FR2739591A1 - Holder for felt=tipped pens and other writing and drawing instruments - Google Patents

Abstract

The holder consists of a base (1) of an elastic, semi-elastic or rigid material, made with a series of blind holes (2) in its upper face to receive the pens (7). Each hole is equipped with at least one supple circular valve (4) which adapts automatically to the dimensions of the pen, and has a sealed chamber (5). - The valve are in the form of rings inside the holes, made with edges which are rounded, pointed or flat. The axes of the holes can be vertical or inclined. The base can also have other holes in it to receive small objects.

Description

 The present invention relates to the field of plugs for graphic tools, a stylus with a lead point, a ball, a pen or a felt.

 For the sake of ease of reading, the term "markers" will be used (in place of pencil, ball point, pen or felt tip pen), this invention being more particularly intended for this precise field.

 The felts are fitted with a removable stopper which allows the wick of the felt not to dry in the open air and more secondly to prevent those who use it from getting stained between two uses.

 The largest number of felt users are children. At home, as in classes, and more particularly in kindergarten, children regularly forget to recap their felts with the consequences: various stains, tip drying, loss of corks, therefore significant waste. This forces parents and teachers to constantly fill in the felt pens behind the children and to continuously buy pockets.

 Other problems: children often chew the corks and they quickly find themselves out of use. Children also run the risk of swallowing them (although legislation currently requires corks to be fitted with an anti-suffocation system, a risk of suffocation remains, however).

 In addition there is no practical storage system adapted to the life of a class and the teachers have no really satisfactory solutions, any more than for their parents' home.

 This invention therefore proposes to respond to these problems. It is a base comprising on its upper face blind holes, possibly fitted with valves. These holes are provided to receive the felts.

They are designed to replace plugs. They can be of universal types to be able to adapt to felts of various diameters or of a particular type to adapt to only one kind of felts.

 The use of this base is extremely simple: the felts are stitched into the base, the valve system encloses the felts, thus creating an airtight chamber. To use the felts, simply remove them from the base and put them back after use.

 The device, by replacing the removable felt caps, therefore proposes to be at the same time an efficient presentation, conservation and storage system.

 In the case of a class such a felt-tip base can be put on a collective table for four children, after use it can easily be seen that a felt is missing because the empty hole reveals the absence. In the case of a specific felt base the instructions for use remain the same, but it can only be used for the precise brand of felts for which it was designed.

This base therefore makes it possible - to completely cancel the risk of swallowing a cork; - cancel the loss of traffic jams and therefore keep
longer wet felts; - to have tips better irrigated since the felts
are kept spikes at the bottom; - instantly have all the
colors; - avoid constantly replacing the caps when
colors must be changed very quickly; - to serve several users at the same time; - to be a fast, efficient and
convenient; - to quickly show if a felt tip is missing,
the corresponding hole revealing itself empty; - to show the color of the missing felt if the turn of
holes are marked with a color.

 This base can be in its external shape of morphology and variable dimension. It can be geometric or figurative (for example non-limiting round, square, oval ... ladybug, flower, dinosaur, snake ...). . It can include a variable number of holes depending on whether it is intended to receive ten, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four or thirty-six markers to give only examples. In its simplest form to manufacture and most practical for storage, we will retain for example a rectangular base with two rows of six holes, which corresponds to the most commonly sold pockets of 12-color felt pens.

 What therefore characterizes more particularly this invention is the particular shape of its holes: they are blind, that is to say plugged at the bottom and designed in such a way that they adapt perfectly to the felts.

 Either they are made in a rigid or semi-rigid material and can only be adapted to felts for which they have been precisely designed, or they are made in an elastic material and of such shape that they can be universal.

 This material must then have enough flexibility to move away, but also have a good capacity to resume its original form. In addition, it must have good resistance to tearing.

 To be universal, these holes have at least one circular valve: this circular valve makes it possible to prevent the felt from drying out since, elastic, it strictly encloses the diameter of the felt.

Several forms of holes are possible as well as several forms of valves.

 According to particular embodiments - the holes can be of precise shapes, or in a cone or in part of a cylinder, or both, with a central axis symmetry or even they may not have this central symmetry (square holes by example) but the valves, they, must always be able to adapt to the circumference of the felts.

- the valves are perpendicular to the axis of the hole and circular in shape; on the edge n the valves can be rounded, pointed or with flat edges.

- the axes of the holes can be vertical or inclined towards the outside of the base to allow better grip of the felts.

- the base can be fitted at its periphery, at its center or both at once with one or more housings making it possible to receive other office objects such as eraser, glue, etc.

- The base may have a depression on its lower face, in the center. Thus, when pressing on the base in the middle, on top, the air is expelled from the depression, and the base is better retained on the table by suction effect; or it can be fitted with one or more real suction cups.

 The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention 1 Figure 1 shows with a sectional view of the principle of this invention, a felt being drawn introduced inside the device.

2 Figures 2 to 6 show in section different forms of possible holes, non-limiting examples.

3 Figure 7 gives a non-limiting example of a particular base (base provided for a specific form of felt).

4 Figure 8 shows in section the possible location of a depression acting as a suction cup, non-limiting example.

5 Figures 9 to 11 show in section different possible locations of housings for small office equipment. These examples are not limitative.

With reference to these drawings, the device comprises a base made of rigid, semi-rigid or elastic material (1), it is provided on its upper face (3) with blind holes (2) equipped with at least one valve (4), (except in special cases
Fig. 7 where it is the shape of the hole (16) which fulfills the function).

 With reference to these drawings, the device shows that when a felt (7) is introduced into a hole (2) in the felt-tip base (1) it spreads out then is compressed slightly but effectively by the valve (s) (4) which creates an airtight chamber (5) equivalent to that formed by a traditional removable plug. It is thanks to their elasticity that the valves can adapt to different sizes of felts, provided that these are round or of shape close to the round (hexagonal for example).

In addition, the axis of the hole (6) makes it possible to guide and maintain the axis of the felt in an identical direction.

 The edges of the valves can be rounded (9), pointed (10), or flat (11).

 Regarding the example of a particular base (Fig. 7) we see that the felt-tip base behaves like a multiple stopper and that each hole (16), being precisely drawn in relation to a felt of a determined shape (17), encloses it exactly thus creating an airtight chamber (5) as would a plug for this felt intended.

 A base can be equipped, on its lower face (12), with a depression acting as a suction cup (13), the holes being drawn diagrammatically (18).

 According to a variant not illustrated, the base can be provided on its underside with one or more real suction cups.

 According to a variant not illustrated, the axis of the holes (6) can be inclined outwards, therefore relative to the vertical, to allow gripping of the felts even easier.

 A base can be equipped with one or more housings (14) (15) intended to receive small objects, the holes being drawn diagrammatically (18).

 By way of nonlimiting example, a base will have external dimensions of 10 by 15 by 7 cm with holes 6.5 cm deep.

 These bases can be manufactured by perforation in a block of material, by casting in a mold or by the technique of superposition of the layers, each layer being precisely perforated using a multiple punch and then heat-sealed on the lower layer.

 These felt-tip bases are intended for all users of felts, professional or non-professional designers, adults or children. Their use would be particularly suitable for schools and the homes of young children. They are likely to be sold both by educational material companies and in large and small surfaces in the stationery department.

Claims (7)

 1) Device for replacing felt caps or other writing tools characterized in that it consists of a base of elastic, semi-elastic or rigid material (1) carrying blind holes (2) on its upper face (3) fitted with at least one circular valve (4) into which point-side graphic tools (7) are introduced.  2) Device according to claim 1 characterized in that these holes (2), acting as an airtight chamber (5), can be equipped with at least one circular valve (4), flexible, fitting strictly around graphic tools (7) of different diameters.  3) Device according to claim 1 or claim 2 characterized in that the edges of the valves can be rounded (9), pointed (10) or flat (11)  4) Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that these blind holes (16) can be of a precise morphology, identical to the internal shape of a plug, corresponding to a particular graphic tool (17), in this specific case the valve is not essential.  5) Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the axis of the holes (6) can be inclined relative to the vertical.  6) Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that these bases can be equipped, on their lower face (12), with a depression acting as a suction cup (13) or with one or more true suction cups.  7) Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a base can be equipped with one or more housings (14) (15) intended to receive small objects.