WO2003015879A2

WO2003015879A2 - Ferro-sticker

Info

Publication number: WO2003015879A2
Application number: PCT/NZ2002/000144
Authority: WO
Inventors: Da Tseng
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2001-08-20
Filing date: 2002-08-12
Publication date: 2003-02-27
Anticipated expiration: 2004-02-20
Also published as: NZ513631A; WO2003015879A3; AU2002330790A1

Abstract

This invention relates to a new material and a new method for changing the images on the faces of a magnetic cube or tile. Each face (21) of each cube (2) has five magnets (22) with the polarity facing out, and each Ferro-Stickers (1) is attracted by the magnets (22) on the face of the cube (2), the images of Ferro-Stickers (1) are omitted.

Description

PATENT COOPERATION TREATY

Application Specification

APPLICANT; Da Tseng

A citizen of New Zealand

INVENTOR: Da Tseng

A citizen of New Zealand

TITLE: Ferro-Sticker

-ΈARLIER APPLICATION:

Filing Date: 20 August 2001

Number: 513631

Country: New Zealand

DESCRIPTION: The Field of the Invention:

This invention relates to a new material which may be conveniently used as a easily changeable outer-covering attached on the face(s) of magnetic cube(s), tile(s), or board. The reusable outer-covering itself may be used as a playing piece to be put on a magnetic game board or other magnetic object as well.

The Problems to be solved:

I had made some 3-Dimensional magnetic cubes (Ref. NZ 337644 and WO 01/17625), each cube can be easily connected by another cube in six directions, and can be easily separated from the connector(s) even if the unit is sandwiched between two cubes, and can be hung, not supported. The 3-D cubes are ideal educational tools for playing 3-D word Games/Puzzles, but not cheap, because the magnets are expensive. The preferred arrangement of magnets on each face of each cube is - one on the center and four on the corners (symmetrical positions), then each cube need 30 pieces of magnets, the cost of whole set is very high.

It is very hard to determine the best distribution of letters for a 3-D word game, Therefore I had thought very deeply about the problem below:

How can we use the lettered cubes wisely, so that the cubes for each letter are neither insufficient nor overstock?

A similar problem exists in another invention of mine (Ref. NZ Patent 506708). I wanted to use just 27 lettered double-sided tiles to spell as many words as possible. The characters marked on the first faces of the double-sided tiles are - an alphabet plus a blank. The letter on the second face of each double-sided tile would be a letter different from the letter/character on the first face of the same tile.

I could not determine what would be the optimal organization of the letters marked on the second faces of the double-sided tiles. Therefore I tried many different combinations to find the best one, peeled off and re-stuck some lettered stickers on the tiles many times. There was an intriguing problem:

How can we easily change the letters marked on the faces of the tiles?

The answers of this problem is not obvious, since we ordinarily print the letters or images on the faces of the cubes or tiles, or glue the printed stickers on it, it is not easy to change the letters or images on the faces of a cube or tile without causing damage.

The purpose of the invention:

The original object of the present invention is to provide a convenient method for changing the letter or image on the face of a cube or tile.

The inventor found that using a new material "Ferro-Sticker" for the magnetic cube or tile is a very simple way to achieve the original object, and the new material may be used in other educational tools, games/puzzles, or playing things. Many novelty ideas derived from the present invention such as

Ferro-Sticker Panel (for making large magnetic game board or message board,

Ref. NZ Patent 514006),

Configured Ferrous Tape (for making Ferro-Sticker, Ref. NZ 514719), and

Adjustable Electro-Magnetic Pen (for handling the small Ferro-Stickers) can be explored further.

Definition of Ferro-Sticker:

Ferro-Sticker means a special kind of ferrous sticker. A Ferro-Sticker is a piece of paper, contains ferrous material within it, or ferrous substances which contain size-reduced magnetizable metals (such as iron powder or iron sand) have been attached externally to the face of the paper; the Ferro-Sticker is not self-adhesive, but magnetically adhering; the Ferro-Sticker is used for making image on the face of a magnetic cube, magnetic tile, or any solid object that has magnet(s) on its surface with the polarity facing out; the Ferro-Sticker is able to be attached on or removed from a magnetic connector easily.

The construction of the invention:

The aspect and advantages of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which;

Fig. 1 shows one 3-D magnetic cube, three Ferro-Stickers attached on the three visible faces of the cube, and one separate Ferro-Sticker.

Fig. 2 shows one magnetic board with three larger size Ferro-Stickers connected to be a versatile game board, and thirty-three smaller size lettered Ferro-Stickers steadily fixed on the board.

In Fig.1 , each face (21 ) of each cube (2) has five magnets (22) with the polarity facing out, and each Ferro-Sticker (1) is attracted by the magnets (22) on the face of the cube (2), the images of Ferro-Stickers (1) are omitted.

Each Ferro-Sticker (1) is a piece of paper (11) containing ferrous material within it, or ferrous substances which contain size-reduced magnetizable metals (such as iron powder or iron sand) have been attached externally to the face of the paper in a ferrous part (12) or some ferrous parts(12) of the paper. Such ferrous sticker may be attracted by magnet(s).

When the Ferro-Sticker (1) has just one ferrous part (12) then the ferrous part (12) is in the central position of the Ferro-Sticker (1).

When the Ferro-Sticker (1 ) has more than one ferrous parts (12) then the configuration of the ferrous parts (12) is symmetrical. Each Ferro-Sticker (1) has at least one image on one of its two faces, the image may be one of an individual letter, a character, a word, a digit, a solid colour, a pictorial element, a drawing, a picture or a portion of a picture.

In Fig.1 , each Ferro-Sticker (1) has five ferrous parts ( 12), and the configuration of the ferrous parts is symmetrical. This structure ensure the cube to keep the Ferro-Stickers in accurate place firmly. If the Ferro-Sticker is made of Ferro-Paper that contains ferrous material in it, the whole paper is ferrous, then it can be attracted by magnet as well, but maybe can not be kept in proper place firmly.

ow the invention works:

The faces of the magnetic cubes or tiles may be designed to be indented. For each tile, the depth of the indented part is not less than the thickness of the Ferro-Sticker. For each cube, the depth of the indented part is equivalent to the thickness of the Ferro-Sticker. Then the magnetic tiles or cubes with the Ferro-Stickers have the same function of normal magnetic tiles or cubes.

There are at least two ways to remove the Ferro-Sticker from the cube or tile: (1). Using a knife to pick the Ferro-Sticker up.

(2). Using a magnet or Electro-Magnet whose force is stronger than the force of the magnets on the cube or tile to attract the Ferro-Sticker.

Since the reusable Ferro-Stickers can easily be attached on or separated from the magnetic cubes or tiles, we can easily change the letters marked on the faces of a cube or tile without causing any damage, the problems stated above were perfectly solved.

The Ferro-Stickers can be stacked and may be used in other educational tools, puzzles/ games, or playing things. For example, in Fig. 2, put a magnet in each grid (31 ) of a playing board (3) with the polarity facing out, then each lettered Ferro-Sticker ( la) may be steadily fixed inside a grid (31) while playing Crossword puzzle or board games. A magnetic board with the larger size Ferro-Stickers ( 7 β, 7 C, and 7 D) may be used to make a versatile game board that the player can hang it on wall to play different games.

The Ferro-Stickers are comparatively much cheaper than the magnetic cubes or tiles, need quite a small storage space, and furthermore, the same set of magnetic cubes or tiles may be accompanied with a plurality of sets of Ferro-Stickers with different letters (e.g. English, Greek, or Japanese), can be used to play different word games. And now playing Chinese 3-D Cross-Phrase would become possible. Not need thousands of character cubes or tiles, we can use quite fewer cubes or tiles with plenty of character Ferro-Stickers to play the Chinese word game.

Aspects of the present invention have been described by way only and it should be appreciated that modifications and additions may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

What I Claim is:

1. A set of magnetically attractable Ferro-Stickers including a plurality of Ferro-Stickers, wherein each Ferro-Sticker comprises a piece of paper, the paper containing ferrous material within it, or having powdered ferrous materials attached externally on the face of the paper; wherein each Ferro-Sticker has at least one image on one of its two faces; the image being selected from an individual letter, a character, a word, a digit, a solid colour, a pictorial element, a drawing, a picture or a portion of a picture.

2. A set of Ferro-Stickers as claimed in claim 1, wherein the ferrous materials are positioned in a single portion in the centre of the paper; or the ferrous materials are positioned in a plurality of portions of the paper, the ferrous portions of the paper being arranged in a symmetrical configuration.