Patent Application
20180338597
While several prior art of nail trimming devices disclose the general concept of protective nail guards associated with powered rotating nail trimming devices, none of the devices of such prior arts permit filing or smoothing of rough finger nails or toenails, even with those with substantial curvature, without fear of damage to the adjacent skin. To make nail filing enjoyable, the present invention is equipped with a specially designed nail guard cap and permanent nail filing member that is safe to skin and sanitizable for users having various kind of finger nail or toe nail shape. The invention, for example, provides a safety guard cap structure for the user, particularly for an elder person who has various kind of toenail such as concave or convex nail tip or has bigger and longer toe skin for the toenail. Present invention will provide a safe, easy to use, and multifunctional motorized nail-trimming device.
The prior art is an electric nail filing device with a protective skin guard. An example is the U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,897 issued to McBride which provides an electric rotary nail file device with a protective skin guard and gives a guard structure shielding the skin adjacent the nail form damages by the rotating member when the device is in use.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,552 issued to Kathuria provides an electrical nail file device with cylindrical housing having multiple slots on the housing and file drum with formed annular valleys for the purpose of filing nails of longer length.
And the U.S. Pat. No. 7,428,881 issued to Drelinger provides a rotary nail filing device for animals which has an electric rotary file and cover with suitable sized and shaped holes to allow an end portion of an animal's nail.
Present invention is to provide a safe, easy to use, sanitizable, and multifunctional motorized nail trimming devices especially a safety guard cap.
Object of the present invention is to provide a multifunctional safety guard cap for a rotary nail filing device, which permits ready access to all parts of the end tip of a finger nail or toenail, regardless of the shape, curvature or size, without fear of damaging the delicate skin around the nails. Present invention provides a safety guard cap having an adjustable guard tab with which user operates this device preventing the rotary nail filing device from touching and damaging adjacent skin. The adjustable guard tab attached at the closed end of the safety guard cap controls the user to adjust the guard tab up or down depending on the shape of the user's fingertip or toe tip. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a DC electric power sourced or battery power sourced finger nail or toenail filing device shaped to permit easy handling during operation, easy sanitization, and convenient storability. These and other objects of the present invention are accomplished through the use of a specially chosen alloy and designed rotatable filing member. These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from reading of the following detailed description of embodiments constructed in accordance, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and simulation drawings.
This invention is described by embodiment of the detailed description set forth below. The present invention provides, in a preferred embodiment of this invention, an electric nail filing device with a safety guard cap 4 comprising a cylindrical body 7 made of hard casing material, such as aluminum or plastic, having a battery holder attached inside in the cylindrical body 7, a cover 9 attaching and detaching to an open end of the cylindrical body 7, an on/off switch 8 attached on the cover 9 in order to control electric power between the battery holder and an electric motor 6, the electric motor 6 attached on an opposing end of the cylindrical body 7 having a metallic rotary filing wheel 1, which is made of a cylindrical metal and alloy of bronze, brass, stainless steel, aluminum, or copper, including all metal and oxide form of any metal and alloy, and the safety guard cap 4 which is attachable or detachable with the electric motor 6 and covering the metallic rotary filing wheel 1, preferably which is a rectangular prism shape, but not limited to the rectangular prism, having multiple planes and a tubular cylindrical housing inner space which has enough space to cover the metallic rotary filing wheel 1. The safety guard cap 4 has one filing slot on each surface of the multiple planes and an adjustable guard tab 2 attached at closed end of the safety guard cap 4. The adjustable guard tab 2 is attached inside the closed end of the safety guard cap 4 orthogonally to the longitudinal axis of the metallic rotary filing wheel 1 sliding up or down to adjust height of the adjustable guard tab 2 depending on a user's nail or finger/toe shape.
For more effective and easy filing, instead of flat shaped multiple planes, to accept, receive, and filing a fingernail or toenail at least one plane of the safety guard cap has a longitudinal concave groove on the plane and a slot on the center line of the longitudinal concave groove. To help applying and filing different size of fingers or toes an alternative shape of the longitudinal concave groove includes a corn-shape longitudinal concave groove instead of straight-shape, which has a narrow concave end and wider concave gradually to the opposite end.
The adjustable guard tab member comprises preferably a movable adjustable guard tab 2 which is a square-flat plate having a threaded bolt attached orthogonally on the adjustable guard tab 2, a slot on the surface of the closed end of the safety guard cap 4, and a turning knob 4 tightening to the threaded bolt on the adjustable tab. The adjustable guard tab 2 is secured to the slot on the closed end by the turning knob 3 and slides up or down along with the slot on the closed end to adjust height of the adjustable guard tab 2. For the multiple planes, one plane of the multiple planes on the safety guard cap 4 is not connected to the end of the closed end at least 5 mm and such that the plane providers orthogonal space to the slot direction between the plane-end and the closed end of the safety guard cap 4 for filing fingernail or toenail and makes enough space for attaching the adjustable guard tab 2.
Further, the present invention provides a nail debris collector 6 made of hard casing material, for example metal or plastic, and a half-dome shape covering all other planes of the safety guard cap 4 except one plane which is ongoing used plane. It has an attachable member at one side of the nail debris collector 6 to attach and cover the safety guard cap 4, a closed opposing end, a cylindrical surface and an inner space between the attachable member and the closed opposing end, and a wide slit on the cylindrical surface, such that the nail debris collector covers all other slots except one slot and prevents debris of fingernail or toenail from scattering around.
One alternative design of the safety guard cap 4 is that the shape of the safety guard cap is a pentagonal prism, a hexagonal prism, or a multiplane prism having multiple planes, on which each plane has one slot having different width. And one plane of the multiple planes on the safety guard cap 4 has one open end and one adjustable guard tab 2 at the closed end of the safety guard cap 4. Also the other alternative design is that the shape of the safety guard cap 4 is a cylindrical shape having a single plane or double planes on the surface and one adjustable guard tab 2 described above.
Further, one embodiment of the guarding cap member is providing two or more level terraced surface on one or more planes of the safety guard cap 4.
The other embodiment of the safety guard cap member is purposely making the cylindrical housing inner space radially offsetting to the one direction of the surfaces of the safety guard cap 4, and such that the each thickness of surfaces are different each other. For example, the rectangular prism shaped safety guard cap 4 having offsetting inner space provides four different depth slots. Purposely the offsetting inner space helps each user choosing one depth from multiple different depth surfaces depending on user's shape of fingernails or toenails.
For the alternative electric power for operating the electric motor 6 the present invention provides DC voltage input plug-in hole attached on the cover 9, in which it is connected to the power control circuit having on/off switch and further connected to the electric motor 6. Alternatively the DC voltage input plug-in hole is attached on the cylindrical body 7. The DC voltage power provides more stable electric power to the electric motor 6.
