EP1902643B1

EP1902643B1 - Ion hair dryer

Info

Publication number: EP1902643B1
Application number: EP07018481A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Takashi Nakagawa; Hiroyuki Takano; Hideki Tanaka
Original assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Co Ltd
Current assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Co Ltd
Priority date: 2006-09-22
Filing date: 2007-09-20
Publication date: 2009-09-02
Anticipated expiration: 2027-09-20
Also published as: HK1113978A1; CN201085207Y; KR100886296B1; RU2355270C1; DE602007002236D1; CN101147634B; ES2331263T3; JP4395786B2; KR20080027189A; TW200838449A; EP1902643A1; TWI331907B; ATE441340T1; JP2008073291A; CN101147634A

Abstract

An ion hair dryer (1) includes an air outlet (6) ejecting cold air or hot air and an ion outlet (11) emiting ion mist. Axes of the hot and cold outlet and the ion outlet (11) diverge from each other. The air outlet (6) is formed of a nozzle, which is inclined and tapered towards a leading end thereof. A side of the nozzle close to the ion outlet (11) is inclined more than a side of the nozzle placed oppolite to the ion outlet.

Description

The present invention relates to an ion hair dryer capable of ejecting cold air or hot air while emitting ion mist.
Recently, ion hair dryers capable of supplying cold air or hot air along with negative ions or nano-sized ion mist are gaining popularity due to their advantageous effects of, e.g., ease of hair styling and protection of hair damage. A typical prior art of such ion hair dryer is EP-A-1346660 , which was filed by an applicant of the present application. Further, an ion hair dryer having more benefits by increasing a diameter of particulates of the ion mist according to Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2005-304961 is available on the market.
According to these prior art references, an axis of a hot and cold air outlet for ejecting cold air or hot air and an axis of an ion outlet emitting the ion mist are arranged in parallel; and a nozzle forming the outlet of main body case is molded by a resin and can be easily charged. Therefore, the ion mist generated from an electrostatic atomization unit and then emitted from the ion outlet is captured by a peripheral portion of the nozzle. As a result, the ion mist or ions subsequently supplied can be repelled at the peripheral portion of the nozzle, thereby preventing the ion mist from reaching a user.
The present invention provides an ion hair dryer capable of making ion mist reach a user efficiently.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an ion hair dryer having an air outlet ejecting cold air or hot air and an ion outlet emitting ion mist, wherein axes of the air outlet and the ion outlet diverge from each other.
The ion hair dryer may further include a main body case having therein an airflow channel and a branch channel branched from the airflow channel; a blower unit, disposed in the airflow channel, sucking air from a rear side of the airflow channel and ejecting the sucked air from the air outlet formed at a front side of the airflow channel; and an electrostatic atomization unit disposed in the branch channel and having a discharge electrode and an opposing electrode to thereby atomize a fluid and electrostacally charge the atomized fluid by the discharge electrode to emit charged mist from the ion outlet formed at a front side of the branch channel. Furthermore, the air outlet is formed of a nozzle, which is inclined and tapered towards a leading end thereof, wherein a side of the nozzle close to the ion outlet is inclined more than a side of the nozzle placed oppolite to the ion outlet.
Accordingly, ion mist generated from the electrostatic atomization unit may not be captured in a pheripehral portion of the nozzle forming the air outlet of the main body case molded by a resin. As a relult, the ion mist can reach the user efficiently.
Further, a multi-perforation plate made of an insulator may be disposed at the ion outlet to prevent foreign materials from getting into the ion outlet while allowing the charged mist to pass therethrough, the multi-perforation plate is attached to an inner peripheral surface of the branch channel of the main body case by a main wall extended from an outer peripheral portion of the multi-perforation plate, and a portion of the main wall is cut off so as not to cover the opposing electrode of the electrostatic atomization unit.
Accordingly, the amount of ion mist captured by the multi-perforation plate made of insulator can be decreased.
Preferably, an angle between the axis of the air outlet and the ion outlet ranges from 12° to 30°.
Accordingly, since the axes diverges from each other thereby preventing the ion mist generated from the electrostatic atomization unit from being captured in the outer peripheral portion of the nozzle of the main body case, while guiding the ion mist toward the user without great deviation, the ion mist can reach the user efficiently.
The objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments given in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side view showing an exterior of an ion hair dryer in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view of the ion hair dryer;
Fig. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the ion hair dryer;
Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing an assembled state of an electrostatic atomization unit generating nano-sized ion mist;
Fig. 5 is an enlarged cross sectional view of the electrostatic atomization unit;
Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing an another exemplary notch formed at a multi-perforation plate covering the electrostatic atomization unit; and
Figs. 7A and 7B explain a difference of efficiency of the ion mist reaching a user in a prior art ion hair dryer and in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to Figs. 1 to 7B which form a part hereof.
Fig. 1 is a side view of an ion hair dryer 1 in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view thereof; and Fig. 3 is an exploded perspective view thereof.
The ion hair dryer 1 includes a main body case 4, in which an airflow channel 2 and a branch channel 3 branched therefrom are formed therein, and a blower unit 7 disposed in the airflow channel 2. The blower unit 7 sucks air from an air inlet 5 disposed at a rear side of the airflow channel 2 and ejects the sucked air toward a user from a hot and cold air outlet 6 disposed at a front side of the airflow channel 2. The ion hair drier 1 further includes a heater unit 8 disposed in the airflow channel 2 to provide heated air by heating the sucked air. The ion hair dryer 1 still further includes an electrostatic atomization unit 12, a grip 14 foldable toward the main body case 4 about a hinge part 13, and a power cord 15. The electrostatic atomization unit 12 has a discharge electrode 9 and an opposing electrode 10 and atomizes and electrostatically charges water drops supplied to the discharge electrode 9 to thereby emit ion mist from an ion outlet 11 disposed at a front side of the branch channel 3. With this configuration, the cold air or the hot air can be ejected toward user from the hot and cold air outlet 6 while emitting the ion mist from the ion outlet 11.
The blower unit 7 has a tubular body 7c accommodating therein a motor 7b and a fan 7a which can be rotated by the motor 7b. An amount of an airflow of the blower unit 7 can be controlled by a switch 16 provided at the grip 14 in response to a maipulation of the user. The heater unit 8 is provided at a downstream side of the blower unit 7.
The heater unit 8 has an insulating tubular body 8b accommodating therein a body 8a having a ceramic heater and the like. A flange 8c is provided at an end of the insulating tubular body 8b. While the insulating tubular body 8b accommodates the body 8a, the flange 8c is contacted to an end 7d of the tubular body 7c accommodating the fan 7a and the motor 7b, and then engagement pieces 7e and 8e are engaged with each other, thereby assembling the blower unit 7 and the heater unit 8.
The insulating tubular body 8b may be deformed in an abnormal state. Therefore, in consideration of the reliability of the insulating tubular body 8b, it is made of metal and is grounded to a high voltage board 18 through a ground line 20. Power ON/OFF as well as temperature of the body 8a can be controlled by the switch 16 in response to a manipulation of the user.
The dual tube type body 8b is provided with a notch 8f at an upper portion thereof. This notch 8f is communicated with a notch 7f provided at an upper portion of the body 7c when the blower unit 7 and the heater 8 are assembled. Further, a control board 19 and the high voltage board 18 driving the electrostatic atomization unit 12 are disposed at an upper portion of the insulation tubular body 8b at two opposite sides of the notch 8f without blocking the notch 8f. Accordingly, when air is sucked from the air inlet 5 toward the airflow channel 2 by the fan 7a, the air is appropriately heated after passing through the heater unit 8, and, while the heated air is ejected from the hot and cold air outlet 6, a portion thereof also flows into the branch channel 3. The air flowing into the branch channel 3 passes through the electrostatic atomization unit 12 and is emitted from the ion outlet 11 while carrying the negative ions or the nano-sized ion mist.
Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the electrostatic atomization unit 12 showing an assembled state thereof, and Fig. 5 is an enlarged cross sectional view thereof. The electrostatic atomization unit 12 includes a needle-shape discharge electrode 9, a ring-shape opposing electrode disposed in front thereof, and a Peltier device 12g for cooling the discharge electrode 9.
A high negative voltage generated from the high voltage board 18 applies to the discharge electrode 9 through a resistor 30 (Fig. 1) for controlling the high voltage. It is preferable that the resistor 30 is disposed at an upstream side of the discharge electrode 9. In this way, the generation of the negative ions or the ion mist can be prevented from being adversely affected by the potential of the resistor 30.
The discharge electrode 9 is cooled by the Peltier device 12g so that moisture in the air is condensed at the tip of the discharge electrode 9, and the high voltage discharge occurring between the discharge electrode 9 and the opposing electrode 10 acts on the condensed moisture, enabling to provide large diameter nano-sized ion mist without supplying water. After mounting the electrostatic atomization unit 12 as configured above on the insulating tubular body 8b, a multi-perforation plate 17 having a plurality of holes is arranged in front thereof to prevent, while passing the ion mist therethrough, the foreign materials from getting into the electrostatic atomization unit 12, to which the high voltage is applied, through the ion outlet 11. The multi-perforation plate 17 is covered by the cover 4a, and both of the multi-perforation plate 17 and the cover 4a constitute a part of the main body case 4.
The multi-perforation plate 17 is made of an insulating material and attached to an inner peripheral surface of the top cover 4a by a main wall 17a, i.e., a rib extended from an outer peripheral portion of the multi-perforation plate 17. In the main wall 17, a notch 17b is provided so as not to cover the opposing electrode 10 of the electrostatic atomization unit 12. Since the multi-perforation plate 17 made of an insulating material for allowing the ion mist to path through while preventing the foreign materials from getting thereinto is separately provided from the electrostatic atomization unit 12 and has the notch 17b, an amount of ion mist captured by the multi-perforation plate 12 can be decreased (charging the multi-perforation plate 17 can be difficult).
The notch 17b is formed to have a width (W1) of, for example, 20mm corresponding to, for example, a width of the opposing electrode 10. The notch 17b is effective as long as part of main wall 17a is cut off not to cover at least a portion of the opposing electrode 10. For instance, notches 17b' can be provided at a plurality of places of a multi-perforation plate 17' as shown Fig. 6 or at the side thereof as shown Fig. 6, without being limited to the top portion of the multi-perforation plate 17 as shown Fig. 4. Further, the notch 17b is more effective when it is made in a large size. Therefore, it is preferable that the notch 17b is made to have a larger size considering an attachment strength to the cover 4a and an acceptable deformation range of the multi-perforation plate 17 when a foreign matter is put thereinto.
Referring back to Fig. 3, the main body case 4 is formed of the top cover 4a, a left and a right cover 4b and 4c and is assembled by an engagement of a hook 4d at a top thereof and a screw 4e at a bottom thereof after accommodating therein the blower unit 7, the heater unit 8, the electrostatic atomization unit 12, the high voltage board 18, and the control board 19 and so forth.
The grip 14 also is assembled by fastening the screw 4e after accommodating therein the switch 16 and so forth between a pair of left and right cover 14a and 14b. At one end of the grip 14, a boss 14c receiving the screw 4e is inserted into a shaft hole 4f disposed at a bottom part of the main body case 4, so that it is possible to fold the grip 14 as described above. The opposite end of the grip 14 is configured such that the power code 15 can be detachably installed thereat.
A wire netting 21 is attached to a rear side of the main body case 4 through an attachment rim 22 and a suction inlet ring 23, thereby forming the air inlet 5. Similarly, a wire netting 24 is attached to a front side of the main body case 4 through an outlet ring 25, and a nozzle 26 is detachably attached to the outlet ring 25, thereby forming the hot and cold air outlet 6. The suction inlet ring 23 and the outlet ring 25 are fixed to the main body case 4 by screws 4g and 4h, respectively. Since the outlet ring 25 and the nozzle 26 are separately provided, the outlet ring 25 is hardly charged.
In the ion hair dryer 1 configured as described above, it is to be noted that the nozzle 26 is inclined and tapered towards a leading end (i. e., opening) and a side of the nozzle 26 close to the ion outlet 11 is inclined more than the opposite side thereof, such that an axis 6a of the hot and cold air outlet 6 and an axis 11a of the ion outlet 11 diverge from each other.
In other words, the nozzle 26 is tapered towards the opeing thereof. Further, in the vertical cross section as shown in Fig. 5, an upper part 26b of the nozzle 26 in the vicinity of the ion outlet 11 is inclined downwards by θ₂ degrees with respect to the direction of the axis 11a along which the ion mist is emitted from the ion outlet 11. On the contrary, a lower part 26a of the nozzle 26 placed opposite to the ion outlet 11 is inclined upwards by θ₁ degrees with respect to the direction of the axis 11a, wherein θ₂ being greater than θ₁. Therefore, a direction of the axis 6a along which the hot of cold air is ejected from the nozzle 26 diverges from the direction of the axis 11a.
Axes 6a' and 11a' of the conventional ion hair dryer are arranged in parallel as shown Fig. 7A. Therefore, the ion mist generated from an electrostatic atomization unit 12' is captured by an element located downstream of the electrostatic atomization unit 12', i.e., an upper portion of a main body case 4' molded by a resin, especially, a peripheral portion of a nozzle 26'. Accordingly, the ion mist subsequently supplied is repelled by the peripheral poriton of the nozzle 26', thereby preventing the ion mist from reaching a user. In contrast, the axes 6a and 11a of the present embodiment are configured to divege from each other, thereby preventing the ion mist from being captured as shown Fig. 7A. Accordingly, the ion mist generated from the electrostatic atomization unit 12 can reach the user efficiently.
Further, an inclined angle of the axis 6a with respect to the axis 11a is in a range from 12° to 30° so that the exiting ion mist can be ejected toward the user without great deviation and can reach the user efficiently. Though, the axes 6a and 11a of the present embodiment are configured to diverge from each other by aligning the axis 11a of the ion outlet 11 in parallel with a main axis of the ion hair dryer 1 and inclining the axis 6a of the hot and cold air outlet 6 with respect to the main axis, it is possible to align the axis 6a of the hot and cold air outlet 6 in parallel with the main axis and incline the axis 11a of the ion outlet 11 upward.
While the invention has been shown and described with respect to the embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made within the limits of the claims.

Claims

An ion hair dryer (1) comprising an air outlet (6) ejecting cold air or hot air and an ion outlet (11) emitting ion mist,
characterized in that the axes of the air outlet (6) and the ion outlet (11) diverge from each other.
The ion hair dryer (1) of claim 1, further comprising
a main body case (4) having therein an airflow channel (2) and a branch channel (3) branched from the airflow channel (2);
a blower unit (7), disposed in the airflow channel (2), sucking air from a rear side of the airflow channel (2) and ejecting the sucked air from the air outlet formed at a front side of the airflow channel; and
an electrostatic atomization unit (12) disposed in the branch channel and having a discharge electrode (9) and an opposing electrode (10) to thereby atomize a fluid and electrostacally charge the atomized fluid by the discharge electrode (9) to emit charged mist from the ion outlet formed at a front side of the branch channel.
The ion hair dryer (1) of claim 2, wherein the air outlet (6) is formed of a nozzle (26), which is inclined and tapered towards a leading end thereof, wherein a side of the nozzle close to the ion outlet (11) is inclined more than a side of the nozzle placed opposite to the ion outlet (11).
The ion hair dryer (1) of claim 2 or claim 3, wherein a multi-perforation plate (17) made of an insulator is disposed at the ion outlet (11) to present foreign materials from getting into the ion outlet (11) while allowing the charged mist to pass therethrough,
the multi-perforation plate (17) is attached to an inner peripheral surface of the branch channel of the main body case by a main wall (172) extended from an outer peripheral portion of the multi-perforation plate (17), and
a portion of the main wall (172) is cut off so as not to cover the opposing electrode of the electrostatic atomization unit.
The ion hair dryer (1) of any one of claim 1 to claim 4, wherein an angle between the axes (6a 11a) of the air outlet (6) and the ion outlet (11) ranges from 12° to 30°.