FR3126090A1 - Modular hairbrush - Google Patents

Abstract

MODULAR HAIRBRUSH Modular hairbrush (100) comprising a brush head (10) furnished on its outer face with a plurality of bristles or barbs (14) and a handle (20), said brush head comprising two parts ( 11a, 11b) hinged together by means of a hinge (12) and allowing the brush to present a closed configuration, suitable for a first type of brushing, and an open configuration, suitable for a second type of brushing, each part articulated (11a, 11b) comprising a curved portion (111a, 111b) terminating in a free edge of said part and a flat portion (112a, 112b) extending said curved portion to an opposite edge engaged with the hinge (12 ), the free edges of the curved portions being joined in the closed configuration, and the planar portions being coplanar in the open configuration. Figure for the abstract: figure 1

Description

Modular hairbrush

The present invention belongs to the field of hairdressing devices and utensils, in particular hairbrushes, and more particularly relates to a modular hairbrush allowing both brushing to detangle the hair and winding of the strands of hair to achieve blow-drying.

State of the art

Hairbrushes are used on a daily basis, whether for quick detangling of the hair or careful styling in combination with a heating medium such as a straightening iron or a hair dryer.

Historically, the hairbrush was a prized, even luxurious, personal object, made with noble materials and exclusively on request, before becoming a toiletry and beauty essential intended for the general public.

Towards the end of the ^18th century, William Kent created the Kent Brushes company in England, known for being the first manufacturer of hairbrushes in the world.

On the other side of the Atlantic, many American entrepreneurs contributed to the development of the hairbrush, including Hugh Rock who in 1854 registered a design of the classic brush with its known elliptical shape and slightly curved handle.

Nowadays, the diversity of brushes is at least as great as that of hair. Some brushes, like Kent Brushes , are still made by hand from carefully selected wood and bristles, while others are made of plastic and rubber.

Hairbrushes also exist in different shapes with bristles or bristles of different types to perform different functions during styling (detangling, separating, shaping, etc.).

As a result, it becomes almost essential for each user to have a set of several different hairbrushes, generally two or three, to achieve the desired hairstyles.

Modular solutions have therefore been designed to combine several functionalities in the same hairbrush.

For example, documents FR2868266A1 and US4423531A describe such modular brushes. However, these solutions are not satisfactory in terms of functionality and manageability, the first not allowing efficient winding of the hair for blow-drying and the second being flexible and awkward.

Document CN201398601Y describes a more practical modular hairbrush, this one comprising two parts articulated together by means of a hinge to present an open brushing position and a closed hair winding position. Each part is formed by a curved portion of which one edge engages with the hinge. In the closed position, the curved portions meet so that the brush has a substantially cylindrical shape. In the open position, the portions are not in the same plane so that the hairbrush can be used in a conventional manner to brush the hair. This solution is therefore less effective for brushing. This same document describes another embodiment with a central flat part for brushing, but adds two hinged flaps on one side and the other, which unnecessarily complicates the brush mechanism and multiplies the junctions of the hinges in which hair can get stuck.

Presentation of the invention

The present invention aims to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art, explained above, by proposing an innovative solution of great simplicity, very practical for carrying out either classic brushing or winding of the hair for blow-drying type styling. help of heating means.

To this end, the present invention relates to a modular hairbrush comprising a brush head furnished on its external face with a plurality of bristles or pins and a handle, said brush head comprising two parts articulated together by means of 'a hinge and allowing the brush to have a closed configuration, suitable for a first type of brushing, and an open configuration, suitable for a second type of brushing. This brush is remarkable in that each articulated part comprises a curved portion ending in a free edge of said part and a flat portion extending said curved portion to an opposite edge engaging with the hinge, in that the free edges of the curved portions are joined together in a closed configuration, and in that the flat portions are coplanar in an open configuration.

According to an advantageous embodiment, the transition from the closed configuration to the open configuration is done by a button placed on the handle.

More particularly, the button is monostable.

According to one embodiment, the position of the articulated parts is locked in each configuration by means of a mechanism comprising tabs, provided with holes, and locking elements engaging in said holes in closed configuration and blocking the rotation of said tabs in open configuration.

Advantageously, the bristles or pins are implanted in a flexible membrane covering the external face of the brush head including the hinge, in order to avoid hair getting stuck therein.

The fundamental concepts of the invention having just been explained in their most basic form, other details and characteristics will emerge more clearly on reading the description which follows and with reference to the appended drawings, giving by way of example not limiting an embodiment of a modular hairbrush conforming to the principles of the invention.

Presentation of the drawings

The figures are given for purely illustrative purposes for a better understanding of the invention without limiting its scope. The different elements are represented very schematically. In all the figures, identical or equivalent elements bear the same numerical reference.

It is thus illustrated in:

: a perspective view of a modular hairbrush according to one embodiment of the invention;

: a perspective view of the brush in closed configuration and in open configuration;

: a top view of the brush in both configurations;

: another perspective view of the brush in both configurations;

: a perspective view of the brush mechanism in the two configurations, the articulated parts being transparent in the closed configuration;

: a partial view of the mechanism revealing the button spring.

Detailed description of embodiments

In the embodiment described below, reference is made to a modular hairbrush, mainly of the type without heat input. This non-limiting example is given for a better understanding of the invention and does not exclude the use of such a brush on a heated hair styling device such as a steam straightening or curling hairbrush.

In the remainder of the description, the term “brush”, used alone, designates a hairbrush.

There represents a modular brush 100 comprising a brush head 10 and a handle 20 supporting said head and extending longitudinally along the same axis. The brush head 10 is formed of two parts 11a and 11b articulated together, by means of a central hinge 12, each of said parts being furnished with bristles or pins 14 on its external face intended to come into contact with the hair.

The bristles or pins 14 can be of any type and implanted either directly on the external faces of the articulated parts 11a and 11b, or via a flexible membrane which covers the external faces of said parts. The hairs or pins can for example be arranged in a staggered manner.

Preferably, the bristles or pins 14 are attached to the articulated parts 11a and 11b by means of a flexible membrane 13, which perfectly follows the movement of said parts and advantageously makes it possible to cover the hinge 12 over its entire length to prevent the jamming of the hinges. hair in the junctions of said hinge.

The brush 100 is modular and for this purpose has two configurations of use to allow either classic brushing in straight movement along the hair, or winding of strands of hair during styling using a device heating such as a hair dryer for example for blow-drying. In this second use, brushing can be described as thermobrushing.

There represents the brush 100 in closed configuration (a), suitable for thermobrushing, and in open configuration (b), suitable for conventional brushing.

In closed configuration, the two articulated parts 11a and 11b join at their free edges, opposite their edges engaged with the hinge 12, to form a closed contour of rounded shape facilitating winding of the hair, like brushes known round hair.

In the open configuration, the two articulated parts 11a and 11b are spaced apart from each other so as to form a substantially flat surface, on one side and the other of the hinge 12, which facilitates conventional brushing.

In order to obtain these two configurations and each of them to be effective for the associated brushing, the articulated parts 11a and 11b have a profile whose shape has been specifically designed for this purpose.

There represents a top view of the brush 100 in closed configuration (a) and in open configuration (b), and makes it possible to visualize the shape of the profile of the articulated parts 11a and 11b.

Each part 11a and 11b comprises a curved portion 111a and 111b, preferably substantially circular, extending to the free edge and a flat portion 112a and 112b extending said curved portion to the edge engaged with the hinge 12. Thus, the articulated parts 11a and 11b each have a J shape particularly suited to obtaining the two configurations, closed and open, of the brush 100.

Indeed, when the brush 100 is in closed configuration, the curved portions 111a and 111b are joined to each other by their free edges, which gives the brush head a cylindrical shape of circular straight section at the level of its end opposite the hinge 12 and a prismatic shape of triangular cross section at the level of said hinge.

When the brush 100 is in the open configuration, the planar portions 112a and 112b are substantially coplanar and then define a planar brushing face with substantially parallel pins. The slightly inclined pins located at the junctions between flat parts and curved parts also provide continuity to brushing, like brushes with slightly domed cushions.

Switching from one configuration to another is done manually and without difficulty, in particular by means of a button 211 visible on the to move from the closed configuration to the open configuration, the closed configuration preferably being the default configuration of the brush 100. The reverse passage is done by manually bringing the articulated parts 11a and 11b against each other.

There represents the brush 100 in closed configuration (a) and in open configuration (b), and schematizes the transition from one configuration to the other by arrows of the same color.

The transition from the closed configuration to the open configuration is done by actuation of button 211. This button is preferably a monostable button which returns to its initial position after actuation. According to the illustrated embodiment, the button 211 is a sliding monostable button to be easily actuated when using the brush 100. Of course, the button 211 can be of any other type adapted to the targeted functions, in particular of the type pusher.

Thus, when a user activates the button 211 by sliding, downwards for example, the articulated parts 11a and 11b move away from each other, under the effect of one or more torsion springs not shown, to form the flat brushing face, consisting of flat portions 112a and 112b.

Indeed, at least one torsion spring is placed around the hinge 12 and comprises two arms each extending inside an articulated part 11a and 11b of the brush head. The torsion spring(s) are stressed when the brush 100 is in the closed configuration, and return to their equilibrium position when said brush is in the open configuration.

Conversely, the transition from the open configuration to the closed position is done by manual action by the user on the two articulated parts 11a and 11b which tends to bring said parts together following the arrows shown in .

The torsion springs thus control the closing and opening of the articulated parts 11a and 11b and are dimensioned to allow non-sudden opening of said parts and provide low resistance during closing.

Both in closed configuration and in open configuration, the position of the articulated parts 11a and 11b is locked by a suitable mechanism, so as to keep said parts fixed when using the brush in both configurations.

For this purpose, the brush 100 comprises a mechanism placed at an upper end 21 of the handle 20 and comprising, among other elements, the button 211.

There represents the different elements of the brush mechanism and their mode of operation between the closed configuration and the open configuration of the brush.

Each articulated part 11a and 11b is provided with a tab 113 arranged transversely at its lower edge, in which a hole 114 is provided. The legs 113 are shaped to match the shape of an upper face 213 of the handle 20 when the brush is closed.

In closed configuration, the tabs 113 make it possible to lock the position of the articulated parts 11a and 11b by receiving in their holes 114 blocking elements 214 capable of blocking the rotation of said articulated parts around the hinge 12. To this end, the elements of blocking 214 can have a shape complementary to that of the holes 114 so as to fit perfectly there, like a bolt in a strike plate.

According to the example illustrated, the holes 114 are rectangular and the blocking elements 214 are parallelepiped.

The blocking elements 214 are mechanically coupled to the button 211 and operate with the same movement as the latter. As a result, sliding the button 211 downwards pulls the locking elements 214 downwards, thus releasing the tabs 113 and thereby the articulated parts 11a and 11b which deploy under the effect of the torsion springs placed at hinge 12.

The sliding of the button 211 is guided by a slot 212 made in the handle 20.

Then, after release, the button 211 returns to its initial position and brings with it the blocking elements 214 which return to project relative to the upper face 213 of the handle 20, and block the tabs 113 to immobilize the articulated parts 11a and 11b in open configuration.

Finally, the brush can be closed with actuation of the button 211 to remove the obstacle formed by the blocking elements 214, or preferably without actuation of said button, in which case, the blocking elements 214 return under the effect of the manual pressure exerted by the user on the articulated parts 11a and 11b, like a latch bolt. In the latter case, it is necessary that the faces of the blocking elements 214 in contact with the tabs 113 are beveled.

There allows us to understand the mechanical coupling between button 211 and the rest of the mechanism.

Indeed, the button 211 is embedded in a body 215 ending in the blocking elements 214 not visible on the . This body is connected to the upper face 213 of the handle 20 by a tension spring 216 fixed on a rod 217 of said body.

It is clear from this description that certain elements of the modular brush can be modified, replaced or deleted without departing from the scope of the invention. In particular, an equivalent mechanism for opening and closing the brush can be obtained by different means known to those skilled in the art.

Claims (5)

Modular hairbrush (100) comprising a brush head (10) furnished on its external face with a plurality of bristles or pins (14) and a handle (20), said brush head comprising two parts (11a, 11b) articulated together by means of a hinge (12) and allowing the brush to have a closed configuration, suitable for a first type of brushing, and an open configuration, suitable for a second type of brushing, characterized in that each part articulated (11a, 11b) comprises a curved portion (111a, 111b) ending in a free edge of said part and a flat portion (112a, 112b) extending said curved portion to an opposite edge engaging with the hinge (12 ), in that the free edges of the curved portions are joined together in the closed configuration, and in that the planar portions are coplanar in the open configuration. Hairbrush according to claim 1, in which the transition from the closed configuration to the open configuration is done by a button (211) placed on the handle (20). Hairbrush according to claim 2, in which the button (211) is monostable. Hairbrush according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the position of the articulated parts (11a, 11b) is locked in each configuration by means of a mechanism comprising legs (113), provided with holes (114), and locking elements (214) engaging said holes in a closed configuration and blocking the rotation of said tabs in an open configuration. Hairbrush according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the bristles or pins (14) are implanted in a flexible membrane (13) covering the external face of the brush head (10) including the hinge (12).