Patent ID: 8316765

Claim:
A portable carrier device for carrying elongate marker elements, the carrier device comprising a plurality of elongate carrier elements for carrying respective elongate marker elements, the elongate carrier elements being reconfigurable between a compact configuration in which the elongate carrier elements are arranged in a stacked arrangement and a fanned out selection configuration in which the upper surface of the marker elements are visible and the marker elements are accessibly presented for selection, the elongate carrier elements having a longitudinal direction along a length of the elongate element and are configured to facilitate insertion and removal of the marker element carried by each elongate carrier element in a transfer direction which is transverse to the longitudinal direction of the carrier element to facilitate removal of the marker element from the elongate carrier element, wherein each of the plurality of carrier elements includes detent means for retaining the carrier elements interlocked with one another in the compact configuration, and the carrier elements are provided with link members arranged to cause the plurality of the carrier elements to move to the fanned out configuration when one carrier element is moved, said link members comprising a lug extending from the distal end of each carrier element that is received in a corresponding slot in the underside of the immediately upwardly adjacent carrier element in the stack, the lugs and slots being arranged such that each lug is slidable within the corresponding slot with the lug causing the upwardly adjacent carrier to move to the fanned out configuration when the lug slides into abutment with the end of said slot.