Razor cartridge assembly
10766156 ยท 2020-09-08
Assignee
Inventors
Cpc classification
B26B21/225
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B26B21/443
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B26B21/521
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
International classification
B26B21/52
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B26B21/44
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B26B21/22
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
Abstract
Provided is a razor cartridge assembly including: one or more razor blades, each having a cutting edge, a blade housing configured to accommodate the one or more razor blades in a longitudinal direction of the blade housing, and a connector configured to be coupled to a back of the blade housing, wherein the blade housing includes a rib disposed at the back of the blade housing and positioned in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, and the connector includes an inner cantilever and an outer cantilever opposite the inner cantilever, wherein the inner cantilever and the outer cantilever are configured to engage with the rib to couple the blade housing and the connector together.
Claims
1. A razor cartridge assembly comprising: one or more razor blades, each having a cutting edge; a blade housing configured to accommodate the one or more razor blades in a longitudinal direction of the blade housing; and a connector configured to be coupled to a back of the blade housing, wherein: the blade housing comprises a rib disposed at the back of the blade housing and positioned in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction; and the connector comprises an inner cantilever and an outer cantilever opposite the inner cantilever, wherein the inner cantilever and the outer cantilever are configured to engage with the rib inserted into a space formed between the inner cantilever and the outer cantilever to couple the blade housing and the connector together.
2. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 1, further comprising an inner snap protrusion disposed on the inner cantilever and an outer snap protrusion disposed on the outer cantilever such that the inner snap protrusion and the outer snap protrusion face each other, wherein the rib comprises insertion grooves on both sides of the rib such that the insertion grooves engage with the inner snap protrusion and the outer snap protrusion.
3. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 2, wherein the rib further comprises guide slopes for guiding the inner snap protrusion and the outer snap protrusion toward the insertion grooves.
4. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 2, wherein the inner cantilever and the outer cantilever are elastically deformable such that a gap between the inner cantilever and the outer cantilever is increased when the inner cantilever and the outer cantilever are moved toward the insertion grooves to couple the blade housing and the connector together.
5. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 1, wherein: the blade housing further comprises at least one hook coupling portion formed on the back of the blade housing; and the connector further comprises a hook at a position corresponding to the at least one hook coupling portion and configured to be coupled to the at least one hook coupling portion.
6. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 5, wherein the blade housing further comprises a second rib such that the blade housing comprises a pair of ribs including the rib and the second rib, and the hook coupling portion is formed between the pair of ribs at the back of the blade housing.
7. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 5, wherein the connector further comprises a pair of projections adjacent to the hook and configured to provide a guide slot for guiding the hook coupling portion to be coupled to the hook.
8. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 1, wherein when the blade housing and the connector are coupled together, a fastening space is defined between the blade housing and the connector to accommodate insertion of a proximal end of a razor handle in a direction toward a front end of the blade housing.
9. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 8, wherein the connector further comprises a second inner cantilever such that the connector comprises a pair of inner cantilevers which include the inner cantilever and the second inner cantilever that define opposite ends of an opening corresponding to the fastening space in the longitudinal direction.
10. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 8, wherein the blade housing further comprises a center bar extending rearward from the back of the blade housing.
11. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 10, wherein the connector further comprises a clearance groove defining a clearance area between the center bar and the connector when the blade housing and the connector are coupled together.
12. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 11, wherein: a pair of plunger guards are provided at the proximal end of the razor handle and are configured to pivot around a rotation axis parallel to the longitudinal direction; the fastening space is divided into two regions by the center bar when the blade housing and the connector are coupled together; and the pair of plunger guards are configured to be respectively inserted into the two regions of the fastening space.
13. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 12, wherein the razor handle further comprises a moveable plunger disposed between the pair of plunger guards and configured to be moved to push the center bar to cause the razor handle to be detached from the razor cartridge assembly.
14. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 12, wherein the connector is shaped to define recesses configured to correspond to contours of the pair of plunger guards.
15. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 14, wherein: the blade housing further comprises a hook coupling portion formed on the back of the blade housing; the connector further comprises a hook at a position corresponding to the hook coupling portion and configured to be coupled to the at least one hook coupling portion; the connector further comprises a pair of projections adjacent to the hook and configured to provide a guide slot for guiding the hook coupling portion to be coupled to the hook; and the pair of plunger guards are configured to abut the pair of projections when the pair of plunger guards are inserted into the fastening space.
16. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 12, wherein when the pair of plunger guards are inserted into the fastening space, the center bar occupies a space between the pair of plunger guards.
17. The razor cartridge assembly of claim 16, wherein the blade housing further comprises a pair of engaging protrusions on left and right sides of the center bar at the back of the blade housing and configured to be engaged with stepped grooves on the pair of plunger guards when the pair of plunger guards are inserted into the fastening space.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1) These and/or other aspects will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION
(19) Advantages and features of the present disclosure and methods of accomplishing the same may be understood more readily by reference to the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments and the accompanying drawings. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the concept of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the present disclosure will only be defined by the appended claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification.
(20) Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
(21) The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms a, an and the are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
(22) Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
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(24) The razor 100 according to an embodiment includes the razor cartridge assembly 50 which includes the blade housing 10 and a connector 20 fixedly coupled to the blade housing 10 and the razor handle 30 which is detachably coupled to the razor cartridge assembly 50. A pair of plunger guards 31 are formed at an end of the razor handle 30. The plunger guards 31 may be inserted into or removed from a coupling space provided in the razor cartridge assembly 50.
(25) In addition, in order to remove the plunger guards 31 of the razor handle 30 from the razor cartridge assembly 50, a slider button 37 disposed on the back of the razor handle 30 may be configured to be pushed in a particular direction, for example toward the razor cartridge assembly 50. In response to manipulation of the slider button 37, a plunger (not shown) under a biasing force between the pair of plunger guards 13 may protrude toward one side of the razor cartridge assembly 50, thereby pushing the side of the razor cartridge assembly 50. Accordingly, the plunger guards 31 may be detached from the razor cartridge assembly 50.
(26) In some embodiments, the plunger guards 31 may swivel within a predetermined angle range with respect to a rotation axis ax formed near the end of the razor handle 30. Accordingly, when coupled to the plunger guards 31, the razor cartridge assembly 50 may also swivel around the rotation axis ax.
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(28) A razor blade 5 may have a cutting edge at one side, and the other side of the razor blade 5 may be seated in a seating slot provided in the blade housing 10. Here, one razor blade 5 or two or more razor blades 5 may be provided, and a direction in which the razor blade (or blades) 5 is accommodated in the blade housing 10 is a longitudinal direction d perpendicular to a shaving direction.
(29) A pair of clips 7a and 7b for fixing both ends of the razor blade 5 to the blade housing 10 may be provided in order to prevent the razor blade 5 from being separated from the blade housing 10. The pair of clips 7a and 7b may cover both ends of the razor blade 5 and pass through one or more through holes formed near the ends of the blade housing 10. In some embodiments, the pair of clips 7a and 7b may be bent toward a back 11 of the blade housing 10.
(30) In addition, a guard bar 1 may be provided parallel to the razor blade 5 in front of a position where the razor blade 5 is accommodated in the blade housing 10, and a lubrication band 3 may be provided parallel to the razor blade 5 behind the above position, with respect to a shaving direction. The guard bar 1 may be configured to make a user's hair erect in a direction substantially perpendicular to the shaving direction in order to facilitate cutting of the hair by the razor blade 5, and the lubrication band 3 may be configured to smooth the rough skin after the cutting.
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(32) In the embodiment, the blade housing 10 may include ribs 12a and 12b configured to support the blade housing 10 at the back 11 in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction d. The ribs 12a and 12b may be structures that reinforce the blade housing 10 in a direction perpendicular to the razor blade 5. A pair of ribs 12a and 12b may be disposed on left and right sides of the blade housing 10, respectively. However, the present disclosure is not limited to this case, and a larger number of the ribs 12a and 12b can be provided. The ribs 12a and 12b may include guide slopes 14a and 14b for guiding the connector 20 to be fastened easily. At the back 11 of the blade housing 10, the guide slopes 14a and 14b are angled to decline toward opposite sides of the ribs 12a and 12b, respectively. In an embodiment, a first longitudinal beam 18 may be provided between the razor blade 5 and the lubrication band 3 at the back 11 of the blade housing 10 and comprise a hook coupling portion 15 configured to be fastened to a hook (not shown) of the connector 20. A second longitudinal beam 19 may be provided between the guard bar 1 and the razor blade 5 at the back 11 of the blade housing 10 and comprise a center bar 17 configured to be pushed in contact with the plunger (not shown) of the razor handle 30. In some embodiments, when the center bar 17 is pushed by the plunger, it may be deformed in a direction opposite to the plunger.
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(34) The engagement between the ribs 12a and 12b and the inner-outer cantilevers will now be described in more detail with reference to
(35) In a state where the blade housing 10 and the connector 20 are aligned as shown in
(36) In an embodiment, the inner surface 221b and the outer snap protrusion 222b of the outer cantilever 22b and the outer surface 211b and the inner snap protrusion 212b of the inner cantilever 21b may be equally displaced on both sides of the center of the rib 12b. In some cases, the inner end of the outer snap protrusion 222b and the outer end of the inner snap protrusion 212b may contact each other at the time of assembling the connector 20 and the blade housing 10.
(37) In some embodiments, a gap (between lines q and r) between the ends of the outer snap protrusion 222b and the inner snap protrusion 212b before assembly may be smaller than a width w of the rib 12b and greater than a width v (smallest distance) between the upper ends of the two guide slopes 14b.
(38) Therefore, when the inner-outer cantilevers 21b and 22b are coupled to the rib 12b, the gap between the inner snap protrusion 212b and the outer snap protrusion 222b is increased (in a A-A direction) up to a maximum of the width w of the rib 12 as the inner-outer cantilevers 21b and 22b are moved downward along the guide slopes 14b. Then, as the inner snap protrusion 212b and the outer snap protrusion 222b are inserted into the insertion grooves 13b formed on both side surfaces of the rib 12b, the inner snap protrusion 212b and the outer snap protrusion 222b may move toward each other such that the gap between them is reduced again.
(39) Each of the inner cantilever 21b and the outer cantilever 22b may be formed to have a cantilever beam structure having an elastic restoring force to an external bending force. Alternatively, one of the inner cantilever 21b or the outer cantilever 22b may be fixed, and the other stay be formed in a cantilever beam structure.
(40) In
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(42) When the connector 20 and the blade housing 10 are assembled together, they are coupled such that the combinations of the inner-outer cantilevers 21a and 22a and 21b and 22b formed on the right and left sides of the connector 20 are engaged to the ribs 12a and 12b formed at the corresponding positions of the blade housing 10. This coupling ensures secure assembly of the connector 20 and the blade housing 10 in the longitudinal direction d (see
(43) In some embodiments, the connector 20 may include a pair of projections 24a and 24b adjacent to the hook 23 and configured to guide the hook coupling portion 15 so that the hook 23 and the hook coupling portion 15 can be coupled together in position. The projections 24a and 24b may be symmetrical with respect to the hook 23, and a guide slot 25, which is a space in which the hook coupling portion 15 can move while being guided, may be formed between the two projections 24a and 24b.
(44) A clearance groove 26 is formed on an opposite side of the guide slot 25. When the blade housing 10 and the connector 20 are assembled together, the clearance groove 26 is positioned at a predetermined clearance y (see
(45) Referring to
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(47) In a state where the blade housing 10 and the connector 20 are assembled together as described above, a fastening space 55 is formed between the blade housing 10 and the connector 20 into which the proximal end of the razor handle 30 can be inserted in a direction toward the front end of the blade housing 10. At this time, the inner cantilevers 21a and 21b may define opposing ends of the fastening space 55 in the longitudinal direction d. In some embodiments, the fastening space 55 may be divided into two regions by the center bar 17 of the blade housing 10, and each of the plunger guards 31 may be inserted into the two regions, respectively.
(48) When the razor handle 30 is detached from the assembly 50 in this assembled state, the plunger 36 (see
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(50) Referring to
(51) Referring to
(52) Thus in
(53) Referring to
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(55) After the blade housing 10 and the connector 20 are assembled into the razor cartridge assembly 50 as described above, the pair of plunger guards 31 may be detachably coupled to the fastening space 55 formed in the razor cartridge assembly 50. The fastening space 55 may be divided into two regions by the center bar 17, and each of the pair of plunger guards 31 may be inserted into the two regions, respectively. That is, when the pair of plunger guards 31 are inserted into the fastening space 55, the center bar 17 occupies the space between the pair of plunger guards 31.
(56) The plunger guards 31 may be provided at a proximal end of a cartridge mount 35. In some embodiments, the cartridge mount 35 is separately provided and configured to be engageable with a handle grip 39. The plunger guards 31 may swivel within a predetermined angle range with respect to the rotation axis ax parallel to the longitudinal direction d of the blade housing 10. Therefore, during shaving, the razor cartridge assembly 50 coupled to the plunger guards 31 may also be swiveled around the rotation axis ax according to the user's operation. A coupling member 33 may be formed at a distal end of the cartridge mount 35 so as to be fastened to a proximal end of the handle grip 39. Alternatively, the cartridge mount 35 may be integrally formed with the handle grip 39 instead of being provided as a separate component.
(57) The slider button 37 may be formed on a side of the cartridge mount 35. The user may push the slider button 37 up toward the razor cartridge assembly 50, thereby causing the plunger 36 to protrude. In other embodiments, the slider button 37 may be configured to be pushed inward or in any direction to cause the plunger 36 to protrude. Referring to
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(59) The contours of the pair of plunger guards 31 may have profiles that match the recesses 27 (see
(60) When the pair of plunger guards 31 are inserted into the fastening space 55, the stepped grooves 32a and 32b formed on the pair of plunger guards 31 are engaged with the pair of engaging protrusions 16a and 16b (see
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(62) According to a razor cartridge assembly of the present disclosure, inner and outer cantilevers are provided which are configured to engage with corresponding ribs formed on the back of a blade housing, providing simple and secure assembly of the razor cartridge assembly.
(63) In addition, according to the razor cartridge assembly of the present disclosure, plunger guards of a razor handle can be easily coupled and decoupled to and from a fastening space formed between the blade housing and a connector.
(64) It will be understood that the effects of the embodiments are not restricted to those set forth herein. The above and other effects of the embodiments will become more apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art to which the embodiments pertain by referencing the claims.
(65) While the present disclosure has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the following claims. The exemplary embodiments should be considered in a descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.