Abstract:
The present invention is aimed to provide a detachably snap-together pen, the figurine coupled to the pen is composed of a plurality of components, the components can be snapped together in different orientations. This pen comprises a hollow, open end barrel  10,  a figurine  20  coupled to the barrel and a cartridge  30  mounted inside the barrel. A figurine  20  is composed of at least one of components, each of the components has relative bumps  21  and recesses  22,  snapping together the components through the joints of bumps  21  and recesses  22  to form a figurine to couple to a barrel; thus an entertaining assemblage effect is achieved.

Description:
FIELD OF THE PRESENT INVENTION  
       [0001]     The present invention is related to a pen can be taken apart and re-assembled repeatedly particularly to a plurality of components assembled to form a pen in pleasurable patterns with educate entertaining effects.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION  
       [0002]     There are kinds of lovely pens on the market, one of them is disclosed in the Taiwan Patent No.: M248625 entitled “variable patterned figurine adapted to a pen” assigned to Cheng, Dido on 11 Sep. 2003 comprising: a barrel has a figurine at top end, the head of the figurine is adorned with several pliable bodies, said pliable body is a deformable steel wire wrapped by an elastomer.  
         [0003]     The problems of the pens of prior arts usually have not to disassemble into different tiny parts. Even if a pen were taken apart, the tiny parts, for example, such as refill, cap, or barrel, could not be re-assembled like a “logo type play surface”. A lone refill is not expected to write. A barrel, a cap are also deserted parts, though they could not be combined with the refill to form a pen. As a result, pen for writing or drawing has no further heuristic, or educate entertaining effects for children to develop their capability to be creative, imaginative. Meanwhile, pens of prior arts might not be designed for a purpose of illuminating—while writing, the pen is illuminated, otherwise, the pen is not illuminated—thus, pens of the prior arts are not attractive to the young children.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention is to provide a detachably snap-together pen comprising: a hollow, open end barrel  10 , a figurine  20  coupled to a barrel and a cartridge  30  disposed in the barrel characterized in that a figurine  20  is composed of at least one component, each of the components has the corresponding bumps  21  and recesses  22 , snaps together the components through the joint of bumps  21  and recesses  22  to form a figurine coupled to a barrel;  
         [0005]     Said components are snapped together through the joint of bumps  21  and recesses  22  in the orientation as one of the following: front and rear, right and left, up and down, or in oblique symmetry;  
         [0006]     A cartridge  30  is received in the barrel  10  and then an open top end of the barrel  10  is covered with a cap  40 ;  
         [0007]     A bottom component of the figurine  20  is a detachable component formed with the barrel  10  as a whole by injection molding;  
         [0008]     A bottom component of the figurine  20  is a detachable component coupled to the top end of barrel  10  by bumps and recesses coupling;  
         [0009]     An illuminating device  50  secured to the top end of the cartridge  30 , the cartridge  30  is received in the open-end barrel  10 ;  
         [0010]     Said illuminating device  50  lights up or not is switched by a finger-touch triggering switch;  
         [0011]     Said illuminating device  50  lights up or not is switched by a press-button triggering switch;  
         [0012]     Said illuminating device  50  lights up or not is switched by a cartridge  30 , the illuminating device  50  comprises a base  51 , an LED  52  mounted in an upper trough  511  of the base  51 , the LED  52  has two leads, a short lead is led into a lower trough  512 , a long lead  522  is led into the vertical trough  513  then goes across the base  51 ; two or three batteries  53  mounted in the lower trough  512  of the base  51 , the anode of the battery is in contact with a short lead  521  of the LED  52 , a compressing spiral spring  54  is provided to fit over the circumference of base  51 , an upper end of the compressing spiral spring  54  is in contact with the long lead  522  of the LED  52 ; a conductive cap  55  is in contact with a lower end of the compressing spiral spring  54  and keeps a gap from the batteries  53  in the base  51 , the conductive cap  55  resists the cartridge  30 .  
         [0013]     In practice, the present invention can be practiced to achieve the advantages as following:  
         [0014]     1. The detachably snap together pen is attractive to young children to write or draw with pleasure; especially the figurine  20  of the pen  100  can be taken apart into detachable components but the pen still can be in use. Young children can repeatedly enjoy the pleasure of detachably snap together the figurine and coupled them to the barrel of pen. In which, young children are accustomed to the variable changes of a writing instrument.  
         [0015]     2. The components of the pen are not limited to arrange in only one orientation. It is snapped together in the orientation of front and rear, right and left, up and down, or in oblique symmetry. Somewhat a few difficult obstacles challenge children pay more attention, efforts to complete the assembled work. It is heuristic for developing the children&#39;s creative, imaginative capabilities.  
         [0016]     3. The cartridge  30  in the barrel  10  sealed by a cap  40  in the top end—an open end of the barrel  10 , the writing instrument provides the cartridge hidden in the barrel with no damage.  
         [0017]     4. Base component of the figurine  20  is a detachable component formed with the barrel  10  as a whole by injection molding; the figurine  20  can be coupled to the barrel  10  based on said base component.  
         [0018]     5. Base component of the figurine  20  can be coupled to the top end of barrel  10  in bumps and recesses coupling manner. Figurine  20  can be combined to the barrel  10  or detached from the barrel  10  completely.  
         [0019]     6. An illuminating device  50  is added to the top end of the cartridge  30  mounted inside the barrel  10 . While illuminating, light rays pass through the figurine with refraction to produce shinning, interesting effects.  
         [0020]     7. By means of a finger-touch triggering switch mounted on the barrel  10 , the illuminating device  50  is manipulated by hand to emit light or not.  
         [0021]     8. By means of a press-button triggering switch mounted on the barrel  10 , the illuminating device is manipulated by hand to emit light or not.  
         [0022]     9. By means of a cartridge  30  applied to write or not, the LED  52  can be actuated to light or dim automatically, even illuminate the emitting light device  50  without a switch to turn on/off. Actuating the emitting light device by writing automatically is rather more convenient than manipulated by hand. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0023]      FIG. 1  is an exploded perspective view of the first embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0024]      FIG. 2  is a partial exploded perspective view of the first embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0025]      FIG. 3  is a partial exploded perspective view of the first embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0026]      FIG. 4  is an assembled view of the first embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0027]      FIG. 5  is a schematic view of the first embodiment of the present invention in practice;  
         [0028]      FIG. 6  is a plan view after assembly of the second embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0029]      FIG. 7  is a schematic view of the emitting light device of the second embodiment of the present invention before the device lights up; and  
         [0030]      FIG. 8  is a schematic view of the emitting light device of the second embodiment of the present invention when the device lights up. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS  
       [0031]     The description is described according to the appended drawings hereinafter.  
       First Embodiment  
       [0032]     Refer to  FIG. 1 . An exploded perspective view of the present invention is illustrated. In  FIG. 1 , an assembled pen  100  (exemplary embodiment of a dolphin figurine) comprises a barrel  10 , a figurine  20  coupled to the barrel  10 , a cartridge  30  mounted inside the barrel  10 , and a cap  40  used for covering the cartridge  30  put in the barrel  10 . After assembly, the assembled view of pen  100  is illustrated in  FIG. 4 .  
         [0033]     As mentioned-above, the figurine  20  is composed of at least one of components  201 ˜ 217 . Each component is shaped in the same or different pattern. After snapped together, the components can be formed as a dolphin figurine. The components of the present invention is not only used to form a dolphin figurine, but also used to form as a cobra, a hippocampus, a giraffe, kinds of animals, plants, cartoon characters or toy figurine. Because there are a lot of embodiments can be practiced, so the present invention is not restricted to a specific pattern of the figurine  20 .  
         [0034]     Furthermore, this embodiment is snapped together by 17 components  201 ˜ 217  to form a figurine  20 . But the components of this embodiment is not only restricted to 17 components as the  FIG. 1  illustrated, more than 17 components or less than 17 components are also applicable in this embodiment. However, more components are accommodated to snap together a deformable figurine  20 , more alternative steps can be found to shape a new pattern. In other words, at least one component up to twenty, thirty or forty more components being snapped together to form a figurine, numbers of the components should not be restricted to the scope of the claims of the present invention.  
         [0035]     Aforesaid component  215  and the barrel  10  can be formed integrally as a whole by injection molding process. In which the top end of barrel  10  can be formed as a bump pedestal (refer to  FIG. 6 ), which is embedded into a recessed trough formed on the bottom of component  215 . As a result, figurine  20  can be coupled to the barrel  10  integrally with the component  215  based on bumps and recesses snapped together effect. Figurine  20  is not only formed by injection molding process, bumps and recesses snapped together process, but also by adhesive, welding, or screwing processes. But the figurine  20  is preferable to be formed by injection molding process and snapped together by bumps and recesses process.  
         [0036]     Refer to FIGS.  2  or  3 . Partial exploded views of the present invention are illustrated. In which, each of the components  201 ˜ 203  has the relative bumps  21  and recesses  22 . Joint of bumps  21  and recesses  22  can be snapped together in the orientation of front and rear, right and left, up and down or in oblique symmetry to form as a whole. Such as a head portion of dolphin exemplary embodiment illustrated as shown in  FIG. 2 , or a waist portion of dolphin exemplary embodiment illustrated as shown in  FIG. 3 , because each component is shaped in different pattern, in the process of snapped together, users are to consider the orientation of the components and then match them in sequence. Snapping together of figurine is not simply a task completed through one-way thinking, but a challenge of “brain storming”, and then the figurine is coupled to the barrel correctly. It is benefitic for developing the creative, imaginative capacity of the children so that a pen is to be used as a lego type play surface.  
         [0037]     As mentioned above, joint of bumps  21  and recesses  22  includes that a male bump matched with a female recess. Such as spherically male bump adapted to a round recess, a pyramid bump coupled with square recess, and cylindrical male bump engaged with round recess.  
         [0038]     Furthermore, because the lovely patterns of the figurine, it is attractive to the children&#39;s attention. The pattern of the figurine  20  is preferred to comply with the principle of ergonomics. Particularly, the components  214 ˜ 217 , after snapped together, closely conforms to the shape of a portion of the hand between the thumb and the index finger. So the pattern of figurine is designed to adapt to the children&#39;s grip portion between the thumb and the index finger. It is helpful for children&#39;s writing or drawing. In practice, the embodiment of the present invention is illustrated as shown in  FIG. 5 .  
       Second Embodiment  
       [0039]     Refer to  FIG. 6 . After snapping together, a plan view of the second embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. It is different from the first embodiment, for an emitting light device  50  is added to the top end of the cartridge  30  in the barrel  10 . Controlling the emitting light device  50  whether to light up or not is illustrated in many different ways, such as a finger touch triggering switch mounted on the barrel  10  (not shown), a press button triggering switch mounted on the barrel  10  (not shown), or a cartridge  30  received in the barrel  10  in contact with an emitting light device  50 . In which, the finger touch or press button switch is generally a small switch manipulated by hand, mounted on the round circumference or multi-sided symmetrical perimeter of the barrel  10 . By finger touching, or pressing down the button, the emitting light device  50  is activated to conduct negative current and then light up. It is a conventional technique, so we only discuss the structure and function briefly as above. Since cartridge  30  used to control the emitting light device  50  to light up is a touch control means, the structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,700 entitled “Touch control emitting light apparatus” assigned to the applicant Hsu, Ming-Tay on Dec. 5, 2000. It comprises a base  51 , an LED  52  mounted in an upper trough  511  of the base  51 , the LED  52  has two leads, a short lead is led into a lower trough  512 , a long lead  522  is led in the vertical trough  513  then goes across the base  51 ; two or three batteries  53  mounted in the lower trough  512  of the base  51 , the anode of the battery is in contact with a short lead  521  of the LED  52 , a compressing spiral spring  54  fits over the circumference of base  51 , the upper end of the spring connected to the long lead  522  of the LED  52 ; a conductive cap  55  is in contact with the lower end of the compressing spiral spring  54  keeps a gap from the batteries  53  in the base  51 , the conductive cap  55  resists the cartridge  30 .  
         [0040]     Refer to  FIG. 7 . As mentioned above, the short lead  521  of the LED  52  is in contact with the anode of the battery  53 , while the cartridge  30  is not applied to write, the cartridge  30  and the conductive cap  55  is urged by the same compressing spiral spring  54  to descend. The dot  551  projected from the center of top surface of the conductive cap  55  is not in contact with the cathode of the battery  53 . The negative electricity current is not conducted to the LED  52  so that the LED  52  is not illuminated.  
         [0041]     Refer to  FIG. 8 . The cartridge  30  is pressed to retract back into the barrel  10 , the conductive cap  55  ascent, then dot  551  projected at the center of the top surface of the conductive cap  55  is in contact with the cathode of the battery  53 . Conducting negative current via the conductive cap  55 , and spring  54  to the long lead  522  of the LED  52 , the LED  52  is already in contact with a short lead having positive current, now is electrified with the conducted negative current to light up. Conversely, the cartridge  30  is not used to write, conductive cap  55  being resisted by the compressing spiral spring  54 , it will be not electrified through the spring, the LED  52  restored to the dim state.  
         [0042]     By means of the aforesaid cartridge  30  applied to contact, to control the emitting light device  50  directly, which is activated to light or dim automatically.