An electrical appliance for performing a cutting action on hairs present on an area of skin (7) comprises at least one assembly of a driven internal cutting member (5) for cutting off the hairs and an external cutting member (6) which serves for contacting the area of skin (7) and also for covering and contacting the internal cutting member (5). The cutting members (5, 6) are designed such that friction between them is related to their condition of wear in a predetermined way. Information relating to an actual condition of wear of the cutting members (5, 6) is determined by measuring a parameter related to the friction between the cutting members (5, 6) and processing the parameter, and such information is indicated to a user of the appliance.

The invention relates to a hair cutting unit (7a) for use in a shaving device (1). The hair cutting unit comprises an external cutting member (21a) having a shaving surface (29) with hair-entry openings (31), and an internal cutting member (23a) which is rotatable relative to the external cutting member about an axis of rotation (41) and which has a plurality of hair-cutting elements (35). The hair cutting unit further comprises a supporting member (25a) having a skin contacting surface (43) surrounding the external cutting member, and a retaining component (27a) which is releasably couplable to the supporting member by means of a coupling structure (53, 55) and which is configured to retain the external cutting member in an operational position relative to the supporting member in an assembled condition of the hair cutting unit. In said assembled condition a retained element (33) of the external cutting member is retained between a first retaining member (69) of the retaining component and a second retaining member (79) of the supporting member at least in an axial direction parallel to the axis of rotation. In said assembled condition and in a parallel orientation of the shaving surface relative to the skin contacting surface, the shaving surface protrudes relative to the skin contacting surface in the axial direction over an exposure distance (E). The coupling structure comprises a first guiding member (53) provided on the supporting member and a second guiding member (55) provided on the retaining component. The first and second guiding members are configured to mutually engage when the retaining component is in any angular position between a first angular position and a second angular position about the axis of rotation relative to the supporting member and to establish the assembled condition of the hair cutting unit in the second angular position of the retaining component. According to the invention, the first and second guiding members

The invention relates to a shaving unit (11) for use in a shaving device (1). The shaving unit comprises a supporting member (19, 21a, 21b, 21c) and at least two hair cutting units (7a, 7b, 7c) supported by the supporting member. Each hair cutting unit comprises an external cutting member (25a) with hair-entry openings (31) and an internal cutting member (27a) which is rotatable relative to the external cutting member about an axis of rotation (41) and which has a plurality of hair-cutting elements (35). The shaving unit further comprises a retaining structure (23a, 23b, 23c) which is releasably couplable to the supporting member and which is configured to retain the at least two hair cutting units in an operational position relative to the supporting member in an assembled condition of the shaving unit. The retaining structure comprises, for each respective hair cutting unit of the at least two hair cutting units, a separate retaining member (23a, 23b, 23c) which is releasably couplable to the supporting member and which is configured to separately retain the respective hair cutting unit in an operational position relative to the supporting member independently from any other of the at least two hair cutting units. The retaining structure further comprises, for each respective hair cutting unit of the at least two hair cutting units, a locking member (67) comprising at least one locking element (79a, 79b) which, in the assembled condition of the shaving unit, is biased by spring force towards the external cutting member of the respective hair cutting unit and engaged by an engagement element (87a, 87b) of the external cutting member to prevent rotation of the external cutting member about the axis of rotation. The locking member provided for the respective hair cutting unit is separately arranged from any other locking member, provided for any other of the at least two hair cutting units, and integrated with the separate retaining member provided for the respective hair cutting unit.

The invention relates to a shaving unit for a shaving apparatus, comprising at least two cutting units (10a, 10b), wherein the cutting units each comprise an external cutting member (12) having a plurality of hair entry openings (13) and an internal cutting member (480) which is rotatable relative to the external cutting member about an axis of rotation. The cutting units each comprise a housing (20) accommodating a hair collection chamber, the housing comprising a base portion (551) and a cover portion (530) which is releasably coupled to the base portion, wherein the external cutting member and the internal cutting member are held in an operating position in the cover portion by means of a holding component (517) which is releasably coupled to the cover portion. The housing of each cutting unit has a closed condition, wherein the cover portion holding the external cutting member and the internal cutting member is coupled to the base portion and closes the hair collection chamber, and an opened condition, wherein the cover portion is at least partially released and at least partially removed from the base portion so that the hair collection chamber is accessible. The base portion of the housing of each cutting unit comprises a supporting structure (519), wherein in the closed position of the housing the external cutting member is directly supported by the supporting structure at least in an axial direction parallel to the axis of rotation. The supporting structure provides a direct transfer of axial forces, exerted on the external cutting member during use, to the base portion of the housing. Thereby, the mechanical load on the holding component is substantially reduced.

A shaver head assembly includes at least one cutting head component having a housing, an inner cutting blade mounted to the housing and configured and adapted to rotate about an axis and an outer cutting disc coaxially mounted about the axis. The outer cutting disc is configured to oscillate about the axis through positive and negative predetermined angular sectors of rotation, and is configured to cooperate with the inner cutting blade to cut hair.

A rotary electric shaver generally includes a handle assembly having a longitudinal axis, and a head assembly attached to the handle assembly. The head assembly includes a plurality of outer cutters and a plurality of inner cutters, and a tray on which hair cut by a first one of the pairs of cooperating cutters is permitted to commingle with hair cut by a second one of the pairs of cooperating cutters. The head assembly is pivotably mounted on the head assembly mount such that the head assembly is capable of pivoting movement relative to the handle assembly about the entire circumference of the head assembly.

There is provided a method of providing feedback regarding motion of a rotary shaver performed by a user, the method comprising the steps of receiving, during at least one time interval, at least one motion type determined for the motion of the rotary shaver performed by the user, wherein the motion type is selected from a set of predefined motion types that comprises small rotational motion and one or more other predefined motion types; determining a degree of occurrence in the time interval of each of the motion types in the set of time interval; determining from the determined degree of occurrence of each of the motion types in the set of predefined motion types which motion type has a highest degree of occurrence in the time interval; and providing feedback to the user to increase a degree of occurrence of small rotational motion of the rotary shaver if the determined motion type having the highest degree of occurrence is one of the other predefined motion types.

A back and body hair cutting device has: a hair cutting part; and an elongate handle part. The handle part may be sized to permit a user to remotely manipulate the hair cutting part into contact with all areas of a back of the user. The hair cutting part may be a multidirectional cutting device, for example if the hair cutting part has a multi-directional motorized blade that is structured to define a plurality of directions of skin travel and configured to cut hair when advanced over a skin surface in each of the plurality of directions of skin travel.

A shaver head assembly includes at least one cutting head component having a housing, an inner cutting blade mounted to the housing and configured and adapted to rotate about an axis and an outer cutting disc coaxially mounted about the axis. The outer cutting disc is configured to oscillate about the axis through positive and negative predetermined angular sectors of rotation, and is configured to cooperate with the inner cutting blade to cut hair.

An integrated shaving mechanism (ISM) comprises a 28- x 50-mm perforated arbor of 40-mm cylindrical radius supporting a 50-m 300-mg inverted-headfoil-like cutterfoil with a 2540-mm cutting pattern, held slideably under an attached complementary-patterned headfoil. Arbor, cutterfoil, and headfoil provide a few-mm thick shaving mechanism coupled to a shaver body having a motor and eccentric drive shaft that in minor design variations scans the cutterfoil either 1-mm in reciprocation (R-ISM) or 1-mm-R in circulation (C-ISM) at 0.16K-cpm. With its 10-cm.sup.2 area of 0.7-mm-spaced cutting edges capable of firm facial contact, it cuts short hairs at up to 10 the rate of conventional shavers for fast closest-cutting. Arbor-supported cutterfoils and headfoils can be fabricated as thin and lightweight monolayers and multilayers of hard materials and coatings by mechanical and non-mechanical processes. ISMs can be embodied in the size and shape of reciprocator and rotary shavers.