Cutlery – Razors – With cooperating shearing blades
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-16
2004-01-06
Payer, Hwei-Siu (Department: 3724)
Cutlery
Razors
With cooperating shearing blades
C030S346510
Reexamination Certificate
active
06671960
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric rotary shaver and more particularly to an electric rotary shaver in which a cutter retaining plate that supports the inner and outer cutters is detachably attached to an outer cutter frame.
2. Prior Art
Various types of electric rotary shavers have been proposed, and
FIG. 6
shows an example of an electric rotary shaver that is equipped with three rotary cutters.
In this electric rotary shaver, a shaver head
20
is detachably mounted to the upper portion of a main body case
10
of the shaver. The shaver head
20
includes three cutter units
22
that are arranged so that the centers of the cutter units
22
are positioned at the vertices of an (imaginary) equilateral triangle. Each of the cutter units
22
comprises an outer cutter
24
, an outer cutter case
26
and an inner cutter; and in the shown electric rotary shaver, the cutter units
22
are movable in an arbitrary direction with respect to the outer cutter frame
30
of the shaver head
20
.
FIGS. 7 and 8
are explanatory diagrams that show the internal structures of the shaver heads in conventional electric rotary shavers. More specifically,
FIGS. 7 and 8
show cutter retaining plates
32
that support the cutter units and are detachably attached to the outer cutter frames
30
.
In the shaver shown in
FIG. 7
, the cutter retaining plate
32
that supports the cutter units
22
(each comprising the outer cutter
24
, outer cutter case
26
and inner cutter
28
) is screw-fastened to the outer cutter frame
30
. More specifically, a mounting screw
34
is rotatably held in the cutter retaining plate
32
, a female screw projection
36
into which the mounting screw
34
is screwed is formed in the inside surface of the outer cutter frame
30
, and the cutter retaining plate
32
is attached to the outer cutter frame
30
by turning the mounting screw
34
.
The outer cutter frame
30
is comprised of a side frame portion
30
a
and a top frame portion
30
b
. The top frame portion
30
b
is formed in a continuous fashion from the side frame portion
30
a
that engages the main body case
10
of the shaver, and three circular cutter unit holes that receive the cutter units
22
are formed in the top frame portion
30
b
. The female screw projection
36
is provided in the center
30
c
of the top frame portion
30
b
. The mounting screw
34
is also provided in the center of the cutter retaining plate
32
so as to positionally correspond to the female screw projection
36
.
By screw-fastening the cutter retaining plate
32
, in which the cutter units
22
have been mounted, to the outer cutter frame
30
, the shaver head
20
having the projected cutter units
22
as seen from
FIG. 6
is obtained. The shaver head
20
thus assembled is mounted to the upper portion of the main body case
10
of the shaver.
In the shaver shown in
FIGS. 8A and 8
b
, a fastening plate
38
is rotatably attached to the cutter retaining plate
32
, and a mounting projection
40
is formed vertically on the inside surface of the outer cutter frame
30
. The fastening plate
38
is attached to the outer cutter frame
30
by way of engaging an engagement edge
40
a
formed at the tip end of the mounting projection
40
with the fastening plate
38
.
As seen from
FIG. 8B
, the engagement edge
40
a
is shaped substantially in triangle when viewed from the end. In the fastening plate
38
, an engagement opening
38
a
is formed so that the engagement edge
40
a
of the mounting projection
40
is inserted. The engagement opening
38
a
is also in a triangular shape so as to correspond to the shape of the engagement edge
40
a.
When the cutter retaining plate
32
is to be attached to the outer cutter frame
30
, the outer cutter frame
30
and cutter retaining plate
32
are positioned with the engagement edge
40
a
of the outer cutter frame
30
protruding from the engagement opening
38
a
. Then, the fastening plate
38
is turned, so that the engagement edge
40
a
and the fastening opening
38
a
are brought into a shifted positional relationship as shown in
FIG. 8B
, thus making an engagement. As a result, the cutter retaining plate
32
is attached to the outer frame
30
.
When the cutter retaining plate
32
is to be detached from the outer cutter frame
30
, the fastening plate
38
is rotated so that the engagement between the engagement edge
40
a
and the engagement opening
38
a
is released. Then, the cutter retaining plate
32
is pulled away from the outer cutter frame
30
.
The reason that the cutter retaining plates
32
are detachably attached to the outer cutter frames
30
in electric rotary shavers is to allow removal of the cutter retaining plate
32
from the outer cutter frame
30
so that the inner cutters can be replaced. Accordingly, in the attachment-detachment mechanism which is used to attach and detach the cutter retaining plate
32
to and from the outer cutter frame
30
, it is preferred that the attachment-detachment operation be done simply and the mechanism therefor be not complicated.
In this respect, the structure shown in
FIG. 7
in which the cutter retaining plate
32
is screw-fastened to the outer cutter frame
30
with the mounting screw
34
has some problems. The operation to tighten and loose the mounting screw
34
by turning it must be performed each time the attachment-detachment is needed, and such an attachment-detachment cannot be done by a one-touch operation. Thus, the operation is bothersome.
On the other hand, in the structure that uses the fastening plate
38
as shown in
FIGS. 8A and 8B
, the attachment-detachment can be accomplished in a one-touch operation merely by rotating the fastening plate
38
by approximately one-half turn. Accordingly, the operation is simple. However, because the mounting projection
40
extends a considerable distance from the outer cutter frame
30
, the strength and moldability of the mounting projection
40
becomes the problem.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention solves the above-described problems with the prior art electric shavers.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an electric rotary shaver in which the cutter retaining plate can be attached to and detached from the outer cutter frame by a one-touch operation, thus improving the operation of attaching and detaching the cutter retaining plate to and from the outer cutter frame.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electric rotary shaver that involves a simple structure, uses internal space efficiently and has an improved operability.
The above objects are accomplished by a unique structure for an electric rotary shaver in which a cutter retaining plate equipped with cutter units each comprising an inner cutter and an outer cutter is detachably attached to an outer cutter frame; and in the present invention, the shaver further includes an attachment-detachment mechanism for attaching and detaching the cutter retaining plate to and from the outer cutter frame, and the attachment-detachment mechanism is comprised of:
a boss in the shape of a triangular tube having engagement openings formed in side surfaces thereof, and
an engagement projection to be inserted in the boss so that when the engagement projection is in the boss and rotated relative to the boss, comer portions of the engagement projection are engaged and held in the engagement openings; and
the boss is provided on the outer cutter frame and the engagement projection is provided on a mounting knob that is held in the cutter retaining plate.
In this structure, the boss can be provided on the mounting knob instead of on the outer cutter frame, and the engagement projection can be provided on the outer cutter frame instead of on the mounting knob.
In addition, when the boss or the engagement projection is provided in the outer cutter frame, the boss or the engagement projection is provided on a connecting section of the top frame portions of the outer cutter frame.
Furthermore,
Kawafune Kyoichi
Nakano Tsuyoshi
Uchiyama Hiromi
Izumi Products Company
Koda & Androlia
Payer Hwei-Siu
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