Patent Grant
6881928
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to personal care appliances and attachments therefor, more particularly, to personal care appliances and attachments therefor which emit far infrared radiation and negative ions naturally during operation.
2. Description of the Related Prior Art
It is well known that far infrared rays, electromagnetic waves and negative ions are beneficial to human health. Certain kinds hair care devices, such as hair dryers, are found to incorporate electrical ion-generators for emitting ions and electromagnetic waves for effective and fast blow drying and for styling human hair. Such devices conventionally utilize piezoelectric generators or voltage generators to actuate ion-generators to produce negative ions. However, devices incorporating piezoelectric generators have to be actuated manually by users and thereby are inconvenient and troublesome to use, while those incorporating voltage generators are not able to emit ions effectively since the voltage generated by voltage generators is relatively too low for ion-generators to operate effectively. Moreover, such devices may also generate excessive amounts of ozone which is harmful and hazardous to human health. In addition, conventional hair care devices with the above generators are relatively bulky and are therefore difficult to use.
It is known that certain particular compound materials which emits far infrared radiation and electromagnetic waves of certain wavelengths are applicable to hair dryers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,674 discloses a hair dryer A (with reference to
Accordingly, a need exists for an ion-emitting personal care appliance which is compact, lightweight and easy-to-use and which durably produces relatively highly charged negative ions.
The present invention is primarily introduced in order to solve the aforementioned problems involved in the personal care appliances according to the prior art.
It is therefore the principal object of the present invention to provide an ion-emitting personal care appliance, such as facial care appliances, hair care appliances and body care appliances, and attachments therefor which emits far infrared radiation and negative ions naturally and continuously during operation, and which are durable and easy to use.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a hair dryer comprising a housing, in which an air inlet, an impeller, a heating element and an air outlet are enclosed, wherein the housing is injection moulded of a blended material of thermo-resistant plastic material and ion-powders.
The present invention also provides attachments suitable for combination with a hair dryer or a hair curling iron wherein the attachments are made of a blended material of thermo-resistant plastic material and ion-powders by injection moulding.
The present invention further provides a hair curling roller having a hollow cylindrical shell, which is able to emit far infrared radiation and negative ions, wherein the cylindrical shell is made of a blended material of thermo-resistant plastic material and ion-powders by injection moulding.
The present invention further provides attachments for facial care appliances and for body care appliances wherein the attachments are made of a blended material of thermo-resistant material and ion-powders by injection moulding so as to emit far infrared radiation and negative ions during operation.
Furthermore, the present invention provides a hair arranging device for adjusting, cleaning or confining hair, wherein the device is made of a blended material of thermo-resistant material and ion-powders by injection moulding so as to emit far infrared radiation and negative ions during operation.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent in view of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments and accompanying drawings.
The present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description given hereinbelow when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are given by means of illustration only and thus are not limitative of the present invention, in which:
FIG. 6A and
In order to simplify the description of the present invention, several embodiments relating to hair care appliances and attachments therefor are illustrated hereinbelow and should not be deemed as limitations to the present invention.
With reference to
In order to provide far infrared radiation and negative ions during operation, the housing 202 of the hair dryer 200 is made of a blended material of thermo-resistant material and ion-powders by injection moulding or other suitable forming technology. The term “ion-powders” hereinbelow refers to any material in the form of powders which emits far infrared radiation and negative ions naturally, and the term “thermo-resistant material” refers to any material which is heat-resistant and electric-insulating, such as synthetic resin, thermoplastic resin and rubber-like flexible materials. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the “ion-powders” is a blended mixture of powders including anhydrous silicon (SiO2), aluminum oxide (AL2O3), iron oxide (Fe2O3), titanium oxide (TiO2), calcium oxide (CaO), magnesium oxide (MgO), potassium oxide(K2O), sodium oxide (Na2O) and manganese oxide (MnO). The following chart shows the chemical composition and the weight percentage thereof of the “ion-powders” according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
The size of the ion-powders is also a very important design factor. In order to keep the contact area of the powders as large as possible so as to bring out the best performance, the present invention utilizes ion-powders having an average diameter of about 2.75 μm, and approximately all of the ion-powders are less than 10 μm in diameter. It is found that the ion-powders of the above composition and diameter emit 4000-6000 negative ions per cc according to the present invention.
In the present invention, certain weight percentages, preferably 3-5%, of ion-powders against the thermo-resistant material are used and mixed well therewith prior to the forming process, which in the preferred embodiment is by injection moulding. The negative ions emitted from the blended material of thermo-resistant material and ion-powders are measured roughly to be 100-200 negative ions per cc.
It should be noted that the above composition is only an illustrative preferred embodiment of ion-powders according to the present invention. Other compositions which may desirably emit far infrared radiation and negative ions are within the contemplation of the ion-powders of the present invention. Furthermore, the size of the ion-powders and the weight percentage thereof against the thermo-resistant material disclosed above are also for illustrative purposes only, and generally the ion-powders may be mixed into the thermo-resistant material to the extent that such composition amounts of ion-powders would not have significant deleterious effect on the performance of the thermo-resistant material.
In order to provide further functions such as hair styling, various attachments are designed for being releaseably attached to a hair care appliance according to the present invention. With reference to
The nozzle 300 according to the present invention is made of the blended material described above into a single piece by injection moulding or other suitable forming technology such that it emits far infrared radiation and negative ions into the hair and scalp during operation when it is attached to a hair care appliance, thereby causing the hair to be dried more effectively and rapidly and to become softer and shinier.
With reference to
It should be noted that the attachments shown in
According to a second embodiment of hair care appliance of the present invention, a hair styler set 500 is shown in FIG. 5. The hair styler set 500 comprises a curling iron 510 and a plurality of attachments, for example, round styling brush 512 for creating curls and waves, volume pick 514 for creating lift and volume at the hair roots, and straightening comb 516 for detangling, straightening and smoothing the hair.
The curling iron 510 comprises a handle 520 for gripping, a heating element 522, a hair clamp 524, a clamp lever 526 and a switch 528 for turning of or off the heating element 522. Since such curling iron 510 is well known in the art, the description and explanation thereof is omitted for simplicity. As to the attachments 512, 514 and 516 for the curling iron 510, each of the attachments includes a conductive (or inductive) heating element (not shown) therein so as to transfer the heat from the heating element 522 thereto as is well known to those skilled in this art. The attachments 512, 514 and 516 according to the present invention are made of the blended material described above such that far infrared radiation and negative ions can be emitted to the hair and scalp during hair styling.
It should be noted that the attachments 512, 514 and 516 shown in
Furthermore, according to a third embodiment of the present invention, hair curling rollers are also constructed to emit far infrared radiation and negative ions.
It should be noted that both electric-heated type and non-heated type of hair curling rollers can be made of the blended material according to the present invention for providing far infrared radiation and negative ions. In addition, the configuration of the projections provided on the hair curling roller can be of any disposition, such as blank or brush-like configurations, for setting hair to different curls and waves. All such configurations are contemplated to fall within the scope of the present invention. Moreover, a hair setter strip, such as shown in
Although the preferred embodiments of the hair care appliances and attachments therefor according to the present invention have been disclosed, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modification, additions and substitutions are possible. For example, attachments, such as soft-brush, for combination with an electric-facial cleaner and attachments for combination with massagers for muscle relief can be made of the blended material according to the present invention. In addition, hair arranging devices, such as combs and brushes, for adjusting, cleaning or confining hair can be made of the blended material according to the present invention for emitting far infrared radiation and negative ions. Therefore, the present invention is contemplated to cover all types of individual hair arranging devices, hair care appliance and attachments therefor and attachments for facial and body care appliances within the scope and spirit of the present invention as recited in the accompanying claims.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20030152373 A1 | Aug 2003 | US |
