Electrical appliance for personal care

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11426265-B2
Application number	US-202016859418-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 27, 2020
Priority date	May 4, 2015
Publication date	Aug 30, 2022
Grant date	Aug 30, 2022

Abstract

An electrical appliance for personal care includes a handle with a longitudinal axis, and a plug-on part which can be attached to the handle, wherein a vibration unit having an electric motor and an eccentric element is arranged in the handle, wherein a plug-like coupling structure protrudes from the handle, which plug-like coupling structure forms an interface with a substantially mirror-inverted socket-like coupling structure of the plug-on part, wherein the interface has at least two stages with different circumferential geometry, wherein at least one of the stages has a rotation-preventing device between the handle and the plug-on part, and wherein a stop surface of the handle for the plug-on part extends obliquely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the handle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A toothbrush comprising a handle with a longitudinal axis, and a plug-on part which can be attached to the handle, wherein the handle comprises a hand body with a base body and the plug-on part comprises a base body, wherein a plug-shaped coupling structure protrudes from the handle, which plug-shaped coupling structure forms an interface with a substantially mirror-inverted socket-shaped coupling structure of the plug-on part, wherein the interface has at least two stages with different circumferential geometry, wherein at least one of the stages comprises a rotation-preventing means between the handle and the plug-on part, and wherein a stop surface of the handle for the plug-on part extends obliquely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the handle, wherein a material from which the base body of the hand body is formed is harder than a material from which the base body of the plug-on part is formed.

2. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the stop surface and the longitudinal axis of the handle enclose an angle α of between 30° and 70°.

3. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a length of the handle from the stop surface of the handle to the rear end of the handle is greater on a front face than on a rear face, such that the stop surface extends from the front rearward.

4. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the plug-shaped coupling structure of the handle and the mirror-inverted socket-shaped coupling structure of the plug-on part allow straight plugging-on.

5. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a longitudinal axis of the plug-on part designates the longitudinal axis of the socket-shaped coupling structure, the longitudinal axis of the plug-on part lying in a base region of the plug-on part, wherein a longitudinal axis of a head region lies accordingly in the head region of the plug-on part and wherein an angle Δ lying between A A and A B is between 10° and 30°, the A A being the longitudinal axis of the socket-shaped coupling structure and the A B being the longitudinal axis of the head region.

6. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the arrangement of the stages is not concentric.

7. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 6 , wherein a midpoint of a succeeding stage in each case lies higher than a midpoint of a preceding stage, as seen from the direction of a free end.

8. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at a front end or a free end of a second stage, the cross section begins with a chamfer.

9. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the handle comprises a thermoplastics selected from: acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, polystyrene, styrene acrylonitrile, polybutylene terephthalate, polyethylene terephthalate.

10. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the length of the handle as far as the end of the interface is between 130 mm to 190 mm.

11. A plug-on part for a toothbrush as claimed in claim 1 , which plug-on part can be attached to a handle, wherein:
the plug-on part has a base region and a head region which are connected by a neck region,
the plug-on part comprises a socket-shaped coupling structure which has at least two stages of different circumferential geometry and which forms the plug-on part side of an interface with a substantially mirror-inverted plug-shaped coupling structure of a handle, and
a longitudinal axis A A of the plug-on designates the longitudinal axis of the socket-shaped coupling structure, the longitudinal axis A A lying in the base region of the plug-on part, wherein a longitudinal axis A B of the head region lies accordingly in the head region of the plug-on part and wherein an angle Δ lying between A A , and A B is between 10° and 30°.

12. The plug-on part as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the plug-on part has a recess which cooperates with a mirror-inverted cam of the handle in the manner of a snap-fit connection.

13. The plug-on part as claimed in claim 11 , wherein at least one of a first stage and a second stage of the at least two stages comprises circumferential projections.

14. The plug-on part as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the projections are formed symmetrically with respect to each other.

15. The plug-on part as claimed in claim 11 , wherein at least one of a first stage and a second stage of the at least two stages comprises circumferential recesses.

16. The plug-on part as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the recesses are formed symmetrically with respect to each other.

17. The plug-on part as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the recesses are arranged to form a cavity between the recesses and a hand body.

18. The plug-on part as claimed in claim 11 , wherein a second stage of the at least two stages comprises an angular ridge on the top.

19. A plug-on part for a toothbrush as claimed in claim 1 , which plug-on part can be attached to a handle, wherein:
the plug-on part has a base region and a head region which are connected by a neck region,
the plug-on part comprises a socket-shaped coupling structure which has at least two stages of different circumferential geometry and which forms the plug-on part side of an interface with a substantially mirror-inverted plug-shaped coupling structure of a handle, and
a second stage of the at least two stages comprises a round ridge arranged on the underside of the second stage and serving as a guiding structure.

20. A toothbrush comprising a handle with a longitudinal axis, and a plug-on part which can be attached to the handle, wherein the handle comprises a hand body with a base body and the plug-on part comprises a base body, wherein a plug-shaped coupling structure protrudes from the handle and forms an interface with a substantially mirror-inverted socket-shaped coupling structure of the plug-on part, wherein the interface has at least two stages with different circumferential geometry, wherein a stop surface between the handle and the plug-on part extends obliquely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the handle, and wherein the handle has a cam which cooperates with a mirror-inverted recess of the plug-on part in the manner of a snap-fit connection, wherein a material from which the base body of the hand body is formed is harder than a material from which the base body of the plug-on part is formed.

21. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 20 , wherein a material from which the cam is formed is harder than a material from which the recess is formed.

22. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the height of the cam is from 1 mm to 3 mm.

23. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the length of the plug-shaped coupling structure, measured from a free end to a starting point of the cam, is 20 mm to 40 mm.

24. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the plug-on part can be plugged onto the plug-shaped coupling structure only in one position.

25. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the handle or the hand body is formed from a hard component, and in that the plug-on part is formed from a hard component.

26. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the cam is tree-shaped.

27. The toothbrush as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the recess of the plug-on part has tolerances, with respect to the cam, of 0 to 0.4 mm.

Assignees

• Trisa Holding Ag

Inventors

• Bärtschi Armin
• Fischer Herbert
• Schär Michael

Classifications

• A45D29/05

  motor-driven · CPC title

• A46B9/026 Primary

  where the surface of the brush body or carrier is not in one plane, e.g. not flat (A46B9/005 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A47K7/04

  {Mechanical} washing or cleaning devices, hand or mechanically, {i.e. power} operated · CPC title

• A46B9/06

  Arrangement of mixed bristles or tufts of bristles, e.g. wire, fibre, rubber · CPC title

• A46B13/008

  Disc-shaped brush bodies · CPC title