Collector for a writing implement

Details Collector for a writing implement Collector for a writing implement

2001-05-08

2002-04-16

Walczak, David J. (Department: 3751)

Coating implements with material supply

Bifurcate pointed nib tool

Including reservoir and feeder

C401S227000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06371676

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to improvement of a direct-feed type writing implement having a point assembly as a writing portion at the tip, such as a ball-point pen, felt pen, fountain pen, etc., comprised of an ink tank for direct ink storage, a collector as an adjusting element made up of multiple thin plates(vanes) for adjusting the internal pressure using capillary action, an ink feeder means for feeding ink from the ink tank to the point assembly. The present invention particularly relates to improvement of a collector so as to be adjustive to a sharp change in temperature and pressure.
BACKGROUND ART
In order to reduce the occurrence of forward leakage from the writing point and the occurrence of backward leakage smudging clothes and causing writing deficiency due to ink falling during writing with its pen point up, conventionally known oil-based ball-point pens use high viscosity ink, typically ranging from about 3,000 to 10,000 mPa·sec(milipascal·second) with a narrow ink tank to obtain enhanced capillarity. Therefore,the conventional oil-based ball-point pens suffers from the problems of heavy writing sensation, blotting, drawn line unevenness during writing and thin density because of their high ink viscosity and its narrow tank.
There have been known so-called sliver type pens which have a sliver of fabric bundles impregnated with a low viscosity ink of some mPa·sec and an ink feed for feeding ink to their pen point. This sliver type pen, however, has the problem of ink consumption being indiscernible and the problem of the drawn line being unstable such that an ample amount of ink flows out and hence thick drawn lines can be obtained in the starting stage and the amount of ink gradually become lower and hence the drawn lines become thinner as the ink is consumed for writing. To deal with this, the capillary capacity of the sliver may be set to be low so as to smoothly deliver the ink from the sliver. However, this setting will increase the occurrence of ink eruption from the sliver and smudging clothes due to impacts such as from being dropped. In contrast, if the capillary capacity of the sliver is increased, there occurs an ink ejection problem in that the ink flow rate sharply lowers as the ink is used for writing and the drawn line becomes considerably thin in the latter half of the pen's life even though there is still an abundant amount of ink left.
In order to solve the drawbacks of the oil-based ball-point pen and sliver type writing implement described above, a so-called direct ink storage type writing implement using a collector(to be referred to hereinbelow as a collector type writing implement) has been known. This collector type writing implement, as shown in
FIG. 1
, has an ink tank
3
for directly storing ink
2
arranged in the rear half and mechanism, which has been used in fountain pens, for adjusting the inner pressure by air replacement during writing, using a collector
6
having many retaining grooves
13
defined by vanes(thin plates). A collector type writing implement has advantages that it delivers ink
2
at a flow rate equal to or above that of a sliver type writing implement at the starting stage and will not reduce its ink flow rate and is able to provide thick lines even without applying any extra writing force until its life's end(inkend). However,since the writing implement of this type needs a greater amount of ink as the load than the oil-based ball-point pen, it has a large-diametric ink tank
3
holding a relatively large amount of ink
2
(typically about 1 to 3 cc).
In the collector type writing implement, ink
2
moves between collector
6
and ink tank
3
(or air comes in and out through a narrow ink channel
14
) when the atmospheric pressure varies, so as to adjust the internal pressure whereby ink
2
will not leak out from the tip, designated at
9
, of a point assembly
1
.
In this collector writing implement, generally a cap
17
which hermetically seals both the air hole, designated at
10
, and point assembly
1
, by its having annular undercut shaping is provided in order to prevent evaporation of ink
2
. However, this cap
17
has a drawback called pumping phenomenon that the internal pressure within cap
17
will change when this cap
17
is put on and off, to thereby cause ink
2
to gradually fill up the collector
6
and at last ink
2
will flow out from air hole
10
exceeding the collector's retaining limit.
Further, the collector typewriting implement has another drawback that ink eruption which is attributed to the same mechanism as above, occurs with repeated increase and decrease in pressure due to temperature variations, changes pressure in airplane, difference in elevation or the like. It is possible to solve the pumping phenomenon by providing a movable inner cap
18
for cap
17
or by providing a seal face of a rubber end face(not shown), or some other manipulation. On the other hand, in order to solve the eruption problem due to repeated increase and decrease in atmospheric pressure, it is necessary to enlarge the maximum ink retaining capacity of collector
6
(enlarge the diameter or length of the collector) or to reduce the volume of ink tank
3
. However, enlargement of the barrel size makes its appearance unstylish, reduction of the ink stored in ink tank
3
makes the pen's life short and hence degrades its cost performance. With a too long collector
6
, the ink head at tip
9
of point assembly
1
would become too high, easily causing forward leakage. If the above problem is tried to be solved by modifying ink
2
, an ink with markedly poor wettability should be adopted compromising the writing comfort.
If a collector type writing implement which has had cap
17
put on under approximately 1 atm. at the ground level, is carried on an airplane in which the pressure is generally. adjusted to about 0.8 atm., a pressure imbalance will occur. That is, if cap
17
is put off in the airplane, the interior space of the pen at 1 atm., is incidentally exposed to the onboard air of 0.8 atm., so that ink
2
inside rushes through the air channel, designated at
15
, inside collector
6
and erupts out from air hole
10
at the front end without ink
2
being able to be retained in retaining grooves
13
of collector
6
.
In order to solve this eruption problem originated from pressure imbalance, Japanese Utility Model Publication Hei 3 No.31580 and Japanese Utility Model Publication Hei 3 No.31581 have disclosed devices. In these disclosures, one retaining groove at the middle portion of the collector has two air channels or cutouts symmetrically arranged at different positions on the collector periphery from the air channels of the neighboring retaining grooves, so that the rushing ink will branch into the left and right channels to thereby prevent the ink from directly flowing out through the air hole.
However, with these devices, if ink reaches the vane with two cutouts for the ink retaining groove in question when the internal pressure is adjusted moderately in the normal situation, it becomes impossible to perform air replacement and part of the vane having two cutouts, located opposite the ink channel, becomes unable to retain ink. Resultantly, the retained amount of ink
2
becomes reduced. Further, if only one of the retaining grooves in the middle part has this configuration, ink cannot be retained by the retaining grooves located from that position to the rear of the barrel when a sharp pressure change occurs in an airplane. That is, this configuration is able to lessen the rushing of ink to a certain degree at that site, but cannot retain the whole ink and results in failure to prevent ink from erupting.
It might be considered that such retaining grooves with two cutouts as above can be provided at a number of sites. In this case, however, the above-mentioned part incapable of holding ink also multiplies, so that the retainable volume of ink during moderate adjustment of pressure in the normal situation is reduced. Resultantly, a greater collector m

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