WO2006133832A2

WO2006133832A2 - Toothbrush head and method for producing the same

Info

Publication number: WO2006133832A2
Application number: PCT/EP2006/005404
Authority: WO
Inventors: Uwe Bielfeldt; Silvia Olt; Ulrich STÖRKEL; Frank Gliemroth; Ralph Macho
Original assignee: Braun Gmbh
Priority date: 2005-06-16
Filing date: 2006-06-07
Publication date: 2006-12-21
Also published as: CN101198265A; EP1890570A2; DK1890570T3; CA2612499A1; WO2006133832A3; EP1890570B1; BRPI0612044A2; US20090151101A1; DE102005027981A1; ES2386459T3; RU2007146774A

Abstract

The invention relates to a toothbrush head comprising a plurality of substantially peduncular, elastic cleaning elements that are fastened on a cleaning element support, preferably combined to tufts, and project from the support. The invention also relates to a method for producing such a toothbrush head. The invention is characterized by not using conventional bristles or filaments as the cleaning elements, which bristles or filaments are always produced from individual plastic fibers which are shortened to the required length of the bristles and combined to tufts. The invention allows to replace the aforementioned bristles or filaments having nondirectional mechanical properties, i.e. properties that are identical in all directions at an angle to the longitudinal axis, with film strips as the cleaning elements, said strips being produced from a sheet of film by suitable methods of separation. The required mechanical, especially directional properties are conferred on the film strips by suitably choosing the starting film, especially in terms of its thickness and composition, and by suitably choosing the geometry thereof. The invention allows to confer on the film strips, in a simple manner, different mechanical properties such as flexural strength, elasticity, recovery, bending deflection in different directions at an angle to their longitudinal axis.

Description

Toothbrush head and method for its production

The present invention relates to a toothbrush head with a plurality of substantially stem-shaped, elastic cleaning elements, which are fastened to a plaster element carrier preferably combined to form tufts and protrude from this. The invention further relates to a method for producing such a toothbrush head.

In conventional toothbrush heads, individual filaments or bristles are regularly combined into tufts and fastened as bristle tufts on the cleaning element carrier of the toothbrush head. This can be done either by a so-called anchor plug method, in which the bristles are folded in a U-shape, so that an anchor plate between the legs of the bristles is taken. The bristle tufts is stuffed into a hole in the cleaning element carrier, wherein the anchor plate is inserted transversely over the bristles extending into the recess, so that it is anchored to the walls and holds the bristles in the recess. Alternatively, it has become known to pour the combined into a tuft bristles in the injection-molded plastic injection element carrier, in which case the bristle tufts can be introduced with their einzugießenden ends in the injection mold, so that they are poured during injection molding of the cleaning element carrier in this.

In these conventional toothbrush heads, however, it is sometimes difficult to give the bristles or tufts directed mechanical properties. For example, it may be desirable to give the bristles and the bristle tufts formed therefrom less stiffness in one direction than in another direction, for example, in order to be able to apply large forces, for example, to the plaque when cleaning in one direction, while in cleaning movements into another Towards smaller forces to be generated, for example, not to injure the gums and oral mucosa, but only gently massage. Also, the bristle tuft heads can only be trimmed in a limited number of shapes, or more complicated head shapes of the bristle tufts are difficult to achieve. The heads of the bristles themselves can only be rounded regularly.

WO 01/12013 A1 discloses a toothbrush and a method for the production thereof in which the filaments serving as bristles are first glued or welded in series with their base sections on a band. By rolling the tape with the attached bristles a bristle tuft is generated, the then attached to a bristle carrier. It is advantageous here that targeted properties of the resulting bristle tufts can be achieved by stringing different length and / or different solid bristles. However, it is also difficult in this case to obtain ultimately actually directed mechanical properties of the bristle tuft; in particular, the mechanical properties of the bristles themselves can not be changed in a direction-oriented manner in the desired manner.

On this basis, the present invention has the object to provide an improved toothbrush head and an improved method for its production, avoid the disadvantages of the prior art and further develop the latter in an advantageous manner. In particular, a simple producible toothbrush head is to be created, the cleaning elements and Putzelementebüscheln the desired direction-dependent different mechanical properties can be given in a simple manner.

According to the invention this object is achieved by a toothbrush head according to claim 1. In terms of process engineering, the stated object is achieved by a method according to claim 20. Preferred embodiments of the invention are the subject of the dependent claims.

According to the invention therefore no conventional bristles or filaments are used as cleaning elements, which regularly use individual plastic fibers as starting material, which are then shortened to the necessary length of the bristles and combined into tufts. Instead of such bristles or filaments with non-directional, i. in all directions transverse to the longitudinal axis of the same mechanical properties, the present invention proposes to use as cleaning elements film strips, which are made by a suitable separating forming process from a sheet of film. Such film strips can be given the desired mechanical, in particular directional properties by suitable choice of the starting film, in particular its thickness and material composition, as well as a suitable choice of the geometry. Thus, in particular, it is possible in a simple manner to give the film strips various mechanical properties, such as bending force, elasticity, restoring force, bending curve, etc. in different directions transverse to their longitudinal axis.

In particular, a thin film material can be used as the starting material for the production of the film strip and a blank can be given to the film strip that the individual cleaning elements have a rectangular cross section whose length is preferably a multiple of its width. In particular, as a starting material, a film having a thickness in the range of 10 .mu.m to 500 .mu.m, preferably about 50 .mu.m to 250 .mu.m can be used. The film strips are preferably made of such a film in a strip width which corresponds at least ten times, preferably at least fifty times, the thickness of the film. For example, foil strips can be produced with a strip width of 1 to 5 mm.

Another advantage of such cleaning elements consisting of film strips, more particularly their rectangular cross-section with a large ratio of its length to its width in comparison with conventional bristles with round cross-section in the improved toothpaste order on the teeth to be cleaned. While in bristle tufts made of conventional filaments, the abrasive elements of the toothpaste due to the convex base surfaces of conventional bristles relatively quickly outside the cleaning range of bristle tufts, the flat or sheet film strips can hold the toothpaste and its abrasive elements better and longer at the top of the Tutzelementebüschels and thus wipe over the tooth surface to be cleaned, which is beneficial for plaque removal.

The production of film strips from a foil sheet can fall back on various separating forming process. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the film strips are punched out of the film sheet. As a result, on the one hand high processing speeds can be achieved, on the other hand, the geometric variety of shapes of the film strips are virtually unlimited.

Alternatively or additionally, cutting methods such as laser cutting can also be used in the production of the film strips. In this case, cuts can be made in the starting film with the aid of cutting tools and in this way individual cleaning elements in the form of film strips can be produced from the originally coherent film. The advantage of this method lies in the simple production process, but in this case no arbitrarily shaped structures can be produced.

In particular, by the aforementioned punching the plaster elements can be given a variety of forms on their the tooth surface processing heads. For example, according to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the heads of the film strips have a plurality of tips, whereby the cleaning effect of the individual plaster Elements can not be significantly improved, since their cleaning effect emanates mainly from the tips.

In development of the invention, the cleaning elements are made of a plastic film. In order to be able to vary the properties of the individual plaster elements themselves better, they can be made of a multilayer film. In this case, in particular combinations of different materials can be used, for example, different plastic layers to be joined together to form a multilayer composite film. Advantageously, the cleaning elements can also be formed from a mixture of plastic and another non-plastic material, in particular a plastic-paper mixed film, a so-called plastic paper blend. In the preparation of the cleaning elements of such plastic paper blends, in which the paper content can be variably adjusted, in particular the ability of the paper for receiving various liquids, especially water can be used. Due to the higher liquid absorption capacity of paper can be introduced into this liquid or liquid-soluble Applikatorsubstanzen that are released during use in the mouth. In particular, it is thereby better possible to bring chemotherapeutic substances to the place where they are to act, namely, for example, directly on the tooth or on the gums. In this case, various applicator substances such as, for example, flavorings, antibacterial agents, circulation-promoting applicators, etc. can be introduced.

Alternatively or additionally, such applicators can also be applied to the film strips by means of a surface coating, which is simpler in the case of films as starting form for the cleaning elements than when using individual filaments or bristles.

In principle, the film strips can be arranged individually on the cleaning element carrier and attached thereto. Preferably, however, the cleaning elements consisting of film strips are combined into tufts and fastened in tufts together on the plaster element carrier. Preferably, at least some of the combined to form a tuft cleaning elements are connected to each other at its base, preferably integrally formed integrally with each other, the cleaning elements are then attached with their interconnected base to the cleaning element carrier. In terms of manufacturing technology, it is particularly advantageous in this case if individual film strips are not cut out of the film sheet, but instead a series of film strips arranged next to one another are produced, which are connected to one another by a strip-shaped strip at their base. By folding or winding the band-shaped base of this film blank or punched part with the film strips arranged thereon, a tuft of film strips can be formed, which can then be fastened to the cleaning element carrier, if appropriate after combining with further film strips or film strip tufts.

In particular, the film strip tufts may be formed by stacking a plurality of such film strip assemblies joined together by a common base. By joining the stacked base sections, for example by means of gluing or joining by heating with infrared light or by welding, a foil tuft can be formed in a simple manner. It is particularly advantageous that also foil strips made of different starting films with different material properties can be stacked on each other in order to control the properties of the foil strip tuft targeted. Also, film strips with different geometries and / or orientations can be stacked on one another in order to control the mechanical properties of the resulting film strip tuft. For example, alternating foil strip tapes with foil strips inclined towards the left can be stacked over foil strip tapes with film strips inclined to the right, so that a high bending stiffness results in both cleaning directions. Alternatively or additionally, the individual rows of film strips with the film strips can be arranged in rows lying one above the other offset from one another, resulting in a very dense plaster element arrangement. Likewise, film strips of different height and / or different width and / or different thickness can be stacked on top of each other.

The attachment of the film strips in particular summarized to foil strip tufts on the plaster element carrier can basically be done in various ways. According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the foil strips can be stuffed with its base into a recess in the cleaning element carrier and anchored there by means of an armature element extending transversely over the base section of the respective foil strips. For this purpose, the corresponding anchoring element can be shot into the plaster element carrier so that its end sections extend into the walls of the plaster element carrier surrounding the recess and are fixed there. This type of attachment may be particularly advantageous if in the aforementioned manner film associations with juxtaposed film strips which are integrally connected to one another at its base, are used. The respective anchor element can here extend transversely over the band-shaped base portion of the foil strip row.

As an alternative to the above-mentioned anchor plug method, the film strips can also be attached to the plaster element carrier in a materially bonded manner, in particular cast into it. Preferably, the film strips combined into foil strip tufts can be introduced with their base sections into the corresponding injection mold before the cleaning element carrier is injection-molded. The introduced into the injection mold material encloses the base portions of the film strips so that they are poured. It may be particularly advantageous if in the einzugießenden base portions of the film strips recesses are introduced, which are filled when pouring into the cleaning element carrier of the casting material, so that in addition to the force or material connection also a positive connection is made.

These and other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the claims and from the following description of preferred embodiments with reference to accompanying drawings. In the drawings show

1 is a schematic side view of a toothbrush head according to a first embodiment of the invention, showing the arrangement of the cleaning strips in the form of film strips,

2 is a plan view of the brush head of Fig. 1,

3 is a schematic fragmentary side view of a toothbrush head according to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, showing the arrangement of the cleaning elements in the form of film strips,

4 is a plan view of the toothbrush head of Fig. 3,

5 shows a schematic side view of a toothbrush head according to a further embodiment of the invention, showing the arrangement of the cleaning strips in the form of film strips, 6 is a plan view of the brush head of FIG. 5,

7 shows a schematic side view of a toothbrush head according to a further embodiment of the invention, showing the arrangement of the cleaning strips in the form of foil strips,

8 is a plan view of the brush head of FIG. 7,

9 shows a schematic side view of a toothbrush head according to a further embodiment of the invention, showing the arrangement of the cleaning strips in the form of film strips,

10 is a plan view of the brush head of FIG. 9,

11 is an overall perspective view of a toothbrush with cleaning elements in the form of film strips, wherein the arrangement of the film strips is similar to FIG. 1,

12: a perspective view of a foil strip blank for

Forming a cleaning element tuft of a toothbrush according to one of the preceding figures,

FIG. 13 is a schematic perspective enlarged view of a cleaning element bundle formed from a plurality of rows of foil strips stacked one above the other, and FIG

Fig. 14 is an enlarged partial plan view of a toothbrush head of a preferred embodiment of the invention, showing the arrangement of the individual foil strips in the cleaning tufts.

The toothbrush heads 1 shown in the figures basically consist of a cleaning element carrier 2, which may be injection molded from plastic, as well as a plurality of elongated, roughly bristle-shaped cleaning elements 3, all of which are fastened to the said cleaning element carrier 2 and protrude therefrom. At least part of said cleaning elements 3 consists of film strips 4, which are fastened with their base to the cleaning element carrier 2 and project from it. The film strips 4 are all formed elastically, but advantageously formed by their geometry and their material structure with different mechanical properties in different directions.

The film strips 4 are combined in a similar manner as in conventional toothbrushes to Putzelementebüscheln. In the embodiment of Figures 1 and 2 is a Tutzelementebüschel 5 with the head of the toothbrush inclined foil strip, a centrally arranged Tutzelementebüschel 6 with perpendicularly spaced from the cleaning element carrier 2 foil strip and a Tutzelementebüschel 7 with the back to the stem 8 of the toothbrush inclined Foil strips provided. As shown in FIG. 2, a total of four rows of Putzelementebüscheln are provided, wherein in the illustrated embodiment, each row 9, 10, 11 and 12 consists of the aforementioned three groups of different inclined Tutzelementebüschel.

The cleaning elements tufts 5, 6 and 7 each consist of stacked film strips. More specifically, each foil tuft 5, 6 and 7 consists of a plurality of stacked film strip assemblies 13, as exemplified by Fig. 12 shows. A plurality of film strips 4 are arranged in a row lined up and connected integrally with their base portion 14 integrally with each other. The film strip association 13 forms, as it were, a comb, from the base section 14, lined up in succession, a multiplicity of film strips 4 protrude. These film strip assemblies 13 can be produced in particular by punching or cutting from a film sheet which serves as starting material, wherein in the aforementioned manner various films such as multilayer composite films comprising plastic layers and paper layers can be used. In order to form a bristle tufts 5, 6 or 7, a plurality of the foil strip bandages 13 shown in FIG. 12 are stacked on top of each other and connected to each other at the base portion 14. This can be done, for example, non-positively by gluing or cohesively by welding. Alternatively or additionally, a stacking of the film strips 4 also take place in that a film strip association 13, as shown in FIG. 12, is folded or wound up, so that several film strips come to lie one above the other. In this case, geometrically identically shaped film strips 4 can be superimposed congruently in different ways and / or geometrically identically formed film strips in the longitudinal direction of the base portion 14 and / or stacked in the longitudinal direction of the film strips 4 stacked one above the other be and / or geometrically differently formed film strips 4 are stacked. It is also possible to stack film strips 4 with different material properties on top of each other in order to determine the mechanical properties of the film strip tuft in different directions optionally different.

After the film strips 4 are stacked in the manner mentioned above and connected to each other, they can be fixed in the manner described above to the cleaning element carrier 2, in particular by pouring, encapsulation, but also by a conventional per se anchor plug method.

As in the embodiment shown in Figures 1 and 2, the film strips 4 of each film strip tufts 5, 6 and 7 are each stacked congruently one above the other. Although the film strips 4 differ in their orientations from film strip tufts to film strip tufts, in the same film strip tufts 5, 6 or 7, the film strips 4 have the same geometric configuration and are stacked congruently one above the other. As shown in FIG. 2, three film strip assemblies 13 per film strip tuft 5, 6 or 7 can be stacked on top of each other. As shown in FIG. 1, the film strips 4 may advantageously be punched or cut at their free end with two tips 15 and 16, whereby the cleaning effect can be noticeably improved.

In the embodiment of Fig. 3 and 4, all film strips 4 are combined to form a single film strip tufts 5, wherein the film strips 4 are also made here in the manner described above from punched or cut film strip assemblies 13, which are stacked. As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, however, film strips 4 of different geometry are stacked one above the other in a staggered manner. As shown in FIG. 3, the film strips 4 differ in particular in their length. In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, the film strips 4 are arranged offset to one another in the longitudinal direction of the film strip assemblies 13.

In the embodiment according to Figures 5 and 6, the toothbrush head 1 comprises external cleaning tufts 5, 6 and 7, which form each cleaning element tufts rows 9 and 10 (see Fig .. 6). Between these two Tutzelementebüschelreihen 9 and 10 conventional bristle tufts 17 are attached to the cleaning element carrier 2.

The Tutzelementebüschel consisting of film strips 4 5, 6 and 7 are characterized in this embodiment by their different geometry and, where appropriate, different material properties. In the film strip tufts 5 lying on the head of the rendering element carrier 2 curved film strips 4 are arranged, which are curved towards the head of the toothbrush. The centrally arranged film strip tufts 6 consist of vertically projecting film strips 4 of small width (compare Fig. 5). On the other hand, the foil strips 4 arranged towards the stem 8, which form the foil tuft 7, have a considerably greater width. In addition, they are each provided with a plurality of tips 15, 16.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the film strip tufts 5, which consist of film strips 4, are distributed in a star shape on the plaster element carrier 2, wherein each film strip tuft 5 as a whole has a rectangular cross section. Each film strip tuft 5 is in this case constructed in the manner described above from a plurality of film strip assemblies 13 connected in series with one another film strips connected by a common base portion 14, which were stacked on top of each other. Here, for example, the film strips 4 may be arranged offset to one another, so that a dense packing of film strip 4 is formed. In the center of the star-shaped Folienbüschelanord- tion sits a bristle tufts 17 of conventional bristles or filaments. As shown in FIG. 7, the cleaning elements 3 formed from film strips 4 may have a considerably shorter length than the conventional tufts 17.

By punching the film strips 4 made of plastic or composite film, the film strip 4 can be given almost any shape, as shown in FIG. 9. The film strip tufts 5 lying at the head of the rendering element carrier 2 consists here of film strips 4 with a serrated contour, while the film strip tuft 6 arranged on the strip 8 is formed of film strips 4 with film strips 4 tapering towards the tip approximately volcanically. As shown in FIG. 10, a plurality of film strip assemblies 13 are stacked on top of each other.

Claims

claims

1. Toothbrush head with a plurality of substantially stem-shaped, elastic cleaning elements (3), which are fastened to a cleaning element carrier (2) preferably combined to tufts (5, 6, 7) and protrude from this, characterized in that the cleaning elements (3 ) consist of film strips (4).

2. Toothbrush head according to the preceding claim, wherein the cleaning elements (3) have a rectangular cross-section whose length is a multiple of its width.

3. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the film strips (4) have a thickness between 10 .mu.m and 500 .mu.m, preferably between 50 .mu.m and 250 .mu.m.

4. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the width of the film strip (4) is at least ten times, preferably at least fifty times the thickness of the film strip (4).

5. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein at least one of the cleaning elements (3) is formed from plastic film.

6. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein at least one cleaning element (3) from a mixture of plastic and another non-plastic material, in particular of a plastic-paper-mixture film is formed.

7. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein at least one cleaning element (3) consists of a multilayer composite film.

8. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein in the film strips (4), in particular in a paper portion of the film strip (4), at least one applicator katorstoff, preferably a liquid or liquid-soluble applicator material is introduced.

9. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the foil strips (4) have a surface coating containing at least one applicator.

10. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the cleaning elements (3) have directed mechanical properties, in particular in different transverse directions different stiffness, restoring forces and / or curvature properties.

11. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the cleaning elements

(3) each have a plurality of tips (15, 16).

12. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein a plurality of cleaning elements (3) to base portions (14) connected to each other, preferably integrally formed integrally with each other.

13. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein a plurality of film strip assemblies (13) of a plurality of interconnected film strips

(4) to a foil strip tuft (5, 6, 7) summarized attached to the cleaning element carrier (3) and / or connected to each other at their base portions (14), in particular glued and / or welded.

14. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein a plurality of foil strip dressings (13) consisting of juxtaposed, at their base portions (14) integrally integrally interconnected film strips (4) arranged stacked and superimposed layers of the stack formed thereby at the base portions (14) of the foil strip assemblies (13) are connected to one another in a force and / or materially bonded manner.

15. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein in a film strip tufts (5, 6, 7) film strips (4) of different material and / or different geometry and / or different orientation are summarized.

16. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein in addition to the cleaning elements (3) of film strips (4) cleaning elements of bristles and / or filaments are provided.

17. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein at least some film strips (4) inserted into a recess in the cleaning element carrier (2) and anchored there by means of an anchor member which extends transversely over the arranged in the recess portions of the film strip (4) are.

18. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein at least some of the film strips (4) are cast with their base portions (14) in the cleaning element carrier (2).

19. Toothbrush head according to one of the preceding claims, wherein at least some of the film strips (4) have base portions (14) with recesses, which are fillable by the cleaning element carrier (2) forming casting material.

20. A method for producing a toothbrush head (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, in which a plurality of elongated, elastic cleaning elements (3), preferably combined into bundles on a cleaning element carrier (2) are fastened, so that the cleaning elements (3) of the Cleaning element support (2) protrude, characterized in that film strips (4) are used as cleaning elements (3), which are separated out of at least one foil sheet as a starting material.

21. The method according to the preceding claim, wherein at least some of the film strips (4) are at least partially punched.

22. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein at least some of the film strips (4) are at least partially cut out by cutting, in particular laser cutting, from the film sheet.

23. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein on the foil sheet prior to its division into individual film strips (4) a surface coating containing at least one applicator is applied.

24. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein at least one applicator is introduced into the film sheet prior to its division into film strips, in particular in a paper portion of the film sheet.

25. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a plurality of film strips (4) stacked one above the other and as cleaning elements tufts (5) on the cleaning element carrier (2) are attached.

26. Method according to the preceding claim, wherein the film strips (4) combined into a stack are connected to one another at base sections (14), in particular adhesively bonded and / or welded.

27. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein from the film sheet, a film strip assembly (13) having a plurality of juxtaposed film strips (4), which are connected to a common base portion (14) is separated out.

28. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a foil strip dressing (13) with a contiguous base portion (14) and a plurality of molded film strips (4) of different geometry is made.

29. The method according to one of the two preceding claims, wherein the film strip assembly (13) is folded or wound into a film strip stack and then with the cleaning element carrier (2) is connected.

30. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a plurality of film strips (4) and / or film strip assemblies (13) are stacked on top of each other and as a foil stripe bundles (5, 6, 7) on the cleaning element carrier (2) are attached.

31. The method according to the preceding claim, wherein stacked film strip assemblies (13) at their base portions (14) connected to each other, in particular glued and / or welded.

32. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein for fastening the foil strip (4) to the cleaning element carrier (2) a foil strip bundle (5, 6, 7) stuffed into a recess in the cleaning element carrier (2) and there by a transversely extending anchoring element is anchored, which is placed over a portion of the film strip (4) lying in the recess and anchored to the walls of the recess.

33. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the film strips (4) on the cleaning element carrier (2) are fixed non-positively and / or cohesively.

34. Method according to the preceding claim, wherein the foil strips (4) are cast into the plaster element support (2), in particular during injection molding of the plaster element support (2) with the material forming the plaster element support (2).