Patent Grant
10111516
The present invention relates to a cosmetic applicator. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cosmetic applicator brush including stacked discs, in which each disc is stacked by wires, and the wires pass through a wire passage of each disc. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a cosmetic applicator brush, in which its top portion includes a conical, and the wires are twisted in its bottom portion.
Various cosmetics are applied using an applicator brush, for example, mascara which is a kind of cosmetic that is mainly used by women. The applicator brush is a cosmetic tool for painting various colors of mascara on eyelashes in order to show aesthetic sense around eyes or for applying other cosmetics to the eyes or other areas.
With the exemplary mascara, the applicator brush is configured to be inserted into a vessel in which mascara liquid is stored, a knob for opening and closing the vessel, a rod protruded to a leading end of the knob, and a brush formed on the rod. The mascara is used by smearing the mascara liquid on the brush through the coupling or separate process of the knob and the vessel.
Meanwhile, the mascara brush formed as above is manufactured to be suitable for various functions, such as a volume for the eyelashes (volume: effect that eyebrows are seen to be affluent according to the length and form of the brush hair), lengthening (lengthening: an effect that a length of eyebrows is long), clean (clean: an effect that eyebrows are not lumped), etc. The mascara brush uniformly applies the mascara liquid having viscosity on the eyelashes and a combing function by the brush should be excellent so that the eyelashes are not coagulated.
One type of manufacture for mascara brushes is a disc brush which is manufactured with an axial rod that penetrating multiple discs in the center. In order to create a desired bristle arrangement, each successive disc is placed in angular offset compared to the disc before and after. To achieve the angular offset, a geometrical cross section or key is typically built into the rod and discs alike. Such a keyed system requires the key to be offset relative to the bristles a different amount for each disc.
Another type of manufacture for mascara brushes is described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,591,916. Here, the mascara brushes are manufactured by passing wires through wire passages of each disc and twisting the wires independently at both ends of the mascara brushes. However, since the mascara brushes are manufactured by twisting the wires independently at both ends of the brushes, the alignment of bristles of each disc is not uniform. In other words, the alignment of bristles varies depending on the manufacturing conditions, and therefore, makeup performance is not excellent. Furthermore, since the wires have to be twisted at both ends of the brushes, manufacturing process can be cumbersome and expensive.
Another type of manufacture for mascara brushes is described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,899,241. Here, the mascara brushes are manufactured by passing a U-shaped wire/pin through wire passages of each disc and twisting the U-shaped wire/pin. Similarly, since the wire has to be twisted, the alignment of bristles of each disc is not uniform.
Therefore, the objective of the present invention is to provide an improved manufacturing method of a cosmetic applicator without twisting wires to stack discs, thereby solving the above-mentioned problems described in the related arts while improving makeup performance of the cosmetic applicator.
In at least one embodiment, the present invention provides a cosmetic applicator brush including a plurality of discs assembled relative to one another with each disc having a body with a plurality of bristles and/or combs extending radially therefrom. The adjacent discs are stacked or linked by wires (two or more). The adjacent discs are stacked or linked without any angular offset or with a uniform angular offset so that alignment of bristles for the stacked discs is uniform. The wires pass through a wire passage of each disc. Before the discs are stacked or linked, a conical is (bi-) injection molded with the wires so that a top portion of the cosmetic applicator brush has the conical. After the discs are stacked or linked, the wires are twisted at a bottom portion of the cosmetic applicator brush so that the discs are securely linked or stacked.
In at least another embodiment, the present invention provides a cosmetic applicator brush, where a single wire (instead of multiple wires) is used to link or stack the adjacent discs.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and constitute part of this specification, illustrate the presently preferred embodiments of the invention, and, together with the general description given above and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the features of the invention. In the drawings:
In the drawings, like numerals indicate like elements throughout. Certain terminology is used herein for convenience only and is not to be taken as a limitation on the present invention. The following describes preferred embodiments of the present invention. However, it should be understood, based on this disclosure, that the invention is not limited by the preferred embodiments described herein.
Referring to
Here, the conical (11/21/31) can be of any shape and made up of any material. It is preferred that it is made up of a plastic material. In addition, the wires (12/22/32) can be made up of any material. It is preferred that they are made up of a metal.
Furthermore, the plurality of discs (13/23/33) can be of any shape and made up of any material. Each disc has a wire passage, where the wires can pass through to link or stack the plurality of discs. The wire passage can be of any shape and is not limited to the design shown in the figures.
When the plurality of discs (13/23/33) are stacked or linked with the wires, they are stacked or linked so that there is no angular offset so that alignment of bristles for the stacked discs is uniform. Also, they can be stacked or linked with a uniform angular offset so that alignment of bristles for the stacked discs is uniform.
The method of molding the wires (12/22/32) and the conical (11/21/31) includes any molding method.
The number of wires (12/22/32) can be one or more. It is preferred that the number of wires (12/22/32) is two. However, the number of wires (12/22/32) is not limited to two.
Referring to
First, the conical (11/21/31) of any shape/material is molded with the wires (12/22/32). Any molding methods can be used. Single wire can also be molded with the conical (11/21/31).
Second, the plurality of discs (13/23/33) are linked or stacked by passing the wires (12/22/32) through wire passages of each disc. The discs (13/23/33) are stacked or linked such that alignment of bristles for the stacked discs is uniform. The discs are linked or stacked without any angular offset or with a uniform angular offset.
Third, after the plurality of discs are linked or stacked, the wires (12/22/32) are twisted. The method of twisting of the wires (12/22/32) includes any twisting methods. It is preferred that a topmost portion (6) and a bottommost portion (7) of the wires are twisted. The topmost portion (6) is a top portion of the remaining wires, and the bottommost portion (7) is a bottom portion of the remaining wires after the competition of the second step (stacking or linking the plurality of wires).
It is also possible that after the plurality of discs are linked or stacked, the wires (12/22/32) may not be twisted. In addition, the remaining wires after the plurality of discs are linked or stacked could be reshaped as a “X” shape (predetermined shape). Alternatively, the remaining wires after the plurality of discs are linked or stacked could be designed such that there is no twisting as long as the plurality of discs are linked or stacked securely.
Finally, after completing the first three steps, a cosmetic applicator of the present invention is shown in
It is noted that while the shape of the disc in each example is circular, the invention is not limited to such and the disc body can have any shape desired. For example, the shape of the disc body can be triangular, quadrangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, rectangular, and etc. In addition, it is noted that the disc can be made of any materials including plastic by mono-injection molding and bi-injection molding, rubber, silicon and metal.
These and other advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing specification. For example, the present invention provides a cosmetic applicator (called “Wonder Mascara Brush”) that is capable of providing excellent mascara makeup effect such as volumizing, curling, separation, and lengthening. In addition, the present invention provides a cosmetic applicator, where each disc could have different colors, shapes and sizes, thereby creating a visually attractive cosmetic.
In particular, a conical is used to improve makeup performance, enabling the user to makeup areas that would be hard to apply cosmetics including corners of the eyes or other areas. In addition, the conical (molded with the wires) prevents the stacked discs from rotating or deviating from the wires and allows the stacked discs being securely positioned between the top portion (“conical portion”) and the bottom portion (“twisted wires portion”).
Furthermore, the present invention provides a cosmetic applicator, where alignment of bristles of the discs is uniform by not twisting the wires to link or stack the discs (only twisting after linking or stacking all discs at the bottom portion). Therefore, it is possible to mass-produce the cosmetic applicator with a very small defect rate, which would not have been possible when entire portion of the wires are twisted.
Accordingly, it will be recognized by those skilled in the art that changes or modifications may be made to the above-described embodiments without departing from the broad inventive concepts of the invention. It should therefore be understood that this invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein, but is intended to include all changes and modifications that are within the scope and spirit of the invention as defined in the claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/592,948, “ASSEMBLY TECHNOLOGY FOR ANY SHAPE DISK BRUSH WITH METAL WIRES AND CONICAL,” filed Nov. 30, 2017, which application is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6260558 | Neuner | Jul 2001 | B1 |
| 8899241 | Vandromme | Dec 2014 | B2 |
| 8919351 | Wang | Dec 2014 | B1 |
| 9591916 | Kim | Mar 2017 | B2 |
| 20090194128 | Vandromme | Aug 2009 | A1 |
| 20170258213 | Lee | Sep 2017 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62592948 | Nov 2017 | US |
