JPH05184424A - Construction of toothbrush handle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To offer a construction of a toothbrush handle used as a housing, which avoids at least restrictions in molding the handle as far as possible for preventing the handle itself from becoming large in size. CONSTITUTION:A toothbrush consists of a head 10 set with bristles 14, and a handle 12 which is molded in a cylindrical shape as a whole and connected to the head 10. The handle 10 is divided lengthwise at least into three cylindrical parts 18a, 18b and 18c which are separately molded and connected together to form the handle 10.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a toothbrush, and more particularly, to a toothbrush of a type in which a handle portion for holding the toothbrush is formed in a tubular shape as a whole, and a drive mechanism and other predetermined mechanism are incorporated therein. Regarding the handle structure.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, in an electric toothbrush,
The head part with brushed bristles can be separated from the grip handle, and the handle is formed into a tubular shape as a whole, in which at least the motor, the battery, and the rotational force of the motor can be reciprocated to a certain degree. A power conversion mechanism for conversion is stored. Therefore, the handle portion tends to be large due to the built-in mechanism described above, and the handle portion is a portion to be gripped by the user, which causes a problem of poor operability. In particular, the reason why electric toothbrushes have not been widely used in the past was not only high cost but also poor operability, that is, discomfort when gripping the grip handle.

This is not limited to electric toothbrushes, and the handle has a tubular shape, and not only the head is driven into the handle, but also a so-called electronic is applied to the head to accelerate the removal of dental plaque. The same applies to toothbrushes and other types of toothbrushes incorporating various actuators.

[0004]

The reason why the grip handle has a large size, that is, the outer diameter is large is not only the enlargement of various actuators as built-in objects but also the molding of the grip handle which is the housing of those actuators. There is an increase in the size of the housing itself due to the above restrictions.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to remove at least the restriction on the molding of the grip handle, which is the housing, as much as possible, and to hold the grip handle. It is to provide a handle part structure of a toothbrush that can prevent the handle part itself from becoming large.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve such an object, the present invention has a head portion in which brush bristles are planted, and the head portion is connected to form a cylindrical shape as a whole for gripping. In the toothbrush including a handle, the handle is divided into at least three portions in the longitudinal direction thereof, and is configured by connecting at least three tubular bodies that are separately molded to each other.

[0006]

By thus dividing the handle into at least three parts, at least three divided cylinders can be molded separately, which increases the degree of freedom of each cylinder in the direction of drawing the mold. As a result, the shape can be freely determined as compared with, for example, the case where the grip handle is integrally formed or the case where the grip handle is divided into two parts, and at least the place where the user grips the other part is the other part. It is also possible to form it thinner than.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will now be described based on the embodiments shown in the drawings. 1 and 2 show an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an electric toothbrush. First, the electric toothbrush is mainly composed of a head portion 10 and a grip portion 12, and the head portion 10 is configured to be detachable from the grip portion 12. In the head portion 10, brush hairs 14 are planted on the head portion thereof, and a support shaft insertion hole 16 is formed at the base end portion thereof.
The support shaft 20a protruding from the grip portion 12 is inserted therein.

The grip portion 12 is an outer cylinder 1 forming the outer wall thereof.
8, a motor 22, a conversion mechanism 24 for converting rotational power of the motor into reciprocating rotary motion of the support shaft 20b, and a battery 50 as a power source are mainly incorporated. As is well known, the conversion mechanism 24 includes an intermediate gear 28 having an eccentric projection 32, a swinging member 34 arranged so as to sandwich the eccentric projection 32 from both sides, and fixed to the support shaft 20b. Since it is publicly known, detailed description is omitted. The support shaft 20b that is reciprocated by the conversion mechanism 24 projects from the outer cylinder 18 and extends into the receiver 56, and is fixed to the receiver 56, whereby the receiver 56 reciprocally rotates. The support shaft 20b comes into contact with the connection fitting 54 and terminates, and the base end of the other support shaft 20a comes into contact with the connection fitting 54 via the spring 72, which projects from the receiving member 56 in the distal direction to cause the head. It is designed to be inserted into the portion 10. The support shaft 20a on the tip end side is swingable via a pin 58, and
It is urged in the brush bristle direction by 2.

The electric toothbrush of this embodiment also functions as a so-called electronic toothbrush, and therefore, as is known,
The head portion 10 is formed with a communication hole 40 for bringing saliva into contact with the support shaft 20a. A conductive plate 48 connected to one electrode of the battery 50 is in contact with the base end of the support shaft 20b. Reference numeral 52 is a reed switch, and 55 is a switch knob.

As shown in FIG. 2, the outer cylinder 18 is divided into three parts (18b, 18a, 18c) in the longitudinal direction, and each divided cylinder body is a sealing O-ring 7.
It is formed as a housing for accommodating a built-in motor or the like by being connected to each other via 1, 73. The outermost first outer cylinder 18b has a truncated cone shape with a small diameter on the distal end side and expands in the proximal direction, and conversely, the third outer cylinder 18c on the most proximal end forms a truncated cone shape that expands in the distal direction. . The second outer cylinder 18a in the central portion is the switch knob 5
4 is provided on the outer wall of the second outer cylinder 18a, and the central portion in the longitudinal direction of the second outer cylinder 18a is formed to have a slightly constricted diameter as compared with the both ends because it is the portion that is most gripped by the user.

By thus dividing the outer cylinder 18 of the grip portion 12 into three parts, the second outer cylinder 18a, which is the central part, is formed to have a smaller diameter than the other parts, and the degree of freedom of molding is increased. Has improved. That is, since the second outer cylinder 18a is a cylinder whose front end and rear end are open, the mold can be pulled out to both sides in the longitudinal direction at the time of molding, and such a substantially bobbin-shaped cylinder is formed. It became possible to do. This is impossible when the outer cylinder 18 is integrally formed or divided into two parts.

In this embodiment, in order to function as an electronic toothbrush as described above, the front and back surfaces of the second outer cylinder 18a are metal-plated, and the battery 50 is provided on the back surface.
One of the electrodes is connected.

As described above, in this embodiment, the grip portion 12
Since the outer cylinder 18 is divided into three parts, it is possible to form the second outer cylinder 18a, which is the portion that is most gripped by the user, with the minimum necessary diameter, which greatly improves the operability of the toothbrush. At the same time, it is possible to provide the grip portion 12 that is clean in appearance. In the present invention, the grip handle portion is 3
Needless to say, it is not necessary to limit the division to four and may be divided into four or more. Also,
The present invention is not limited to the electric toothbrush, and can be applied to a toothbrush of a type in which other predetermined mechanism or actuator is housed in the grip handle.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the handle is divided into at least three parts in the longitudinal direction, the divided cylinders can be molded separately, and
The degree of freedom in the die cutting direction during molding is expanded, which allows the shape of each cylinder to be determined more freely, providing a handle with good operability and excellent appearance. It has an excellent effect that it can be done.

[0015]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of a handle portion structure of a toothbrush according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 head part 12 gripping part 14 brush bristles 18 outer cylinder 18a second outer cylinder 18b first outer cylinder 18c third outer cylinder

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A toothbrush provided with a head portion to which brush bristles are implanted and a gripping handle portion which is connected to the head portion and is formed into a tubular shape as a whole, wherein the handle portion has a longitudinal direction. Is divided into at least 3
A handle structure of a toothbrush, which is configured by connecting at least three tubular bodies that are separately molded to each other.