Secured pen and holder

A pen and pen holder arrangement provides security for retaining the pen and in which no tools are required to replace a used up pen. A pen with a flexible tether that terminates in a ball is employed together with a holder that receives the ball. The holder has a base with an opening adequate to pass the ball through and a transport that rotates within the base so that the ball can be moved from an insertion state to a holding state. In the holding state, the track has a dimension that holds the ball within the holder. A rotatable base cover that rotates with the transport obscures the transport from view and has a longitudinal slot opening enlarged at one end to permit the ball to be passed into the holder and otherwise a slot to permit the tether to move with the ball into the holding state.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
 This invention relates in general to a secured pen and pen holder designed 
 to facilitate replacement of the pen in the holder. 
 The utility of this invention is for places such as banks, post offices and
 other public locations where the pen is provided by the establishment for 
 use by its customers. 
 A pen replacement procedure for a secured pen usually involves a 
 maintenance person when the pen is to be replaced either because the pen 
 has run out of ink or because it has been stolen. 
 An example of a secured pen is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,536 issued 
 Oct. 13, 1987. This patent teaches attaching a coin-like disk to the far 
 end of the tether that is connected to the pen. The pen holder or base 
 includes a slot into which the disk can be placed and which serves to 
 prevent removing the pen. 
 When the pen runs out, replacement requires that a tool be used. For 
 example, shears appropriate to cut the tether may have to be employed. 
 This means calling in maintenance personnel. 
 As a practical matter, in large institutional use, it is important that the
 secured pen be removable from the base and replaceable without requiring a
 tool. This permits any person to make the change. It tends to assure that 
 when the pen has to be replaced, it will be replaced because there is no 
 need to either find the tool or to find the person who is authorized to 
 use the tool. By assuring the ready replacement of pens, a substantial 
 problem of customer complaint concerning inoperative pens is avoided. 
 Accordingly, the primary object of this invention is to provide a pen and a
 pen holder which permit quick and easy replacement of the pen in the pen 
 holder without requiring the use of a tool to either remove the pen from 
 the pen holder or to attach the pen to the pen holder. 
 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
 In brief, one embodiment of this invention employs an affixed base having a
 cylindrical sidewall. Inside the base is a rotatable transport disk having
 a recess in the wall. It is called a transport herein because of its 
 function, which is best understood in connection with the rest of the 
 mechanism of the pen holder. A cylindrical cover fits over the base. It 
 covers the base and also covers the transport. 
 A pen assembly has a pen body to which is attached a flexible tether. The 
 far end of the flexible tether has a bulbous ball like element which 
 performs the function of a stop when the pen assembly is received in the 
 pen holder. 
 An important relationship is that between a circular opening in the 
 sidewall of the base cover, a comparable circular opening in the base and 
 the above mentioned recess in the transport. When these two openings and 
 the recess are placed in radial alignment, the pen holder is in the state 
 to have the pen assembly either removed or inserted. 
 Adjacent to the opening in the base is a circumferential slot having a 
 height great enough to accommodate the tether and small enough to prevent 
 the stop at the end of the tether from being pulled through the slot. When
 the pen assembly is being coupled to the pen holder, the stop at the end 
 of the tether is inserted through the hole in the base cover and through 
 the hole in the base and into the recess in the transport. 
 A rotatable knob extends through a top opening in the base cover and into 
 the transport to engage the transport. Knob rotation causes the transport 
 to rotate relative to the stationary base. 
 When the stop is received in the recess of the transport and the transport 
 rotates, this rotation causes the stop to move with the transport thereby 
 causing the tether to abut against the wall of the opening in the cover. 
 Accordingly, rotation of the knob causes both the transport and the cover 
 to move relative to the base. The tether moves along the circumferential 
 slot in the base. Rotation at a predetermined amount of, for example, 
 90.degree. brings the tether and stop to a pen retention position such 
 that pulling the pen radially outward will cause the stop to abut against 
 the inner wall of the base and thus prevent removal.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
 The Figs. all represent the same embodiment. There is shown a pen assembly 
 10 and a pen holder 12. In FIG. 1, the pen assembly 10 is shown with the 
 pen element 14 mounted in a pen receptacle 16. A tether 18 which may be 
 made of a molded security cable is affixed to the back end of the pen 14. 
 The other end of the tether 18 is a ball 20 that is molded to the tether 
 18. As will be explained, the ball 20 operates as a stop and will be 
 referred to herein as the stop 20. 
 As may best be seen in FIG. 2, the main elements of the pen holder 12 is 
 shown in exploded fashion. These elements include a base 22, a transport 
 element 24 that fits inside the base 22 and a base cover 26 that fits over
 the base 22. The pen receptacle 16 has an opening 30 into which the 
 forward end of the pen 14 can fit and be held in an upright position. The 
 pen receptacle 16 also has a key arrangement 32. When the elements of FIG.
 2 are assembled, the key arrangement 32 passes through an opening 34 in 
 the base cover 26 and engages a mating keyway 36 in the transport element 
 24. The receptacle 16 also serves as a knob to permit manual rotation of 
 the transport 24 and cover 26. 
 An opening 38 that extends through the sidewall of the base 22 has a 
 diameter great enough to permit the stop 20 to pass through. A slot 40 
 that extends through the sidewall of the base 22 is a longitudinal slot 
 that extends circumferentially approximately 90.degree. around the 
 sidewall of the base 22. The horizontal width of the slot 40 is sufficient
 to accommodate the diameter of the tether 18 so that the tether 18 can 
 move along the slot but the slot 40 is small enough so that the stop 20 
 cannot be passed through the slot. Thus when the tether extends through 
 the slot 40 with the stop 20 on the inboard side of the sidewall 22, the 
 pen assembly 10 is held in the pen holder 12. 
 The transport 24 is formed to provide a recess 42 in its sidewall. The 
 recess 42 is sized to accommodate the stop 20 when the stop 20 is inserted
 through the opening 38. The base cover 26 also has an opening 44; which 
 opening has a diameter large enough to pass the stop 20 therethrough. When
 this pen holder is in its pen insertion state, as shown in FIGS. 3A and 
 3B, the opening 44, the opening 38 and the recess 42 are radially aligned.
 The pen assembly stop 20 can thus be inserted far enough into the pen 
 holder so that the stop 20 is entirely received within the recess 42 of 
 the transport 24. 
 As can be seen in FIGS. 1 and 3A, the pen receptacle 16 loosely fits within
 a top opening 34 of the cover 26 so that the keys 32 engage the keyways 36
 in the transport 24. This assures that the transport 10 can be rotated by 
 manual rotation of the knob like upper portion of the receptacle 16. The 
 center screw 48 is loosely inserted so that the head of the screw 48 will 
 prevent the recaptacle 16 from being removed. But it does not bind the the
 receptacle 16, so that the receptacle 16 can rotate freely about the 
 periphery of the screw. That is, the screw theads only engage the base 22 
 and do not engage the receptacle 16. 
 When the stop 20 has been inserted fully into the recess 42 as shown in 
 FIG. 3B, the receptacle 16 can be manually rotated thereby forcing the 
 transport 24 to rotate. The tether 18 engages the wall of the opening 44 
 in the cover 26 and thus pushes the cover 26 around with the transport 24.
 As shown in FIG. 4, the recess 42 in the transport 24 carries the ball 20 
 and the associated tether 18 as the transport rotates. The tether 18 
 extends through the slot 40. The tether 18 contacts a wall of the opening 
 44 and thus pushes the cover 26 to cause the cover 26 to rotate with the 
 transport 24. 
 FIGS. 5A and 5B show the situation when the transport 24 and cover 26 have 
 rotated 90.degree. and the ball 20 is in radial alignment with the well 46
 in the base 22. When the tether 18 and ball 20 are pulled radially 
 outward, then as shown in FIG. 6, the ball 20 fits into the base well 46 
 and is entirely removed from the transport recess 42. In this condition, 
 further rotation of the pen receptacle 16 will cause further rotation of 
 the transport 24 to a position such as shown in FIG. 7. In this pen 
 retention state, lateral motion of the tether 18 will not cause much 
 movement and the holder 12 will not change state. The pen retention state 
 will be maintained. 
 Only personnel who are familiar with the operation of the device would know
 of the need to rotate the pen receptacle 16 counter clockwise to a point 
 where the stop 20 in the well 46 is aligned with the transport recess 42 
 in order for the stop 20 to be pushed radially inward into the recess 42. 
 Further counter clockwise rotation of the receptacle 16 will result in 
 movement into the pen assembly removal and insertion state such as shown 
 in FIGS. 3A and 3B. In this state, the pen assembly 10 can be removed and 
 replaced without requiring a tool. Therefore, in large scale and busy 
 operations the likelihood of having a stolen pen promptly replaced is 
 greatly increased. 
 Appropriate markers can be placed on the base cover 26 to assure that the 
 circumferential position is obtained for movement of the stop radially 
 between transport recess 42 and base wall 46.