US3330184A - Multiple-part comb blade for hair clippers and a method for the production thereof - Google Patents

Description

July 11, 1967 M. ANDIS 3,330,184

MULTIPLE-PART COMB BLADE FOR HAIR CLIPPERS AND A METHOD FOR THE PRODUCTION THEREOF Filed June 4, 1963 Z2 40 A4 J 3Z\ AZ 34 Z RR -1; \x /0 'l\ 3., 24

4 2; I a 3% 40 4% 44 I CID GD 39/ (ID (ID [L Z v\ d- INVENTOR. Mans 5W ,q/vazj United States Patent Ofiice 3,33%,184 Patented July 11, 1967 3,330,184 MULTIPLE-PART COMB BLADE FOR HAIR CLIPPERS AND A METHOD FOR THE PRODUCTION THEREOF Mathew Andis, Racine, Wis., assigner to Andis Clipper Co., Racine, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Filed June 4, 1963, Ser. No. 285,392 2 Claims. (CI. 90-11) This invention relates to a multiple-part comb blade for hair clippers and a method for the production thereof.

For certain hair cutting operations, barbers desire very thick comb blades. However, because of the difficulty and expense involved in the production of such blades by methods previously known, manufacturers have heretofore tried to satisfy the demand for ultra-thick blades by selling separately fabricated spacer attachments which slip over the conventional comb blade to move the area of cut outwardly from the customers scalp.

Such spacers are, at best, makeshifts because they do not fit with precision the teeth of the comb blade to which they are attached. In fact they almost invariably have fewer teeth than the comb blade and consequently are incapable of picking up in one pass all of the hair traversed. Consequently, several passes are normally required to do the work that a comb blade of the same thickness would accomplish in a single pass.

Spacers are conventionally made of plastic and have from one-half to three-fourths as many teeth as the comb blade. Because of the discrepancy in number of teeth, the strands of hair are in bunches which are accumulated anywhere from three-ei hths to an inch away from the skull and they cannot be resegregated and forced between the teeth of the comb blade. Some of the hair will bend over and slide beneath the comb blade. Without a spacer, every strand of hair will be held between the teeth of the comb blade at skull level and will necessarily be out before being bent at the ends of the grooves.

The present invention provides a structure and method whereby comb blades of any desired thickness can be produced for sale at a reasonable price. The cutter proper, or the upper portion of the comb blade upon which the shear blade rests, is made of steel. The shoe or lower portion is made of aluminum or the like. The two portions have teeth in full registry and, when assembled, function unitarily as a single blade, equal in quality to a blade made of a single piece of steel, but with the advantage that the weight is less than that of an all-steel comb blade and the cost is only 30 to 40 percent higher than the cost of a conventional comb blade. This is perhaps a quarter as much as it would cost to make a comb blade one-half inch thick from a solid block of steel. The machining time is only about one-tenth of the time that would be required if the part were made entirely of steel.

The steel cutter section of the assembled blade is manufactured with far less work than a regular clipper comb blade. It does not require the rear end recess northe bevel nor the rills which are conventionally used on a regular clipper comb blade. The blank can be ground parallel on both faces before and/or after hardening and this operation can be performed concurrently upon a number of blanks many times greater than is possible in conventional practice.

I have found that the lower or shoe section cannot be made properly either of aluminum or white metal in a die casting operation because uniformity of die cast blanks cannot be assured. Neither was it found to be possible to make this part from extruded aluminum, since it was found that dimensions cannot be held to the required tolerance limits.

The present invention is based on my discovery that the required non-ferrous blank of aluminum or other lightweight metal can be produced by using cold-drawn bar stock made to specification tolerance limits of thickness and width, the blanks being thereupon cut by form milling according to a procedure in which the bar is turned over following each cut, the result being to yield a complete blank in each operation after the first. All teeth in each shoe blank are then milled at one time with gang cutters in a single pass.

The steel cutting section of the comb blade is accurately machined and ground and lapped. It preferably has precisely the same number of teeth as the shoe section and the teeth are in precise alignment when the two sections are assembled by cement or screws or otherwise as a unitary comb blade.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary view partially in side elevation of a hair clipper embodying the invention, portions of the case and the cutting head being broken away to a central longitudinal section through the blade and shear plate.

FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view of the comb blade taken from the viewpoint indicated at 22 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the comb blade taken from the viewpoint indicated at 33 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a very much enlarged fragmentary plan view of the mating portions of registering teeth of the shoe section and cutting section of the comb blade, with portions of shear plate teeth superimposed.

FIG. 5 is a view on a reduced scale showing in perspective a shoe section blank prior to the cutting of the comb teeth.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view in side elevation fragmentarily illustrating the first step in the manufacture of a blank such as that shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 6 showing the second step of manufacture wherein the blank of FIG. 5 is completed and the milling of a second blank has concurrently been commenced.

The hair clipper itself is of generally conventional design. I have merely shown at 8 a hair clipper casing in which any desired type of motor (not shown) may be mounted to actuate the drive arm 10 which is the means that engages finger 12 on the shear plate 14 to reciprocate the blade transversely of the comb plate. Shear plate 14 is also of generally conventional construction, usually being made of hardened steel and provided along its forward margin with a row of teeth 16 formed by intervening slots 18 intersecting a portion of the bearing surface of the reciprocating blade 14. For this bearing surface, a complementary surface is provided at 22 on the comb blade presently to be described. The reciprocating shear plate 14 has a rear bearing surface at 24 for which the comb blade has complementary surface at 26. The intervening portion of the reciprocable shear plate may be channeled as shown at 28.

The present invention is concerned primarily with the comb blade and the method of production thereof. The bearing surfaces 22 and 26 upon which the shear plate is reciprocable are carefully machined on a cutter plate section 30 which is preferably made of steel and hardened and ground. The bearing surface 22 adjacent the forward end 32 of the plate 39 is penetrated by the slots 34 cut into the plate from its forward end 32 to define shear teeth at 36 with which the teeth 18 of the reciprocable shear plate 14 coact at the forward margin 32 of the relatively fixed cutter section 30 of the comb blade. The ends of the teeth 36 are square-cut, as clearly appears in FIG. 1, and they abut the complementary square-cut rear ends of the teeth 40 of the comb blade shoe section 42.

The shoe section 42 has a bed area at 43 upon which the cutter plate section 30 is fixed. Bed 43 terminates at transverse shoulder 45. Ahead of the shoulder, the shoe tapers forwardly at 41 to an apex 44 as best shown in FIG. 1. Extending 'rearwardly of the shoe section from its apex 44 and intersecting the seat 43 are the parallel slots 46 which form the teeth 40. The slots 46 of the shoe section register with the slots 34 of the cutter plate section. The teeth 40 formed by slots 46 register with the teeth 36 of the cutter plate section, there being a precision joint between the teeth of the respective sections at the shoulder 45 of shoe section 42. Desirably, although not necessarily,

there is a narrow fiat area 48 which extends transversely forming slots 46 cut therein, appears as shown in FIG. 5.

The preferred method of construction is as follows:

The bar 60, which is preferably of cold-drawn aluminum or other non-ferrous metal is anchored securely and transversely milled with gang cutters such as those shown at 62 in FIGS. 6 and 7. There is one cutter at 64 which I is generically cylindrical in overall configuration for cutting a channel 66 with parallel shoulders 45 and 68. Associated with the generally cylindrical cutter 64 is a frustoconical cutter 70 having its smaller end abutting cutter 64 so that it has a radius less than that of the cylindrical cutter 64 where the two cutters abut at 72. The end portion 74 of the frusto-conical cutter 70 is conversely tapering toward the cutter section 76 which is partly cylindrical but further reduced in radius where it tapers at 78 as shown.

On the first cut rnade by relative transverse movement of the cutter assembly 62 with respect to the bar 60, the end f the bar is provided with the elongated taper 41 already described. The level of cut is such that the junction 72 between cutters 64 and 70 is above the top surface 'of bar 60 thus leaving the flat area 48. The radius of the cutter section 64 is such that it cuts the channel 66 as already described, the bottom of this channel constituting the bed 43 upon which the cutter blade section 30 will later be fixed as shown in FIG. 1.

After the first traverse of the bar 60 has been made by the assembly 62'as shown in FIG. 6, the bar is inverted to the position shown in FIG. 7. The tapered end 41 is now below the apex 44 and the channel 66 opens downwardly as shown in FIG. 7.

' The next traverse of the assembly 62 cuts a tapered surface 41 on the upper side of the next consecutive portion of bar 60 while at the same time the portion 74 of the cutter severs the blank'420 from the bar. In so doing, it completely removes the shoulder 68 which lay at the rear of channel 66 following the initial traverse. The portion 76 of the cutter removes stock from the previously formed blank 420 to form the surface 84 which is offset above the bottom 86 of the shoe and into which the retaining screws 88 are countersunk as shown in dotted lines in FIG. 1.

The second traverse as shown in FIG. 7 thus completes the blank 420 as shown in FIG. 5, nothing further being required except to bore the holes for the screws 88 and to cut the slots 46 to form teeth 40 with a gang milling cutter (not shown) as already describedrFollowing each traverse the bar is inverted and with each successive traverse another shoe blank 420 will be produced. 7

It is, of course, immaterial to the invention whether the cutter plate section 30 and the shoe section 42 are united by means of screws or otherwise. It is only important that these two sections are in rigid unitary connection.

The cooperation of the reciprocable shear plate 14 with the cutter plate section of the comb blade is essentially unchanged from conventional clipper practice, but the thickness of the shoe section represents added thickness. This may be prefabricated to cut the hair to any length desired in a single pass.

I claim:

1. A method of making a shoe section for a multisection cutter plate for a hair clipper or the like, such method consisting in the steps of simultaneously beveling the end and transversely channelling the top of a bar, inverting the bar, and concurrently cutting a blank from the end of the inverted bar While beveling the end of the remaining portion of said bar and transversely channelling such remaining portion behind the last mentioned beveled end. a

2. A method according to claim 1 in which the transverse channelling first mentioned forms shoulders disposed transversely of the bar and spaced longitudinally thereof, and the operation which follows the inversion of the bar includes the removal of a portion of the blank which includes one of said shoulders.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS LEONIDAS VLACHOS, MILTON S. MEHR, V

Examiners.

J. C. PETERS, Assistant Examiner.

42 below the shoulder 32,

Claims (1)

1. A METHOD OF MAKING A SHOE SECTION FOR A MULTISECTION CUTTER PLATE FOR A HAIR CLIPPER OR THE LIKE, SUCH METHOD CONSISTING IN THE STEPS OF SIMULTANEOUSLY BEVELING THE END AND TRANSVERSELY CHANNELLING THE TOP OF A BAR, INVERTING THE BAR, AND CONCURRENTLY CUTTING A BLANK FROM THE END OF THE INVERTED BAR WHILE BEVELING THE END OF THE REMAINING PORTION OF SAID BAR AND TRANSVERSELY CHANNELLING SUCH REMAINING PORTION BEHIND THE LAST MENTIONED BEVELED END.

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