Newer version of my plunger/ piston pump filler

[fountainbel]

Hi all,

Although the pen is actually under fabrication at CONID, I'm still in the process of improving it esthetically.

Initially the "sleek" version featured ink window slots which were milled in the wall of the outer sleeve.

Drawback being one could feel the slots & in time the windows could become dirty.

As one can see on the attached drawing, the polycarbonate ink window is now made on the diameter of the barrel.

The slotted window is obtained by sliding a thin wall slotted bushing- made in the same material as the barrel- internally in the polycarbonate housing.

Identical barrel & parts are used as well for the plunger & piston pump filler versions. The pen can be completely disassembled in 10 minutes, all parts are fitted with screw threads & O rings seals, nothing is glued.

The plunger filler holds 2.2 ml, while the piston pump filler even holds 3.0ml of ink.

I also installed a nice 2 tone Montegrappa nib on the pen.

The clip is my own made version in stainless steel, CONID will install a clip with their logo

As always your comments, thoughts & critique are most welcome.

 

Francis

 

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h89/foun...edinkwindow.jpg

 

PS: You can also see some Conid plunger filler pens on their website :www.conid.be

Edited January 21, 2009 by fountainbel

[richardandtracy]

For simplicity of manufacture, couldn't you do away with the window slots & simply have a transparent part of the barrel.

It may look a bit odd though.. Aesthetics are frequently where I fall down.

 

Overall the pen looks really very nice.

[When's the hooded nib version coming out? ]

 

Regards

 

Richard.

 

[rroossinck]

Oh, you horrible horrible tempting man. Hurry up and get that thing out into the open market!!!

 

(Seriously, great work Francis. Keep it up, and keep us up on progress!)

[fountainbel]

Richard,

Thanks for you input, I fully agree on your simplicity argument

I started having a completely transparent ink window, but it looked aesthetically not attractive to me.

This is the reason I tried with the slotted sleeve, and it looked much better to me.

Making a 11mm long diameter 11.5 x 10.6 a HR ring with 12- 1.5mm wide slots is however not an easy task.

So I'm not sure I will proceed further this way.

Maybe I'll try to buy some bronze colored transparent polycarbonate & see how it looks;

A hooded nib would be another challenge , so maybe in the future....

 

rroossinck,

Thanks for your comments .

Please visit the CONID website & ask them when the pens will become available !

 

Regards, Francis

 

For simplicity of manufacture, couldn't you do away with the window slots & simply have a transparent part of the barrel.

It may look a bit odd though.. Aesthetics are frequently where I fall down.

 

 

Overall the pen looks really very nice.

[When's the hooded nib version coming out? ]

 

Regards

 

Richard.

[bgray]

Amazing, Francis....

 

You raise the bar for penmakers!

[dfurlano]

Good job Francis!

Edited January 23, 2009 by dfurlano

[gwilki]

Very fine, indeed, Francis.

 

[dfurlano]

Here is a video of the Conid pen

 

http://www.conid.be

 

Dan

Edited January 24, 2009 by dfurlano

[stevlight]

Looks great. I would like a little less step down on the barrel. Otherwise it is a winner.

[Michael R.]

I've posted some images of the Conid pen which I received a few days ago here:

 

The Conid pen

 

Cheers

 

Michael

 

 

[fountainbel]

Hi all,

Thanks lot for your interest & comments on the Conid pen, and a special thank you for Michael for posting these beautiful pictures !

We just added a technical improvement to the plunger filler system, being a self correcting "shut-off" valve, featuring a "witness" pin in blind cap end.

Testing the shut-off valve efficiency on the Alpha versions we were rather worried on the sealing efficiency over time.

The O ring seal could gradually deform leading to a less efficient seal over time

 

The new design guarantees a 100 % tight enclosure of the barrel over time, avoiding any risks for leakage due to air pressure and/or temperature variations.

Most modern plunger fillers count on the deformation flexibility of rubber sealing elements, neglecting the potential risks for gradual permanent deformation, hence "setting" of the rubber over time.

Drawback being the sealing efficiency gradually decreases, finally resulting in leakage.

Coping with this problem,the CONID plunger filler features a separate O ring seal for the shut-off valve.

This O ring seals in a conical seat in the section.

A stainless pressure spring in the blind cap generates a 1 mm axial pretension on the plunger rod , pushing the seal on its seat when closing the blind cap fully.

At that moment a "witness pin" protrudes 1mm out of the blind cap end, positively showing the seal is under pretension, hence 100% tight

Opening the ink chamber, one simply turns the blind cap till the witness pin becomes flush with the blind cap top.

The attached pictures show the "witness pin" in its 2 positions .

Note these are pictures of the prototype versions.

The length of the blind cap should logically be the same on both pens, but we tried to keep the blind cap as short as possible in the HR version.

The spring loaded pretension valve will be integrated in our Beta series.

Question is is in how far the "witness pin" is seen as a benefit.

We think it is , but what do the potential users think?

Should we integrate the protruding "witness pin" yes or no?

As always your comments & critique are most welcome!

Francis

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h89/foun...nesspin1002.jpg

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h89/foun...t-offclosed.jpg

Edited February 7, 2009 by fountainbel

[RevAaron]

I don't like the protruding witness pin. Even if it meant getting rid of that second seal system, I'd rather have it gone. I personally have never had a plunger filler fail on me, dealing with mostly unrestored Sheaffer pens. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it seems to happen infrequently enough, or the process of the rubber setting causing that problem while the pen is in use, seems like it'd take long enough that it's effectively a non-problem. Especially with modern materials, the risk seems negligible, unless there's something different about your design.

 

I especially feel this way about your pen, because it's so repairable. I've little doubt there will be someone around in 20 years who could repair it. Being able to take it all apart means that you wouldn't need the kind of specialized knowledge (or much less of it) that you need for repairing Sheaffer plunger fillers.

 

Just my thoughts... Many thanks Francis!

[fountainbel]

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for your comments!

It looks however there is some confusion on the difference between the piston seal & shut-off valve seal

1- The piston seal : The new " floating O ring seal" is creating the vacuum when pushing the plunger in & pulling the ink in the barrel when the seal comes in the enlarged suction chamber-

2- The shut-off valve seal : Is a separate (i.e.second) O ring mounted on top of the piston seal head.

The only purpose of this seal is closing off ink flow between the barrel and section,avoiding ink leakage due to air pressure & temperature variations (f.e.during air plane travel)

Hope this clarifies the 2 individual functions.

 

Francis

Edited February 9, 2009 by fountainbel

[bbqncigars]

While I wouldn't have any issues with the minimal protrusion of the pin, it does involve extra moving parts. I'm personally a fan of the KISS principle.

 

 

Wayne, my ¢2