The present invention is directed to a dry shaver, more particularly a dry shaver having multiple cutters.
Japanese Patent publication no. 8-318057 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,926 disclose a dry shaver having three elongated semi-circular cutters which are arranged in side-by-side relation with each other. One of the cutters is designed to project to a greater extent than the other cutter to define a finishing cutter which comes first into contact with a user skin for shaving hairs on a narrow area, for example, under a nose and chip top. Although it is found effective to make the intended shaving, the finishing cutter is likely to be pressed excessively at its one side when the shaving head is moving across the skin in a direction perpendicular to the length of the cutter, thereby causing skin irritation or even causing the skin to be cut. This is particularly true, when the finishing cutter is curved more deeply than the other to have an arcuate contour of reduced width. In other words, the deeply curved finishing cutter has an effective cutting zone only around its tip and is not successful to make smooth shaving free from pain at its side zones remote from the tip. Accordingly, when the deeply curved finishing cutter is interposed between the other cutters to project to a greater extent than the others, as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,926, there is always a risk of pressing the skin excessively at the side of the cutter and irritating the skin.
In view of the above problem, the present invention has been achieved to provide a dry shaver with multiple cutters which is capable of successfully shaving the hairs short on a narrow area without irritating the skin. The dry shaver in accordance with the present invention includes a shaving head which is elongated to have a lengthwise axis and is configured to carry a semi-cylindrical first outer cutter, a semi-cylindrical second outer cutter, and a semi-cylindrical finishing cutter which are all elongated along the lengthwise axis and are arranged in generally parallel relation with each other. Each of the semi-cylindrical first and second outer cutters includes a main foil with a number of perforations and an inner cutter driven by a motor to move in sliding contact with said foil. The main foil is arcuately curved about an axis parallel with the lengthwise axis into an arcuate contour. The semi-cylindrical finishing cutter includes a finishing foil with a number of perforations and an inner cutter driven by the motor to move in sliding contact with the finishing foil. The finishing foil is also arcuately curved about an axis parallel with the lengthwise axis into an arcuate contour having a width less than that of the first and semi-cylindrical second outer cutters. The semi-cylindrical first and second outer cutters are disposed on opposite width ends of the shaving head with the semi-cylindrical finishing cutter being interposed therebetween. The feature of the present invention resides in that the shaving head includes a skin guard which projects between the finishing cutter and one of the first and second outer cutters for contact with a user's skin.
Thus, the skin guard blocks the skin from entering into a recess between the finishing cutter and the adjacent cutter, thereby avoiding the skin from being pressed excessively against the side of the finishing cutter, i.e., an ineffective cutting zone when moving the shaving head across the skin with the first outer cutter leading in the moving direction, and therefore assuring a smooth close shaving without irritating the skin.
Preferably, the skin guard is floatingly supported to a frame of the shaving head and is spring-biased for pressed contact with the user's skin. Thus, the skin guard can be easily to follow the skin while the shaving head is manipulated to move across the skin, minimizing to drag the skin and therefore assuring a comfortable shaving.
The finishing foil may be also floatingly supported to the frame and is spring-biased upwardly for pressed contact with the user's skin. In this instance, the skin guard is coupled to the finishing foil to be movable together therewith to assure an optimum pressing contact of the finishing foil against the skin, while preventing the skin from engaging the side of the finishing foil.
The skin guard may be configured to have a roller or a comb for smooth engagement with the skin or hairs.
In a preferred embodiment, the shaving head additionally carries a slit cutter which is interposed between the finishing cutter and the second outer cutter to define another skin guard which blocks the skin from entering a recess between the finishing cutter and the second outer cutter, also for blocking the skin from contacting the side of the finishing semi-cylindrical cutter. The slit cutter is composed of an elongated outer blade with a number of slits opened at lateral edges of the outer blade, and an inner cutter driven by the motor to move in sliding contact with the outer blade. The outer blade is also supported to the frame, while the finishing foil and the slit cutter are floatingly supported to the frame and are spring biased for pressed contact with the user's skin. With this structure, the slit cutter acting as the skin guard can be depressed together with the finishing cutter and can be therefore kept in optimum contact with the skin, assuring to move the shaving head across the skin smoothly.
In order to place the individual cutters and also the skin guard in smooth contact with the skin, an optimum spatial arrangement are preferred with regard to these elements. That is, the finishing cutter has its top projected by a greater extent than that of said slit cutter, the slit cutter has its top end projected by a greater extent than that of the first outer cutter, and the skin guard between the finishing cutter and the first outer cutter projects to a height between the top end of the first outer cutter and the top end of the finishing cutter, and also at a level lower than the top end of the slit cutter.
Further, the outer blade may be coupled to the finishing foil by means of an adjustor spring so as to be urged from the finishing foil in a direction of being pressed against the user's skin. The adjustor spring generates a counter-spring force acting on the finishing cutter to reduce the spring-bias given per set thereto, thereby realizing the suitably adjusted spring-biases respectively to the finishing cutter and the slit cutter.
Moreover, the finishing foil may be configured to have a region where each of the perforations is surrounded partly by a thin section and partly by a thick section. The thin section gives an increased chance of introducing the hairs deep into the associated perforation for more effective close shaving.
These and still other advantageous features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the attached drawings.
Referring now to
The shaving head 100 is composed of a casing 120 and a frame 130 detachable to the casing 120. The casing 120 is of a water-proof structure accommodating therein a linear motor 150 and is provided with a plurality of driving elements 210, 220, 230, and 240 projecting on top of the casing 120, as shown in
The first and second outer cutters 10 and 20 are each composed of a main foil 11 and 21, and an inner cutter 16 and 26 which are driven by the linear motor 150 to reciprocate in hair shearing engagement with the main foil. The main foil is formed with a plurality of perforations, and is arcuately curved about an axis parallel to the lengthwise axis of the shaving head 100 into an arcuate contour, i.e., semi-cylindrical shape having a width with respect to the with axis of the shaving head. The first and second outer cutters 10 and 20 are configured to have the main cutters of identical configurations, i.e., the same width and the same radius of curvature, as well as the inner cutters of identical configurations. As best shown in
The finishing cutter 30 is introduced in the shaving head 110 in order to make making a closer shaving than the first and second cutters 10 and 20, and is composed of a finishing foil 31 and an inner cutter 36 detachably connected to the reciprocating driving element 230 to be driven thereby to reciprocate in hair shearing engagement with the finishing foil 31. The finishing foil 31 is formed with a plurality of perforations 32 and is arcuately curved about an axis parallel to the lengthwise axis of the shaving head 100 into an arcuate contour, i.e., semi-cylindrical shape having a width along the width axis of the shaving head. As best shown in
The slit cutter 40 is composed of an elongated outer blade 41 with a number of slits opened at lateral edges of the outer blade 41, and an inner cutter 46 driven to reciprocate in hair shearing engagement with the outer blade 41. The outer blade 41 is shaped to have a generally flat top surface for sliding contact with the user's skin to capture flattened hairs into the slits for cutting the hairs. The outer blade 41 is fixed to a mount 43 which is floatingly supported to the frame 130. The inner cutter 46 is secured to a base 47 which is slidably held on the mount 43 to reciprocate the inner cutter 46 relative to the outer blade 41. Springs 44 are interposed between the mount 43 and the base 47 to keep the inner cutter 46 pressed against the outer blade 41. The frame 43 is formed at its opposite lengthwise ends with studs 49 which are slidably engaged into corresponding grooves 134 in the frame 130 for floatingly support the slit cutter 40 to the frame 130. The base 47 is formed in its bottom with a catch 48 which detachably receives the driving element 240 for reciprocating the inner cutter 46. As shown in
In order to avoid the skin from contacting the lower portion of the side of the finishing cutter, i.e., ineffective zone, the skin guard 50 is positioned to cover ineffective zone in closely adjacent relation thereto with its top slightly lowered from the tip of the finishing cutter 30, for the purpose of exposing the effective zone, i.e., the upper portion of the finishing cutter 30 around its tip for close shaving. In this connection, the skin guard 50 is offset towards the finishing cutter 30 so as not to interfere with the shaving operation of the first outer cutter 10. The slit cutter 40 also act as another skin guard in a sense of avoiding the skin from contacting with the lower side portion of the finishing cutter 30 and minimizing the skin irritation, when the shaving head 100 is moving with the second outer cutter 20 leading in the direction of movement.
Turning back to
Referring to
As shown in
As shown in
Although the above embodiment illustrates that the finishing foil 31 includes the thin sections and the thick sections, it may be equally possible that the finishing foil 31 is devoid of the thick sections to have a uniform thickness which is less than that of the main foil. Further, the main foils 11 and 21 of the first outer cutter 10 and the second outer cutter 20 may be selected to have the like configuration including the thin sections and the thick section, provided that the finishing foil 31 has its width less than that of the main foil. The present invention therefore encompass a structure in which the finishing foil 31 is shaped to have its width smaller than that of the main foil, and/or the finishing foil 31 includes the thin section around each perforation where the thin section has a thickness less than that of the main foil.
Further, as shown in
Alternatively, the skin guard 50 may be shaped to have a comb 51 with a number of teeth, as shown in
In the illustrated embodiment, each of the cutters 10, 20, 30, and 40 as well as the skin guard 50 are slightly curved arcuately with respect to the lengthwise axis for smooth contact with the skin. However, the present invention should not be interpreted to be limited thereto and may equally encompass the arrangement in which at least one of the cutters and the skin guard is configured to have straight top surface with respect to the lengthwise direction.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2006-332435 | Dec 2006 | JP | national |
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