MXPA98001223A - Implement to apply a liquid - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an instrument for applying liquid to a support, comprising: a container defining an interior surface, the container is separated in a first storage area for storing fluid and a second storage area with an opening therebetween; a capillary wick having a longitudinal axis, the capillary wick completely fills the opening and extends from the opening through at least a portion of the second storage area to the tip, where the capillary wick has a passage at length of at least a portion of the longitudinal axis of the capillary wick, wherein the capillary wick has an average capillarity, and a storage of the capillary associated with the second storage area and separated from the first storage area such that capillary storage only come into contact with the fluid of the first storage area by means of the capillary wick, where the capillary storage has an average capillarity, where the average capillarity of capillary storage is lower than the average capillarity of the capillary wick, and the passage has a lower capillary than the average capillary storage capillary, where inside the wick capillary there is a capillary air inlet to allow air to enter it to compensate liquids taken from the first storage area of the recipient

Description

IMPLEMENT TO APPLY A LIQUID DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to an implement for applying a liquid to a support through means of an applicator element according to the preamble of appended claim 1. Such an implement is known from DE 41 15 682 and will now be described with reference to Figure 11. Provided with a cover 2 is a partition wall 4, above which a freely movable liquid supply 6 is fitted on the cover. Above the liquid 6 is a volume of air 7, which increasingly replaces the liquid as it is discharged. At its lower end, the cover 2 has tapered front portions 8, with an aperture passed in which a wick 10 is held ending in a writing tip 12 which serves as an applicator element. Extending laterally to the side of the wick 10 through the front portion 8 is a ventilation hole 14. Storage means 16 of capillary material which tightly enclose the wick 10 are accommodated in the space between the front portion 8 and the wall separator 4. The wick 10 completely fills an opening 18 provided in the partition wall 4, so that only the wick 10 projects towards the liquid 6. The capillaries of the wick 10 and the storage means 16 coincide with each other in such a way that the capillarity of the storage means 16 is smaller than that of the wick 10. It will be appreciated that the wick 10 does not involve a uniform degree of capillarity since it has larger and smaller spaces between its fibers or includes statistically distributed pores. The important consideration is that the average capillarity of the wick 10 in the region of the opening 18 is greater than the average capillarity of the storage means 16. It is ensured that, when the implement is passed over a support that is to be written with the writing tip 12, the liquid is sucked by the capillary action through the wick 10 out of the supply of the liquid in the cover 2 into the support and at the same time air passes into the interior of the cover through the pores more large in the wick 10, within the opening 18 in order to replace the liquid that has been discarded in the writing operation. Since the storage means 16 involve a lower level of capillarity or larger capillaries compared to the capillaries of the wick 10, which serve for the supply of air to the liquid 6, the storage means 16, which are directly in contact with the wick 10 'do not completely suck the liquid so that its volume is available as a buffer volume, if the liquid is pushed out of the liquid supply to the wick, for example, due to the thermal expansion of the air volume 7. In this way, the implement of Figure 11 is extremely leak-proof despite its large 1-fluid supply. A particularity of this device is that the liquid that will be applied to a support has to flow through the entire wick 10, which naturally gives rise to a high level of flow resistance, which limits the amount of ink emission from the tip to write 12. In the practical operation that has the result from time to time that when writing quickly or when the liquid is quickly applied, the implement does not give a satisfactory writing or application or image on the medium. It is an object of the invention to improve a liquid application implement as mentioned above, to allow the satisfactory application of a liquid to a support under widely varying conditions and using considerably different liquids. A solution to this object is to provide an implement according to appended claim 1. In the implement according to the invention, the liquid does not have to cover a large distance through a medium with a high level of capillarity, but passes through a passage of low capillarity directly towards the applicator element, which, therefore, can be of a correspondingly short configuration and which no longer has a high level of resistance to flow with respect to the liquid that will be applied to a support, even with a high degree of capillarity. Accordingly, even greater amounts of liquid can be applied to the support in a short time with the implement according to the invention, that is, it is possible to write quickly, print much faster, etc. The sub-claims attached thereto are directed to advantageous embodiments of the implement of the invention. The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view through a first embodiment of an implement according to the invention, Figure 2 is a detailed enlarged view of the implement shown in Figure 1, Figure 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III in Figure 2, Figures 4 to 8 are cross-sectional views of different modalities of the implement according to the invention, Figure 9 is a cross-sectional view through an implement similar to that of Figure 1, the applicator element being in the form of a printing element, Figure 10 is a sectional view. crosswise through an implement similar to that of Figure 2, the applicator element being in the shape of a ball tip, and Figure 11 is a cross-sectional view through the element known gone already described previously. Referring to Figure 1, a writing implement will be operated by hand and comprises a cover 2 with a spacer wall 4. Above the separating wall 4., there is a freely movable liquid supply 6, for example, ink for to write, . above which there is in turn a volume of air 7. Inside the cover 2 above the partition wall 4, there is a space to adapt a large volume of liquid 6 (10 ml or more). In the background the cover 2 ends in a front portion 8 where a wick 10 is held, the wick 10 ends in an applicator or writing tip 12. Extending laterally to the wick side 10 through the front portion 8 is found at least one vent hole 14 or a ventilation passage. The wick 10 extends through the storage means 16 of capillary material, which are arranged in the cover 2 below the separating wall 4, in an opening 18, which is provided in the partition wall 4, and the which is completely full. The storage means 16 comprises the wick 10 in such a way that at least partly it is in direct contact with the wick 10. As the implement of Figure 11, the capillaries of the storage means 16 and the wick 10 they coincide with each other in such a way that the average capillarity of the storage means 16 is smaller than that of the wick 10, while the larger capillaries of the wick 10, inside the opening 18, serve for the introduction of air towards the supply of liquid 6 in order to replace by air the liquid discharged by the writing tip 12. There is a considerable degree of freedom of choice for the material of the wick 10. This may comprise, for example, acrylonitrile polymer, polyester or nylon fibers, or a capillarity component, which is produced in a mold. The storage means 16 may comprise a fibrous, foam or plate type material with capillary gaps between it. In contrast to the state of the art, the wick 10 is formed in its interior with a blind passage 20, which extends axially and directly from the liquid 6 towards the writing tip 12. The dimension of the passage 20 is such that its capillarity is markedly less than that of the storage means 16, so that the liquid passes through the passage 20 directly from the liquid supply 6 to the writing tip 12. It is advantageous if the capillarity of the passage 20, when using normal writing inks, is less than that circular capillarity of the ink. a diameter of 0.1 mm, preferably smaller than that of a capillarity with a diameter of 0.5 mm. Furthermore, it is advantageous if at the end of the passage 20, which is towards the writing tip 12, the wick 10 has capillary whose capillarity is greater than that of the capillary air inlet, which is disposed, for example, inside. of the wick 10 in the region of the opening 18 and / or between the wick 10 and the inner wall of the opening 18 or in any location of the wick 10 between the partition wall 4 and the writing tip 12. In the latter case , the air passes transversely through the wick 10 directly into the passage 20. This ensures that, when the liquid leaves the tip to write 12 when the implement is used to write on a support, the air bubbles are sucked through. of the opening 18 in the volume of the liquid 6. The embodiment illustrated in Figure 1, wherein the passage 20 is completely enclosed by the capillary material of the wick 10, ensures a reliable feeding of the liquid to the passage 20 by a l While on the other hand, the storage means 16 which with their low capillarity material are in direct contact with the wick 10 can be released into operation. In the embodiment described in Figure 1, the blind passage 20 is produced through a method by which a wick known per se is received in a device having an internal hole whose diameter corresponds to that of the wick and a bar that corresponds to the passage 20 that will be formed is propelled towards the wick, in which case, the wick advantageously comprises a thermoplastic material and is heated to a temperature of, for example, 80 ° C during the operation of driving the bar towards the wick .

Figure 2 is an enlarged scale view of the embodiment of Figure 1, turned to 90 ° and with a modified configuration for opening 18. In this embodiment, as can be seen particularly from Figure 3, the opening 18 is provided with grooves 22 that offer well defined capillaries, which serve for the supply of air to the liquid space 6 above the partition wall 4 in Figure 1 or to the right of the partition wall 4 in Figure 2. When only the larger holes of the wick 10 are used to provide the air supply, the capillarity must be a little larger, that is, the ink flow may be too light, for some situations of use. In contrast, the slots 22 can ensure an exactly defined capillarity, which is smaller than that of the wick 10 but greater than that of the storage means 16. The modality shown in Figure 4 does not have a passage formed by a blind passage. 20 inside the wick 10 as in the embodiment of Figure 1, but through two blind passages 24 and 26 defined within the tube portions, which have a U-shape in cross-section and which, extending as far as possible. length of the wick 10, lead from the separating wall 4 to the portion 8 and the feed liquid directly to the lower region of the wick 10. Otherwise, the embodiment of Figure 4 corresponds in terms of its function to the mode shown in Figure 1, the passages 24, 26 only extending outwardly from the wick 10 but directly joining thereto. As is immediately apparent from Figures 1 and 4, the passages 20 in Figure 1 and 24 and 26 in Figure 4 are of a considerable axial length, which in normal writing implements is on the scale of less than 0.5 cm, so that it is possible to surround the flow resistant to the wick 10 or the total flow resistance for the liquid that is applied can be considerably reduced. The embodiment of Figure 5 differs from that of Figure 1 in that the wick is of a two-part nature, mainly in the form of a hollow wick 11 leading to an applicator or writing tip 13. The two parts 11 and 13 are advantageously and sealably enclosed at their junction by the front portion 8, so that the liquid passes freely directly to the writing tip 13 through the passage 20. In the illustrated embodiment, the vent hole 14 is arranged at a location on the front portion 8, away from the writing tip 13. It will be appreciated that ventilation or air consumption can occur at any suitable location, for example, also through larger capillaries of the writing tip 13, directly to passage 20. The embodiment of Figure 6 does not have a wick leading directly from the liquid supply 6 to the writing tip 13. A portion of tube 28 of material, which is impervious to liquid, is conducted from the opening 18 to the front portion 8 and there feeds ink directly towards the writing tip 13 held on the front portion 8, through the passage 29 formed inside the portion of tube 28. At its junction, the tube portion 28 and the writing tip 13 are advantageously and sealingly enclosed by the front portion 8. Arranged around the tube portion 28 is a hollow wick 32, which directly joins the material capillary of the storage means 16 and extends from the opening 18. The capillary elements are coincident, so that the writing tip 13, which is in the shape of a wick portion in the embodiment of Figure 6, is greater than that of the hollow wick 32, at least in the opening 18 which in turn is larger than that of the storage means 16. In that form the part of the hollow wick 32, which is in the opening 18, performs the function of air supply to the liquid supply 6 and charges the storage means 16 with a volume of damping liquid in the case of an increase in the pressure in the volume of air 7, for example, after an increase in the temperature. In the embodiment shown in Figure 7, a passage 34 leads directly from the liquid supply 6 to a central region of the wick .10, which ends downstream at the writing tip. 12 and which is connected upwards to the capillary storage means 16 through an additional separating wall 36 in the cover 2. The air supply to the liquid supply 6 occurs through the ventilation hole 14 towards the space where the storage means 16 are arranged and from through the larger pores of the part of the wick 10, which is in an opening 38 in the additional separating wall 36, in the passage 34. The relationships between the individual capillaries correspond to those of the embodiment of Figure 1, the opening 38 performing the function of the opening 18 of the embodiment of Figure 1. The embodiment of the implement shown in Figure 8 corresponds to that of Figure 6, but here, the passage 29 in Figure 6 it is replaced by the passage 34 in Figure 8 and the hollow wick 32 in Figure 6 is replaced by a portion of wick 40. Ventilation occurs through the capillaries of the part of the wick portion 40, which is in the opening 18, where the capillarity of the wick portion 40 again must be less than that of the writing tip 13, but greater than that of the storage means 16 so that. under normal conditions, the storage means 16 does not completely suck all of the ink by itself.

The embodiment of Figure 9 corresponds to that of Figure 5, but here the hollow wick 11 ends directly on a printing element 42 that serves as the applicator element. Since the embodiments of Figures 1 to 8 are intended for an operation mode wherein the liquid is applied to the support through mechanical contact and the relative movement between the writing tip 12 and the support, the implement of Figure 9 operates in such a way that the printing element 42 is connected to an electrical drive device (not shown) for spraying quantities of liquid onto a support in a deliberate and objective manner. The modality of the implement shown in Figure 10 corresponds to that shown in Figure 5, with the exception that the one fastened to the front portion 8 is a ball point tip 44 known per se, which is applied with writing liquid directly from the writing tip. of the embodiment shown in Figure 5, which is in a form of a wick portion. In all embodiments of the implement according to the invention as shown in Figures 1 to 10, it is possible to use the more widely varying applicator elements such as felt pen tips, fine tips for painting and drawing, tips for brush, printing elements, ball point tips, other writing tips, and the like. Instead of wicks of wick portions, it is also possible to use individual capillary passages or ducts, whose capillarity corresponds to the mean capillarity of the replaced wick; such passages or capillary ducts extend in functional terms parallel to the wick or transversally through the wick, which they replace, depending on the function performed. For example, in the embodiment of Figure 5, the hollow wick 11 can be replaced by a passage or duct that performs the function of the passage 20. One or more passages or capillary ducts, which connect the passage 20 to the storage means 16, can be conducted transversely through the wall of the passage or duct, which replaces the hollow wick 11. It will be appreciated that the above-described embodiments of the invention have been established only by way of example and that various modifications can be made to the without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims (20)

1. An implement for applying liquid to a support, which includes: a container for a freely movable liquid (6), capillary storage means (16) for temporarily receiving liquid from a change in air pressure and / or ambient temperature, a applicator element (12; 13; 42; 44) formed as a tip element for writing, for drawing or brush or printing, a capillary air inlet for compensation of liquid taken from the container, characterized in that a passage (20; 24; 26; 29; 34) to transport the liquid is partially or completely linked over the distance between the container with the liquid (6) and the applicator element (12; 13; 42; 44), the passage is not directly in communication with the storage means (16) and is of a capillarity smaller than that of the storage means.

2. An implement according to claim 1, wherein the passage (20; 24; 26; 29; 34) is of a capillarity that on average is smaller than that of the circular capillarity of a diameter of 0.5 mm, preferably 0.1 mm.

3. An implement according to any of the preceding claims, wherein at the end of the pass (20; 24; 26; 29; 34) that is toward the applicator element (12; 13; 42; 44), one is provided. or more capillaries whose capillarity is greater than that of the capillary air inlet.

4. An implement according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the passage (20; 24; 26; 29; 34) is connected to the storage means (16) through capillaries whose capillary is at an average higher than that of the storage media.

5. An implement according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the passage (20; 24; 26; 29; 34) is partially or completely enclosed by a capillary material.

6. An implement according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the passage (20; 24; 26; 29;) is led through the storage means (16) towards the applicator element (12; 13; 42; 44) .

7. An implement according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the passage (20) is formed within a capillary wick (10; 11).

8. An implement according to claim 7, wherein the wick (10) comprises a thermoplastic material and the passage (20) is formed through the expansion of the wick by means of a bar in the heated condition.

9. An implement according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the passage (24; 26; 29) is partially or completely enclosed in a tubular configuration by a material which is impervious to liquid.

10. An implement according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the passageway (34) extends towards a capillary element (10) communicating with the applicator element (12) and storage means (16).

11. An element according to any of claims 1 to 10, wherein the air inlet is formed through capillary material (10; 40).

12. An implement according to any of claims 1 to 10, wherein the air inlet is formed through a capillary slot (22).

13. An implement according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the applicator element (12; 13; 44) is in the form of a capillary writing tip (12) at the end of a capillary wick (10; 11; 13), which opens directly towards the liquid container, the storage means (16) are directly in contact with the material of the wick at a location remote from the liquid in the container, and the passage (10; 24; 26) extends along the wick over a part of its length.

14. An implement according to claim 13, wherein the region of the passage (10) the wick is in the form of a hollow wick (11) joined through the writing tip (13; 42; 13; 44) in the form of a separate component.

15. An implement according to claim 13, wherein the passage (24, 26) is formed through at least a portion of the tube, which leads through. of the storage means (16) and which is closed towards it, but which is open towards the wick (10) at least in the extreme region of the passage, which is towards the applicator element (12).

16. An implement according to claim 2, wherein the passage (20) is formed through a blind passage provided within the wick (10) and extending from the liquid container.

17. An implement according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the storage means (16) are connected to the liquid container (6) through its own capillary wick (32; 40) of greater capillary than that of the means storage.

18. An implement according to claim 17, wherein the passage (29) is formed through a portion of tube (28), which extends through the wick (32) of the storage means ( 16) that communicates with the element 1st applicator (12) with the liquid container (6).

19. An implement according to any of the preceding claims, wherein a space in which the capillary storage means I5 (16) is arranged communicates directly with the ambient atmosphere through a ventilation opening (14).

20. An implement according to any 20 of the preceding claims, wherein within the container a relatively large volume of freely mobile liquid can be adapted. (6)