Integrated shaving mechanism

Abstract

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.

Claims

1. A shaver, comprising: a shaver body defining a cavity and an interface end of the cavity; an arbor having an arbor bearing surface defining a shaver head shape with a profile, the arbor defining an opening and shaver body interface feature, the shaver body interface feature configured to be coupled to the shaver body at the interface end of the cavity with the opening of the arbor aligned with the cavity; a headfoil coupled to the arbor at edges of the arbor, the headfoil having a skin surface facing side and an arbor facing side, the headfoil having length and width dimensions spanning the opening of the arbor, the headfoil defining an aperture pattern with individual apertures sized to accept a hair projecting from a surface of skin; a cutterfoil having a headfoil facing side and a cavity facing side, the cutterfoil on the cavity facing side slidably coupled to the arbor bearing surface of the arbor and, on the headfoil facing side, slidably coupled to the arbor facing side of the headfoil in an arrangement enabling a cutting motion of the cutterfoil, the cutterfoil having a length dimension, width dimension, or both, smaller than the respective headfoil length dimension, width dimension, or both, the cutterfoil defining an aperture pattern with individual apertures sized to accept the hair projecting from the surface of the skin, wherein patterns of the apertures of the headfoil and cutterfoil are complementary; wherein, in the slidably coupled arrangement, the headfoil and cutterfoil have profiles that match the arbor bearing surface profile, and wherein at edges of aligned apertures, the headfoil and cutterfoil define complementary cutting edges capable of cutting respective hair projecting through the aligned individual apertures; a drive bearing fixedly coupled to the cavity facing side of the cutterfoil; the arbor, headfoil, and cutterfoil with the drive bearing constituting an integrated shaving mechanism (ISM) with the skin surface facing side of the headfoil being in contact with the skin surface during shaving; and a shaver driving means disposed within the shaver body and coupled to the ISM via the drive bearing to drive the cutterfoil in a cutting motion relative to the headfoil, the shaver driving means capable of driving the cutterfoil, in its arrangement between the headfoil and arbor, at a frequency and force sufficient to cut the respective hair projecting through the aligned apertures, resulting in hair clippings being collected within the cavity of the shaver body.

2. The shaver of claim 1, wherein individual apertures of the headfoil are substantially the same shape as individual apertures of the cutterfoil.

3. The shaver of claim 1, wherein the shaver driving means includes an eccentric drive shaft that is coupled to the ISM via the drive bearing.

4. The shaver of claim 3, wherein the eccentric drive produces a 1-mm cutting scan of the cutterfoil.

5. The shaver of claim 3, wherein the eccentric drive shaft drives the cutterfoil in a reciprocating scanning motion.

6. The shaver of claim 3, wherein the eccentric drive shaft drives the cutterfoil in a circulating scanning motion.

7. The shaver of claim 1, wherein the shaver driving means is capable of driving configured to drive the cutterfoil up to a frequency of 16K cycles per minute (cpm).

8. The shaver of claim 1, wherein the shaver driving means is configured to drive the cutterfoil between a frequency of 8K-cpm and 16K-cpm.

9. The shaver of claim 1, further comprising an open-patterned substrate, and wherein the cutterfoil is an upper layer of the substrate, wherein the open-patterned substrate includes the drive bearing.

10. The shaver of claim 1, further comprising a substrate, and wherein the cutterfoil is an upper layer of the substrate and the substrate includes the drive bearing.

11. The shaver of claim 1, further comprising a substrate, and wherein the cutterfoil is an upper layer of the substrate and wherein the drive bearing is an interface configured to couple to a conventional shaver cutter support and drive mechanism.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The foregoing will be apparent from the following more particular description of example embodiments, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating embodiments.

(2) FIG. 1 is top view of an integrated shaving mechanism (ISM);

(3) FIG. 2 is a side cross-sectional view 2-2 of FIG. 1;

(4) FIG. 3 is an end cross-sectional view 3-3 of FIG. 2;

(5) FIG. 4A and 4B are an exploded view of components of FIG. 3 separated from each other;

(6) FIG. 5 is a side view of a multilayer cutterfoil and headfoil embodiment; and

(7) FIG. 6 is a side view of a rigid cutterfoil embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(8) A description of example embodiments follows.

(9) The teachings of all patents, published applications and references cited herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety.

(10) Cutterfoil Integrated Shaving Mechanism Detailed Descriptions

(11) This specification and detailed descriptions are based on experience building and shaving with cutterfoil shaver models made using home workshop resources, but the claimed invention allows a wide range of variations and advances, the general directions of which are given under Options, below, identification of whose most desirable versions depends on implementation details.

(12) Reciprocating R-ISM: FIGS. 1-4B

(13) FIG. 1: top view

(14) FIG. 2: side cross-section 2-2 of FIG. 1

(15) FIG. 3: end cross-section 3-3 of FIG. 2

(16) FIG. 4A and 4B: components of FIG. 3, separated

(17) FIG. 5: multilayer cutterfoil and headfoil combination

(18) FIG. 6: rigid cutterfoil

(19) Parts Callouts: FIGS. 1-6:

(20) 10 arbor

(21) 12 cutterfoil

(22) 14 drive bearing

(23) 16 alignment arms

(24) 18 headfoil

(25) 20 modular shaver mechanism

(26) 22 shaver body

(27) 24 drive motor

(28) 26 eccentric shaft

(29) 28 cutterfoil scan axial reciprocation

(30) 30 cutterfoil aperture pattern

(31) 32 headfoil aperture pattern

(32) 34 cutterfoil cutting edge ridges

(33) 36 cutterfoil thickness

(34) 38 eccentric radius

(35) 40 bearing slot

(36) 42 alignment grooves

(37) 44 headfoil edges

(38) 46 arbor bearing surface

(39) 48 arbor bearing web and clipping passage pattern

(40) 50 arbor edges

(41) 90 cutterfoil cutter layer

(42) 92 open-patterned substrate

(43) 94 bearing and alignment elements

(44) 96 cutterfoil cutter layer

(45) 98 rigid lightweight substrate

(46) 100 bearing and alignment elements

(47) R-ISM Embodiment

(48) The R-ISM mechanism, FIGS. 1-4B, comprises a fixed arbor 10, an inverted Braun 428 cutterfoil 12, with affixed drive bearing 14 incorporating a lateral bearing slot 40 and alignment arms 16, that is axially 28 movable on the arbor guided by the alignment arms 16 in alignment grooves 42. A Braun 420U headfoil 18 is attached via headfoil edges 44 to the arbor 10 at arbor edges 59 and contacts an arbor bearing surface 46, confining the cutterfoil 12 in movable contact and integrating all as an ISM 20. This attaches to a shaver body 22 housing a powered drive motor with shaft 26 of 1-mm eccentricity engaging 24 the drive bearing, together producing the cutterfoil 1-mm cutting scan 38 axial reciprocation 28.

(49) Optionally attaching the motor to the arbor provides a modular ISM (M-ISM) alternative when mounted on an appropriate shaver body with a suitable power supply.

(50) Cutterfoil and headfoil are Braun shaver electroform foils 55-m thick 36 with 40-m bodies and 15-m high cutting edge ridges 34. The cutterfoil has a Braun 428 headfoil aperture pattern 30, its aperture rows and narrow guard bands and the alignment elements 16, 42 aligned axially 28, its ridged 34 cutter surface facing up, and is trimmed shorter than the headfoil to remain under it when scanned. The headfoil has a Braun 420U aperture pattern 32, also axially aligned and laterally phased to superpose their aperture rows.

(51) The arbor is of Delrin, 2850-mm with a 40-mm radius bearing surface 46 comprising narrow bearing webs 48 congruent with headfoil apertures in an open pattern covering, in one embodiment, every sixth axial headfoil row, and every twelfth lateral column, the openings comprising clipping passages.

(52) C-ISM Embodiment

(53) The circulating C-ISM mechanism, not shown, is similar to the R-ISM of FIGS. 1-4B, with a holed instead of slotted drive bearing to provide cutterfoil 1-R-mm circular scan motion. Its arbor-conforming cutterfoil bonding area is enlarged laterally to spread lateral drive force over larger cutterfoil area, and it has alignment pads centered near the cutterfoil ends running in 2-mm wider arbor grooves, its arbor and headfoil widths increased to provide clearance for the lateral scan. This positively limits cutterfoil rotation at lateral extremes, with intermediate jitter found to be negligible in shaving and under observation with a high frequency stroboscope and variable pressure on the headfoil.

(54) Multilayer Cutterfoil and Headfoil Options: FIG. 5

(55) A multilayer cutterfoil for an ISM comprises a cutterfoil cutter layer 90 with an affixed or coated low-friction, thin, lightweight, open-patterned substrate 92, with integral or affixed bearing and alignment elements 94 for use in any ISM configuration similar to a monolayer cutterfoil.

(56) Rigid Cutterfoil: FIG. 6

(57) A rigid cutterfoil may comprise a cutterfoil cutter layer 96 affixed to or coated on a rigid lightweight substrate 98 with integral or affixed lower surface bearing and alignment elements 100 for scanning on an arbor, or elements for attaching to a conventional shaver cutter-supporting and scan-drive mechanism.

(58) Drive Bearing Bonding

(59) Drive bearing and alignment elements, usually made in one piece from Delrin sheet, were attached to ISM model nickel electroform cutterfoils using standard super-glues, but occasional bond failures in shaving tests called for improvement. An Internet search revealed IBM U.S. Pat. No. 5,532,024 for a simple Method for improving the adhesion of polymetric adhesives to nickel surfaces that provides reliable bonds to nickel electroform foils. Cutterfoils of other materials or coatings, and other bondants can also avoid this problem.

(60) Integrated Shaver Mechanism Options

(61) Generalized ISM Example Embodiment

(62) Conceived and implemented as an ISM using cutterfoils made from shaver headfoils, enabling large lightweight cutters capable of being scanned at high frequency and little vibration, an example embodiment generalized ISM comprises a low friction arbor proximate to a desired cutting surface, supporting a scanning cutterfoil against a headfoil connected to the arbor as an integrated mechanism. Its basic configuration is beneficial economically and dynamically in obviating all static and moving parts other than the arbor, cutter, and headfoil.

(63) The arbor is useful in shaping and supporting extremely thin cutters under shaving pressure, with no added moving mass and little friction, while its benefits are applicable also to any flexible or rigid lightweight cutters with interfaces cooperatively configured for support and efficient scanning.

(64) ISM versions described above are based on concept-proof and performance-test models that, despite being limited by use of available shaver parts and simple tools, set new standards of shaver capability. But, they exploit only a few of the options in design, materials, and fabrication that may be employed in various embodiments of the ISM, where some options are listed below.

(65) C-ISM Relevance to Known Shaver Types

(66) Most ISM models, like most commercial shavers, have been reciprocating R-ISMs for their simplicity and robustness achievable from available model-making tools, commercial headfoils adaptable as cutters, shaver bodies, motors, and power supplies. Their designs, operation and superior performance are readily relatable to conventional reciprocating shavers.

(67) Enough circulating C-ISMs have also been tested to prove their performance and particularly their direct relation to R-ISMs, allowing deriving any new C-ISM technical guidance from relevant R-ISM model characteristics in lieu of dedicated C-ISM models.

(68) Since no circulating shavers are known to have been marketed, the potential for a high performance circulator is indeterminate, so the C-ISM can provide the first widespread test of its desirability.

(69) Advanced Cutterfoil Perspective

(70) The ISM and cutterfoil embodiments establish a new shaver-cutter paradigm of considerably wider scope than current computer-lithographically defined, electro-chemically deposited, 50-m, headfoil-based cutterfoils used in today's shaver models. Whereas typical shaver cutters are mechanically fabricated multi-part rigid assemblies, the one-piece, non-mechanically fabricated, flexible cutterfoil embodiment disclosed herein encompasses diverse design and fabrication options, including aperture patterns defined by optical or electronic micro-imaging, and fabrication as a monolayer or multilayer foil of various thicknesses by processes such as deposition, coating, erosion, 3-D printing etc.

(71) These fabrication options allow making cutterfoils and headfoils of a wide range of materials with any aperture patterns, of any form, that may offer superior acquisition and close-cutting of hairs in each sweep. Prospective cutterfoil and headfoil materials and coatings alternative to conventional metals, such as crystalline materials, silicon carbide, diamond, sapphire, and graphene, variously offer low friction, low wear for maintaining edge sharpness, and fabrication as monolayer cutters or multilayers of thin cutter coatings on lightweight substrate materials.

(72) Arbor Options

(73) The Delrin arbor for the R- and C-ISM, FIGS. 1-4B, serves well as low friction support and shaper for the thin and flexible cutterfoil and headfoil. A benefit of this monolithic arbor's uniform foil support and direct coupling to shaver structure is enhancement of scanning smoothness by minimizing foilcutter vibration and extraneous motion. Possible refinements include lower friction material or coating, and a web pattern designed to facilitate cutting by the cutting foils.

(74) A foil-like monolayer or multilayer foilcutter on this arbor type is the most advantageous, but more conventional cutters can also benefit in similar ways from arbors combining support and alignment, particularly in allowing thin cutters and obviating other moving elements.

(75) Broader Potential of Arbor-Based ISM

(76) Cutting-Head Shape Options

(77) The ISM cutting head, FIGS. 1-4B, can be made with laterally varied cylindrical radii and with other forms including spherical and toroidal.

(78) The R- and C-ISM headfoil, cutterfoil, and arbor can be made with open-edge cutting apertures, similar to the rigid-comb cutting heads on reciprocating and rotary shavers, allowing unimpeded entry and immediate cutting of long hairs.

(79) Alternatively, long hairs can be acquired quickly for cutting by increasing cutterfoil and headfoil web spacings near cutting head lateral edges.

(80) The 2850-mm ISM cutting head size and rectangular shape, set by the trimmed Braun 428 cutterfoil, is similar to typical reciprocating shavers, and has been effective and comfortable in test models. But the ISM unitary cutterfoil allows making heads in other sizes and shapes including rounded and triangular, as reciprocators and circulators, and with one or more edges overhanging a smaller shaver head.

(81) Full Area C-ISM and R-ISM

(82) Both Braun-foil-based ISMs provide somewhat larger effective cutting area than conventional reciprocators along with closer cutting-edge spacing and higher cutter scan frequency to achieve significantly higher hair-cutting rate and closeness. Similarly, the C-ISM offers the basis for circulating shavers superior to rotary shavers, with its far larger, cutting-edge-filled, omni-directional cutting area and high cutting frequency.

(83) Adjustable Scan Frequency

(84) ISM high frequency scanning capability permits potentially useful frequency adjustment by changing drive motor frequency such as from 8K-cpm at the start of a shave when the cutting load is greatest, to 16K when the highest cutting rate is desirable for fastest close-cutting.

(85) Replaceable and Separable ISM Module

(86) ISM simplicity and low cost of its parts makes bonded modular cutting head replacement economically feasible, while separable versions allow individual foil replacement if economically desirable.

(87) Rigid Cutterfoil, FIG. 6, for Conventional Shaver Mechanisms

(88) A cutterfoil on a rigid lightweight substrate can replace the multi-part assembled cutters in conventional shavers, where they offer improved cutting, a wider range of cutter aperture sizes and patterns, smoother head forms, lighter weight, and lower cost. Their lower weight allows a larger area cutter and higher frequency scanning with less vibration.

(89) Arbor for Conventional Shaving Mechanisms

(90) The low-friction arbor can support multi-bladed rigid cutters similarly to rigid foilcutters under a shaving-pressurized headfoil and directly connected to a drive motor, obviating a conventional spring-pressurized cutter or headfoil support, and scan mechanisms, thereby reducing the weight and number of moving parts as sources of vibration and cost.

CONCLUSION

(91) It can be seen that the example embodiments of the integrated shaver mechanism and shaver described herein provide a capability for shaving faster, closer, and more comfortably as compared to conventional shavers.

(92) Although the description and examples above contain many specificities, those should not be construed as limiting the scope of the shaver inventions, but as merely providing illustrations of some of example embodiments. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings, and some of the component features can also be employed to improve the performance and cost of current commercial shavers. Thus, the scope of these integrated shaver mechanism embodiments should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given.