Patent Application
20220378183
The present invention relates to a toothbrush that has a thin head portion and bristle bundles implanted respectively in a plurality of implantation holes in the head portion, using a flat wire.
In a toothbrush, bristle bundles each having bristles are respectively implanted in implantation holes in an implantation base of a head portion. In order to enhance intraoral operability, approaches have been taken for reducing a thickness of the head portion and a neck portion of the toothbrush, by considering a quality of a resin material, specification of implantation, shapes of the head portion and the neck portion, and so on (see Patent Literature 1, for example). In Patent Literature 1, it is proposed to reduce the thickness of the head portion by adopting appropriate combination of a length and width of a flat wire, a diameter and depth of an implantation hole, a quality of a resin material, and so on.
However, as disclosed in Patent Literature 1, if a polyacetal resin (POM) is used for the resin material of the head portion, and bristle bundles are implanted in the thin head portion while resistance against loosing of the bristle bundles from the thin head portion being maintained by the flat wire, a defect including a crack (crack in a base) and bleaching occurs (see Patent Literature 1, Table 2, Example 8). In other words, if the POM is for the material of the head portion, stable production cannot be performed without setting the thickness of the head portion to be thick.
In view of the above, a purpose of the present invention is to provide a toothbrush in which resistance against loosing of bristle bundles is maintained, a crack in a base and a defect in appearance are prevented, and a thickness of a head portion can be further reduced.
The present invention covers an invention of:
[1] A toothbrush including: a head portion having an implantation base provided with implantation holes; and a bristle bundle implanted in each of the implantation holes of the implantation base by implantation of a flat wire, in which the head portion is a thin head that is molded from a polyacetal resin having a weight-average molecular weight of 130000 or more, and has a thickness of 3.0 mm or less, and when a base thickness that corresponds to a thickness of the implantation base is T1 (mm), a hole depth of the implantation hole is U1 (mm), a flat wire implantation depth that corresponds to a depth from an implantation face to an upper end of the flat wire implanted from the implantation face is H1 (mm), and a weight-average molecular weight of the polyacetal resin is Mw, a following equation (1) is satisfied.
[Formula 1]
(−18.5)+T1×7.0+U1×3.5+H1×(−10.0)+MW×0.78×10−5≥2.96 (1)
[2] A toothbrush including: a head portion having an implantation base provided with implantation holes; and a bristle bundle implanted in each of the implantation holes of the implantation base by implantation of a flat wire, in which the head portion is a thin head that is molded from a polyacetal resin having a weight-average molecular weight of 130000 or more, and has a thickness of 3.0 mm or less, and when a base thickness that corresponds to a thickness of the implantation base is T1 (mm), a hole depth of the implantation hole is U1 (mm), a flat wire implantation depth that corresponds to a depth from an implantation face to an upper end of the flat wire implanted from the implantation face is H1 (mm), and a weight-average molecular weight of the polyacetal resin is Mw, a following equation (2) is satisfied.
[Formula 2]
(−13.3)+T1×6.2+U1×2.1+H1×(−8.05)+Mw×0.36×10−5≥3.33 (2)
According to the present invention as above, the resistance against loosing of the bristle bundles can be maintained, a crack in the base and a defect in the appearance can be prevented, and the thickness of the head portion can be further reduced. Specifically, the intraoral operability is enhanced by adopting a thin head having a thickness of 3.0 mm or less, as the head portion. Furthermore, the head portion is molded from a polyacetal resin having a weight-average molecular weight of 130000 or more, and when a base thickness that corresponds to a thickness of the implantation base is T1 (mm), a hole depth of the implantation hole is U1 (mm), a flat wire implantation depth that corresponds to a depth from an implantation face to an upper end of the flat wire implanted from the implantation face is H1 (mm), and a weight-average molecular weight of the polyacetal resin is Mw, a following equation (1) is satisfied. With this configuration, a crack in the base can be prevented.
[Formula 3]
(−18.5)+T1×7.0+U1×3.5+H1×(−10.0)+MW×0.78×10−5≥2.96 (1)
Furthermore, the head portion is molded from a polyacetal resin having a weight-average molecular weight of 130000 or more, and when a base thickness that corresponds to a thickness of the implantation base is T1 (mm), a hole depth of the implantation hole is U1 (mm), a flat wire implantation depth that corresponds to a depth from an implantation face to an upper end of the flat wire implanted from the implantation face is H1 (mm), and a weight-average molecular weight of the polyacetal resin is Mw, a following equation (2) is satisfied. With this configuration, a crack in the base and a defect in the appearance (occurrence of unevenness) can be surely prevented.
[Formula 4]
(−13.3)+T1×6.2+U1×2.1+H1×(−8.05)+Mw×0.36×10−5≥3.33 (2)
Next, embodiments of the present invention are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
A toothbrush 1 according to the present invention includes a thin head portion 2 that has an implantation base 5 provided with a plurality of implantation holes 20, and bristle bundles 4 that are implanted respectively in the plurality of implantation holes 20, using a flat wire. The toothbrush 1 in this example may be a manual toothbrush in which a head portion, a neck portion, and a handle portion are uniformly molded from a synthetic resin. The toothbrush 1 may be an electric toothbrush in which a toothbrush cleaning body having a head portion and a neck portion is connected to a distal end of a main body that serves as a grip portion and contains a driving mechanism. The toothbrush 1 may be certainly embodied by other embodiments.
The head portion 2 is molded from a polyacetal resin having a weight-average molecular weight of 130000 or more. The polyacetal resin may be a homopolymer or a copolymer, as long as the polyacetal resin contains a crystal part in addition to an amorphous part. As the weight-average molecular weight increases, a degree of crystallization becomes higher. Thus, the head portion 2 made of such a polyacetal resin is hardly cracked so as to have a good appearance. The head portion 2 includes the thin implantation base having a thickness (base thickness) T1 of 3.0 mm or less. The head portion 2 is formed to be a thin head portion having a thickness preferably of 2.9 mm or less, more preferably of 2.6 mm or less, and further preferably of 2.5 mm or less. The lower limit of the base thickness T1 that is the thickness of the implantation base 5 is preferably 2 mm, and more preferably 2.2 mm or more. If the thickness is less than 2 mm, it is difficult to secure sufficient resistance against loosing of bristle bundles. The base thickness T1 corresponds to a thickness of at least a part of an implantation face, on which the bristle bundles 4 are implanted.
The head portion 2 (implantation base 5) has, in a ventral side thereof, an implantation face 21 to which the bristle bundles 4 are projectingly implanted. The implantation face 21 is provided with a plurality of Implantation holes 20 each of which has a bottom and an approximately circle shape in the cross section. The number of the implantation holes 20, an arrangement form thereof, and so on are not limited to this example. A diameter and a depth of each of the holes, a shape thereof in the vertical cross section, the number of filaments for a single bristle bundle, a material of the filament, and so on, are selected from an appropriate range, depending on various conditions. For example, the diameter (inner diameter D1) of the hole is appropriately determined to be a level of 1.2 to 2.4 mm. Each of the implantation holes 20 according to the present example extends straight and has a circular shape in the cross section, basically. In a peripheral wall of the bottom of the hole, an inclined plane with a reduced diameter in a truncated cone shape is formed.
A hole depth U1 of each of the implantation holes 20 corresponds to a depth from an opening of the implantation hole 20 at the implantation face 21 to a bottom face 200 of the implantation hole 20. A thickness T2 of a bottom of the head portion (implantation base 5), i.e., a distance from the bottom face 200 of implantation hole to a rear face 22 of the head portion is referred to as a “distance from hole bottom to base bottom” in the present description. It should be noted that the implantation hole 20 may have another shape. It is preferable that the hole depth (U1) is set to 0.9 mm or more, in view of maintaining good resistance against loosing of the bristle bundles.
The distance from hole bottom to base bottom (T2) is preferably 0.15 mm or more, more preferably 0.2 mm or more, and still more preferably 0.25 mm or more. If the distance from hole bottom to base bottom is 0.5 mm or more, the resistance against loosing of the bristle bundles cannot be maintained by the thin head of the present invention. Accordingly, the distance from hole bottom to base bottom is preferably kept to less than 0.5 mm, more preferably to 0.45 mm or less.
In each of the implantation holes 20, a bristle bundle prepared by bundling a plurality of filaments and folding the bundled filaments into halves is implanted using a flat wire 3. A material of the flat wire 3 is not particularly limited, and may be a well-known material used in typical toothbrushes, such as a metal and a hard synthetic resin. The thickness of the flat wire 3 may be set to 0.1 mm or more and 0.2 mm or less, and preferably set to 0.15 mm or more and 0.185 mm or less. If the thickness is less than 0.1 mm, the flat wire is deformed at the time of implanting the flat wire. This prevents the resistance against loosing of the bristle bundles from being maintained. If the thickness of the flat wire is 0.21 mm or more and the head portion is, in particular, a thin head, the head portion may be bleached or the base may be cracked.
An overlap margin of the flat wire 3 onto the implantation hole (a difference between the hole diameter D1 of the implantation hole 20 and a transverse length L of the flat wire 3, which is orthogonal to an implantation direction of the flat wire) is preferably set to +0.35 mm or more and +0.6 mm or less, and more preferably set to +0.45 mm or more and +0.6 mm or less. If the overlap margin is less than +0.35 mm, an engagement dimension is small, preventing the resistance against loosing of the bristle bundles from being maintained. If the overlap margin exceeds +0.6 mm, the flat wire may be deformed. This causes the resistance against loosing of the bristle bundle or a single filament to be lowered. The flat wire may be implanted so that both end portions thereof in the length direction are engaged in the same dimension. With this configuration, each end portion is engaged in the peripheral wall of the implantation hole 20 with a preferable amount of 0.175 mm or more and 0.3 mm or less.
A cross sectional area obtained by cutting the flat wire 3 at a face perpendicular to the transverse direction is set to 0.1 mm2 or more and less than 0.3 mm2, and is preferably set to 0.12 mm2 or more and 0.3 mm2 or less. If the cross sectional area is less than 0.1 mm2, the flat wire may be bent, resulting in lowering the resistance against loosing of the bristle bundle or a single filament. A shape of the cross section is exemplified by an elliptical shape in this example, so as to have curve faces at a proximal end and a distal end in the implantation direction. Thus, it is considered that load is prevented from being imposed to the bristle bundle 4. A thickness t of the flat wire 3 in this example corresponds to the thickness of a straight area of the flat wire 3, which excepts the curved portions at both end portions thereof.
The implanted flat wire 3 is shown by virtual lines in
A material of the filament is not limited in particular, and may be artificial bristles made of a resin material, such as nylon, polyester, polyolefin, and so on, or may be natural bristles, such as pig bristles. These may be combined. In addition to the above, well-known embodiments can be widely adopted in terms of a cross sectional shape, a dimension of the cross section, length, presence/absence of a tapered shape, and so on.
Such a head portion 2 of the toothbrush 1 according to the present invention is formed so that a value of X1 in the below-shown equation (3) is 2.96 or more. In the equation (3), a thickness of the base is T1 (mm); a hole depth of the implantation hole is U1 (mm); an implantation depth of the flat wire is H1 (mm); and a weight-average molecular weight of the polyacetal resin is Mw. If the value X1 is less than 2.96, a crack may occur in the base.
[Formula 5]
(−18.5)+T1×7.0+U1×3.5+H1×(−10.0)+MW×0.78×10−5=X1 (3)
Furthermore, the head portion 2 of the toothbrush 1 according to the present invention is formed so that a value of X2 in the below-shown equation (4) is 3.33 or more. In the equation (4), the thickness of the base is T1 (mm); the hole depth of the implantation hole is U1 (mm); the implantation depth of the flat wire is H1 (mm); and the weight-average molecular weight of the polyacetal resin is Mw. If the value X2 is less than 3.33, a crack in the base or defection of the appearance (occurrence of unevenness) may occur. If the value of X2 is more than 3.33, a crack in the base and the defection of the appearance (occurrence of unevenness) can be prevented without fail.
[Formula 6]
(−13.3)+T1×6.2+U1×2.1+H1×(−8.05)+Mw×0.36×10−5=X2 (4)
Although the embodiments of the present invention are described, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and can be appropriately embodied through various embodiments without departing from the scope of the present invention.
<Evaluation of Crack in Base and Appearance>
Subsequently, samples of the thin head portion, which were molded from the polyacetal resin and had a base thickness of 3.0 mm or less, were prepared by changing each of the base thickness T1, the hole depth U1, the flat wire implantation depth H1, the distance T2 from hole bottom to base bottom, and the weight-average molecular weight Mw of the polyacetal resin. Evaluations as shown in Tables 1 to 8 were obtained in terms of a crack in the base and appearance (unevenness) of the head portion.
(Sample)
The samples were prepared with values shown in Tables 1 to 4 in terms of the base thickness T1, the hole depth U1, the flat wire implantation depth H1, the distance T2 from hole bottom to base bottom, the weight-average molecular weight Mw of the polyacetal resin, a value of X1 calculated by the above equation (3), and types of the polyacetal resin “P1” to “P6”. The inner diameter of the implantation hole (opening) was set to 1.5 mm.
The polyacetal resin “P1” is a polyacetal copolymer (the number average molecular weight (Mn): 24900, the weight-average molecular weight (Mw): 122000, a Z-average molecular weight (Mz): 247000, MFR: 27 g/10 min, tensile modulus of elasticity: 2800 Mpa, and flexural modulus: 2550 Mpa).
The polyacetal resin “P2” is a polyacetal homopolymer (the number average molecular weight (Mn): 55400, the weight-average molecular weight (Mw): 130000, the Z-average molecular weight (Mz): 261000, MFR: 25 g/10 min, the tensile modulus of elasticity: 3300 Mpa, and the flexural modulus: 3000 Mpa). The polyacetal resin “P3” is a polyacetal homopolymer (the number average molecular weight (Mn): 58200, the weight-average molecular weight (Mw): 143000, the Z-average molecular weight (Mz): 301000, MFR: g/10 min, the tensile modulus of elasticity: 3100 Mpa, and the flexural modulus: 3000 Mpa).
The polyacetal resin “P4” is a polyacetal homopolymer (the number average molecular weight (Mn): 67100, the weight-average molecular weight (Mw): 184000, the Z-average molecular weight (Mz): 471000, MFR: 7 g/10 min, the tensile modulus of elasticity: 3300 Mpa, and the flexural modulus: 3100 Mpa). The polyacetal resin “P5” is a polyacetal homopolymer (the number average molecular weight (Mn): 85000, the weight-average molecular weight (Mw): 227000, the Z-average molecular weight (Mz): 549000, MFR: 2.5 g/10 min, the tensile modulus of elasticity: 3200 Mpa, and the flexural modulus: 3000 Mpa). Polyacetal resin “P6” is a polyacetal copolymer (the number average molecular weight (Mn): 24800, the weight-average molecular weight (Mw): 141000, the Z-average molecular weight (Mz): 302000, the tensile modulus of elasticity: 2850 Mpa, and the flexural modulus: 2700 Mpa).
The number of filaments in a single bristle bundle to be implanted was set to 21 to 23 (average: 22), and a single filament had a diameter of 0.19 mm and a length of 29 mm, and was made of nylon. The flat wire to be used for implantation of the bristle bundles was set to have a vertical length of 1.2 mm, and a transverse length, which was perpendicular to the vertical length, of 2.0 to 2.05 mm (average: 2.03 mm), and a thickness of 0.185 mm.
(Method of Evaluating Crack in Base)
A crack in the base is visually evaluated based on the following five-grade criteria. “5”: there is no crack, “4”: there is a hole in which a slight crack can be recognized, “3”: there are many holes in each of which a slight crack can be recognized, but holes are not connected, “2”: there are many holes in each of which a slight crack can be recognized, and holes are connected, and “1”: cleavage is recognized (there is a gap between cracks), or there is a crack across a plurality of holes.
As shown in Tables 1 to 4, if a value of X1 is 2.96 or more, the evaluation of a crack in the base can be maintained “3” or more, except for the sample P1 in which the weight-average molecular weight Mw of the polyacetal resin is less than 130000.
Table 5 to Table 8 shows values of X2 obtained by the equation (4) above, instead of the values of X1, for the same sample. In Tables 5 to 8, results of the evaluation of an appearance (unevenness) are shown in addition to the evaluation of a crack in the base.
(Method of Evaluating Appearance)
The appearance is evaluated by evaluating the rear face of the head portion based on the following five-grade criteria. “5”: there is no unevenness, “4”: slight unevenness can be recognized, “3”: slight unevenness can be felt by being touched with a finger, “2”: unevenness can be felt by being touched with a finger, and “1”: there is unevenness at a level of a claw being felt by touch with a finger.
As shown in Tables 5 to 8, if a value of X2 is 3.33 or more, the evaluation of a crack in the base and an appearance (unevenness) can be maintained “3” or more, except for the sample P1 in which the weight-average molecular weight Mw of the polyacetal resin is less than 130000.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-235220 | Dec 2019 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2020/048297 | 12/23/2020 | WO |
