All about Jewel Cases
A Jewel case is a three-piece plastic case, measuring 142 mm × 125 mm × 10 mm, which usually contains a compact disc along with the liner notes and a back card. Two opposing transparent halves are hinged together to form the casing, the back half holding a media tray that grips the disc by its hole. All three parts are made of injection-molded polystyrene.
The front lid contains two, four, or six opposing tabs to keep any liner notes in place. The liner notes typically will be a 120 mm × 120 mm booklet, or a single 120 mm × 240 mm leaf folded in half. In addition, there is a back card between the media tray and the back, usually listing the track names, studio, copyright data and other information the consumer would need to read before purchasing. The back card is folded into a flat U shape, with the sides being visible along the ends of the case. The ends usually have the disc name and artist printed on them, and are designed to label the case when it is stored book-style.
The back media tray snaps into the back cover, and is responsible for securing the disc. In its center is a circular hub of teeth which grip the disc by its hole. This effectively suspends the disk in the middle of the container, preventing the recording surface from being scratched. Originally, the media tray was constructed of a flexible black polystyrene, but many newer trays use a more fragile transparent polystyrene. This allows the reverse of the back card to be visible, and is usually used for additional artwork.
Origin of the name
The case does not derive in any way from containers for jewelry. Instead, the name apparently originates from watchmakers' use of the term jewel to refer generally to a polished hemispherical bearing used in a mechanism (high-quality mechanical watches and clocks commonly use gemstones, typically rubies, for such bearings because of their low friction properties). A jewel case has two moulded hemispherical plastic bearings in its hinges, hence the use of the term "jewel".
Weaknesses
The original jewel case design has a well-known and very frustrating weakness in that the case is hinged on two brittle plastic arms, which often break if the case receives shock or stress. The teeth of the hub holding the disc are also prone to failure. An opposite problem are the tabs which hold the liner notes in place; sometimes, especially with larger booklets, the tabs grip the booklet too tightly, leading to tearing. As noted above some CD releases have only two tabs, which allows the booklet to be easily removed (at the small cost of the booklet sometimes falling out if held the wrong way).
Variations
Double albums can either be packaged in a normal jewel case with a hinged media tray (which can be lifted up to reveal the second disc, and is even more breakable than the lid) or in a double jewel case, which is the size of two normal jewel cases put together. The latter do not fit in most CD racks, however the design of these cases (with a small gap between the two normal sized trays) allows them to fit in specially designed racks.
The intended successor, which is now gaining ground, is the "Super Jewel Box", a more advanced design which offers (amongst other improvements) a greatly strengthened hinge area. Unfortunately the Super Jewel Box cannot be used as a direct replacement for the older jewel case design, as its card insert for the back is slightly different in size. However in many other ways it is an attractive concept and some CD manufacturers (for example the high-end company Linn) are supplying them. The Super Jewel Box was developed by Philips and other CD format developers, originally in a larger format as a DVD case, and then in smaller formats as CD cases.
A number of other alternatives to the standard jewel case are also seen, including digipak sleeves, and DVD-style larger cases with a more book-like format.
In the United States, the jewel box of a music CD was originally packaged for retail sale in a large cardboard box called a longbox, in order to fit in store fixtures designed for vinyl records, offer larger space for display of artwork and marketing blurbs, and deter theft. This packaging was much-criticized as environmentally wasteful, and was eventually dropped.
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