EP3262976B1 - Brush - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a brush, in particular a brush for personal care, especially for face care.

A brush for facial care is known in the prior art. This has a handle that receives a drive, the drive shaft is connected to a rotatably mounted carrier that holds a plurality of bristle bundles, so that when the carrier is rotated and the bristle bundles are pressed against the surface of the skin with their cleaning-side ends scrubbing or massaging movement (e.g. WO 2014/024084 A1 or WO 2014/009177 A1 ) or WO 2003/096860 .

The present invention is based on the problem of specifying an improved brush, in particular for face care.

To achieve this object, a brush according to claim 1 is defined in the present invention. This brush has several carriers that have cleaning elements. Cleaning elements in this sense are, for example, bristle bundles comprising bristle filaments or cleaning elements made of a flexible plastic such as TPE. Such cleaning elements can be provided individually or in combination with one another on the carrier. Each carrier usually has a plurality of such cleaning elements, which are preferably provided essentially on the entire surface of the carrier and project through this surface. The cleaning elements can be connected to this carrier by methods known per se for fastening cleaning elements to a carrier, for example by means of anchors or without anchors (cf. for example DE 102 59 723 A1 ). document WO2016025702 , on which the preamble of claim 1 is based, discloses a brush with a plurality of brush holders which cannot be pivoted.

The carrier, preferably each carrier, is pivotally mounted on a housing. For this purpose, the corresponding supports each have a shaft which is preferably formed in one piece on the support and about which axis the support swivels. Strictly speaking, pivoting is understood to mean a rotational movement about the corresponding axis by less than 360 °. So stops can be provided that prevent real rotation. However, the carrier can also rotate together with the axis, such a rotating movement being regarded as pivotable in the sense of claim 1. The feature means in particular that the carrier is movably mounted for a rotational movement about the axis formed by the shaft. The pivotability or rotatability of the carrier results from the fact that the carriers are usually non-rotatable with that assigned to the carrier Shaft are connected, wherein the shaft is pivotally or rotatably mounted in the housing. The carrier is also rotated or swiveled with the rotating shaft. The carrier is usually made of plastic, usually a hard component such as PP, ABS, PA, PBT or PE. Any technology known in particular from the field of toothbrushes can be used to produce the carrier and to connect the carrier to the cleaning elements. The same applies to the materials used there for the carrier and / or the cleaning elements. The housing is preferably also made of plastic. According to the invention, the housing supports a common drive shaft which is provided for the carriers and which is drive-coupled to the shafts of the carriers. The coupling is usually carried out via gears, preferably via a gear, which can have a step-up or step-down ratio in order to change the speed of a drive to the drive shaft compared to the speed of the shaft of the carrier. At the same time, the housing can also be a handle or form a handle, the handle being able to have the drive to the drive shaft in a manner known per se. This drive can be battery operated. In this embodiment, the batteries are provided within the handle. Alternatively, the drive can be network-connected and a cable can be led out of the housing, with which electrical current can be led to the drive.

The drive can be designed in such a way that it conveys a uniform rotational movement to the drive shaft and thus the carrier. Alternatively, the drive can also be operated in an oscillating manner with a reversing rotary movement or operated in a high-frequency vibrating manner. In the case of the last-mentioned embodiment in particular, the carriers are preferably pivoted only through an angular range and are not rotated.

The solution according to the invention can be operated with the same active cleaning surface as the brush from the prior art, in particular in order to massage and / or clean the visual field. By dividing the cleaning elements onto different carriers, the cleaning-active surface of the cleaning elements can adapt better to the contour of the surface to be cleaned. The sensitive facial skin is thus less stressed, as a result of which reddening of the face due to cleaning with the brush according to the invention can be reduced or avoided entirely.

The shafts of the carriers preferably extend essentially parallel to one another and parallel to the axial direction of the drive shaft. The drive shaft and the shafts of the carriers are usually coupled to one another via a planetary gear, as a result of which the rotary movement of the central and common drive shaft is simple on all carriers can be transferred. Between two and six carriers are preferably provided and arranged eccentrically to the drive shaft.

According to a further preferred embodiment of the present invention, the carriers are mounted elastically with respect to the housing, in such a way that each carrier can be pivoted relative to an axial direction of the shaft. The plate-shaped carrier can accordingly pivot depending on the external load actually acting on the carrier, so that the cleaning elements provided on the carrier lie as far as possible against the surface to be covered. The ends of the shafts meshing with the drive shaft remain in engagement with the drive shaft. So the shaft can be curved due to its elasticity during the drive. The carrier usually projecting above the shaft accordingly has an axis of rotation which is pivoted relative to the axis of rotation of the drive-side end of the shaft. The swivel angle can be up to 30 °, if necessary only up to 20 °. The shaft of the carrier can also be supported in an elastic sleeve, which allows a certain mobility of the shaft mounted in the housing relative to the housing and, accordingly, the desired pivoting movement.

Figur 1

eine teilweise geschnittene Seitenansicht eines Ausführungsbeispiels der erfindungsgemäßen Bürste;

Figur 2

eine Draufsicht auf das in Figur 1 gezeigte Ausführungsbeispiel;

Figur 3

eine vergrößerte Detailansicht des Details III gemäß Figur 1;

Figur 4

eine schematische Ansicht eines Getriebes für ein gegenüber dem ersten Ausführungsbeispiel abgewandeltes zweites Ausführungsbeispiel und

Figur 5

eine Draufsicht auf das zweite Ausführungsbeispiel nach Figur 4.

In the brush, the carriers preferably have a circular base and are plate-shaped. The diameter of the carriers is between 10 and 25 mm. The cleaning elements provided on the carrier are preferably bristle bundles which are formed by bristle filaments with a filament thickness of 2 to 8 mils (approximately 0.05 to 0.2 mm). Further details and advantages of the present invention result from the following description of two exemplary embodiments in conjunction with the drawing. In this show:

Figure 1

a partially sectioned side view of an embodiment of the brush according to the invention;

Figure 2

a top view of the in Figure 1 shown embodiment;

Figure 3

an enlarged detail view of detail III according to Figure 1 ;

Figure 4

a schematic view of a transmission for a modified from the first embodiment and second embodiment

Figure 5

a plan view of the second embodiment Figure 4 .

In the drawing shows Figure 1 a longitudinal sectional view of an embodiment with a handle 2, which is adapted and designed so that it can be gripped by the hand of a user. The handle 2 is designed as a hollow body and takes batteries or an accumulator and a stylized drive in the form of an electric motor 4. The batteries or the accumulator (s) are usually replaceable, for which purpose a removable cover is provided on the handle 2, usually on the handle-side end of the handle 2. At the opposite end, the handle 2 forms a gear housing 6. This gear housing 6 receives the drive end of a drive shaft 8, which is provided with a planet gear 10 as a drive wheel. The other end of the drive shaft 8 is connected to the drive 4. The gear housing 6 also receives the drive-side ends of shafts 12 which are provided with gear wheels 14 which mesh with the planet gear 10. The planet gear 10 and the gear wheels 14 are toothed bevel gears which are mounted on the housing 2, 6 in a stationary but rotatable manner. At their ends facing away from the gear wheels 14, the shafts 12 each carry a plate-shaped carrier 16 with a circular cross-sectional shape, which in the present case is designed with a diameter d of 20 mm. Each carrier 16 carries a plurality of bristle bundles 18 as cleaning elements. The bristle bundles 18 extend parallel to the longitudinal direction of the shaft 12 or the drive shaft 8. The shafts 12 are elastic and in Figure 3 illustrated bearing bush 20 supported against the gear housing 6. The bearing bush 20 can, for example, be made of a soft, elastic material, such as TPE, and connected to the material of the transmission housing 6, for example be connected to it in a form-fitting or material-locking manner. An adhesive connection is particularly suitable as a material connection.

In Figure 1 some parameters are given. R is the radial distance between the drive shaft 8 and the shaft 12. In the present invention, this distance R is preferably between 15 mm and 35 mm. d is the aforementioned diameter of the plate-shaped carrier 16. D is the outer circumference, which is formed by a circular envelope surface whose center coincides with the axis of rotation of the drive shaft 8 and which is tangentially applied to the outer circumferential surface of the individual carriers 16. This diameter D is between 30 mm and 80 mm.

Due to the intermeshing connection between the gear wheels 14 and the planet gear 10, the drive 16 results in a rotating movement during operation of the drive 4. This can be a uniformly rotating or an oscillating movement. The carrier 16 are formed together with the shafts 12 and the gear 14 as uniform injection molded parts. This uniform injection molded part can accommodate the cleaning elements 18 and can thus be fastened. Alternatively, a plate carrying the cleaning elements can also be used initially provided the cleaning elements and then be connected to the injection molded part consisting of carrier 16, shaft 12 and gear 14. The diameter and / or the material properties of at least the shaft 12 can be such that the carrier 16 is relative to one in Figure 1 axis direction marked with A can be pivoted. In Figure 1 the surface of the carrier 16 extends at right angles to this axial direction A. This starting position is in Figure 3 drawn with solid lines. The dashed lines show an orientation of the carrier 16 pivoted by 30 °, which is made possible by the elasticity of the shaft 12 and / or the elasticity of the bearing bush 20. Even in this oblique orientation, the shaft 12 is driven via the drive shaft 8, so that the plate-shaped carrier 16 with the cleaning elements 18 is rotated. The pivoting angle of the carrier 16 relative to the starting position is shown with "α".

In the in the Figures 4 and 5 shown second embodiment, the same components are named with the same reference numerals. The gear wheels 14 have a convex toothing in the axial direction, which mesh with the toothing of a cylindrical planet gear 10. The gear wheels 14 are accommodated in a bearing housing 22, which rotatably supports the shaft 12 assigned to the respective gear wheel 14. A bearing housing 22 is provided for each of the shafts 12 with the associated gearwheel 14. Each bearing housing 22 is pivotally mounted via a bearing shaft 24 relative to a gear housing, not shown here. The bearing housings 22 can be pivoted about the swash axis T via the bearing shaft 24, which extends at right angles to the axial direction A of the associated shaft 12. The wobble axis T intersects the respective shaft 12 in the middle. Due to the convexity of the toothing of the gear wheels 14, which are curved with a radius RZ in the axial direction, the gear wheels 14 remain in engagement with the planet gear 10 during this wobble movement by the angle α. The gear housing 6 can have stops which cooperate with the bearing housing 22 in order to limit the wobble movement within a predetermined wobble angle α.

The carrier 16 can have different functional areas. For example, the bristle bundles can be attached to bristle carrier elements made of a hard plastic component such as PP or ABS. These hard bristle carrier elements can be embedded in and connected via a soft elastic mass, so that the individual bristle bundles can pivot on the fastening side relative to a base, as is the case with EP 1 603 429 B1 can be seen. The bristle carrier elements can "float" freely in the thermoplastic elastomer or be connected to one another via relatively thin webs. This configuration can be held within a ring formed from a hard component, which forms the outer peripheral surface of the carrier 16. In addition to bristle bundles, cleaning elements made of a thermoplastic elastomer can also be attached to the carrier. These cleaning elements can extend essentially parallel to the direction of extension of the bristle bundles. Thermoplastic elastomer can also be applied to the peripheral edge of a hard component of the carrier 16. A shock protection is formed by this thermoplastic elastomer. The outer circumferential edge of the carrier 16 can also have cleaning elements, for example made of TPE. These cleaning elements can be arranged in the form of knobs or ribs on the outer peripheral surface of the carrier 16.

Reference symbol list

2nd

Handle

4th

drive

6

Gear housing

8th

drive shaft

10th

Planet gear

12

wave

14

gear

16

carrier

18th

Bristle bundle

20th

Bearing bush

22

Bearing housing

24th

Bearing shaft

A

Axis direction

R

spatial distance between drive shaft 8 and shaft 12

RZ

Radius of curvature of the gear 14

T

Wobble axis

D

Outside diameter brush

d

Outside diameter carrier

α

Swivel angle

Claims (8)

1. Brush with a carrier (16) comprising multiple cleaning elements (18) and a casing (2, 6) supporting a drive shaft (8) for said carrier (16),
   characterized in
   that said brush comprises a plurality of carriers (16) with multiple cleaning elements (18) which are each connected to a shaft (12),
   that said casing (2, 6) pivotably mounts said shafts (12), and
   that a common drive shaft (8) is provided for said carriers (16) and is drive-coupled to said shafts (12).
2. Brush according to claim 1, characterized in that said shafts (12) of said carriers (16) each extend in parallel to one another.
3. Brush according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said drive shaft (8) and said shafts (12) of said carriers (16) are drive-coupled to each other by way of a planetary gearing.
4. Brush according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that two to six carriers (16) are provided.
5. Brush according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said carriers (16) are mounted elastically relative to said casing (2, 6), so that each carrier (16) is pivotable relative to an axial direction (A) of said shaft (12).
6. Brush according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said carrier is pivotable relative to an axial direction (A) of said shaft (12) by no more than 30°, preferably by no more than 20°.
7. Brush according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said carriers (16) have a circular base area with a diameter (d) of between 10 mm and 25 mm.
8. Brush according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each carrier (16) carries at least one bristle bundle (18) and that said bristle bundle (18) is formed by bristle filaments having a filament thickness of 2-8 mils (approx. 0.05-0.20mm).

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