JPH06237821A - Electric toothbrush - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To offer a durable electric toothbrush equipped with an intermediary transmission in a shaft. The head of this electric toothbrush is detachable from the intermediary transmission, whose function is not affected by infiltrating water, saliva, tooth wash, etc., and eventually capable of maintain the performance of the product for a long time. CONSTITUTION:This electric toothbrush is furnished with a set of brush and head 10, a motor and a handle 12 equipped with a converter which converts the rotary movement of the motor into the back and forth movement, and an intermidiary transmission 56 connected to the converter in the handle 12 to convey the back and forth movement while being detachable to the head 10 of the product. The intermediary transmission 56 is at the same time detachably connected to the handle 12.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an electric toothbrush.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, so-called electric toothbrushes have been developed for brushing teeth using an electric motor. In this electric toothbrush, one that reciprocates the brush bristles in a substantially straight line in the axial direction of the head part with a short stroke of about several millimeters, or the brush bristle tip at a predetermined angle in the rotation direction around the axis of the head part. There are things that reciprocate. In order to make the stroke of the above-mentioned reciprocating motion of the brush bristles variable by an extremely simple operation, the applicant of the present invention, for example, as described in JP-A-5-38075,
While the head part where the brush hair is planted is connected,
An intermediate transmission member that is connected to the conversion mechanism of the grip portion and receives the reciprocating power from the conversion mechanism is provided, and at least the bristle portion of the head portion is configured to be oscillated and displaced with respect to the axis of the intermediate transmission member. We proposed an electric toothbrush that is configured so that at least the stroke of the reciprocating movement of the flocked portion can be changed according to the deviation amount. Here, the intermediate transmission member may be the output shaft itself from the conversion mechanism, but it is a member separately attached to the output shaft so that the head portion can be detachably connected and In some cases, the part is supported so as to be swingable.

[0003]

In the electric toothbrush having the above-mentioned intermediate transmission member, since water, saliva, dentifrice, etc. infiltrate into the intermediate transmission member from the head portion, the intermediate transmission member particularly makes the head portion. In the case of swingably supporting, the function of this intermediate transmission member may be impaired by these infiltrated substances.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an intermediate transmission member on a handle and connect the head portion to the intermediate transmission member in a detachable manner. In the electric toothbrush having such a structure, the function of the intermediate transmission member is not impaired even by water, saliva, dentifrice, etc. that infiltrate the intermediate transmission member, and thus the function of the electric toothbrush can be maintained for a long time. It is to provide an electric toothbrush that can be performed.

[0005]

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention has a head portion having brush bristles planted thereon and a grip having a motor and a conversion mechanism for converting rotational power of the motor into reciprocating power. And an intermediate transmission member that is coupled to a conversion mechanism of the gripping portion and receives the reciprocating power, and the head portion is detachably coupled to the electric toothbrush. The present invention provides an electric toothbrush that is detachably connected.

Here, the intermediate transmission member oscillates the head portion substantially in the direction of the bristle tips, and at the same time, the intermediate transmission member elastically oscillates in the opposite direction by the reaction force of the pressing force against the teeth. Can be adopted.

[0007]

Since the intermediate transmission member is detachably connected to the grip portion, the intermediate transmission member can be separated from the handle to be cleaned, or the intermediate transmission member can be replaced with another new intermediate transmission member. It becomes possible to replace the transmission member. Therefore, in order to prevent the invasion of saliva, dentifrice, etc., the manufacturing cost can be reduced as compared with the case where the intermediate transmission member is made watertight and highly accurate, and the overall size of the device can be prevented from being increased.

When the intermediate transmission member includes a swing mechanism, the biasing means of the head portion included in the swing mechanism,
For example, several kinds of intermediate transmission members having different spring forces are prepared, and by selectively connecting and replacing the intermediate transmission member having a predetermined spring pressure to the gripping portion, pushing to the optimum tooth for the user's teeth is performed. It is possible to provide pressure.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below based on the embodiments shown in the drawings. 1 and 2 show a first embodiment of the present invention. First, the electric toothbrush is mainly composed of a head portion 10, a grip portion 12, and a cap 56 that functions as an intermediate transmission member and is located at the tip of the grip portion 12. The head unit 10 is configured to be detachable from the cap 56. The bristles 14 of the head portion are planted with the bristles 14, and the base portion thereof has a support shaft insertion hole 16 through which the support shaft 20 a of the cap 56 is inserted. The electric toothbrush of this embodiment also functions as a so-called electronic toothbrush, and for this reason, the head portion 10 is formed with a communication hole 40 for bringing saliva into contact with the support shaft 20a.

The grip portion 12 mainly comprises a motor 22 housed in an outer cylinder 18, a conversion mechanism 24 for converting the rotational movement of the motor 22 into a reciprocating rotational movement, and an output shaft of the reciprocating rotational movement from the converting mechanism 24. And the support shaft 20b. The rotational power of the motor 22 is first transmitted from the pinion 26 to the intermediate gear 28, and the intermediate gear 28 is provided with an eccentric projection 32 which is eccentric from a shaft 30 which is substantially supported by the outer cylinder 18. . The eccentric projection 32 is
As a whole, it engages with the elongated hole 36 of the swing member 34 having a substantially U-shaped yoke shape. Has been extended to. Therefore, when the intermediate gear 28 is rotated around the shaft 30, the eccentric protrusion 32 causes the eccentric protrusion 32 to move in the long hole 3 of the swing member 34.
6 eccentrically rotates while sliding inside the swinging member 6, and thereby the swinging member 3
4 and the support shaft 20b are reciprocally rotated at a predetermined rotation angle. In addition, the support shaft 20b is the outer cylinder 18
It is rotatably supported by a support member 38 fixed inside and is held at a fixed reference position.

With this structure, the rotational power of the motor 22 is transmitted to the intermediate gear 28 via the pinion 26. When the intermediate gear 28 rotates around the shaft 30, the eccentric protrusion 32 rotates eccentrically while drawing an arc, and thereby the swinging member 34 and thus the support shaft 20b reciprocally rotate about the axis of the support shaft 20b.

In this embodiment, the electronic toothbrush also functions as described above. A conductive plate 48 connected to one electrode of the battery 50 is in contact with the base end of the support shaft 20b. On the other hand, the other electrode of the battery is connected to the outer cylinder 18,
The user's hand is configured to be touched and conductive. Reference numeral 52 is a reed switch, and 55 is a switch knob.

As shown in FIG. 2, the support shaft 20b, which is the output shaft of the conversion mechanism 24 of the grip portion 12, projects in the distal direction from the outer cylinder 18 via the seal member 62, and the cap 5
By being connected to 6, the cap 56 is reciprocally rotated. More specifically, in the cap 56, the tip of the support shaft 20b is removably inserted into the connection hole 64 formed in the bottom wall of the cap 56. A part of the tip of the support shaft 20b is formed flat and the connecting hole 64 is also shaped to complement this, so that the reciprocating rotational power of the support shaft 20b is reliably transmitted to the cap 56. A V-shaped locking groove 66 is formed at a part of the tip of the support shaft 20b, while an elastic locking rod 68 elastically locking the locking groove 66 is formed in the bottom wall of the cap. Is provided. As a result, the user can easily attach / detach the cap 56 to / from the grip portion 12 without any additional tool, and the connection between the support shaft 20b and the connecting hole 64 can be completed even when the locking rod is completed. It can be confirmed with a sense of moderation when it is locked in the locking groove.

The end of the support shaft 20b is in contact with one end of a conductive piece 54 bent into a substantially L shape, and the other end of the conductive piece 54 is in contact with the coil spring 72. The coil spring 72 is
While abutting on the base end of the support shaft 20a, the support shaft 20a is biased to the left in FIG. The support shaft 20a is the cap 5
In the vicinity of the opening 70 of No. 6, it is swingably supported around the pin 58, and further protrudes in the tip end direction to be inserted into the head portion 10. Therefore, the support shaft 20a is
The coil spring 72 urges it clockwise (counterclockwise in FIG. 1) in FIG. 2, that is, in the bristle tip direction of the brush bristles 14. Reference numeral 74 is a locking member that is integrated with the support shaft 20a and that detachably connects the head portion, and reference numeral 76 is a through hole formed in the bottom wall of the cap 56,
The water, saliva, dentifrice and the like that enter the cap 56 from the head portion are discharged to the outside.

FIG. 3 shows an end view of the head portion 10 of FIG. 1 as seen from above, and in particular α ₁ is the head portion 10.
When the bristles of B are under a small pressure P ₁ , α ₂ is under a larger pressure of P ₂ , α ₃ is under a larger pressure of P _3. It corresponds. As is clear from these figures, the support shaft 20
Even if b is rotated and reciprocated at an angle of θ, the reciprocating stroke of the brush bristles 14 is as long as the bristle tips of the bristles 14 are farthest from the support shaft 20b as shown by α ₁ in FIG. It becomes the largest S ₁ , and in the case of α ₂ , the reciprocating stroke takes an intermediate value with S _2, and when the bristle tip of the brush bristles 14 comes closest to the support shaft 20 b, as shown by α ₃ , the brush is brushed. The reciprocating stroke of the tip of the bristles 14 is the smallest, S ₃ . As described above, in this embodiment, the pressing force to the brush bristles 14, that is, the brush bristles 14 to the tooth surface at the time of brushing, is not changed, without changing the mode of the conversion mechanism 24 for converting the above-mentioned rotational power into reciprocating rotational power. It is possible to change the reciprocating stroke of the bristles of the brush bristles 14 only by changing the pressing force.

In a conventional electric toothbrush, the brush tip is generally fixed at the position of α ₂ , that is, the axis of the head portion and the axis of the handle are fixed coaxially. The bristle tip stroke is S ₂ , which is relatively short and constant. In practice, in order to make this stroke larger, in the conventional electric toothbrush as shown in FIG. 4, the rotation angle of the output shaft of the conversion mechanism is set to β larger than θ to secure the stroke S ₁ . .
Here, the trajectory drawn by the reciprocating rotation of the brush bristle tip is an arc centered on the support shaft 20b, but if the same stroke, for example, S _1, is secured, the variation distance in the radial direction of the brush bristle tip is In the above-mentioned conventional one, hβ becomes large, which is not preferable as an influence on the gingiva. On the other hand, a smaller hθ is required in this embodiment, and ideal brushing is possible.

According to the above mechanism, the cap 56, which is the intermediate transmission member, can be easily attached to and detached from the grip portion 12, so that the cap 56 can be replaced.
There are various advantages. That is, in general, when a swinging distance over a wide range is applied to the head portion, the feeling of achievement of brushing tends to be impaired. Therefore, the swinging position of the head portion is different while maintaining the swinging distance at a predetermined value. By selectively using various caps 56, for example, α _{1 to} α _{4 in} FIG.
It is also possible to swing the head portion within the range shown in.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, when viewed from above in FIG.
_{From 1 to} α ₃ , the brush bristle tip draws a convex arc and reciprocally rotates, and α ₄ draws a concave arc and reciprocally rotates, so select the cap according to the location to brush,
A desired brush tip behavior can be obtained. In addition, in order to select such a function, instead of preparing several kinds of caps 56, connecting holes 64 of the cap 56 are provided at several places, and the support shaft 20b is selectively connected to one connecting hole 64. Can be achieved.

Further, when the function of transmitting reciprocating motion from the gripping portion to the head portion or the swinging / biasing function of the head portion is impaired by moisture entering the cap, the cap can be easily inspected and It can be cleaned or replaced with a new one.

Further, various urging means for elastically urging the head portion in the direction of the bristle tips, for example, various caps 56 having different spring forces of the coil spring 72 are prepared, and for a person who has strong gums and teeth. , It is possible to brush teeth with a relatively large pressing force by using one with a strong spring force,
For people who do not want strong stimulus to the gingiva due to alveolar pyorrhea, a person with a weak spring force can be used to allow tooth brushing with a relatively small pressing force. This is possible by replacing only the cap with one grip. This means that in recent years, the pressing force on the tooth during brushing has a great influence on the health of the tooth, so by selecting the cap together with the selection of the bristles of the bristles, It can provide individual users with optimal brushing conditions, which greatly contributes to human dental health.

In the above embodiment, an example in which the head part reciprocally rotates by the conversion mechanism has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the head part reciprocates linearly in the longitudinal axis direction. It may be.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the intermediate transmission member can be attached to and detached from the grip handle, the intermediate transmission member can be easily replaced with a new one or one having another function. Further, it has an excellent effect that it can be attached to the handle part deviating from the reference position, and the user can be given an optimum brushing condition.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of an electric toothbrush according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the cap of the same embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the behavior of the head portion of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram comparing the behavior of the head portion of the electric toothbrush according to the present embodiment with that of the conventional electric toothbrush.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 head part 12 gripping part 14 brush bristles 22 motor 24 conversion mechanism 20b support shaft 56 cap (intermediate transmission member)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A head part having brush bristles planted thereon, a grip part having a motor and a conversion mechanism for converting rotational power of the motor into reciprocating power, and a reciprocating power coupled to the conversion mechanism of the gripping part to receive the reciprocating power, An electric toothbrush including an intermediate transmission member to which the head portion is detachably coupled, wherein the intermediate transmission member is detachably coupled to the grip portion. 2. The intermediate transmission member includes a swing mechanism that biases the head portion in a direction approximately toward the bristle tip and elastically swings in the opposite direction by the reaction force of the pressing force against the teeth. The electric toothbrush according to claim 1, which has.