Curling Iron

Abstract

A curling iron includes a handle, a heating element and a plurality of coaxially oriented barrels thermally coupled to the heating element. The heating element may be electrically or chemically powered. An optional hair clamp biased against at least one of the barrels is configured to clamp the hair during the curling process. One or more of the barrels may collapse into one or more of the remaining barrels.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is directed generally to the field of hair styling. More particularly it is directed to curling irons and the like used in the hair styling process.

OVERVIEW

A curling iron includes a handle, a heating element and a plurality of coaxially oriented barrels of different radii thermally coupled to the heating element. The heating element may be electrically or chemically powered. An optional hair clamp biased against at least one of the barrels is configured to clamp the hair during the curling process. In one embodiment one or more of the barrels may collapse into one or more of the remaining barrels.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one or more examples of embodiments and, together with the description of example embodiments, serve to explain the principles and implementations of the embodiments.

In the drawings:

FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C illustrate a hair curler in accordance with one embodiment.

FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D illustrate a hair curler in accordance with another embodiment.

FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C illustrate a hair curler in accordance with another embodiment.

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate differences between the single hinge and double hinge embodiments.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Example embodiments are described herein in the context of curling irons for styling hair. Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following description is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other embodiments will readily suggest themselves to such skilled persons having the benefit of this disclosure. Reference will now be made in detail to implementations of the example embodiments as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The same reference indicators will be used to the extent possible throughout the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or like items.

In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features of the implementations described herein are shown and described. It will, of course, be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made in order to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with application- and business-related constraints, and that these specific goals will vary from one implementation to another and from one developer to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of engineering for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

Turning to the figures, FIGS. 1A1B and 1C illustrate an embodiment of the present invention. A hair curling iron 10 for use in styling hair includes a plurality of barrels 12, 14 and 16 (in this example). Each barrel 12, 14 and 16 is cylindrical in shape with a different radius and is configured to nest and collapse into the handle so that it can provide different radius heaters for curling hair and can easily be stored for travel and the like. An insulated tip 18 on barrel 16 provides a user with a way to extract or retract the barrel without being burned. Similarly tip 20 on barrel 14 does the same thing. FIG. 1A shows the fully collapsed configuration of curling iron 10 with barrel 12 available for use. FIG. 1B shows barrel 14 extracted for use. FIG. 1C shows barrel 16 extracted for use with barrel 14 retracted into barrel 12.

FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D illustrate another embodiment of the present invention. A hair curling iron 10 for use in hair styling includes a plurality of barrels 22, 24 and optionally 28. The barrels may be fixed or retractable. Each has a different diameter for providing different radius curling action. Optionally a hair clamp 26 is provided for clamping the hair against the barrel(s) while curling. A mechanism 32 biases the clamp against the barrels and a user depresses a lever 32 to disengage the clamp.

The curling iron 10 is equipped with a heater. The heater may be chemically (e.g., butane, propane, and the like) or electrically (e.g., ceramic or coil-type heating element, and the like). A source of steam may be provided which would, in one embodiment, exit a plurality of circumferentially oriented holes (not shown) in the barrels. The steam may be made available continuously or in response to a user activating a valve control such as a button. Alternatively (or additionally) steam may be expelled out of the tip 18 in response to a user activating a valve control such as a button. A water reservoir would be provided inside the body of hair curler 10 in such a design in a conventional manner.

FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C illustrate another embodiment of the present invention. The FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C curling iron 10 includes a reservoir 34 as shown for holding water with which steam may be made. A display screen 36 (such as an LCD panel) is provided for displaying control information to a user such as temperature (derived from a temperature sensor, not shown) and state of readiness. A temperature control 38 is provided to adjust the temperature of the hair curler. Electrical power line 40 is provided for powering the hair curler 10 from a receptacle. A small microprocessor (not shown) may be used to control the temperature, read the temperature sensor and drive the display screen 36. A user-actuated water pump button 42 may be included to pressurize the water tank 44 thereby helping to eject steam on demand.

A double hinge arrangement is employed in the FIG. 3A, 3B, 3c embodiment and is shown in more detail in FIGS. 4A and 4B. In FIG. 4A a conventional single hinge arrangement is illustrated. A biasing member, not shown, biases the clamp 26 against the barrel 22. Force applied by a user to lever arm 32 swings the clamp 26 away from the barrel 22 so that hair may be inserted between the clamp and the barrel. In FIG. 4B a double hinge arrangement is shown which provides greater movement of the clamp 26 away from the barrel 22 with a relatively small amount of deflection of lever arm 32. This feature provides more clearance for the hair to be inserted between the barrel 22 and the clamp 26.

While embodiments and applications have been shown and described, it would be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that many more modifications than mentioned above are possible without departing from the inventive concepts disclosed herein. The invention, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A curling iron, comprising: a handle;a heating element; anda plurality of coaxially oriented barrels thermally coupled to the heating element.

2. The curling iron of claim 1 wherein the heating element is electrically powered.

3. The curling iron of claim 1 wherein at least one of the barrels is configured to retract into another one of the barrels.

4. The curling iron of claim 1, further comprising a lever actuated member for clamping the hair against at least one of the barrels, the lever actuated member biased by a biasing member against the at least one of the barrels.

5. The curling iron of claim 4 wherein the heating element is electrically powered.

6. The curling iron of claim 3, further comprising a lever actuated member for clamping the hair against at least one of the barrels, the lever actuated member biased by a biasing member against the at least one of the barrels.

7. The curling iron of claim 6 wherein the heating element is electrically powered.

8. The curling iron of claim 7, further comprising a source of steam and a steam hole through which the steam may be applied to hair being styled.

9. The curling iron of claim 8, wherein the lever actuated member includes a double hinge arrangement.