GB2127752A - Illuminating pen - Google Patents

Abstract

An illuminating pen comprises, a tubular housing 2 having three divided chambers, a writing means 6 being mounted in the bottom chamber 23, a battery 5 being mounted in the intermediate chamber 22 and a light source 8 and a telescopic tube 91 for holding the light source 8 being movably mounted in the top chamber 21. The telescopic tube 91 can be extended outwardly from the tubular housing 1 and then turned downward to lighten the surrounding area for writing in the dark or where the light is poor. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Illuminating pen This invention relates to a writing instrument, such as ballpoint pen, with an illuminating device which can provide a sufficient light to lighten the area near the tip portion thereof for writing in the darkness.

When people write, it is essential to obtain a light source to get a sufficient light. Although there are many light sources obtained heretofore, for convenience and ease of carrying, the applicant has proposed a pen which is incorporated with a light bulb. This pen has a configuration and performance conforming to the conventional pen except the inclusion of a light source which can be pulled out from the pen housing to provide a sufficient visible area at the surrounding of the tip portion of the pen.

According to the present invention, an illuminating pen comprises, a tubular housing, means for partitioning the housing into a top chamber, an intermediate chamber and a bottom chamber, an electrically operated light means movably mounted in the top chamber, an electric source mounted in the intermediate chamber, a writing means mounted in the bottom chamber, and means for connecting the electric source and the light means associated therewith.

In an aspect of the invention, means for partitioning comprises, a metal plate fixed to the wall of the housing between the bottom and intermediate chambers, a printed circuit board fixed to the wall of the housing between the intermediate and top chambers. Preferably, the electric source is a dry cell, the positive terminal thereof being electrically connected to the printed circuit board and the negative terminal thereof being in electrical contact with the metal plate.

In another aspect of the invention, the pen further comprises means for holding the light means disposed in the top chamber and capable of extending outwardiy of the housing and turning downward to a position that can allow the light means to illuminate the area near the bottom of the housing, one end of the holding means being turnably engaged with the top end of the housing when being extended out. The light means is movably connected to another end of the holding means.

According to further aspect of the invention, the holding means comprises a telescopic tube having two connecting rods at the two ends thereof, each of the connecting rods having one end thereof shaped to a ball. The housing further comprises a cut groove in the wall of the housing at the top portion thereof. This cut groove will be engaged with the upper portion of the telescopic tube which is extended and then turned downward.

In still further aspect of the invention, the light means comprises, a lamp casing, an incandescent bulb mounted in the casing, a second printed circuit board connected to the base contact of the bulb, a conductive plate provided between the second printed circuit board and the inner surface of the casing, a conductor connecting the conductive plate and the base contact of the bulb for grounding one terminal of the bulb, a converging lens mounted in said casing for converging rays of light from said incandescent bulb.

In still further aspect of the invention, means for connecting the light means and electric source includes an extensible conducting wire conducting the first and second printed circuit boards. The incandescent bulb produces light when the telescopic conductive tube is engaged with the cut groove.

An object of this invention is to provide an illuminating writing implement, pen or pencil, which can illuminate near the tip portion thereof to provide a sufficient visible area for writing in the dark.

This and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent in the following description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a partially sectioned view of an illuminating pen constructed according to the present invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the illuminating pen constructed according to the present invention; Fig. 3 is a perspective view illustrating the telescopic tube which is drawn out and turned downward for holding the light means near the bottom of the pen; Fig. 4 is an enlarged view showing the upper section of the telescopic tube which is provided with two projections for engaging with the cut groove; Fig. 5 is a sectional view of the light means according to the invention.

In an illustration of an embodiment, a ballpoint pen as shown in Fig. 1 comprises a metal tubular housing 1 which has three divided chambers, namely, top chamber 21, intermediate chamber 22 and bottom chamber 23 for respectively accomodating light means 8, a dry cell 5 and writing means 6. The intermediate chamber 22 and top chamber 21 are partitioned by a printed circuit board 3 which will be discussed in detail hereinafter, and the bottom chamber 23 and intermediate chamber 22 are partitioned by a metal plate 52 which is fixed to the wall of the housing 1.

Referring again to Fig. 1, the writing means 6 includes an ink holder 61 which has a ballpoint nib 62 at the end thereof and is mounted in the bottom chamber 23. The dry cell 5 is disposed in the intermediate chamber 22 with the negative terminal thereof in contact with a spring member 51 which is affixed to the metal plate 52. The positive terminal of the dry cell 5 is in contact with the printed circuit board 3 which has a central through hole (not shown) for electrically connecting the positive terminal to an extensible conducting wire 32 which is soldered to the reverse side of the printed circuit board 3. Now referring to Fig. 2, the tubular housing 1 is constituted of three sections of tubular members 24, 241, 25 and a tappered section 26.The section 25 is connected to the section 24, by a ring member 27 which is internally threaded to couple the threaded ends (not shown) of the sections 24 and 25, and can be detached therefrom for an access of a dry cell 5. The sections 24 is, in turn, connected to the section 241 in a rotatable but undetachable position, whereby the ball point 62 with the ink holder 61 can be made to extend out or retract in the bottom chamber 23 by rotating the section 241 relative to the section 24. This can be accomplished by one of the ways as would be appreciated in the prior art. The section 241 is then connected to tapered section 26 which can be detached therefrom for replacement of the ink holder 61 by a new one.

There is further provided a holding means 9 for holding a light means 8, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3.

This holding means has a telescopic tube 91 which is kept retracted in the top chamber 21 when not in use. At the two ends thereof are provided two connecting rods 92 and 93 each with one ball shaped end, for linking with the top end of the tubular housing 2 and the light means 8.

As shown in Fig. 5, the lamp 8 comprises a lamp housing 81 which has a tubular portion 82 and a hollow hemisphere shaped convergent portion 83. The end of the tubular portion 82 has an inwardly and annularly projected edge 821 so that there is a circular opening 822 which is smaller than the inner cross section of the tubular portion 82. The ball shaped end of the connecting rods 93 is received in the tubular portion 82 and caught by the projected edge 821, thereby placing the light means 8 and the telescopic tube 91 in a linking position.

There is further provided a incandescent bulb 84, of which the base contact 841 is soldered to a printed circuit board 85 which is fixedly mounted in the tubular portion 82, extended to the convergent potion 83 in portion. A resilient member 86, such as, rubber block, and a spring member 87 are further provided between the printed circuit board 85 and the ball shaped end of the connecting rod 93. The spring member 87 biases the ball shaped end to abut against the projected edge 821 and the resilient member 86, which is fixedly mounted in the tubular portion 82, rigidly supports the spring member 87. Due to the ball shaped end of the connecting rod 93, the lamp housing 81 can be turned limitedly about the connecting rod 93 to direct the light rays to a desired area.To increase the illumination of the bulb 84 a converging lens is provided at the end of the hollow hemisphere shaped convergent portion 83.

It can be noted that the top end of the tubular housing 2 has an inwardly and annularly projected edge 211 as best seen in Fig. 3. The projected edge 211 confines a circular opening (not shown) which can allow the outgoing of the light means 8 and the telescopic tube 91, but prevent the outgoing of the ball shaped end of the connecting rod 92 Therefore the connecting rod 92 is engaged with the top end of the tubular hosing 1 when the lamp 8 and the telescopic tube 91 are drawn out of the housing 1. Due to the ball shaped end of the connecting rod 92 the telescopic tube 91 can make a limited movement at top end of the tubular housing 1.

Now referring back to Figs. 2 and 3, there is a cut groove 28 on the wall of the tubular housing which confines the top chamber 21. This cut groove 28 has a shape of triangle portion 281 and a upwardly extended portion 282 which extends to the projected edge 211 at the top of the housing 1. The presence of the cut 28 enables the telescopic tube 91, which is drawn out of the housing 1, to turn to a downward position, as is shown in Fig. 3, by pressing the upper sections of the telescopic tube 91 into the cut 28. It is seen that at this position the telescopic tube 91 inclines at an angle with respect to the axis of the tubular housing 1.The length and the inclining angle of the telescopic tube 91 and the limited inclining angle of the light means 8 with respect to the axis of the telescopic tube 91 are chosen such that the telescopic tube 91 can hold the light means 8 in a position capable of illuminating a visible area at the surrounding of the tip for writing in the dark.

It is preferable that the length of the telescopic tube 91 is about 12.5 cm, the inclining angle thereof is about 20 degree and the limited inclining angle of the light means 8 is about 650 relative to the axis of the telescopic tube 91. With this condition, the incandescent bulb 84 can be located in such a manner that the line from the bulb 84 to the ballpoint 62 substantially inclines the axis of the tubular housing 1 at an angle of 450 and is about 4 cm in length. This predetermined position can be accomplished by properly designing the dimensions of the telescopic tube 91,the ball shaped end of the connecting rods 92 and 93, the cut groove 28, the lamp housing 8 and the tubular housing 1.

There is further provided two projections 911 on the outer surface of the telescopic tube 91 in a diametrically opposed position, as best shown in Fig. 4, for engaging with the edges of the cut groove 28 so that the telescopic tube 91 can be locked in a desired inclining position.

It was described hereinbefore that the printed circuit board 3 has a central through hole (not shown) for electrically connecting the positive terminal to an extensible conducting wire 32 which is soldered to the reverse side of the printed circuit board 3. Now referring again to Figs. 1 and 5, the extensible conducting wire 32 which is shown by a dotted line in Fig. 1 is connected to the printed circuit board 85 by passing through the bore 921 which is provided in the connecting rod 92, the telescopic tube 91, the bore 931 which is provided in the connecting rod 93 and a hole 861 which is provided in the resilient member 86. The extensible conducting wire 32 is in the form of a helical spring as is known in the art.The printed circuit board 85 has a central throughhole 851 that electrically connects the extensible wire 32 and the base contact 841, thereby forming a conducting path from the positive terminal of the dry cell 5 to the base contact 841 of the incandescent bulb 84. it can be easily understood by an ordinary skill in the art from Fig. 1 that the tubular housing 1 is empioyed for grounding the negative terminal of the dry cell 5. The inner surface of the housing 1 which confines the top chamber21 is provided with an insulating layer so that when the light means 8 is within the top chamber 21 it does not work.

Referring again to Fig. 5, there is further provided a copper plate 10 between the printed circuit board 85 and the inner surface of the lamp housing 81, and a conductor 842 electrically connecting the base contact 841 of the bulb 84 and the copper plate 10 which is in contact with the lamp housing 81. The lamp housing 81 is, in turn, in contact with the connecting rod 93 of the telescopic tube 91, thereby forming a conducting path from the base contact 841 to the telescopic tube 91.

When the telescopic tube 91 is drawn out of the housing and put into contact with the tubular housing 1, that is, pressed into the cut groove 28, an electric circuit for illuminating the bulb is closed. This means that the action of pressing the telescopic tube 91 into the cut groove 28 will put the light means 8 to an on-condition in which the incandescent bulb is illuminated. It was shown from a test that the illuminating pen can provide an illumination of 300 lux, near the tip portion of the pen, sufficient for writing in the dark.

With the invention thus explained, it is apparent that obvious modifcations and variations can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims (8)

1. An illuminating writing implement comprising: A tubular housing; means for partitioning said housing into a top chamber, an intermediate chamber and a bottom chamber; an electrically operated light means movably mounted in said top chamber; an electric source mounted in said intermediate chamber; a writing means mounted in said bottom chamber; and means for connecting said electric source and said light means associated therewith.

2. An illuminating writing implement as claimed in Claim 1, wherein means for partitioning comprises, a metal plate fixed to the wall of said housing between said bottom and intermediate chambers, and a first printed circuit board fixed to the wall of said housing between said intermediate and top chambers.

3. An illuminating writing implement as claimed in claim 2, wherein said electric source is a dry cell, the positive terminal thereof being electrically connected to said first printed circuit board, and the negative terminal thereof being in contact with said metal plate for grounding.

4. An illuminating writing implement as claimed in Claim 3, further comprising, means for holding said light means disposed in said top chamber and capable of extending outwardly of said housing and turning downward to a position that can allow said light means to illuminate the area near the bottom of said housing, one end of said holding means being turnably engaged with the top end of said housing when being extended out, and said light means being movably connected to another end of said holding means.

5. An illuminating writing implement as claimed in Claim 4, wherein said holding means comprising a telescopic tube having two connecting rods at two ends thereof, each of said connecting rods having one end thereof shaped to a ball, said housing further comprising a cut groove in the wall of the housing at the top portion thereof, and the upper portion of said telescopic tube being engaged in said cut groove when it is turned downward.

6. An illuminating writing implement as claimed in Claim 5, wherein said light means comprises, a lamp casing, an incandescent bulb mounted in said casing, a second printed circuit board connected to the base contact of said bulb, a conductive plate provided between said second printed circuit board and the inner surface of said casing, a conductor connecting said conductive plate and said casing for grounding one terminal of said bulb, and a converging lens mounted in said casing.

7. An illuminating writing implement as claimed in Claim 6, wherein said connecting means includes an extensible conducting wire connecting the first and second printed circuit boards, and said bulb produces light when said telescopic conductive tube is engaged with said cut groove.

8. An illuminating writing implement substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to accompanying drawings.