Multi-element pen

Information

  • Patent Grant
  • 6491464
  • Patent Number
    6,491,464
  • Date Filed
    Monday, October 22, 2001
    23 years ago
  • Date Issued
    Tuesday, December 10, 2002
    22 years ago
  • Inventors
  • Examiners
    • Fetsuga; Robert M.
    • Le; Huyen
    Agents
    • Troxell Law Office PLLC
Abstract
A multi-element pen, particularly a pen with twin heads containing at least three operating elements for writing, correction or marking, allowing the user use only one pen for writing and correction. The pen includes a body that houses three or more ink-storage rooms and operating elements of different applications, each operating element corresponding an ink-storage room. Different writing inks or correction liquid contained in the ink-storage rooms enables the use different operating elements for writing, correction or marking, allowing the user carry only one pen for writing, correction and marking.
Description




BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION




While it is a common practice to have more than 1 pen plus correction liquid for different writing, recording, taking note or revision, none of the multi-purpose pens, including the correction pens with refilling correction liquid remain available only for pens of only one purpose. The conventional white-ink correction liquid currently available on the market that allows rewriting on it using ordinary inks contains toxic gases that are harmful to human beings. On the other hand, when applied, the writer must wait until it becomes dry before keeping on writing and, the dried bumpy material troubles the handwriting too. Consequently, environmental correction liquids made of nontoxic substances have become available; having no defects and toxic substances the conventional white-color correction liquids do as the correction liquid itself decomposes the original ink and allows a second writing using a special ink. This is to say, to use the new correction liquid, the user must carry a pen containing the correction liquid and separate a case and a pen that contains the special ink. The pens of different applications the user is supposed to carry would bother the user when it comes to handiness.




The twin-bead pens, mostly markers, available on the market are for 2 purposes and do not meet physical needs. The ball pens of 6˜12 colors come with a very complicated mechanism controlling the pop-out, snap-in of the different leads, besides the thick tube makes it inconvenient to carry.




SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION




The multi-element pen referred in this invention relates to a pen containing aquatic ink or correction refill liquid including a body that contains on the inside and both ends at least 3 storage rooms for inks and the writing and correction elements in equal number of the storage rooms, each corresponding to a storage assembly forming an operating unit which, by means of the different writing inks and the non-toxic environmental correction liquids contained in the storage rooms, defines the different operating units for writing, correction and re-writing, thus allowing the user to carry only one pen with different operating units to fulfill writing, correction and re-writing on correction spots using the special ink.











BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS





FIG. 1

is an exploded perspective view of the first embodiment of the invention.





FIG. 2

is an exploded cross-sectional view of the first embodiment of the invention.





FIG. 3

is an exploded cross-sectional view of the first embodiment of the invention.





FIG. 4

is an exploded cross-sectional view of the second embodiment of the invention.





FIG. 5

is an assembled cross-sectional view of the second embodiment of the invention.





FIG. 6

is an exploded cross-sectional view of the third embodiment of the invention.











DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS




As shown in

FIGS. 1-3

, the first embodiment of this invention includes a pen structure consisting of body


1


, element


2


and caps


3


,


4


(as shown in FIG.


2


), where:




Body


1


(as shown in

FIG. 2

) includes a hollowed pen tube


11


and two ends


12


,


13


of the pen tube


11


are formed with unequal inner diameters. Between the two ends,


12


,


13


of the unequal inner diameters the streamlined pen tube


11


is formed for easy carrying or holding in a user's pocket. The hollowed pen tube


11


has its inner diameter partitioned to house three storage rooms


14


,


15


and


16


. To match the different inner diameters of the hollowed pen tube


11


, the first storage room


14


is placed separately in the pen tube


11


near the tapered end


12


and, on the tube end


12


, there is the opening


141


of the first storage room


14


. The second and third storage rooms


15


and


16


are placed in parallel in the pen tube


11


near the end


13


of larger inner diameter, forming openings


151


,


161


of the second and third storage rooms


15


,


16


on the tube tip


13


. On the tips of the two ends


12


and


13


, the recessed necks


121


,


131


are formed, allowing the positioning of caps


3


,


4


.




The three aforementioned storage rooms


14


,


15


and


16


are provided with a depth of not more than the half of the overall length of the pen tube


11


, for storage of ink in equal volume or unequal volume. To make the physical use easier, the first storage room


14


shall be defined as the larger storage room for ordinary writing ink and the second and the third storage rooms


15


,


16


shall be respectively defined as smaller storage rooms for correction liquid and rewriting ink as an ordinary consumer may demand.




The correction liquid filled in said second storage room


15


can be an ordinary white-color correction liquid. In this embodiment, we would propose the use of the transparent, non-toxic and environmental correctional liquid. The use of this correction liquid allows immediate rewriting after erasing ordinary ink without having to wait for it to dry and no bumpy paint or toxic substance remains or is produced. Only the rewriting shall be made using the special ink.




The aforementioned operating unit


2


(as shown in

FIG. 2

) includes two writing elements


21


,


22


for ordinary writing and rewriting after erasing, respectively, and, the erasing element


23


for ordinary writing ink.




The two writing elements


21


and


22


may have the same structure. Said writing unit


21


has a writing element


211


that can be a steel ball pen tip, ball pen tip or a pen. In this embodiment, a steel ball pen tip is used. An ink guide core


213


is in connection with the end of the writing element


211


inserted into the storage rooms


14


or


16


to suck ink for the use of the writing element


211


. A sealing kit


212


is located between the writing element


211


and the ink guide core


213


to link the writing element


211


and the ink guide core


213


.




Said correction element


23


can be a known marker or the correction writing element of a marker. Correction element


23


has a correction element


231


with its end inserted and positioned into a sealing element


232


while the other end of the sealing element


232


has an ink guide core


233


in connection with the correction element


231


for the supply of correction ink. By means of direct matching of the sealing element


232


with the storage room


15


, the ink guide core


233


can be inserted into the second storage room


15


to absorb the correction liquid.




The caps


3


,


4


are connected to tube ends


12


,


13


in the corresponding tube


11


and the recessed necks


121


,


131


. When either of the two caps


3


,


4


are removed, they can be linked to the other end cap (as shown in

FIG. 3

) so they will not get lost. Again cap


4


may cover the writing element


22


and the correction element


23


as shown in

FIG. 1

, or the pair of writing elements


21


,


22


and the correction element


23


may have individual caps.




Said assembly forms a pen with ordinary writing, correction and rewriting features (as shown in

FIGS. 1

,


2


). When the user needs to correct mistakes writing with the writing element (


21


) using ordinary ink (as shown in FIG.


3


), all he/she has to do is open the cap


4


and erase the mistake using the correction element


231


before re-writing with the special ink in the writing element


22


.




As shown in

FIGS. 4 and 5

, another embodiment of this invention and the structure of an ink cartridge is illustrated The structure includes a pen


1


, the element


2


and the caps


3


,


4


, where:




Pen body


1


includes a hollowed pen tube


11


that has three storage rooms


14


,


15


and


16


between the two ends


12


,


13


of unequal inner diameters. The three ink storage rooms


14


,


15


and


16


have openings


141


,


151


and


161


in the tube ends


12


and


13


having threads


142


,


152


and


162


. On the two ends


12


,


13


, there are recessed necks


121


,


131


to position the caps


3


and


4


.




The structure of the two writing elements


21


and


22


includes writing element


211


as in the aforementioned embodiment, can be a steel ball pen tip, ball pen tip or a pen. In this embodiment, a pen is illustrated. The writing elements include a sealing element


212


that corresponds to one of the openings


141


,


161


, with threads


214


(as shown in

FIG. 4

) on the outer wall, allowing the sealing elements


212


to engage ends


12


,


13


. In the sealing element


212


, there is an ink guide core


213


that links the cartridge ink tube


5


through the cartridge tube


215


on the tip of the sealing element


212


. At the same time, the cartridge ink tube


5


is contained in the storage rooms


14


and


16


, where the writing element


211


and sealing element


212


can be easily removed for the replacement of the cartridge ink tube


5


.




The structure of said correction element


23


, includes the erasing element


211


as in the aforementioned embodiment. On one end of the sealing element


232


, there are threads


234


(as shown in

FIG. 4

) on the outer wall, allowing the sealing element


232


be a free threading element in the storage room


15


. In the sealing element


213


, there is an ink guide core


233


that links the cartridge ink tube


5


containing non-toxic environmental transparent correction liquid through the cartridge tube


5


on the tip of the sealing element


232


. At the same time, the cartridge ink tube


5


is contained in the storage room


15


, where the writing element


231


and sealing element


232


can be easily removed for the replacement of the cartridge ink tube


5


.




The assembled structure provides a handy pen with two elements on the one end and, one on the other, the storage of ink in the cartridge ink tube


5


and the threading of the sealing elements


212


and


232


to allow easy replacement of element


2


and the cartridge ink tube


5


.





FIG. 6

shows a third embodiment containing four elements for ordinary writing, correction, rewriting and marker or a note pen. The element


2


of the pen may feature the writing element


21


or correction element


23


or marking element. Likewise, element


2


comes with a sealing element


212


, with one end containing, depending on the application, writing element


211


or erasing element


231


. The sealing element


212


may include direct sealing elements in the storage rooms


14


,


15


,


16


and


17


as shown in the first embodiment, or threads as shown in the second embodiment.




Body


1


includes a hollowed pen tube


11


, of which the hollowed inner diameter provides four storage rooms


14


,


15


,


16


and


17


, where the first and the fourth storage rooms


14


and


17


are placed in parallel near the tube end


12


, with the tube end


12


having openings of the first and the fourth storage rooms


14


and


17


for securing of two elements


2


. The second and the third storage rooms


15


and


16


are placed in parallel near the tube end


13


of pen tube


11


, with the tube end


13


forming the second and the third storage rooms with openings that are secured (by direct sealing or threaded sealing) with two elements


2


. On the ends


12


and


13


of the tubes, there are recessed necks


121


and


131


to position caps


3


, and


4


.



Claims
  • 1. A multi-element ink writing and correcting pen comprising:a) an elongated, unitary, generally cylindrical pen tube having two opposite ends of unequal diameters, a diameter of a first end being less than a diameter of a second end, an interior of the pen tube forming at least three separate storage rooms including a writing ink storage room having a first opening at the first end, a correction ink storage room having a second opening at the second end, and a rewriting ink storage room adjacent to the correction and storage rooms and having a third opening through the second end of the pen tube; b) a supply of writing ink in the writing and storage room; c) a supply of correction ink in the correction ink storage room; d) a supply of rewriting ink in the rewriting and storage room; e) a first writing element removably connected to the first end of the pen tube in the first opening; f) a second writing element removably connected to the second end of the pen tube in the third opening; and, g) a correction element removably connected to the second end of the pen tube in the second opening whereby the correction element is located adjacent to the second element.
  • 2. The multi-element ink writing and correcting pen of claim 1 further comprising:a) a first cap removably attached to the first end so as to cover the first writing element; and, b) a second cap removably attached to the second end so as to cover both the second writing element and the correction element, at least one of the first and second caps including a portion to which the other of the first and second caps may be attached when removed from the pen tube.
  • 3. The multi-element in writing and correcting pen of claim 1 wherein the first writing element is selected from the group consisting of a steel ball pen tip, a ball pen tip and a pen nib.
  • 4. The multi-element in writing and correcting pen of claim 1 wherein the second writing element is selected from the group consisting of a steel ball pen tip, a ball pen tip and a pen nib.
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