EP1800810A1

EP1800810A1 - Hair clipper

Info

Publication number: EP1800810A1
Application number: EP06025848A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Masuoko Yoshinoro; Ogawa Hitoshi; Sobagaki Satoshi
Original assignee: Matsushita Electric Works Ltd
Current assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Co Ltd
Priority date: 2005-12-20
Filing date: 2006-12-13
Publication date: 2007-06-27
Anticipated expiration: 2026-12-13
Also published as: CN1986169A; CN200991911Y; ATE442941T1; EP1800810B1; DE602006009209D1; CN100526029C; JP4501853B2; JP2007167219A

Abstract

A hair clipper includes a main body (1) provided with a hair-cutting knife (2) portion at a leading end portion, and an attachment (3) for adjusting a cutting height, the attachment (3) being removably and slidably mounted to the main body (1). The attachment (3) has a substantially U-shaped cross section and is adapted to cover a lower portion of the main body (1). Further, the attachment includes crook pieces (31) integrally formed at opposite top edges of the attachment to define downwardly opened grooves, respectively. The main body has guide ribs (19) fitted in the respective grooves of the attachment to guide sliding movement of the attachment. Furthermore, the main body includes spring members (12) arranged at opposite sides thereof for outwardly pressing internal side surfaces of the attachment, respectively.

Description

The present invention relates to a hair clipper and, more particularly, to a hair clipper provided with an attachment for adjustment of a cutting height.
As hair clippers, there is conventionally provided a hair clipper of the type wherein an attachment having a comb portion for contact with a scalp is mounted to a main body of the hair clipper such that a cutting height can be adjusted by restricting a distance between a hair-cutting knife portion and the scalp by means of the attachment.
In a hair clipper including an attachment, the attachment is slidably attached to the main body so as to change the cutting height through a sliding movement of the attachment so that the cutting height can be adjusted by sliding the single attachment. In such a kind of hair clipper, the attachment is formed into a tubular shape to be capped on the main body such that any shaking motion thereof relative to the main body is avoided (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2005-73933 ).
However, in case a suction mouth for sucking clipped hairs is located in the vicinity of the knife portion of the main body and a suction path extending from the suction mouth to a suction fan is configured to be opened for easy cleaning thereof, the hair clipper provided with the tubular attachment is inconvenient in that the attachment should be removed prior to opening the suction path.
For this reason, it would be desirable that the attachment is disposed not to interfere with a mechanism for opening the suction path by forming the attachment in other shapes than the tubular shape. In this case, however, the attachment would be shaken unless parts of the attachment attached to the main body are precisely formed. Such shaking motion tends to generate a noise when the knife portion is driven to conduct a hair-cut operation. From a viewpoint of production management, however, it is difficult to keep the precision of the parts of the attachment good enough to eliminate the shaking motion.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a hair clipper capable of preventing an attachment from shaking with easy production management even though the attachment is of a non-tubular shape.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a hair clipper including a main body provided with a hair-cutting knife portion at a leading end portion, and an attachment for adjusting a cutting height, the attachment being removably and slidably mounted to the main body, characterized in that: the attachment has a substantially U-shaped cross section and is adapted to cover a lower portion of the main body, the attachment including crook pieces integrally formed at opposite top edges thereof to define downwardly opened grooves, respectively; and the main body has guide ribs fitted in the respective grooves of the attachment to guide a sliding movement of the attachment, the main body including spring members arranged at opposite sides thereof for outwardly pressing internal side surfaces of the attachment, respectively.
The crook pieces of the attachment are biased against the respective guide ribs by means of the spring member, so that the attachment is guided in a reliable manner without shaking.
The main body may further include a biasing member provided on an outer bottom surface of the main body for downwardly biasing an internal bottom surface of the attachment. In this case, it is possible to prevent the shaking motion in more reliable manner. Particularly, the biasing member may serve also as a click-position determining member adapted to, during the sliding movement of the attachment, selectively engage with one of a plurality of click depressions formed on the internal bottom surface of the attachment, in which case it is possible to perform a click operation during the sliding movement of the attachment.
The hair clipper may further include a top cover removably attached to the main body to cover a top side of the main body, the top cover adapted to press top surfaces of the crook pieces respectively formed at the opposite top edges of the attachment. In this case, it is possible to prevent the shaking motion of the attachment in more reliable manner.
Further, the top cover may define a suction path between a top surface of the main body and the top cover, the suction path extending to a suction fan arranged at a rear side of the main body. In this case, the cleaning of the suction path can be conducted with ease by opening the suction path.
In accordance with the present invention, the crook pieces of the attachment and the guide ribs are biased into contact with each other by means of the spring member at all times. Thus, even though the attachment is not of a tubular shape adapted to be capped on the main body but has a substantially U-shaped cross section, the attachment can smoothly slide without shaking, which would otherwise generate of a noise during the operation of the knife portion. Moreover, since no shaking is caused even if the attachment and the main body are not precisely formed, the production management therefor becomes easy.
The above and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments, given in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a horizontal cross sectional view (a cross sectional view taken along the line A-A in Fig. 5) of a hair clipper in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the hair clipper shown in Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a main body of the hair clipper shown in Fig. 1;
Fig. 4 is a vertical cross sectional view of the main body of the hair clipper shown in Fig. 3;
Fig. 5 is a top view of the hair clipper shown in Fig. 1; and
Fig. 6 is a perspective view depicting an attachment of the hair clipper shown in Fig. 1.

Hereinafter, there will be described an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in Fig. 2, a hair clipper of the present invention includes a main body 1 provided at its leading end with a knife portion 2 including a comb-shaped fixed blade and a comb-shaped movable blade, and an attachment 3 removably attached to the main body 1 for adjusting a cutting height. As illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, the hair clipper further includes a top cover 4 removably attached to the top surface of a leading portion of the main body 1. A suction fan 5 and an electric motor 50 for driving the suction fan 5 are received within a rear part of the main body 1. An electric motor 20 for reciprocatingly driving the movable blade of the knife portion 2 is accommodated in a leading part of the main body 1.
The top cover 4 serves to define a suction path 6 between the top surface of the main body 1 and itself. The top cover 4 is provided at its leading side with a slide cover part 40 that can be extended and retracted through sliding movement. The suction path 6 extends between a suction mouth 60 formed at a leading edge of the slide cover part 40 and a filter 51 arranged in front of the suction fan 5.
The reason for making the slide cover part 40 slidingly retractable is that a member defining the suction mouth 60 may become an obstacle in cutting the hair around an ear if it exists close to the knife portion 2, while the suction mouth 60 is desirable to be positioned adjacent to the knife portion 2 at the time of sucking hair chips.
Furthermore, in the main body 1 of the present embodiment, a space 62 between the leading part containing the motor 20 and the rear part containing the suction fan 5 and the motor 50 constitutes a part of the suction path 6 and the suctioned hair chips are collected in the space 62. Since the top cover 4 also covers the space 62, the hair chips collected in the space 62 can be easily taken out by removing the top cover 4 (including the slide cover part 40) from the main body 1. In the drawings, reference numeral "15" designates an air exhaust port, reference numeral "16" designates hooks extending upright from opposite sides of the top surface of the main body 1 to hold the top cover 4 in place, reference numeral "17" designates a hook protruded from a rear end of the top cover 4 and engaged with the rear part of the main body 1, and reference numeral "21" designates a motion converting mechanism for converting rotational movement of the motor 20 to reciprocating movement.
In the meantime, the attachment 3 for adjustment of a cutting height is formed in a semi-cylindrical shape with a substantially "U"-shaped cross section and is provided with a comb portion 30 at its front end side. The attachment 3 is removably attached to around a lower half section of the leading part of the main body 1, the attachment 3 being slidable in a back-and-forth direction. As illustrated in Fig. 6, the attachment 3 is provided with crook pieces 31 inwardly protruding from opposite top edges of the attachment 3 and then bent downwardly at tip ends thereof, respectively. The attachment 3 is further provided on an internal bottom surface with a plurality of click depressions 32 arranged at intervals in the back-and-forth direction.
When the attachment 3 is mounted to the main body 1, guide ribs 19 protruding upwardly from opposite sides of the top surface of the leading part of the main body 1 are fitted into grooves formed by the crook pieces 31, respectively, and spring members 12 made of, e.g., a leaf spring arranged at opposite lateral sides of the main body 1 are brought into contact with opposite inner surfaces of the attachment 3, respectively. The spring members 12 serve to press the opposite side walls of the attachment 3 laterally outwardly to thereby ensure that the inner surfaces of the crook pieces 31 are kept in contact with the respective guide ribs 19 at all times. Thus, the attachment 3 can smoothly slide in the back-and-forth direction along the guide ribs 19 without shaking in a lateral direction.
Furthermore, a click projection 14 is arranged on an outer bottom surface of the leading portion of the main body 1, the click projection 14 being spring-biased downwardly. The click projection 14 is fitted into one of the click depressions 32 formed on the internal bottom surface of the attachment 3, thereby enabling a user to determine a click position of the attachment 3. Under the condition that the click projection 14 is fitted into one of the click depressions 32, the click projection 14 is biased to press the internal bottom surface of the attachment 3 in the downward direction. Moreover, the top cover 4 is attached to the top surface of the leading portion of the main body 1 under the retaining action of hooks 16 such that, as shown in Fig. 1, the opposite bottom edges of the top cover 4 press the opposite top edges of the attachment 3, respectively. Thus, the attachment 3 is held in a state that it is not shaken in a vertical direction and, therefore, the attachment 3 can smoothly slide without shaking in more reliable manner.
While the invention has been shown and described with respect to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modification may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.

Claims

A hair clipper comprising a main body provided with a hair-cutting knife portion at a leading end portion, and an attachment for adjusting a cutting height, the attachment being removably and slidably mounted to the main body, characterized in that:
the attachment has a substantially U-shaped cross section and is adapted to cover a lower portion of the main body, the attachment including crook pieces integrally formed at opposite top edges of the attachment to define downwardly opened grooves, respectively; and

the main body has guide ribs fitted in the respective grooves of the attachment to guide sliding movement of the attachment, the main body including spring members arranged at opposite sides thereof for outwardly pressing internal side surfaces of the attachment, respectively.
The hair clipper of claim 1, wherein the main body further includes a biasing member provided at a bottom side thereof for downwardly biasing an internal bottom surface of the attachment.
The hair clipper of claim 2, wherein the biasing member serves also as a click-position determining member adapted to, during the sliding movement of the attachment, selectively engage with one of a plurality of click depressions formed on the internal bottom surface of the attachment.
The hair clipper of any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a top cover removably attached to the main body to cover a top side of the main body, the top cover being adapted to press top surfaces of the crook pieces formed at the opposite top edges of the attachment.
The hair clipper of claim 4, wherein the top cover is adapted to form a suction path between a top surface of the main body and the top cover, the suction path extending to a suction fan arranged at a rear side of the main body.