Patent Application
20160129724
The present disclosure relates generally to writing devices such as conventional and mechanical pencils. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a writing device that has a pencil sharpener built therein.
Pencils, particularly conventional pencils but also some types of mechanical pencils, need sharpen to write sharply and neatly. Before the development of dedicated pencil sharpeners, a pencil was sharpened by whittling it with a knife. Pencil sharpeners made this task much easier and gave a more uniform result than a knife. A pencil sharpener sharpens a pencil's writing point by shaving away its surface.
The first American pencil sharpener was patented by Walter K. Foster of Bangor, Me. in 1855. They now come in a wide array of colors and shapes.
Manual sharpeners have no moving parts and consist of a combined point-shaping cone that is aligned to the cylindrical pencil alignment guide hole, into which the pencil is inserted. A sharp blade is mounted so that its sharp edge just enters the shaping cone. The pencil is inserted into the sharpener and rotated while the sharpener is held motionless. The body of the sharpener is often contoured, ridged or grooved to make the small block easier to firmly grip.
The blade inside the sharpener shaves the wood and tip of the pencil, while the shavings emerge through a slot along the blade edge. It may be important that the cylindrical alignment hole closely fit the diameter of the pencil to keep the pencil from wobbling; causing stepped or lurching cut-depths and point breakage.
Conventionally, pencil sharpeners were independent of the pencil, requiring users to search for sharpeners when a pencil needs sharpening. This may be inconvenient. In addition, used pencils reaching certain lengths were considered unusable for being too short and became discarded. This is wasteful. The present invention integrates a pencil sharpener into a writing device such as a pencil so as to increase convenience for the users and reduce waste by utilizing portions of pencils that were thought to be unusable.
This disclosure provides a writing device that has a pencil sharpener built in within its body. A bore is formed within the body of the writing device and a sharpener blade attaches to the body in relationship to the bore. A user may insert the pencil's tip into the bore and sharpen it by rotating the pencil. The sharpener blade shaves the wood and core tip of the pencil, while the shavings emerge from a groove arranged at a side of the writing device. The inner surface of the bore keeps the pencil steady relative to the writing device while being sharpened.
In one embodiment, the writing device includes a tip at one end, a dome at the other end or both that are conductive and electrically or capacitively connected to a coating of the writing device. Therefore, when a user holds the writing device, the user may use the tip at one end, the dome at the other end or both as a stylus to be used as input device for touchscreen-enabled devices.
These and further features of the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings. In the description and drawings, particular embodiments of the invention have been disclosed in detail as being indicative of some of the ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed, but it is understood that the invention is not limited correspondingly in scope. Rather, the invention includes all changes, modifications and equivalents coming within the terms of the appended claims.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate various example systems, methods, and so on, that illustrate various example embodiments of aspects of the invention. It will be appreciated that the illustrated element boundaries (e.g., boxes, groups of boxes, or other shapes) in the figures represent one example of the boundaries. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that one element may be designed as multiple elements or that multiple elements may be designed as one element. An element shown as an internal component of another element may be implemented as an external component and vice versa. Furthermore, elements may not be drawn to scale.
The writing device 1 has a bore 4 formed in the body 3. The bore 4 is in a shape of a modified cone. As shown in
The writing device 1 also includes a sharpener blade 5 that is operatively attached to the body 3 at least partially within the bore 4. The writing device 1 further includes a groove 6 on a surface of the writing device 1. The groove 6 allows sharpener shavings to exit.
A user may insert the tip of the pencil P1 into the bore 4 and sharpen the tip by rotating the pencil P. The sharpener blade 5 shaves the wood and core tip of the pencil P1 while the shavings emerge from the groove 6. The inner surfaces of the bore 4 keep the pencil P1 steady relative to the writing device 1 while being sharpened.
In the illustrated embodiment, the writing device 1 is a pencil and thus the writing device 1 includes a solid pigment core 7 (i.e., graphite) disposed inside the body 3 along or parallel the main axis l. In other embodiments, the writing device 1 is a writing device other than a pencil (e.g., pen, mechanical pencil, etc.) or a pencil that has a solid pigment core other than graphite (an example of which is disclosed in detail below) disposed inside the body 3 along or parallel the main axis l.
As illustrated in
In the illustrated embodiment and as best shown in the exploded view of
In one embodiment, the writing device 1 includes an electrically conductive layer 10 (e.g., sprayed on metal, film, etc.) that coats at least some of the exterior of the body 3. In one embodiment, the solid pigment core 7 of the writing device 1 may also be electrically conductive (e.g., metal-infused graphite, etc.) and may be electrically or capacitively connected to the electrically conductive layer 10. The solid pigment core 7 may be electrically or capacitively connected to the electrically conductive layer 10 via a metallic connection 11 (shown in
In one embodiment, the writing device 1 includes an electrically conductive elastomeric dome 12 best shown in
Thus, the writing device 1 may be used as a thin or a thick stylus depending on the user's needs.
In the illustrated embodiment of
In the illustrated embodiment, the writing device 1 also includes the second sharpener blade 15 operatively attached to the body 3 at least partially within the second bore 14. In the illustrated embodiment, the second bore 14 has a smaller diameter than a diameter of the first bore 4. This way, the sharpener 2 formed by the first bore 4 and the blade 5 may be used to sharpen thicker pencils or the thicker portion of the body of a pencil and the sharpener 22 formed by the bore 14 and the blade 15 may be used to sharpen thinner pencils or just the tip of a pencil.
While example systems, methods, and so on, have been illustrated by describing examples, and while the examples have been described in considerable detail, it is not the intention to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the systems, methods, and so on, described herein. Additional advantages and modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention is not limited to the specific details, and illustrative examples shown or described. Thus, this application is intended to embrace alterations, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, the preceding description is not meant to limit the scope of the invention. Rather, the scope of the invention is to be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
To the extent that the term “includes” or “including” is employed in the detailed description or the claims, it is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as that term is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “or” is employed in the detailed description or claims (e.g., A or B) it is intended to mean “A or B or both”. When the applicants intend to indicate “only A or B but not both” then the term “only A or B but not both” will be employed. Thus, use of the term “or” herein is the inclusive, and not the exclusive use. See, Bryan A. Garner, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage 624 (3D. Ed. 1995).
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62078690 | Nov 2014 | US |
