LU82610A1 - ELECTRIC MASSAGE APPARATUS - Google Patents

Description

- 2 - the present invention relates to a massage device, the massage technique consists of a touch or a friction in view, particularly, of a sedative action.

Electric vibrating massage devices or vibratory massagers are known, in which all the pins are controlled by the same source of vibration. In a massage device according to the invention, unlike vibro-massagers, it is provided that the pins are animated with respect to each other with a wider movement and at a frequency lower than that of a vibration. The advantage of an electric massage device produced in accordance with the invention consists in that amplitude and frequency are more compatible with human physiology than the vibration liable to generate stress.

According to the invention the massage device comprising a support member and projecting elements covered with a cap or covering member in flexible and elastic material, is characterized in that its projecting elements or pins are driven by a movement during which their vertices, two by two, deviate, respectively approach each other.

In the massage device according to the invention, the support member consists of a double plate and, according to one embodiment, the lower plate carries the pins and the upper plate is perforated for the passage of said protruding pins.

According to another embodiment, one of the plates is fixed and the other is movable relative to the fixed plate, each plate carrying a series of pins and the upper plate being provided with cutouts of a suitable shape for the passage of the protruding pins of the lower plate and the displacement of a plate compared to the other.

To better understand the invention the massage device is described below on the basis of appended schematic drawings showing in. · - 3 -

Figure 1 a perspective view of the double tray and its pins, with a cut in the upper tray element;

Figure 2 a detail view of two pins of the tray of Figure 1;

Figure 3 a plan view of the tray of Figure 1;

Figure 4 a plan view of the tray of Figure 1, the upper tray member being removed;

Figures 5 and 6 a perspective view of two variants of a pin tray of the massage device according to the invention.

As seen in Figure 1 the massage device consists of a double plate with a lower plate element 1 and an upper plate element 2. The pins 3 are mounted on the lower plate 1 by means of a train of cylindrical gears 4 with vertical axis connected to an external drive member (not shown) and arranged between the two plates, the upper plate 2 being perforated for the passage of the pins.

On their upper face each gear 4 carries in its center one of the pins 3, inclined relative to the vertical, so that during the rotation of the gear the top 3 ′ of the spindle, off-center and passing through the upper plate, describes a circle (Figure 2). On the surface of the massage device the inclination of the various pins is such that, during the rotation of the gear train, the distance between the vertices of two neighboring pins goes from a minimum M to a maximum M 'and reciprocally.

The spindles rotated cause a friction effect due to the successive spacing and approximation movements of their vertices.

According to another embodiment of the invention, these successive spacing and approximation movements are obtained with a double plate, of which the lower plate 1 '- 4 - carries a series of pins 3 while the upper plate 2', carries one part of the cutouts for the protruding passage 3 of the lower plate 1 ′ and on the other hand another series of pins 3.

In this embodiment one of the plates is fixed and the other is movable relative to the fixed plate and its displacement corresponds to the shape given to the cutouts of the upper plate.

It is thus seen in Figure 5 that there are * cutouts 5 of circular shape, which corresponds to a uniform eccentric rotary movement of the movable plate.

According to a variant (Figure 6) the cuts 5 are in an arc and correspond to an alternating rotary movement of the movable plate.

In each of these movements the tops of pins 3 of one series will continuously move away and approach the vertices of pins 3 of the other series.

In a variant not shown, the cutouts can be rectangular and, instead of a rotational movement, a translational movement is obtained with the same friction effect as above by the successive closings and spacings.

The setting in motion of the movable plate, like the setting in rotation of the gears carrying the pins, does not come within the scope of the invention and can be carried out in any suitable manner.

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Claims (6)

1. Electric massage device, comprising a support member and projecting elements covered with a cap or covering member made of flexible and elastic material, characterized in that the projecting elements or pins are driven by a movement during which their vertices, two by two, deviate, respectively approach each other, - 2. Massage device according to claim 1, ca acterized in that the support member is constituted by a double plate, the massage pins projecting beyond the upper plate. 3. Massager according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the pins are mounted eccentrically on a gear train housed between the elements of the fixed upper and lower plate. 4. Massager according to claim 3, characterized in that the eccentricity of the pins is produced by an inclination relative to the vertical from the center of the gear. 5 · massage device according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that one plate is fixed and the other plate is movable relative to the fixed plate, each plate carrying a series of pins, and in that the upper plate is provided with cutouts for the passage of the protruding pins v of the lower plate, these cutouts having a shape suitable for the movement of one plate relative to the other. 6. Electric massage device as described above and shown in the accompanying drawings.