Patent Application
20240366351
The present disclosure claims priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 202321079577.7, filed on May 6, 2023, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
The present disclosure relates to the technical field of electric toothbrushes, and more specifically to a motor assembly for an electric toothbrush, a brush handle assembly for an electric toothbrush, and an electric toothbrush.
The electric toothbrush includes a brush handle assembly and a brush head assembly. The brush handle assembly includes a brush handle housing, a motor assembly, and a battery, etc. The battery is configured to charge the motor assembly, and an output shaft of the motor assembly can drive the brush head assembly to vibrate or oscillate reciprocally. In the related art, the motor assembly is configured to control a rotation amplitude of the output shaft through a control board and a position sensor, so as to control an oscillation amplitude of the brush head assembly. The position sensor is required to improve the detection accuracy by means of an adapted position feedback member, however, the mounting of the position feedback member is not stable enough, which leads to a poor control effect on the brush head assembly.
The foregoing is only intended to assist in understanding the technical solution of the present disclosure, and does not mean that the foregoing is recognized as prior art.
In view of the above problems, the present disclosure proposes a motor assembly for an electric toothbrush, aiming to solve the technical problem that the mounting of the position feedback member is not stable enough, which leads to a poor control effect on the brush head assembly.
In order to realize the above purpose, the proposed motor assembly includes: a motor body, arranged with an output shaft; a mounting seat, defining a connection hole; wherein the mounting seat is fixedly sleeved on the output shaft through the connection hole to be rotatable with the output shaft; the mounting seat further defines a mounting slot disposed on a peripheral side of the connection hole; a position feedback member, arranged at the mounting slot to be rotatable with the output shaft; and a position sensor, spaced apart from the mounting seat and disposed on a side toward which an opening of the mounting slot is oriented; wherein the position sensor is configured to detect a motion position of the position feedback member.
In some embodiments, the mounting slot extends in a ring-like shape around a periphery side of the connection hole, and the position feedback member is configured in a ring-like shape to be adapted to be mounted in the mounting slot.
In some embodiments, the mounting seat includes an inner peripheral wall, an outer peripheral wall, and a bottom wall connecting the inner peripheral wall and the outer peripheral wall; the inner peripheral wall, the outer peripheral wall, and the bottom wall together enclose to define the mounting slot; the inner peripheral wall encloses to define the connection hole.
In some embodiments, an end of the inner peripheral wall adjacent to the position sensor protrudes from an end of the position feedback member away from the bottom wall.
In some embodiments, an end of the position feedback member away from the bottom wall protrudes from an end of the peripheral wall adjacent to the position sensor.
In some embodiments, the output shaft includes an output end and a feedback end; the output end is configured to be connected to a brush handle assembly of the electric toothbrush, and the mounting seat is sleeved on the feedback end.
In some embodiments, the opening of the mounting slot is backwardly away from the output end.
In some embodiments, the motor assembly further includes a circuit board arranged on a side of the feedback end along a length direction of the output shaft, and the position sensor is arranged on the circuit board.
In some embodiments, the motor body includes a motor housing, and the output shaft is rotatably arranged on the motor housing; the output end protrudes from a first end of the motor housing, and the feedback end protrudes from a second end of the motor housing, the first end being opposite to the second end; the motor assembly further includes a connection housing connected to a side of the motor housing near the feedback end and looped around the feedback end; the circuit board is arranged covering an end of the connection housing away from the motor housing.
In some embodiments, the motor body further includes a bearing disposed at an end of the motor housing near the feedback end, the output shaft being fixedly mated with an inner ring of the bearing; the mounting seat is arranged with a limiting portion protruding from a side of the mounting seat away from the mounting slot, the limiting portion being arranged along the peripheral side of the connection hole and abutting against the inner ring of the bearing.
In some embodiments, the motor body further includes a bottom cover spaced between the connection housing and an inner cavity of the motor housing, the feedback end penetrating the bottom cover; a side of the bottom cover away from the mounting seat defines a support slot, and the bearing is arranged at the support slot; a positioning projection is arranged protruding from a peripheral wall of the bottom cover, and an end wall of the motor housing defines a positioning slot, wherein the positioning projection is configured to locate and mate with the positioning slot; and/or, the peripheral wall of the bottom cover defines a wire routing notch configured to provide for a wire between the circuit board and the motor body to pass through.
In some embodiments, the mounting seat is a copper member; and/or, the position feedback member is a magnetic member, and the position sensor is a Hall sensor.
In some embodiments, the magnetic member comprises at least two opposite magnetic poles; the position sensor comprises two position sensors, and the two position sensors are spaced apart along a peripheral direction of the output shaft; one of the two position sensors is configured to sense a corresponding magnetic pole of the magnetic member, and the other of the two position sensors is configured to sense another magnetic pole of the magnetic member opposite to the corresponding magnetic pole.
The present disclosure further proposes a brush handle assembly for an electric toothbrush, comprising a brush handle housing, a battery, and the motor assembly as above; wherein the battery is electrically connected to the motor assembly, the battery and the motor assembly are both arranged in the brush handle housing, and the output shaft of the motor assembly extends out of the brush handle housing.
The present disclosure further proposes an electric toothbrush, comprising a brush head assembly and the brush handle assembly as above; wherein the brush head assembly is detachably connected to the output shaft of the motor assembly.
In the technical solution of the motor assembly for an electric toothbrush as proposed in the present disclosure, by arranging the position feedback member on the output shaft through the mounting seat, the mounting stability of the position feedback member may be improved, and a squeezing force on the position feedback member during a mounting process may be reduced, thereby avoiding damage to the position feedback member or an unstable motion process. As the mounting stability and structural stability of the position feedback member are improved, the reliability of a position detection result of the position sensor on the position feedback member may be improved, thereby improving the control effect on the oscillation process of the brush head assembly.
To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the accompanying drawings of the embodiments will be briefly described below, and it will be apparent that the accompanying drawings in the following description relate only to some embodiments of the present disclosure and other drawings may be obtained from these drawings by those skilled in the art without creative labor.
The realization of the purpose, functional features, and advantages of the present disclosure will be further described in conjunction with the embodiments and with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described clearly and completely in the following in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present disclosure and not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative labor fall within the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, the technical solutions between various embodiments can be combined with each other, but it must be based on the fact that those skilled in the art is able to realize it. When the combination of the technical solutions appears to be contradictory or unattainable, it should be considered that the combination of such technical solutions does not exist, and is not included in the scope claimed by the present disclosure.
It should be noted that when the embodiments of the present disclosure involve directional indications (such as up, down, left, right, forward, back . . . ), the directional indications are only intended to explain a relative positional relationship, a movement, etc. between the various components in a particular attitude. When the particular attitude changes, the directional indications are also changed accordingly.
In addition, when the embodiments of the present disclosure contain descriptions involving “first”, “second”, etc., the descriptions of “first”, “second”, etc. are intended only for descriptive purposes, and are not to be construed as indicating or implying their relative importance or implicitly specifying the number of the indicated technical features. That is, a feature defined as “first” or “second” may include at least one such feature either explicitly or implicitly. In addition, the meaning of “and/or” in the whole text is to include three concurrent solutions. For example, “A and/or B” includes an A solution, a B solution, and a solution in which A and B are satisfied at the same time.
The present disclosure proposes a motor assembly for an electric toothbrush 400.
In the embodiments of the present disclosure, referring to
In the embodiments, the motor body 10 includes a motor stator and a motor rotor, and the output shaft 11 is connected to the motor rotor. The output shaft 11 is configured to be connected to the brush head assembly 300 of the power toothbrush, such that the motor body 10 can drive the brush head assembly 300 to rotate. The specific shape of the mounting seat 20 is not limited, as long as it is satisfied that the connection hole 21 and mounting slot 22 are defined. The connection hole 21 may be disposed at a center of the mounting seat 20, and the opening direction of the mounting slot 22 may be parallel to a length direction of the output shaft 11 or perpendicular to the length direction of the output shaft 11, which is not limited herein. When the opening direction of the mounting slot 22 is parallel to the length direction of the output shaft 11, the position sensor 40 is disposed on a side of the mounting seat 20 along the length direction of the output shaft 11. When the opening direction of the mounting slot 22 is perpendicular to the length direction of the output shaft 11, i.e., the mounting slot 22 is disposed on a peripheral wall of the mounting seat 20, the position sensor 40 is disposed on a peripheral side of the mounting seat 20.
The mounting seat 20 may be a plastic member or a metal member, and specifically may be a copper member, to improve the structural strength of the mounting seat 20 and the stability of a connection between the mounting seat 20 and the output shaft 11.
The mounting seat 20 and the output shaft 11 may be fixed through the connection hole 21, or a hole wall of the connection hole 21 may be bonded to the output shaft 11 to fix the mounting seat 20 and the output shaft 11, which is not limited herein, as long as the mounting seat 20 can synchronously rotate with the output shaft 11. The shape of the position feedback member 30 is not limited and may be block-shaped, spherical or ring-shaped, etc. The shape of the mounting slot 22 corresponds to the shape of the position feedback member 30, and the position feedback member 30 is fixedly embedded in the mounting slot 22, such that the position feedback member 30 can synchronously rotate with the output shaft 11.
The position sensor 40 may be a laser sensor or a Hall sensor, which is not limited herein, as long as the motion position of the position feedback member 30 can be detected, and the motion position of the position feedback member 30 can reflect a motion position of the brush head assembly 300. The motor assembly further includes a circuit board 50, which is electrically connected to the position sensor 40 and the motor body 10, and the circuit board 50 can control the output shaft 11 to reverse when the position feedback member 30 reaches a preset position, thereby controlling the brush head assembly 300 to conduct a reciprocal oscillation.
By arranging the position feedback member 30 on the output shaft 11 through the mounting seat 20, the mounting stability of the position feedback member 30 may be improved, and a squeezing force on the position feedback member 30 during a mounting process may be reduced, thereby avoiding damage to the position feedback member 30 or an unstable motion process. As the mounting stability and structural stability of the position feedback member 30 are improved, the reliability of a position detection result of the position sensor 40 on the position feedback member 30 may be improved, thereby improving the control effect on the oscillation process of the brush head assembly 300.
Exemplarily, as shown in
Specifically, as shown in
In practice, as shown in
In addition, as shown in
The mounting seat 20 may be sleeved at the middle of the output shaft 11 or at an end of the output shaft 11. Exemplarily, as shown in
Specifically, as shown in
In practice, as shown in
Exemplarily, as shown in
The motor housing 12 extends along the length direction of the output shaft 11. During an assembling process of the motor assembly, the motor body 10 may first be assembled and molded independently, as long as the ends of the output shaft 11 extend beyond the ends of the motor housing 12. After the motor body 10 is assembled and molded, the mounting seat 20 is first sleeved on the feedback end 112 and the position feedback member 30 is mounted, then the connection housing 60 is mounted on the motor housing 12, and finally the circuit board 50 with the position sensor 40 mounted thereon is mounted covering on the connection housing 60. In this way, the way of assembling the motor assembly may be simplified so as to increase the efficiency of assembling the motor assembly.
Specifically, as shown in
The bearing 13 may improve the rotational stability of the feedback end 112 of the output shaft 11, thereby preventing a distorted position detection result of the position feedback member 30 caused by the feedback end 112 deviating from a rotation axis. By abutting the limiting portion 26 of the mounting seat 20 against the inner ring of the bearing 13, an outer ring of the bearing 13 and the mounting seat 20 may be spaced apart sufficiently to prevent obstruction to the rotation of the mounting seat 20, thereby improving the rotational stability of the mounting seat 20.
A space enclosed by the connection housing 60 may be in communication with an inner cavity of the motor housing 12, or may be separated from the inner cavity of the motor housing 12.
In practice, as shown in
The bottom cover 14 may provide support for the bearing 13 and connection to the connection housing 60, which may improve the stability of the mounting of the bearing 13 and the connection housing 60. Specifically, an inner wall surface of the motor housing 12 is convexly arranged with a fixing protrusion, and the fixing protrusion defines a fixing hole. The connection housing 60 defines a first hole corresponding to the fixing hole, and the bottom cover 14 defines a second hole corresponding to the first hole, where the fixing hole, the first hole, and the second hole may be connected by a fastener to realize the fixing connection of the motor housing 12, the bottom cover 14, and the connection housing 60. The positioning protrusion 142 cooperates with the positioning slot 121, which may play a fool-proofing role for the alignment of the second hole and the fixing hole, and realize a pre-fixing of the bottom cover 14 and the motor housing 12.
Exemplarily, the position feedback member 30 may be provided as a magnetic member, and the position sensor 40 may be provided as a Hall sensor. The position sensor 40 detects the position of the position feedback member 30 by means of magnetic induction, such that the reliability of the detection results may be improved.
Specifically, the magnetic member includes at least two opposite magnetic poles; the number of the position sensors 40 are two, and the two position sensors 40 are spaced apart along the peripheral direction of the output shaft 11. The two position sensors 40 are each configured to sense a corresponding magnetic pole of the magnetic member.
The magnetic member may be formed by connecting two magnets having different magnetic poles, or may be formed by magnetizing a same magnet zonally to form two different magnetic poles, which is not limited herein, as long as the magnetic member has two opposite magnetic poles. The two position sensors 40 are mounted corresponding to two preset positions of the position feedback member 30, and the position feedback member 30 can be detected by a corresponding position sensor 40 at any one of the preset positions, thereby allowing the circuit board 50 to control the output shaft 11 to reciprocally rotate between the two preset positions of the position feedback member 30.
It should be noted that since the position sensors 40 are disposed on the side toward which the opening of the mounting slot 22 is oriented, even if the mounting seat 20 is a copper member or other metal material affecting the magnetic induction line, it will not affect the detection process of the position sensors 40.
In the technical solution of the motor assembly of the electric toothbrush 400 as proposed in the present disclosure, the fixed mounting of the position feedback member 30 on the output shaft 11 is realized through the mounting seat 20, which may improve the stability of the mounting of the position feedback member 30, and thus improve the detecting effect of the position sensor 40 on the position feedback member 30, thereby improving the controlling effect of the brush head assembly 300.
The present disclosure further proposes a brush handle assembly 200 for an electric toothbrush 400, the brush handle assembly 200 of the electric toothbrush 400 includes a brush handle housing, a battery, and a motor assembly. The specific structure of the motor assembly of the electric toothbrush 400 is referred to in the above embodiments. Since the brush handle assembly 200 of the electric toothbrush 400 is adopted with all of the technical solutions of all the above embodiments, it has at least all the beneficial effects brought about by the technical solutions of the above embodiments, which will not be repeated herein. The battery is electrically connected to the motor assembly, the battery and the motor assembly are both arranged in the brush handle housing, and the output shaft 11 of the motor assembly extends out of the brush handle housing.
The present disclosure further proposes an electric toothbrush 400, including a brush head assembly 300 and a brush handle assembly 200. The specific structure of the brush handle assembly 200 of the electric toothbrush 400 is referred to in the above embodiments. Since the electric toothbrush 400 is adopted with all of the technical solutions of all the above embodiments, it has at least all the beneficial effects brought about by the technical solutions of the above embodiments, which will not be repeated herein. The brush head assembly 300 is detachably connected to the output shaft 11 of the motor assembly.
Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only intended to illustrate the technical solutions of the present disclosure, and not to limit them. Although the present disclosure has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that it is still possible to make modifications to the technical solutions recorded in the foregoing embodiments, or to make equivalent replacements for some of the technical features therein. These modifications or substitutions do not cause the essence of the technical solutions to depart from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments in the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202321079577.7 | May 2023 | CN | national |
