located within the housing, each of the reels having an axis;
• (b) mounting an insert into the opening of each of the housings such that the inserts directly contact respective ones of the reels of media tape and the inserts are retained in respective ones of the housings by interference fit;
• and
• (c) stacking the data tape cartridges such that the inserts are located between the reels and respective adjacent ones of the housings to compliantly isolate the housings, and wherein the inserts isolate motion of the reels relative to the housings in order to prevent damage to the media tape during handling of the data tape cartridges in non-operational use.