EP3653397A1

EP3653397A1 - Device with a rotation effect

Info

Publication number: EP3653397A1
Application number: EP18206989.8A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Kuo-Wei Lee
Original assignee: Benext Inno Product Development Ltd
Current assignee: Benext Inno Product Development Ltd
Priority date: 2018-11-19
Filing date: 2018-11-19
Publication date: 2020-05-20

Abstract

A device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) includes an external barrel (10), a rotation barrel (20), a rotation mechanism (60), a pressing mechanism (50) and a deceleration mechanism (70). The rotation barrel (20) is disposed in the external barrel (10). The rotation mechanism (60) connects with the rotation barrel (20) for rotating the rotation barrel (20). The pressing mechanism (50) connects with the external barrel (10). The deceleration mechanism (70) connects with the rotation barrel (20) to reduce the rotation speed of the rotation barrel (20). The deceleration mechanism (70) includes a guide ring (71), a guide ring cover (72) and a damping element (75). The damping element (75) is located between the guide ring (71) and the guide ring cover (72), to prevent the damping element (75) overflowing problem caused by the deviating rotation barrel (20) which cannot rotate completely vertically.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

1. Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to a device with a rotation effect, such as a ballpoint pen, a key chain, a shower gel container, or other device.

2. Description of the Related Art

US Pat. No. 9,366,326 is a granted patent of the present applicant. US Pat. No. 9,366,326 discloses an apparatus with rotating effect; however, during the rotating process, the damping oil in this device is easy to overflow, such that the rotating speed of the rotation barrel cannot slow down. Therefore, there is a need to solve this problem.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a device with a rotation effect; more particularly, after the device is pressed, a rotation barrel inside the device rotates at a reduced rotation speed.
To achieve the aforementioned object, the device with a rotation effect of the present disclosure comprises an external barrel, a rotation barrel, a rotation mechanism, a pressing mechanism and a deceleration mechanism.
The rotation barrel is disposed in the external barrel, and the rotation mechanism is connected with the rotation barrel for rotating the rotation barrel. The pressing mechanism is connected with the external barrel and comprises a pressing course and a releasing course. The pressing mechanism drives the rotation mechanism to rotate along a first direction during the pressing course. The rotation mechanism rotates along a second direction during the releasing course, wherein the second direction and the first direction are opposite directions.
The deceleration mechanism is connected with the rotation barrel to reduce the rotation speed of the rotation barrel. According to a preferred embodiment, the deceleration mechanism comprises a guide ring, a guide ring cover and a damping element; wherein the damping element is located between the guide ring and the guide ring cover, and the damping element is a damping oil, such that the rotation speed of the rotation barrel is reduced accordingly by the damping oil. The guide ring cover is used for preventing the damping element overflowing problem caused by the deviating rotation barrel which cannot rotate completely vertically, wherein the damping element overflowing problem furthermore causes a problem that the rotation barrel cannot slow down; and the guide ring cover is also used for stabling the rotating speed of the rotation barrel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be understood more fully from the detailed description given below and from the accompanying drawings of the disclosure, which, however, should not be taken to limit the disclosure to the specific embodiment, but are for explanation and understanding only.

FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of the first embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 2 illustrates a cross-section view of the first embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the first embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 4 is a partly enlarged cross-section view of the first embodiment to illustrate a state in which the pressing mechanism is not being pushed.
FIG. 5 is a partly enlarged cross-section view of the first embodiment to illustrate a state in which the pressing mechanism is being pushed.
FIG. 6 is an exploded view of the rotation barrel, the pressing mechanism and the rotation mechanism of the first embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 7 is an exploded view of the rotation mechanism of the first embodiment.
FIG. 8 is an exploded view of the first embodiment of the upper external barrel and the deceleration mechanism of the present disclosure.
FIG. 9 is a bottom-view of the upper external barrel of the first embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 10 is a partly enlarged cross-section view of the first embodiment of the present disclosure to illustrate the upper external barrel and the deceleration mechanism.
FIG. 11 is a schematic drawing of the second embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 12 illustrates a cross-section view of the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

To facilitate understanding and to clarify the object, characteristics, and advantages of the present disclosure, the following three specific embodiments and figures illustrating the present disclosure are presented as a detailed description.
Please refer to FIG. 1 to FIG.10, which are related to the first embodiment.
The device with a rotation effect 1 of the present disclosure is a ballpoint pen and mainly comprises an external barrel 10, a rotation barrel 20, an internal barrel 30, a pressing mechanism 50, a rotation mechanism 60, a deceleration mechanism 70, an illuminating mechanism 80 and a pen mechanism 90.
The external barrel 10 comprises an upper external barrel 11 and a main external barrel 12. In the present embodiment, the upper external barrel 11 is a pen cap with a pen clip 112, and the pen mechanism 90 is connected with the lower portion of the main external barrel 12. The pen mechanism 90 disclosed in the present embodiment is a conventional pen mechanism, which is a known prior art in which a pen refill of the pen mechanism is capable of being protruded or retracted when the button of the pen mechanism is pressed. The pen mechanism 90 comprises a holding barrel 91, a front end 92, a decorative ring 93, a pen refill 94, a pen refill spring 95, and a retractable assembly 96. Because the pen mechanism 90 is not the improved part of the present disclosure and the mechanism of the pen mechanism 90 also is a known art, there is no need to describe its structure in detail.
Please refer to FIG. 3 to FIG.7. The pressing mechanism 50 comprises a push button 51 (the button of the ballpoint pen in the present embodiment), a rotation shaft 54 and an elastic member 55. The rotation shaft 54 comprises a rotary rim 541; in the present embodiment, the rotation shaft 54 is a screw rod and the rotary rim 541 is a thread. Please refer to FIG. 6. In the present embodiment, an illuminating mechanism 80 is disposed beneath the push button 51.
The illuminating mechanism 80 comprises an illuminating device 81 (such as an LED), a plurality of batteries 82, an illuminating barrel 85 and a light guide post 86. The upper end of the illuminating barrel 85 is directly engaged with the push button 51(shown in FIG. 5). The illuminating device 81 is directly connected with the light guide post 86; i.e., the light guide post 86 is connected with the illuminating barrel 85 and the illuminating device 81 protrudes from the illuminating barrel 85 and inserts into the light guide post 86. The illuminating mechanism 80 further provides a decorative effect of light, so the upper portion of the device having a rotation effect 1 is illuminable. Please note that because applying the illuminating mechanism 80 on a ballpoint pen is a known art and the illuminating mechanism 80 is not the improved part of the present disclosure, there is no need to describe its circuit structure in detail.
The pressing mechanism 50 is connected with the external barrel 10. In the present embodiment, the push button 51 is situated above the upper external barrel 11. The internal barrel 30 is disposed in the rotation barrel 20, and the rotation shaft 54 and the elastic member 55 are disposed in the internal barrel 30. The top end of the rotation shaft 54 is hold by the small hole 861 of the light guide post 86.
Please refer to FIG. 3 to FIG.7. The rotation mechanism 60 comprises a rotation guiding element 61, a rotation element 62, a mating part 63 and a torsional elastic member 64. The rotation guiding element 61 is disposed in the rotation barrel 20 and is situated beneath the internal barrel 30. The rotation guiding element 61 coordinates with the rotation shaft 54 and comprises a guide slot 611, as shown in FIG. 6. When the rotation shaft 54 moves forward (e.g. downwards), due to the shape of the guide slot 611, the moving rotary rim 541 drives the guide slot 611 to allow the rotation guiding element 61 to rotate along the first direction, which is a counter clockwise rotation in the present embodiment. It is noted that how the rotation guiding element 61 coordinates with the guide slot 611 to perform a rotation is a known art; please refer to US Pat. No.8226314 .
Please refer to FIG. 6. The rotary tooth 612 is disposed at the lower portion of the rotation guiding element 61. The rotary tooth 612 is designed with an inclined plane, and the guide tooth 21 disposed at the lower portion of the rotation barrel 20 also has an inclined plane to match with the inclined plane of the rotary tooth 612. Therefore, when the rotation guiding element 61 rotates along the first direction, the rotation barrel 20 also rotates along the first direction accordingly.
Please refer to FIG. 6 to FIG.7. The convex post 624 of the rotation element 62 matches with the circle hole 634 of the mating part 63 to allow the rotation element 62 to rotate relative to the mating part 63. The two ends of the torsional elastic member 64 are connected with the mounting hole 622 of the rotation element 62 and the mounting hole 632 of the mating part 63, respectively.
The rotation member 22 is disposed at the lower portion of the rotation barrel 20. In this embodiment, the rotation member 22 is two protrusions for matching with the guide element 621 disposed at the upper portion of the rotation element 62, such that the rotation barrel 20 and the rotation element 62 are capable of rotating synchronously. In this embodiment, the guide element 621 is two cavities.
The mating part 63 is fixed to the lower portion of the main external barrel 12, for example by glue or another fixing method. A plurality of strip ribs is disposed on the engagement part 633 in the present embodiment. The main external barrel 12 comprises a plurality of strip grooves corresponding to the plurality of strip ribs, not shown in the FIG, for engaging with the engagement part 633, such that the mating part 63 is unable to rotate after the mating part 63 has been disposed on the main external barrel 12. Therefore, when the rotation element 62 rotates along the first direction, the torsional elastic member 64 is twisted tightly; when the rotation element 62 stops rotating along the first direction, the torsion of the torsional elastic member 64 drives the rotation element 62 to rotate along the second direction, which is a clockwise rotation in the present embodiment.
In the present embodiment, the deceleration mechanism 70 comprises a guide ring 71, a guide ring cover 72 and a damping element 75. The damping element 75 is located between the guide ring 71 and the guide ring cover 72. Please refer to FIG. 8 to FIG. 10. The guide ring 71 comprises a round protruding rib 711, an annular groove 712, and a plurality of brake strips 713. The guide ring cover 72 comprises a plurality of corresponding driving elements 721. The upper external barrel 11 has a positioning groove 111 to match with the round protruding rib 711. The top end of the rotation barrel 20 has at least one driving element 25 for driving the corresponding driving elements 721. The guide ring cover 72 is located between the rotation barrel 20 and the annular groove 712. In the present embodiment, the damping element 75 is a damping oil. When the present disclosure is being assembled, damping oil 75 is applied to the annular groove 712, such that when the rotation barrel 20 rotates freely, the driving element 25 of the rotation barrel 20 will drive the corresponding driving elements 721, allowing the rotation barrel 20 and the guide ring cover 72 to rotate synchronously. Because the guide ring cover 72 contacts the damping oil 75, the rotation speed of the rotation barrel 20 will be reduced. Because the damping oil 75 is covered by the guide ring cover 72, the guide ring cover 72 prevents the overflowing problem for the damping oil 75 caused by the deviating rotation barrel 20 which cannot rotate completely vertically, to furthermore prevent the damping oil 75 overflowing problem causing a problem that the rotation barrel 20 cannot slow down; and the guide ring cover 72 can also stable the rotating speed of the rotation barrel 20. Please refer to FIG. 9, which illustrates a bottom-view perspective of the upper external barrel 11. The upper external barrel 11 has a plurality of brake blocks 113 to match with the brake strips 713, and each of the brake blocks 113 is triangular in shape. When the guide ring 71 rotates along the first direction (counter clockwise in the present embodiment), none of the brake blocks 113 blocks any of the brake strips 713, so the guide ring 71 rotates along the first direction smoothly. On the other hand, when the guide ring 71 rotates along the second direction (clockwise in the present embodiment), each brake block 113 blocks the corresponding brake strip 713 and then causes the guide ring 71 to be unable to rotate along the second direction.
To complement the brief description of the abovementioned elements, the operating flow of the present disclosure is presented as follows. As shown in FIG. 4, the push button 51 has yet to be pressed, so the major portion of the rotation shaft 54 is situated above the rotation guiding element 61. As shown in FIG. 5, after a user pushes the push button 51, the push button 51 is in the pressing course P1; the push button 51 pushes the illuminating barrel 85 and the light guide post 86 downward, which consequently causes the rotation shaft 54 to move downward and then drives the rotation guiding element 61 to rotate. The rotation element 62 comprises a through hole 623 for allowing the downward-moving rotation shaft 54 to enter the rotation element 62 and then to drive the rotation guiding element 61 to rotate along the first direction C1. Because the rotation shaft 54 also pushes the rotation guiding element 61 downward, the rotary tooth 612 of the rotation guiding element 61 is engaged with the guide tooth 21 of the rotation barrel 20, such that the rotation barrel 20 also rotates along the first direction accordingly, and then the rotation member 22 of the rotation barrel 20 drives the rotation element 62 to rotate along the first direction. As a result, the torsional elastic member 64 is twisted tightly. Please refer to FIG. 8, FIG. 9 and FIG. 10; when the rotation barrel 20 rotates along the first direction, the driving element 25 of the rotation barrel 20 will drive the corresponding driving elements 721, allowing the rotation barrel 20 and the guide ring cover 72 to rotate synchronously; because of the viscosity of the damping oil 75, the rotation of the guide ring cover 72 will bring the guide ring 71 to rotate along the first direction; besides, since none of the brake strips 713 are blocked by the brake blocks 113, there is no need to overcome the resistance caused by the damping oil 75 when the user pushes the push button 51.
The user can press the push button 51 several times quickly to increase the tension level of the torsional elastic member 64. After the user releases the push button 51, the push button 51 is in the releasing course P2. Please refer to FIG. 4; the resilience of the elastic member 55 pushes the rotation shaft 54 to move backward (e.g. upward) and the rotation guiding element 61 also moves backward due to the movement of the rotation shaft 54. Thus, the rotary tooth 612 of the rotation guiding element 61 does not engage with the guide tooth 21 of the rotation barrel 20 anymore. Then the torsion of the torsional elastic member 64 drives the rotation element 62 to rotate along the second direction C2, and the rotation element 62 drives the rotation barrel 20 to rotate along the second direction C2 as well. The driving element 25 of the rotation barrel 20 drives the corresponding driving elements 721, allowing the rotation barrel 20 and the guide ring cover 72 to rotate synchronously. Because of the viscosity of the damping oil 75, when the guide ring cover 72 rotates, the guide ring 71 will tend to rotate along the second direction C2; however, the guide ring 71 is unable to rotate along the second direction C2 because each of the brake blocks 113 blocks each of the corresponding brake strips 713. As a result, the rotation speed of the rotation barrel 20 is reduced because of the resistance applied to the guide ring cover 72 by the damping oil 75.
The device with a rotation effect 1 further comprises an external barrel decoration 41, a rotation barrel decoration 42 and an internal barrel decoration 43. The external barrel decoration 41 can be a plastic sheet printed with patterns and installed within the transparent main external barrel 12. The external barrel decoration 41 can also be patterns printed on the exterior of the main external barrel 12. The rotation barrel decoration 42 can be printed on the exterior of the rotation barrel 20, or the rotation barrel decoration 42 can be stickers with patterns and attached to the exterior of the rotation barrel 20. The internal barrel decoration 43 can be printed on the exterior surface of the internal barrel 30, or the internal barrel decoration 43 can be stickers with patterns and attached to the exterior surface of the internal barrel 30. Because the rotation barrel 20 is the important feature of the present disclosure, the rotation barrel decoration 42 is essential. When the rotation barrel decoration 42 rotates, the external barrel decoration 41 and/or the internal barrel decoration 43 do not rotate accordingly; the entertaining feature of the present disclosure is presented by the collocation of the external barrel decoration 41 and/or the internal barrel decoration 43.
It is noted that the illuminating mechanism 80 is not a necessary element of the present disclosure. The rotation shaft 54 can be modified by increasing the length of the rotation shaft 54, disposing a convex post above the rotation shaft 54 or the like, to allow the top end of the rotation shaft 54 to touch the push button 51 directly and to achieve the object of allowing the push button 51 to push the rotation shaft 54.
Please refer to FIG. 11 and FIG. 12, which are related to the second embodiment.
The device having a rotation effect 1a is a key chain. The major difference between the device with a rotation effect 1a and the first embodiment is that the pen mechanism 90 is omitted in the device having a rotation effect 1a. The lower portion of the main external barrel 12 is connected with a lower external barrel 15a. A connecting ring 151a and a key-ring 152a are disposed at the lower portion of the lower external barrel 15a. The device with a rotation effect 1a has the external barrel 10, the rotation barrel 20, the internal barrel 30, the pressing mechanism 50, the rotation mechanism 60, the deceleration mechanism 70 and the illuminating mechanism 80, all of which are the same elements as in the first embodiment; thus, details of each element are omitted.
It is noted that the above-mentioned embodiments are only for illustration. It is intended that the present disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents. Therefore, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present disclosure without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. For instance, the device with a rotation effect can be a stylus for a touch display (replacing the pen mechanism with the stylus), an ornament/accessory attached to a toy, a key chain, a necklace, a mobile phone, or other device.

Claims

1. A device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) comprising:

an external barrel (10);

a rotation barrel (20) disposed in the external barrel (10);

a rotation mechanism (60) connected with the rotation barrel (20) for rotating the rotation barrel (20);

a pressing mechanism (50) connected with the external barrel (10),

wherein the pressing mechanism (50) comprises a pressing course (P1) and a releasing course (P2); the pressing mechanism (50) drives the rotation mechanism (60) to rotate along a first direction (C1) during the pressing course (PI), and the rotation mechanism (60) rotates along a second direction (C2) during the releasing course (P2),

wherein the second direction (C2) and the first direction (C1) are opposite directions; and

a deceleration mechanism (70) connected with the rotation barrel (20) to reduce a rotation speed of the rotation barrel (20);

characterized in that the deceleration mechanism (70) comprise:

a guide ring (71), a guide ring cover (72) and a damping element (75), wherein the damping element (75) is located between the guide ring (71) and the guide ring cover (72).

The device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) as claimed in Claim 1, wherein a top end of the rotation barrel (20) comprises at least one driving element (25), the guide ring cover (72) comprises a plurality of corresponding driving elements (721); when the rotation barrel (20) rotates, the at least one driving element (25) drives at least one of the corresponding driving elements (721), allowing the rotation barrel (20) and the guide ring cover (72) to rotate synchronously.

The device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the damping element (75) is a damping oil and the rotation speed of the rotation barrel (20) is reduced by the damping oil.

The device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) as claimed in Claim 3, wherein the guide ring (71) comprises an annular groove (712), and the damping oil is disposed in the annular groove (712).

The device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) as claimed in Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, the rotation mechanism (60) further comprising a rotation element (62), a mating part (63), and a torsional elastic member (64), wherein two ends of the torsional elastic member (64) are connected with the rotation element (62) and the mating part (63), the rotation element (62) is connected with the mating part (63), and the rotation element (62) is disposed beneath and engaged with the rotation barrel (20), such that:

during the pressing course (PI), the rotation element (62) rotates along the first direction (C1) to twist the torsional elastic member (64), and

during the releasing course (P2), the torsional elastic member (64) drives the rotation element (62) to rotate along the second direction (C2) to allow the rotation element (62) to drive the rotation barrel (20) to rotate, and the deceleration mechanism (70) reduces the rotation speed of the rotation barrel (20).

The device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) as claimed in Claim 5, wherein the pressing mechanism (50) comprises a push button (51), a rotation shaft (54) and an elastic member (55), whereby, when the push button (51) is in the pressing course (PI), the rotation shaft (54) moves forward, and when the push button (51) is in the releasing course (P2), the elastic member (55) drives the rotation shaft (54) to move backward.

The device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) as claimed in Claim 6, wherein the rotation mechanism (60) further comprises a rotation guiding element (61); when the rotation shaft (54) moves forward, the rotation shaft (54) drives the rotation guiding element (61) to rotate along the first direction (C1) to allow the rotation guiding element (61) to drive the rotation barrel (20) to rotate along the first direction (C1), so that the rotation element (62) also rotates along the first direction (C1) driven by the rotation barrel (20).

The device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) as claimed in Claim 7, wherein the external barrel (10) comprises an upper external barrel (11) and a main external barrel (12); the upper external barrel (11) is connected with the main external barrel (12) and the push button (51) is disposed above the upper external barrel (11).

The device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) as claimed in Claim 8, further comprising an internal barrel (30); the internal barrel (30) is disposed in the rotation barrel (20), and the rotation shaft (54) and the elastic member (55) are disposed in the internal barrel (30), whereby, when the push button (51) is in the pressing course (PI), the rotation shaft (54) moves forward, and when the push button (51) is in the releasing course (P2), the elastic member (55) drives the rotation shaft (54) to move backward.

The device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) as claimed in Claim 9, wherein the rotation guiding element (61) is disposed in the rotation barrel (20); when the rotation shaft (54) moves forward, the rotation guiding element (61) engages with the rotation barrel (20), and when the rotation shaft (54) moves backward, the rotation shaft (54) drives the rotation guiding element (61) to disengage the rotation barrel (20).

The device with a rotation effect (1) as claimed in Claim 10, further comprising a pen mechanism (90), wherein the pen mechanism (90) comprises a holding barrel (91), a pen refill (94), a pen refill spring (95), and a retractable assembly (96); the holding barrel (91) is connected with the external barrel (10); the retractable assembly (96) is employed for controlling the pen refill (94) to protrude from the holding barrel (91) when the rotation shaft (54) moves forward; the rotation shaft (54) pushes the retractable assembly (96).

The device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) as claimed in Claim 5, wherein the rotation mechanism (60) further comprises a rotation guiding element (61); when the rotation shaft (54) moves forward, the rotation shaft (54) drives the rotation guiding element (61) to rotate along the first direction (C1) to allow the rotation guiding element (61) to drive the rotation barrel (20) to rotate along the first direction (C1), so that the rotation element (62) also rotates along the first direction (C1) driven by the rotation barrel (20).

The device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) as claimed in Claim 5, wherein the external barrel (10) comprises an upper external barrel (11) and a main external barrel (12); the upper external barrel (11) is connected with the main external barrel (12) and the push button (51) is disposed above the upper external barrel (11).

The device with a rotation effect (1, 1a) as claimed in Claim 13, further comprising an internal barrel (30); the internal barrel (30) is disposed in the rotation barrel (20), and the rotation shaft (54) and the elastic member (55) are disposed in the internal barrel (30), whereby, when the push button (51) is in the pressing course (PI), the rotation shaft (54) moves forward, and when the push button (51) is in the releasing course (P2), the elastic member (55) drives the rotation shaft (54) to move backward.

The device with a rotation effect (1) as claimed in Claim 6, further comprising a pen mechanism (90), wherein the pen mechanism (90) comprises a holding barrel (91), a pen refill (94), a pen refill spring (95), and a retractable assembly (96); the holding barrel (91) is connected with the external barrel (10); the retractable assembly (96) is employed for controlling the pen refill (94) to protrude from the holding barrel (91) when the rotation shaft (54) moves forward; the rotation shaft (54) pushes the retractable assembly (96).