JP3310457B2 - Applicator - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an applicator used for writing characters and painting colors, and more particularly to an applicator for transferring ink by rotating a roller.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Ballpoint pens have become widespread as handy applicators. However, a ball-point pen is not suitable for applications such as drawing a thick line or painting a wide surface because a member that transfers ink to an application surface is literally a ball and makes point contact with the application surface.

Therefore, there has been proposed an applicator that employs a roller in place of the ball of a ballpoint pen and draws a wide line with the roller. The applicator of the prior art merely replaces the ball of a known ballpoint pen with a roller,
The roller is housed in a holder provided at the tip of the ink reservoir.

[0004]

The prior art applicator includes:
There is a good idea. Therefore, the present inventors prototyped an applicator in which the ball of an oil-based ballpoint pen (ballpoint pen filled with oil-based ink) was replaced with a roller. In a normal oil-based ballpoint pen, the diameter of the ball is approximately 0.6 mm
Therefore, the diameter of the roller was set to 0.6 mm in the prototype applicator. However, the prototype of the applicator had a poor rotation of the roller and was not very useful as an applicator.

[0005] Then, the present inventors next prototyped an applicator having a larger roller diameter. The rotation of the roller of this application tool was smoother than that of the above-mentioned application tool. However, by enlarging the diameter of the roller, a new problem that was not found in oil-based ballpoint pens and the like was encountered. That is, in general, in the holder 100 into which the ball of the oil-based ball-point pen is inserted, the ink introduction hole 101 side of the ball storage portion is tapered (see FIG. 15). Accordingly, the gap between the taper 102 and the side wall 103 is theoretically square, and a gap 106 is formed between the taper 102 and the ball 105.

[0006] Oil-based ink is always stored in these gaps. When you hold the oil-based ballpoint pen with the ball up,
The ink in the gap receives the force in the direction of the ink reservoir due to gravity. However, with a normal oil-based ballpoint pen, the gap is narrow, and the viscosity of the ink is high. Alternatively, the ink is prevented from falling in the ink reservoir direction due to the capillary force.

However, when the diameter of the roller of the applicator is designed to be large, as in the prototype of the present inventors, the gap between the side wall and the roller becomes large, and the gravitational force of the ink is caused by the adhesive force of the roller or the like or the capillary force. And the ink drops to the ink reservoir side. For this reason, in an applicator having a large roller diameter, the rotation of the roller is smooth, but there is a problem that the ink flow is poor at the start of writing. Although the above description has been made with reference to a ballpoint pen in which the ink is oily, this problem is more serious when the ink in the ink reservoir is aqueous. Water-based ink for ballpoint pens
It has been put to practical use in recent years and has a lower viscosity than conventional oil-based inks. Therefore, when the above-described applicator is filled with the water-based ink, most of the ink falls from the roller housing to the ink reservoir.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and has as its object to provide an applicator in which the flow of ink is smooth.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a holder provided with a roller storage section and an ink circulation hole is mounted at the tip of an ink reservoir. In an applicator in which a cylindrical roller is disposed, and a part of the peripheral surface of the roller protrudes outside from an opening provided in the roller storage unit, a cross-sectional shape of the roller storage unit on an ink flow hole side is such that an ink flow An applicator characterized in that it has two or more steps of taper or arc converging on the hole side.

In the invention as an embodiment of the above-mentioned invention, a relay core is provided in the ink circulation hole, and a tip of the relay core is in contact with the roller, and the roller is housed by the relay core. It is characterized by being pressed toward the opening of the part.

In the applicator of the present invention, especially in the ink reservoir,
This has a remarkable effect when an ink having a viscosity at room temperature of 8000 CPS or less is contained.

[0012] A further development of the above invention is an applicator characterized in that the roller is a hollow body or a porous body.

[0013]

The applicator of the present invention has a configuration in which a holder provided with a roller storage section and an ink circulation hole is mounted on the tip of the ink reservoir, and a cylindrical roller is disposed in the roller storage section of the holder. Therefore, the ink in the ink reservoir enters the roller storage portion via the ink circulation hole due to capillary action or gravity. Then, the ink comes into contact with the rollers in the roller storage section. Therefore, when the roller is pressed against paper or the like to move the applicator, the roller rolls and the ink attached to the roller is transferred to paper or the like. In the applicator of the present invention, since two or more steps of taper or arc converging toward the ink circulation hole side are formed in the roller storage portion of the holder, the gap between the roller and the inner wall of the roller storage portion is small. Therefore, the ink accumulated in the portion is held by the adhesive force or the capillary force to the roller and the inner wall of the roller accommodating portion, and does not drop toward the ink reservoir.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the roller is pressed toward the opening of the roller housing by the relay core, the gap between the roller and the end of the opening is reduced, and the ink is held in the portion. You. Further, the opening is brought into a state close to hermeticity by the roller, and the ingress of air from the opening is prevented, and the replacement of air in the roller storage portion is prevented. Further, in the present invention, since the roller is pressed toward the opening of the roller storage portion by the relay core, the roller is in a state of being lifted by the relay core. Therefore, the applicator of the present invention has a small contact area between the roller and the roller housing during writing, and has a small frictional resistance when the roller rotates.

Further, in the invention according to claim 5, since the roller is a hollow body or a porous body, the mass of the roller is small. Therefore, for example, dropping writing instruments
When a strong impact is applied to the writing implement, the inertia force generated in the roller is small, and the roller is prevented from falling off.

[0016]

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, specific examples of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a front view of a holder part of an applicator according to a specific embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view of a holder portion of the applicator of FIG. FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part of the roller storage portion of the holder without a roller. FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG. FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. FIG. 7 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part of the roller storage portion of the holder without a roller. FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG. FIG. 9 is an exploded perspective view, partly in section, of the applicator of FIG. FIG. 10 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part of a roller storage unit in a state where there is no roller of a holder used in a coating tool according to a modified embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part of an applicator according to a modified embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 12 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part of an applicator according to another modification of the present invention. FIG. 13 is a perspective view of a roller employed in another modified embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 14 is a side sectional view of a holder part of an applicator according to a modified embodiment of the present invention.

1 to 9, reference numeral 1 denotes an applicator according to a specific embodiment of the present invention. Applicator 1 of the present embodiment
Is similar to a known ball-point pen, a holder 3 is attached to the tip of the ink reservoir 2, and the ink reservoir 2 is
The pen shaft 5 is attached to the outside of the. Here, the ink reservoir 2 and the pen shaft 5 are exactly the same as those of a ball-point pen, and are cylinders made of synthetic resin. The inside of the ink reservoir 2 is filled with a water-soluble ink, more specifically, a water-soluble gel ink having a viscosity of 8000 CPS or less.

Here, the water-soluble gel ink and the water-soluble ink will be additionally mentioned, all of which are inks using water as a main solvent. That is, while the conventional oil-based ink uses an organic solvent such as phenyl cellosolve or benzyl alcohol, the water-based ballpoint pen ink uses water as a solvent. In addition, while the viscosity of the ink is as high as 10,000 to 30000 CPS for oil-based ballpoint pens, the ink for water-based ballpoint pens has a lower viscosity, and the ink for water-based ballpoint pens is largely divided into two types due to differences in viscosity behavior. Can be

One of them is an ink having a Newtonian flow (the viscosity does not change depending on the degree of the flow). More specifically, the ink in the ink tank and the ball house have the same viscosity. It is used.
The other has a property that the viscosity changes with the flow of the ink. Specifically, it is 2000 to 8000 CPS in the ink tank, but 10 CPS or less in the ball house, and is also called a thixotropic ink. The water-soluble ink to which the thixotropic gelling agent is added is generally called a water-soluble gel ink.

A roller 7 is mounted on the holder 3. In the applicator 1 of this embodiment, a roller 7 having a hollow through which a through hole 31 is provided at the center is employed. The reason why the roller 7 is particularly selected to be hollow is to prevent the roller 7 from dropping off when receiving an impact. That is, since the roller 7 employed in the present embodiment is hollow and has a small mass, the inertial force generated on the roller 7 when the applicator 1 receives an impact is small. Therefore, the applicator 1 of the present embodiment has an effect of preventing the roller 7 from falling off when receiving an impact.

In order to reduce the mass of the roller 7, the same effect can be expected by using a hollow roller as shown in this embodiment, or by using a roller 60 utilizing a porous material as shown in FIG. it can. The holder 3 is a member for holding the roller 7, and is made by injection molding of polypropylene or the like. The outer shape of the holder 3 is roughly divided into three parts: an ink mounting part 8, a pen shaft insertion part 9, and an exposed part 10. The ink mounting section 8 has a circular cross section, and its outer shape is substantially equal to the inner diameter of the ink reservoir 2 described above. In addition, an ink introduction hole 11 is provided at the bottom of the ink mounting section 8.
Is open.

The pen shaft insertion section 9 is also circular in cross section,
It is made slightly thicker than the ink mounting part 8. The outer diameter of the pen shaft insertion part 9 is substantially equal to the inner diameter of the pen shaft 5. Further, the pen shaft insertion portion 9 is provided with two grooves 12 in the axial direction. The groove 12 serves to equalize the air pressure inside and outside the pen shaft 9 and smooth out the ink from the ink mounting section 8 to the holder 3.

The exposed portion 10 has a circular cross section at the boundary with the pen shaft insertion portion 9, and becomes thinner as it goes further. And the front-end | tip part has a ridgeline. That is, the tip of the exposed portion 10 extends in a direction perpendicular to the central axis, and the width of the top surface is small. And, at the tip of the exposed portion 10,
A rectangular tip opening 15 is provided. The width of the tip opening 15 is somewhat smaller than the diameter of the roller 7.

Next, when the eyes are moved to the inside of the holder 3, the ink introduction port 11 and the front end opening 15 communicate with each other through the ink circulation hole 17 and the roller storage portion 18 as shown in FIGS. ing. Here, the cross-sectional shape of the ink circulation hole 17 changes gradually, and the cross-sectional shape of the ink introduction hole 11 is circular.
Therefore, the ink is conveyed to the roller storage section 18 without delay. That is, the ink circulation hole 17 is composed of three parts, a columnar part 19, a narrowed part 20, and a slit part 21 from the ink introduction hole 11 side. In order,
In the ink flow hole 17, the section from the ink introduction hole 11 to the vicinity of the exposed portion 10 has a circular cross section viewed from a plane, and the portion is a columnar portion 19. Then, from the vicinity of the boundary between the exposed portion 10 and the pen shaft insertion portion 9 to the tip end side,
The two surfaces are shaved (the inside of the holder 3 is overlaid), and the cross-sectional shape of the hole viewed from the plane is gradually reduced.

A slit 21 is provided from the top surface of the narrowed portion 20. The tip of the slit 21 is open to the roller housing 18.

The roller housing 18 is a chamber in which the roller 7 is rotatably arranged. The cross-sectional shape of the roller housing 18 is
As shown in FIGS. 4 and 7, it has a polygonal column shape surrounded by an end face 22 and a peripheral face 24. The end face 22 is flat, and the inner method of both is
The length is set to be about 1/100 mm larger than the entire length of the roller 7. The peripheral surface 24 is constituted by four continuous surfaces, and the surface 25 parallel to the axis and the axis-parallel surface 2
5 has two steps of tapered surfaces 28 and 29. Of the two tapered surfaces 28, 29, the tapered surface 28 that is continuous with the axis-parallel surface 25 has an acute angle, and the subsequent tapered surface 29.
Is an obtuse angle, and both tapered surfaces 28 and 29 converge toward the ink flow hole 11 side, more specifically, toward the slit 21. The tapered surface 29 is provided with many shallow grooves. Although the assembling procedure of the applicator 1 of the present embodiment is not particularly limited, the roller 7 is
It is appropriate to house it in the roller housing 18 by press-fitting from the position 5.

When drawing a line with the applicator 1 of this embodiment, the exposed portion of the roller 7 is pressed against the paper with the roller 7 side down. With the roller 7 side down, ink flows from the ink reservoir 2 into the holder 3, and the roller housing 18 is filled with ink. Therefore, when the exposed portion of the roller 7 is pressed against the paper surface and the applicator 1 is moved, the roller 7 rolls,
The ink in the roller housing 18 is transferred to the paper.

When the writing implement 1 is put into a brush stand or the like after finishing writing, the ink does not fall into the ink reservoir 2 side even if the roller 7 is set up with the applicator 1 of this embodiment. . That is, in the applicator 1 of the present embodiment, the taper surfaces 28 and 29 are provided on the ink flow hole side of the roller storage section 18. The gap between the housing 18 is small. In other words, the maximum distance between the roller 7 and the peripheral surface 24 is smaller than that of the related art. To be specific, when the diameter of the roller 7 is 2 mm, the gap between the roller 7 and the roller housing 18 is about 0.16 mm at the maximum in the conventional one-stage taper configuration. On the other hand, according to the configuration of this embodiment, the gap is about 0.04 mm. Therefore, the ink is supplied to the roller 7 and the roller housing 1.
8 is held by the adhesive force or the capillary force, and does not fall into the ink reservoir 2 side. Therefore, even when the applicator 1 is reused, the outflow of ink at the beginning of writing is smooth.

In the above-described embodiment, the taper of the roller accommodating portion has a two-stage configuration. However, the same effect can be obtained with a taper having three or more stages. Further, as shown in FIG. 10, it is also possible to adopt a configuration having an arc surface 30 instead of the taper. In the above-described embodiment, the roller 7
The removal of the roller 7 is simply performed by narrowing the opening of the roller storage portion 18. However, when the removal of the roller 7 is more strictly prevented, a configuration as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 is employed.

In the applicator 40 shown in FIG.
A protrusion 43 is provided inside 1, and the protrusion 43 is engaged with the through hole 31 of the roller 7. 12, the shaft 51 is inserted into the through hole 31 of the roller 7, and the shaft 51 is inserted into the hole 54 provided in the roller housing 53.
It is supported by. Although not shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, in both the applicator 40 of FIG. 11 and the applicator 50 of FIG. 12, the roller storage portions 41 and 53 have slits 21 as in the previous embodiment. A two-stage tapered surface that converges toward it is provided.

Next, with reference to FIG. 14, a description will be given of an applicator in which the applicator of the present invention has been improved to further improve the ink backflow prevention function. In the applicator 70 of this embodiment, the relay core 61 is disposed in the ink circulation hole. The end of the relay core 61 is in contact with the roller 7, and the roller 7 is pressed by the relay core 61 toward the distal end opening 15 of the roller housing 18. Since the relay core is disposed in the ink circulation hole, the ink circulation hole is covered by the relay core.

For this reason, in the applicator of the present invention, the ink stored in the roller and the roller storage portion is unlikely to drop toward the ink reservoir. In addition, if a relay core having a strong capillary force is selected, the roller storage portion 18 may be replaced by the relay core.
Care must be taken because the ink inside may be absorbed and may not function as a lid for the relay core. In addition, since the leading end of the relay core 61 is in contact with the roller 7 and the roller 7 is pressed toward the opening of the roller housing 18 by the relay core 61, the gap between the roller 7 and the opening end is reduced. The ink is held in the portion. Further, the front end opening 15 is brought into a state close to sealing by the roller 7, air is prevented from entering from the front end opening 15, and air replacement in the roller housing 18 is prevented.

The roller 7 is pushed by the relay core 61 and is slightly lifted from the tapered surfaces 28 and 29. When a line or the like is drawn by the applicator 70, the roller 7 is pressed and comes into contact with the tapered surfaces 28 and 29. In this embodiment, since the roller 7 is pressed in the opening direction by the relay core 61, Roller 7 and roller storage unit 1
8 has a small contact force. Therefore, writing is smooth.

[0034]

In the applicator of the present invention, the roller accommodating portion of the holder is formed with two or more steps of taper or arc converging toward the ink circulation hole side, so that the gap between the roller and the inner wall of the roller accommodating portion is provided. Is small, the ink is held by the adhesive force or the capillary force to the inner wall of the roller and the roller housing,
It does not fall toward the ink reservoir. Therefore, the applicator of the present invention has an effect that a clear line can be drawn at any time without blurring of the line at the beginning of writing.

In addition, in the applicator according to the third aspect, the effect of preventing the ink from falling is more remarkable.

Further, in the applicator according to the third aspect, since the roller is in a state of being lifted by the relay core, the contact area between the roller and the seat during writing is small, and the frictional resistance when the roller rotates is reduced. Has a small effect.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, when a strong impact is applied to the writing implement, the inertial force generated in the roller is small,
This has the effect of preventing the rollers from falling off.

[0038]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a holder portion of an applicator according to a specific embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a holder part of the applicator of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part of a roller storage portion of a holder in a state where no roller is provided.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part of a roller storage portion of the holder in a state where there is no roller.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG. 6;

9 is an exploded perspective view, partially in section, of the applicator of FIG. 1;

FIG. 10 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part of a roller storage unit in a state where there is no roller of a holder used in an application tool according to a modified embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part of an applicator according to a modified embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part of an applicator according to another modification of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a perspective view of a roller used in another modification of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a side sectional view of a holder portion of an applicator according to a modified embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a cross-sectional view of a holder portion of a conventional applicator.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 40, 50, 70 Applicator 2 Ink reservoir 3 Holder 5 Pen shaft 7, 60 Roller 15 Tip opening 18, 41, 53 Roller storage unit 28, 29 Tapered surface 30 Arc surface 31 Through hole 61 Relay core

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-50-117526 (JP, A) JP-A 7-780 (JP, U) JP-A 52-26541 (JP, Y1) (58) Investigation Field (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B43K 1/00 B43K 5/00-8/24 B05C 17/00 B43M 11/02

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A holder provided with a roller storage portion and an ink circulation hole is mounted on the tip of an ink reservoir, and a cylindrical roller is disposed in the roller storage portion of the holder. In the applicator projecting outside from an opening provided in a roller storage portion, a cross-sectional shape of the roller storage portion on an ink circulation hole side is a taper of two or more steps converging on the ink circulation hole side. Applicator. 2. A roller storage portion and a holder provided with an ink circulation hole are attached to the tip of the ink reservoir, and a cylindrical roller is disposed in the roller storage portion of the holder. In the applicator that protrudes outside from the opening provided in the roller storage section, the ink circulation holes
And the slit part is in the roller storage part.
Open, roller storage section is arranged so that the roller can rotate
A chamber, and the cross-sectional shape of the ink flow hole side of the roller accommodating portion, the applicator, wherein the Ru arcuate der converging the ink flow hole side. 3. A relay core is provided in the ink circulation hole, and a tip of the relay core is in contact with the roller, and the roller is pressed by the relay core toward an opening of a roller storage portion. The applicator according to claim 1, wherein: 4. The ink reservoir has a viscosity of 8 at room temperature.
The applicator according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein an ink of 000 CPS or less is contained. 5. The applicator according to claim 4, wherein the roller is a hollow body or a porous body.