Coating implements with material supply – Material flows through porous tool – With removable cap for tool
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-06
2004-08-31
Huson, Gregory L. (Department: 3751)
Coating implements with material supply
Material flows through porous tool
With removable cap for tool
C401S086000, C401S098000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06783295
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an applicator including writing and marking instruments such as line markers, felt pens, fountain pens and ball-point pens, and more particularly relates to an applicator that comprises a cylindrical body whose open end is closed with a plug such as an end closure.
2. Description of Related Art
Most of the line markers and the like applicators have been of the disposable type to be discarded when their ink was consumed almost completely, regardless of their bodies being reusable. Therefore, some users have wanted or tried to refill such line markers or the like with a fresh amount of ink so as to use them again. Certain proposals made in view of this demand relate to applicators of an improved structure such that an end closure (also called “a proximal plug”) is capable of disengagement from the cylindrical body when refilling the applicator with the ink.
The Japanese Patent Laying-Open Gazette No. 2001-105781 discloses an example of such an improved structure, wherein a deep groove is formed between an end of a cylindrical body and a penpoint holder or a proximal plug. A coin or the like hand tool can be inserted easily into this groove when the plug is to be taken off.
Thus, the above-described art applicators have necessitated coins or the like tools in removing their plugs from cylindrical bodies. Further, a lever action generated by such an operation has caused a strong stress to permanently deform the plug or an end portion of the cylindrical body adjacent to the groove. Repeated detachment of a plug will deteriorate such end portions more and more, until making it impossible to mount again the plug on the cylindrical body or making its reattached plug very prone to slip off.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is therefore to provide such an applicator that its plug can readily be taken off its cylindrical body, without need of any handy tool such as a coin. The improvement has to be designed herein such that the plug is capable of repeated detachment and reattachment operations, while being protected from any serious permanent deformation and any inadvertent slipping off. In this specification, a plug can be a unitary member or can be made up of a plurality of parts.
In a first mode of the invention made to achieve this object, the applicator may comprise a cylindrical body to be filled with a liquid for application, and a plug that may be either or both of distal and proximal plugs. The plug, that may be exemplified herein as the proximal plug, is detachably attached to an open end of the applicator's cylindrical body and exposed in part to the outside. Characteristically to the present applicator, its plug may have at least one slot formed therein and extending axially of its cylindrical body such that the exposed part of the plug can be pinched centripetally to cause its elastic and temporary deformation. Owing to this feature, an inner region of the plug in a pressed contact with the cylindrical body will be forced to reduce its overall radius of curvature to thereby enable and facilitate removal of the plug.
Such a longitudinal slot or slots will render the applicator's plug ready to be distorted. If the exposed portion of the plug is pinched in a centripetal direction, then the slot or slots will permit this portion to distort itself by a distance corresponding to the width of each slot. An elastic decrease in overall diameter of the plug is thus caused in the centripetal direction, thereby producing a sufficient annular gap between the cylindrical body and the plug fitted therein, or at least weakening a contact pressure between them to such an extent as making it easy to detach the plug.
In this mode of carrying out the present invention, users of this applicator need not to use any tool or coin when they repeat to attach and detach the plug, and what is more surprising, it will never slip off inadvertently during usage or storage of this applicator. The slots may not necessarily have a uniform width between their longitudinal ends, but may each be of a varying width (as in V-shaped slots).
In a second mode of the present invention, the applicator may comprise a cylindrical body to be filled with a liquid for application, and a plug selected from the group consisting of distal and proximal plugs. The plug is detachably attached to an open end or ends of said body and exposed in part to the outside. Characteristically to this applicator, its plug may have at least one flexible portion extending axially of its cylindrical body such that the exposed part of the plug can be pinched centripetally to cause elastic and temporary deformation thereof Owing to this feature, an inner region of the plug in a pressed contact with the cylindrical body will also reduce its overall radius of curvature to facilitate removal of the plug from this body.
The term ‘flexible portion or portions’ as used herein, means a flexible portion that is more subject to elastic distortion than other areas adjoining to or surrounding the flexible portion by reason of at least one of a) the flexible portion having a thickness, with the thickness of the flexible portion being decreased compared to the thickness of other areas adjoining to or surrounding the flexible portion and b) the flexible portion being formed of a softer material than the material defining the other areas adjoining to or surrounding the flexible portion.
Such longitudinal flexible portions will render the applicator's plug ready to be distorted similarly to the applicator in the first mode of the invention. If the exposed portion of the plug is pinched in a centripetal direction, then the flexible portion or portions will permit the exposed portion to distort itself by a distance corresponding to the width of each flexible portion. An elastic decrease in overall diameter of the plug is thus caused in the centripetal direction, thereby producing a sufficient annular gap between the cylindrical body and the plug fitted therein, or at least weakening a contact pressure between them to such an extent as making it easy to detach the plug.
Preferably, the plug may be a proximal plug, and one of this plug and the cylindrical body has a protrusion formed integral therewith and at a portion contacting the mating body or plug. Correspondingly, the other of the cylindrical body and the proximal plug has an engageable portion that is a lug or a recess facing such a protrusion. Each longitudinal slot or flexible portion extends over and beyond the protrusion or engageable portion.
With the plug being fitted in the cylindrical body, the protrusion will be kept in engagement with the recess or lug, that is the engageable portion, so as to inhibit the plug from slipping off said body during normal use of the applicator. Since the plug has longitudinal slots formed therein and extending beyond the protrusion or engageable portion, the region where such a protrusion or portion is located will also show a significant decrease in overall diameter when the exposed region of plug is pinched centripetally. Thus, disengagement of said protrusion from said engageable portion is facilitated to enable smooth detachment of the plug from the applicator body.
Also preferably, each slot has an end opened in the exposed end face of the plug. This exposed end is a rear end of the plug if it is a proximal plug, or a fore end of the plug if it is a distal plug, and in any case, being its outer end remote from a middle region of this applicator.
By virtue of the slot or slots having their end or ends opened in the exposed end face of the plug in the described example, the plug will stand in part in a cantilevered state easy to show distortion and consequently ready removal from the cylindrical body.
Alternatively, the longitudinal slot or slots may be disposed in a middle region of the plug so that it has or they have opposite closed ends.
Even in this case, the plug's middle region is flexible enough, as compared with a middle re
Huson Gregory L.
Prunner Kathleen J.
Sakura Color Products Corporation
Wood Phillips Katz Clark & Mortimer
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