JPH05317338A - Interdental brush and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an interdental brush having no rupture at bent sections even when fine wires are used, no falling off of brush hairs, and improved durability. CONSTITUTION:A film material layer 2 made of thermoplastic resin having a low melting point is provided around a linear core material 1 made of a ultra-elastic alloy, many filament-like brush hairs are linearly protruded outward and planted on the film material layer 2, the film material layer at the base sections of the brush hairs 3 is fused and solidified to integrally fixing the brush hairs 3, and an interdental brush having a high bending fatigue characteristic can be manufactured. Even when fine wires having a good passing property between teeth are used, no rupture is generated by the repeated bending deformation in use. Since the brush hairs 3 are integrally fixed to the film material layer 2, a cleaning action can be satisfactorily performed, and the planting strength can be sharply improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an interdental brush for cleaning an interdental space and a method for manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an interdental brush is manufactured by folding a wire back in the middle and twisting both ends of the wire by sandwiching a brush between the wires (twisting and bristling). The property of the wire used for this twisted hair is that the brush is fixed by the twisting deformation of the wire, so that the twisting deformation of the wire does not return. That is, as the wire material, one that is plastically deformable is suitable, but one that is elastically deformable is not suitable,
Generally, a bare metal wire such as a stainless soft wire is used. In addition, the interdental brush, from the point of passing of the interdental part,
Although it is required to twist and implant hair using a thin wire as much as possible, the strength of the wire is reduced when the diameter of the wire is reduced, and therefore the wire is easily bent and easily broken, resulting in a problem in durability.

As means for improving the durability of the wire of an interdental brush, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 61-180014, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 63-161536, and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 3-35730.
There are devices such as Japanese patent publications.In these devices, when positioning the tip of the brush part to the cleaning part, the wire base is bent and used, so that the wire base is repeatedly bent and easily broken. However, the wire base is coated with a flexible resin to improve it. However, if the wire diameter is reduced, the strength of the wire is reduced and the wire base is deformed at the boundary with the coating resin, or the brush part When the wire is deformed at an intermediate position, the durability of the wire is significantly reduced, and the usability is also reduced.

For this reason, as seen in Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-500288 and Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 2-6015 filed by the applicant of the present invention, the surface layer of the rod-shaped brush body is replaced with the twisted hair of the wire material. Even if the filament is fixed by dissolving it with a water-soluble organic acid, high flocking strength cannot be obtained, and it takes a long time to dissolve the surface layer and fix the filament, resulting in poor productivity and providing a filament by electrostatic flocking. However, the filament flocking strength was weak and the filament fell out during use, which was a problem. The present invention is to provide an interdental brush that eliminates the conventional drawbacks, can be an interdental brush that is easy to clean, has high durability, and prevents brushes from coming off easily, and a manufacturing method thereof.

[0005]

According to the present invention, a coating material layer of a thermoplastic synthetic resin having a low melting point is provided around a linear core material of a superelastic alloy, and a large number of filamentary brushes are provided in the coating material layer. The interdental brush is characterized in that the brushes are linearly projected outward and are planted, and the coating material layer at the base of each brush is melted and solidified to integrally fix the brushes.

[0006]

[Function] By using a wire made of a superelastic alloy having a high bending fatigue property and having a low melting point thermoplastic resin coated on the outer periphery by a method such as extrusion molding, electrostatic coating, sintering, dipping, etc., high frequency heating through the wire, By brushing the coating resin electrostatically while heating and melting the coating resin by a method such as electric heating or heater heating, and then solidifying the brush, an interdental brush in which the wire outer periphery and the brush are integrally fixed by the coating resin is obtained. . Therefore, even if a high-strength wire is used so as to improve the durability of the wire, the brush does not come off due to the fixation by the coating resin.

[0007]

1 to 3, a coating material layer 2 of a thermoplastic synthetic resin having a low melting point is provided around a linear core material 1 of a superelastic alloy, and the coating material layer A plurality of filament-shaped brushes 3 are planted so as to project outward in a straight line, and the coating material layer at the base of each brush 3 is melted and solidified to form an interdental brush.

As the core material 1, a superelastic Ni-Ti alloy wire having no or very little permanent deformation, for example, a wire material having a diameter of 0.3 to 0.5 mm is used, and a low melting point nylon resin is provided on the outer periphery thereof. Although the coated product is used, it has the property of adding deformation strain to the core material beyond the elastic region and once plastically deformed, the deformation strain disappears and returns to its original shape when external stress is removed. Wire and work hardened Ni-Ti
Alloy wires can also be used.

As the low melting point thermoplastic resin to be used, it is necessary that the melting point is lower than 150 to 160 ° C. which is the deformation temperature of a general brush, and the heat deformation temperature is higher than the oral temperature of 37 ° C. A thermoplastic resin having strength and elongation that does not break when heated, such as polyethylene (P
E), ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer resin (EVA resin), polypropylene (PP), 6-66 copolymer nylon, 6-66-12 copolymer nylon, etc. are suitable, and if the coating thickness on the wire is too thick 0.01-0.1 m, because the wire coating diameter becomes thick and the interdental passability deteriorates, while if it is too thin, sufficient bonding strength between the wire and the brush cannot be obtained.
m, especially 0.03 to 0.08 mm is preferable.

As the brush 3, a polyamide synthetic resin filament or pile, for example, having a length of 0.5 to 3 mm, and a bristle having a thickness smaller than this length, for example, 3 to 100 denier, or a soft bristles is used as a brush body. The core material 1 having the material layer 2 is vertically planted by electrostatic flocking so as to be uniformly planted. As shown in FIG. 4, an adhesive agent 2 ₁ is provided around the coating material layer 2 of the brush 3 as needed. May be applied, or flocking may be performed on the coating material layer 2 which is heated and melted.

As this adhesive, vinyl acetate type ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer type, polyurethane type, cyanoacrylate type, EVA hot melt type, polyolefin hot melt type, each emulsion type and the like can be used, but it is preferable. An alcohol-soluble type or a hot-melt type low melting point copolymer nylon having a melting point similar to that of the coating material layer is suitable. As the processing work order, there are a method of melting the coating material layer by high-frequency heating means and fixing electrostatic flocking there, and a method of melting and solidifying after electrostatic flocking. The latter method is applied to the layer so as to sufficiently improve the adhesive force of the flock by electrostatic flocking and then melt the coating material layer to sufficiently fix the flock. In the former case, since it is necessary to electrostatically flock the flocked hair while it is still in the molten state, consideration should be given to providing the same device with the electrostatic flocking function and the fusing function.

In the electrostatic flocking process utilizing the electrostatic field, the core material 1 having the surface of the coating material layer 2 which is heated and melted is held in the tank 10 as shown in FIG. A negative electrode 11, a large number of brushes 2, and a mesh grit 12 through which the brushes 2 can pass, as a negative electrode, and the core material 1 of the brush main body to be processed is connected to a power source 13 as a positive electrode. When a current is supplied by the holder as a grounding electrode with the core material 1 interposed therebetween, an electric field is generated on the surface of the negative electrode 11 and the coating material layer 2 of the core material 1, the brush 2 is sucked and distributed, and the core material 1 The bristles are oriented so as to project outward in a straight line and are uniformly planted upright. In this case, the grit 12 is vibrated or the grit 12 and the core material 1 are
It is considered to increase / decrease the interval between and, or to vibrate. In addition, the linear core material 1 of the superelastic alloy is coated with a thermoplastic synthetic resin having a low melting point to form a coating material layer 2, and a large number of filament brushes 3 are electrostatically attracted to the linear core material 1. To the coating material layer 2 to linearly project outward, and the linear core material 1 of the coating material layer 2 is heated by high-frequency heating means to melt the coating material layer 2,
The covering material layer 2 is solidified and integrated to manufacture an interdental brush.

As a heating method for heating and melting the coating material layer 2, there are high frequency heating, electric heating, heater heating and the like. However, the coating resin can be uniformly melted and the fixing force of the brush is stabilized, High-frequency heating is preferable because it has the advantage that it can be melted in a short time and the brush does not deform due to heating. As the high frequency heating, there is a high frequency induction heating method in which the core material 1 of the superelastic alloy of the core material is heated by high frequency induction heating to melt the low melting point thermoplastic resin on the outer periphery to fix the brush on the surface of the wire, In this case, the low melting point thermoplastic resin is P
E resin, EVA resin, PP resin, 6-66 copolymer nylon resin and the like are suitable. Further, as a low melting point thermoplastic resin for coating the outer periphery of the core material, 6-66 copolymer nylon resin, 6-
There is a high-frequency dielectric heating method in which a resin having a high dielectric constant such as 66-12 copolymer nylon resin is used and the coating resin is heated to melt by high-frequency dielectric heating to fix the core material, the coating material layer and the brush.

[0014]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, an interdental brush having a high bending fatigue characteristic can be obtained, and even a thin wire having a good interdental passage property does not break even when repeatedly bent and deformed during use, and a brush Is integrally fixed to the coating layer,
To provide an inexpensive interdental cleaning tool that can perform good cleaning operations, prevents brush loss, improves the durability of interdental brushes, and is easy to manufacture small brush products and significantly improves the bristle implantation strength. It has a beneficial effect such as being able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of an interdental brush of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

3 is an enlarged detailed cross-sectional view of a portion of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a system explanatory view of the manufacturing process of the example of FIG.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a flocking process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 core material 2 coating material layer 3 brush

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A superelastic alloy linear core material is provided with a coating material layer of a low melting point thermoplastic synthetic resin around the core material, and a plurality of filamentary brushes are linearly extended outward in the coating material layer. An interdental brush characterized in that a brush is integrally fixed by melting and solidifying a coating material layer at a base portion of each brush while projecting and planting. 2. The interdental brush according to claim 1, wherein the linear core material is a Ni—Ti alloy, and the outer periphery of which is coated with a low melting point nylon resin. 3. A superelastic alloy linear body is coated with a low melting point thermoplastic synthetic resin to form a coating material layer, and a large number of filamentary brushes are attracted to the linear body by electrostatic attraction. The coating material layer is projected linearly outward and the linear body of the coating material layer is heated by a high-frequency heating means to melt the coating material layer and solidify the coating material layer to integrate them. A method for manufacturing an interdental brush, which is a brush.