JP6552089B2 - Method of manufacturing toothbrush and toothbrush - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a toothbrush, and a toothbrush.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a toothbrush for periodontal disease requires a brush specification that can easily polish the boundary between teeth and gingiva, so dome-cut hairs have been adopted. However, with a simple dome cut, the fit to the root portion between teeth (so-called interdental triangle) is low, and it has been difficult to clean cleanly every corner.
As for the cleanability of the gap portion, a mountain cut or a hair bundle cone cut is suitable. However, when this is applied to a toothbrush for periodontal disease, it is difficult to use because it lacks the softness of the touch.

Patent Document 1 describes that it is effective to perform appropriate massage on the gingiva while removing plaque from the periodontal pocket and gingival margin from the viewpoint of improvement and prevention of periodontal disease. Moreover, as a toothbrush suitable for this, a flat-line flocking toothbrush in which the tip of the bristles is processed into a conical shape, and a toothbrush using a bristle whose tip is cracked are disclosed.
Patent Document 2 discloses a toothbrush using feathered hair (hair for pre-splitting) from the viewpoint of realizing a soft touch on the gums.

Patent No. 4832621 gazette Patent No. 4547891

In the case of forming a three-dimensional three-dimensional profile in a general flat-lined flocked toothbrush, after flocking, a three-dimensional profile is formed on the brush using a hair-cutting cutter.
For this reason, in patent document 1, from the several different direction with respect to the head part of a toothbrush, the process which cuts the front-end | tip of a hair | bristle bundle in a substantially chevron using a cutter, and the tip-end rounding device of the front-end | tip of the cut hair | bristle bundle And a step of shaping the tip of the hair bundle into a substantially hemispherical shape by rounding.
However, in this method, in order to apply a cutter from a plurality of directions, there is a concern that the production cost (efficiency) will be reduced because a cutter for the process is required and the process becomes complicated.
In the case of two or more surfaces, a complicated three-dimensional profile that is higher than the profile disclosed in Patent Document 1 is formed (for example, in an array in which flocked holes overlap each other in the axial direction, such as a staggered array) It was practically difficult to form each hair bundle in a substantially conical shape.
That is, it has been difficult to form a complicated three-dimensional profile using the above-described flat-wire-type flocking method.

Furthermore, in Patent Document 2, hair for tip cracking is disclosed, but since the tip processing is usually performed after flocking, a step of trimming the tip of the hair bundle and a step of tipping the tip of the hair are necessary. Therefore, there is a problem that the cost increases.
In addition, toothbrushes that have been cut off with the ends of the hair bundle cut apart are not sufficient for users who have symptom of the gingiva to realize a “soft touch on the gingiva”. It was.

In addition, as a manufacturing method of a toothbrush suitable for formation of a complicated three-dimensional profile, there exists non flat wire type flocking methods, such as in-mold molding, for example.
However, the non-flat line type flocking method has a poor changeability of toothbrush varieties as compared with the flat line type flocking method.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has a three-dimensional profile of a hair bundle having a high cleaning power and having a comfortable contact with a hair tip by a simple method using a flat wire type flocking method, and It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a toothbrush capable of forming the tip of a bristle and a toothbrush.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a toothbrush according to one aspect of the present invention is a method for manufacturing a toothbrush using a flat wire flocking method, and aligns the ends of a group of hairs composed of a plurality of hairs having the same length. After the hair group preparation step and the hair group preparation step, the hair group is folded in half at the center position in the length direction of the hair group, and is inserted into the flock hole of the head portion via a flat line. The flocking step of flocking and after the flocking step, the tip end portion of the hair group is processed into a split shape to form a hair bundle composed of the hair group having the split shape. And.

  Further, in the toothbrush according to the aspect of the present invention, in the tip cracking process, the depth of the part to be tip cracked with respect to the apex of the hair bundle is 1.0 mm or greater and 4.0 mm or less. The tip end of the bristle group may be processed so that

  The toothbrush which concerns on 1 aspect of this invention is manufactured using the manufacturing method of the toothbrush of Claim 1 or 2. It is characterized by the above-mentioned.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it has high cleaning power and can form the tip part of a hair bundle with a comfortable touch of a hair tip by a simple method using a flat wire type flocking method.

It is a sectional view of the principal part of the toothbrush concerning an embodiment of the invention. It is a figure (the 1) showing a manufacturing process of a toothbrush concerning an embodiment of the invention. It is a figure (the 2) showing a manufacturing process of a toothbrush concerning an embodiment of the invention. It is the perspective view which expanded the front-end | tip part of the bristle shown in FIG. It is FIG. (The 3) which shows the manufacturing process of the toothbrush which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure (the 4) which shows the manufacturing process of the toothbrush which concerns on embodiment of this invention. A photograph of the hair group of Examples 1 to 3 implanted in a flocked hole with an upper diameter of 2 mm, 1.5 mm, and 1.3 mm taken from the extending direction of the flat line, the hair group of Examples 1 to 3 The photograph which image | photographed the hair | bristle bundle of Examples 1-3 after the pre-cracking process from the extension direction of a flat line, and the photograph which photographed the hair | bristle bundle of Example 1 from the direction orthogonal to a flat line. . It is the photograph which image | photographed the hair | bristle bundle of Comparative Examples 1-3 by which the hair diameter of the upper part was planted in the flocking hole whose diameter is 2 mm, 1.5 mm, and 1.3 mm, and was flat-cut and cracked from the extending direction of the flat line.

  Embodiments to which the present invention is applied will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. Note that the drawings used in the following description are for explaining the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention, and the size, thickness, dimensions, etc. of each part shown in the drawings may be different from the actual dimensional relationship of the toothbrush. is there.

Embodiment
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of a toothbrush according to an embodiment of the present invention. D1 shown in FIG. 1 has shown the depth (henceforth "the depth D1") of the part which carries out the pre-cracking processing on the basis of the vertex 23A of the hair bundle 23. As shown in FIG.
In FIG. 1, the case where one flocked hole 14 and the hair bundle 23 are illustrated is described as an example, but the actual toothbrush 10 is flocked to the plurality of flocked holes 14 and the plurality of flocked holes 14. And a hair bundle 23.

Referring to FIG. 1, the toothbrush 10 of the present embodiment includes a head 11 having a flocked hole 14, a neck (not shown), and a handle (not shown) integrated with the rear end of the neck. And a brush portion composed of the hair bundle 23 and the flat wire 21 arranged in the flock hole 14.
The head portion 11 has a flocked surface 11a and is configured integrally with the tip of a neck portion (not shown). The flocking hole 14 is provided in the head portion 11. In FIG. 1, as an example, a flocked hole 14 in which the lower part has a conical shape and the upper part has a cylindrical shape is illustrated, but the shape of the flocked hole 14 is not limited thereto.

The hair bundle 23 is implanted in the flock hole 14 by the flat wire 21. The distal end portion 23B of the hair bundle 23 has a mountain shape (the distal end is a triangle) when viewed from the extending direction of the flat wire 21 (the direction toward the paper surface of FIG. 1). Further, the shape of the end portion 23B of the hair bundle 23 when viewed in the direction orthogonal to the extending direction of the flat wire 21 is substantially flat.
In the following description, the shape of the tip 23B of the hair bundle 23 shown in FIG. 1 is simply referred to as “mountain shape”.

The distal ends of the plurality of hairs 17 constituting the distal end portion 23 </ b> B are composed of a plurality of branched hairs (branched hairs having a diameter considerably smaller than the diameter of the hairs 17) extending in the extending direction of the hairs 17. Has been.
The depth D1 of the portion to be subjected to the pre-cracking based on the apex 23A of the hair bundle 23 can be, for example, 1 mm or more and 4 mm or less.

  According to the toothbrush of the present embodiment, the tip end portion 23B of the bristle bundle 23 viewed from the extending direction of the flat wire 21 has a mountain shape, and the tips of the plurality of bristles 17 constituting the tip portion 23B. Since these are a plurality of branched hairs, the bristles are comfortable to touch and the cleaning power such as the interdental triangle can be improved.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a manufacturing process of the toothbrush according to the embodiment of the present invention, and a process of forming a structure including a head portion 11, a handle portion (not shown), and a neck portion (not shown). It is a sectional view for explaining. FIG. 3: is a figure which shows the manufacturing process of the toothbrush which concerns on embodiment of this invention, and is a side view for demonstrating a bristle group preparation process. FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the front end portion of the hair shown in FIG.
Drawing 5 is a figure showing a manufacturing process of a toothbrush concerning an embodiment of the invention, and is a sectional view for explaining a flocking process. FIG. 6 is a view showing a manufacturing process of the toothbrush according to the embodiment of the present invention, and is a cross-sectional view for explaining a pre-cracking process.

In FIG. 5, D2 is the depth of the portion to be pre-cracked with respect to the apex of the bristle group 16 (hereinafter referred to as "depth D2"), and H is the bristle group 16 having a substantially mountain shape. The height (hereinafter referred to as “height H”) of the distal end portion 16C of FIG.
2 to 6, the same components as those shown in FIGS. 1 to 6 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

With reference to FIGS. 2-6, the manufacturing method of the toothbrush 10 of this Embodiment is demonstrated.
First, in the process shown in FIG. 2, the head portion 11, the neck portion (not shown), and the handle portion (not shown) are integrally molded by a known method.
The shape of the flocking hole 14 may be, for example, a cylindrical shape, but is preferably a shape having a tapered surface 14a (triangular pyramid shape) that reduces the diameter of at least the lower portion of the flocking hole 14.
By flocking the hair bundle 23 in the flocked hole 14 having the above shape, as shown in FIG. 1, the shape of the tip 23 B of the hair bundle 23 has a chevron shape as viewed from the extending direction of the flat wire 21. Become.

  In addition, when the flock hole 14 which has the taper surface 14a as shown in FIG. 2 is used, the hair to be arranged in the flock hole 14 from the center of the flock hole 14 toward the side wall 14A that partitions the flock hole 14 It is possible to increase the length of 17. For this reason, the mountain-shaped shape of the tip portion 16C of the hair group 16 can be formed more clearly than when the hair group 16 is planted in a columnar hole (not shown).

In addition, in FIG. 2, although the case where the shape of the front-end | tip of tip part 12A of the pin 12 for flocked hole formation was conical shape (cross-sectional shape is a triangle) was mentioned as an example and illustrated, the shape of this tip is limited to conical shape. Not. As the shape of the tip of the tip portion 12A, for example, a truncated cone shape (the cross-sectional shape is a trapezoid), a hemispherical shape, a cylindrical shape, or the like may be used.
The flocking hole 14 may have a reduced diameter tapered surface (C surface or trapezoidal pyramid shape) only at a portion close to the bottom surface.

Next, in the step shown in FIG. 3, a hair group 16 comprising a plurality of hairs 17 having the same length is prepared, and then the ends 16A and 16B of the hair group 16 are aligned (hair group preparation step).
In the present invention, “aligning the ends 16A and 16B of the hair group 16” means that the ends 16A and 16B of the plurality of hairs 17 constituting the hair group 16 are visually aligned. .
That is, “equalizing the ends 16A and 16B of the bristle group 16” does not only mean that the ends of the plurality of bristles 17 constituting the bristle group 16 completely match, but also in the length direction of the bristles 17 Including slightly different ones.

  The bristle group 16 is a base material of the hair bundle 23 shown in FIG. The lengths of the plurality of bristles 17 can be appropriately set in consideration of the shape of the flocked holes 14 and the depth of the holes. Both end portions (tip portions) of the plurality of hairs 17 are subjected to a tip cracking process in a step shown in FIG.

As the bristles 17, for example, bristles 17 having a plurality of hollow portions 18 extending in the longitudinal direction of the bristles 17 as shown in FIG. 3 can be used.
In addition, the hair 17 should just be the hair which can process a front-end | tip part in a tip crack shape in the process shown in FIG. 6 mentioned later, and is not limited to the hair 17 made into the structure shown in FIG. .

The diameter of the bristles 17 can be appropriately set within a range of 4 to 10 mils, for example. 1 mil is 0.0254 mm.
When the diameter of the bristles 17 is smaller than 4 mils, the shape of the bunch 23 of the bristles 23 is clearly visible, and it is preferable to ensure good contact comfort, but it is not preferable because the bristles 17 may be pulled out.
On the other hand, if the diameter of the bristles 17 is larger than 10 mils, the substantially mountain shape of the hair bundle 23 is not clearly seen, the number of bristles in the step of each bristle decreases, and furthermore, the bristles 17 are Since the diameter is too thick, the balance of bending of the hair tip and the root portion of the hair is deteriorated, which is not preferable.

Next, in the process shown in FIG. 5, the flocking group 16 is folded in two at the center position in the length direction of the flocking group 16, and the flocking holes 14 of the head portion 11 are flocked via the flat line 21 ( Planting process). In the flocking process, for example, 10 to 50 hairs 17 are implanted into one flocked hole 14.
The above-described hair group preparation step and the flocking step can be performed continuously using, for example, a flocking device disclosed in JP 2011-115500 A, but are not limited to this method.

As described above, the length of the bristles 17 disposed in the flocking hole 14 increases as going from the center of the flocking hole 14 to the side wall 14A that defines the flocking hole 14. For this reason, when viewed from the extending direction of the flat wire 21, the shape of the tip 16C of the bristle group 16 implanted in the flocking hole 14 becomes a substantially mountain-like stepped shape.
Moreover, the shape of the tip end portion 16C of the bristle group 16 when viewed from the direction orthogonal to the extending direction of the flat wire 21 is substantially flat.

  In this way, the hair group 16 (see FIG. 3) in which the ends 16A and 16B are aligned is prepared without cutting the tip portion 16C of the hair group 16, and then the flocked hole is obtained by a flat wire flocking method. The tip portion 16C of the bristle group 16 can be formed into a substantially mountain shape by a simple method of implanting the bristle group 16 folded in 14 into two.

In the above-described hair transplantation step, the hair group 16 having the ends 16A, 16B (see FIG. 3) aligned may be implanted in a flocking hole (not shown) having a cylindrical shape (the cross-sectional shape is rectangular), Also in this case, it is possible to make the shape of the tip portion 16C into a substantially mountain shape.
In this case, since the flocked holes (not shown) having a cylindrical shape can easily flock the hair group 16, the reproducibility of the shape of the tip portion 16C can be enhanced.

Next, in the step shown in FIG. 6, the front end portion of the bristle group 16 is processed into a split shape to form a hair bundle 23 composed of the bristle group 16 formed into a split shape (pre-split processing step) .
In the case where the hair group 16 is configured using a plurality of hairs 17 having the structure shown in FIG. 3, in the tip cracking process, a well-known technique (for example, a tip of a hair tip using a dedicated cutter) is used. By processing the tip end portions of the plurality of bristles 17 into the pre-split shape, the hair bundle 23 in which the tip portion 23B has the pre-split shape is formed (pre-split processing step).
Thereby, the toothbrush 10 of this Embodiment is manufactured.

By performing the above-mentioned pre-cracking process, the tip end portion of the bristles 17 is constituted by a plurality of branched bristles (branched bristles having a diameter considerably smaller than the diameter of the bristles 17). Can be better.
Further, by forming a plurality of branched hairs, the stepped step formed on the tip portion 16C shown in FIG. 5 becomes inconspicuous, so that the tip portion 16C of the hair group 16 shown in FIG. The tip portion 16 </ b> C having a mountain shape with almost no stepped steps can be formed in a visually observed state.

  In the present embodiment, as an example, the case of forming feathered hair as the hair to constitute the hair bundle 23 is described as an example in the pre-cracking process, but the tip is processed by the hair tip processing It may be a branched hair, and is not limited to a feathered hair.

For example, in the case of using a physical method such as a cutter (in other words, in the case of forming feathered hair) as a method of pre-cracking, the depth D1 of the portion to be pre-cracked is 1.0 mm or more and 4.0 mm or less It is good to process so that
If the depth D1 of the part to be cracked is shallower than 1.0 mm, even if the cracking process is performed, there is a lot of hair that escapes and does not crack, so that the contact with the gingiva is more comfortable. This is not preferable because it leads to a reduction in goodness. If the depth D1 of the part to be cracked is deeper than 4.0 mm, it may be difficult to ensure sufficient quality due to the generation of tears and hair tears.
Therefore, by setting the depth D1 of the portion to be pre-cracked to 1.0 mm or more and 4.0 mm or less, the tip of the bristles is sufficiently pre-cracked, so that the contact comfort can be secured and the quality is further secured. Can do.

According to the manufacturing method of the toothbrush of the present embodiment, the ends 16A and 16B of the hair group 16 including the plurality of hairs 17 having the same length are aligned, and then the center position of the hair group 16 in the length direction is aligned. In this case, the hair group 16 is folded in half and is planted in the planting hole 14 of the head portion 11 through the flat line 21, thereby making it easy to use the flat-line-type flocking method without cutting the hair. Thus, the tip portion 16C of the hair group 16 can be formed into a substantially mountain shape.
This makes it easy to insert the distal end portion 23B of the hair bundle 23 into the interdental triangle which is the root portion between the teeth, so that the cleaning power can be improved.

Moreover, the front-end | tip part 23B of the hair | bristle bundle 23 is comprised by several branch hair by processing the front-end | tip part of the several hair 17 which comprises the hair group 16 planted in the flocking hole 14 in a tip crack shape. Therefore, it is possible to improve the comfort of the hair tip against the gingiva. Therefore, even a user with weak gingiva can obtain a good feeling of use.
That is, according to the manufacturing method of the toothbrush of the present embodiment, the tip portion of the hair bundle having high cleaning power and having a comfortable touch with the hair tip by a simple method using the flat-line type flocking method Can be processed.

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, but the present invention is not limited to such specific embodiments, and within the scope of the present invention described in the claims, Various modifications and changes are possible.

  Examples are described below, but the present invention is not limited by the examples described below.

(Test example)
In the test example, three types of flocked holes 14 having different diameters formed using three types of flocked hole forming pins 12 having the shape shown in FIG. The flock group 16 was flocked.
At this time, 2.0 mm in Example 1, 1.5 mm in Example 2, and 1.3 mm in Example 3 were used as the diameter of the upper part of the flocking hole 14. The depth of the center of the three types of flock holes 14 was 4.0 mm.
As the bristles 17 shown in FIG. 3, a feather bristle for feathers which is 30 mm in length and made by DuPont is used. Then, the hair group 16 of Examples 1-3 was image | photographed from the extending direction of the flat line. These photographs are shown in the upper part of FIG.

  Fig. 7 is a photograph taken from the extending direction of the flat line of the hair groups of Examples 1 to 3 implanted in the flocked holes of 2 mm, 1.5 mm and 1.3 mm in the upper part diameter, Examples 1 to 3 The photograph which image | photographed the hair | bristle bundle of Examples 1-3 after the pre-cracking process from the extension direction of a flat line after the pre-cracking process, and the hair | bristle bundle of Example 1 from the direction orthogonal to a flat line It is a photograph that

Next, by forming the tip of the hair group 16 of Examples 1 to 3 into a tip-cracked shape, a hair bundle made of the hair group that is made into a tip-cracked shape is formed (a tip-cracking step), and then A photo of the hair bundle that was cracked from the extending direction of the flat wire was taken. These photographs are shown in the middle of FIG.
Subsequently, the photograph which image | photographed the hair | bristle bundle of Example 1 after a tip crack processing process from the direction orthogonal to a flat line was image | photographed. This picture is shown in the lower part of FIG.

  Next, by flocking the hair group 16 after the hair group preparation step shown in FIG. 3 described above to the top of the flocked holes (center depth 5 mm) with diameters of 2 mm, 1.5 mm, and 1.3 mm. A hair group 16 of Comparative Example 1 planted in a 2 mm planting hole, a hair group 16 of Comparative Example 2 planted in a 1.5 mm planting hole, and a comparative example planted in a 1.3 mm planting hole Three groups of hair groups 16 were produced.

Next, hair cutting (hereinafter, referred to as “flat cut”) is performed so that the tip of the hair group 16 of Comparative Examples 1 to 3 is flat, and then the tip of the hair group 16 is subjected to tip cracking. It was. Then, the photograph of the hair | bristle bundle of Comparative Examples 1-3 was taken from the extension direction of the flat line. These photographs are shown in FIG.
FIG. 8 is a photograph of the tufts of Comparative Examples 1 to 3 which are flocked in the top of the flocked holes of 2 mm, 1.5 mm and 1.3 mm and flat-cut and pre-cracked from the extending direction of the flat line It is a photograph.

Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, the shape of the tips of the hair bundles of Examples 1 to 3 is clearly different from the shape of the tips of the hair bundles of Comparative Examples 1 to 3 that are flat cut. It could be confirmed that it was a mold shape.
Moreover, it was able to confirm that the shape of the front-end | tip part of the hair | bristle bundle of Examples 1-3 turns into substantially mountain shape shape by performing pre-cracking from the photograph of the upper stage and middle step of FIG.

  The present invention can be applied to a method for producing a toothbrush for periodontal disease and to a toothbrush for periodontal disease.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Toothbrush, 11 ... Head part, 11a ... Flocked surface, 12 ... Pin for flocking hole formation, 12A, 16C, 23B ... Tip part, 14 ... Flocked hole, 14a ... Taper surface, 14A ... Side wall, 16 ... Hair group 16A, 16B: end, 17: hair for use, 18: hollow part, 21: flat wire, 23: hair bundle, 23A: apex, D1, D2: depth, H: height

Claims (3)

It is a manufacturing method of a toothbrush using a flat wire flocking method,
A hair group preparation step for aligning the ends of the hair group consisting of a plurality of hairs having the same length,
A flocking step of flocking the flocking holes of the head through the flat line by folding the flocks in half at a central position in the length direction of the flocks after the flocking step;
After the hair transplantation step, the tip of the hair group is processed into a tip-breaking shape, so that the tip of the hair bundle is formed by extending the flat wire. A tip-breaking process step for forming a mountain shape when viewed from the existing direction and a substantially flat shape when viewed from a direction orthogonal to the extending direction of the flat wire ,
The manufacturing method of the toothbrush characterized by including.  In the tip cracking step, the tip of the hair group is adjusted so that the depth of the tip cracking portion is 1.0 mm or more and 4.0 mm or less with respect to the apex of the hair bundle. The method of manufacturing a toothbrush according to claim 1, characterized by processing.    A toothbrush manufactured using the manufacturing method of the toothbrush according to claim 1 or 2.