Surgery – Instruments – Means for removal of skin or material therefrom
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-12
2001-01-23
Wilson, John J. (Department: 3732)
Surgery
Instruments
Means for removal of skin or material therefrom
Reexamination Certificate
active
06176862
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention is relative to a hair-removing device capable of being held in the hand and intended to remove with the least pain sensation possible hair from the human body considered to be unnecessary for esthetic or other reasons.
PRIOR ART
A known family of hair-removing devices is based on a roller which is moveable in rotation around an axis arranged behind a window in one of the extremities of the housing, this roller comprising one or several rows of tweezers. Each row of tweezers is formed of a first series of parallel, side-by-side moveable blades, interposed into a second series, either of fixed discs or of equally moveable blades, tweezers thus being constituted by a blade of the first series associated with the adjacent disc or blade of the second series. Provision is also made for control means to successively bring the moveable blades to press against one another, or against the adjacent disc, to pinch the hairs to be plucked, then to move away from one another to permit evacuation of the plucked hairs before introduction of the following hairs between the blades.
Thus, when the roller turns, the tweezers close in proximity to the skin in gripping the hairs which are then entrained and plucked by the continued rotation of the roller. These blades grip and pull the hairs in a random manner, not necessarily in proximity to their roots, so that a hair can be pulled several times before being plucked. These successive pulls and the plucking excite the nerve ends close to the hair follicles and are the cause of the pain sensed during hair removal.
EP Patent No. 467733 (SEB) describes a hair-removing device of the above-described type comprising brushes composed of tufts of bristles on its roller. The extremities of these bristles can project slightly beyond a cylinder inscribed on the tweezing edges of the discs and blades. These bristles are provided to be sufficiently stiff to produce an effect of lifting the hairs to be removed, without however being too stiff in order to not irritate the skin.
During testing of this hair-removing device, it was observed that these brushes have a secondary pain-soothing effect by the fact that these bristles come to “lash” the skin. However, this secondary effect is limited.
The document EP 671136 (SEB) describes another hair-removing device of this type, in which the blades are adjacent, on the one hand to a smooth surface in the form of a section of a cylinder coaxial with the axis of rotation of the roller, and on the other hand to an elongated hollow zone extending parallel to the alignment of the blades, this zone being itself adjacent to another smooth surface in the form of a portion of a cylinder diametrically opposed to the first. These cylinder portions define between them a virtual protection cylinder coaxial with the roller preventing the skin from penetrating into the tweezers.
The hollow zone comprises a series of brushes provided to lift the hairs that are lying flat by contact with the smooth surfaces and thus to improve the gripping of these hairs by the tweezers. This hollow zone comprises in addition, near one of the sides of the blades, a series of spikes parallel to the brushes and the tips of which are situated on the virtual protection cylinder. These spikes prevent the hair-removing roller from jumping onto the skin during passage of the hollow zone and produce on the skin a massaging effect complementary to the brushing which diminishes the pain due to plucking of the hairs. There exists nevertheless a real need for a pain-soothing device which is still more effective in order to render this operation less disagreeable.
The document EP 760219 (MATUSHITA) describes several hair-removing devices with vibrating pain-soothing elements, either in the form of a vibrating comb carried by the housing or in the form of vibrating rollers in addition to the spikes or to the stiff bristles which are equally carried by the housing at the side of the hair-removing roller.
The document WO 97/19613 (PHILIPS) describes a hair-removing device comprising a series of striking spikes of a relatively hard elastomer material, assembled in the manner of a comb or a hand and mounted in a vibrating manner on the housing. The flexibility of the protuberances is such that the latter penetrate into the skin to assure an anesthetic effect, but withdraw and bend when the hair-removing device passes by a boney zone.
However, these pain-soothing devices mounted on the housing at the outside but adjacent to the hair-removing roller cause the appliance to be more complex because they require an independent and complex vibration inducing mechanism. In addition, these external devices hide the zone from which hair is to be removed, which renders the hair-removing operation less easy.
The document WO 97/00032 (BRAUN) describe a hair-removing device whose rotating roller comprises a series of moveable massage elements that are pushed radially toward the outside by centrifugal force and/or by springs in order to come to strike the skin and provoke pulses intended to mask the hair-removal pain. This construction has proven however to be equally complicated, and thus difficult to carry out, and there exists a risk of blocking of the massage elements.
Patent application FR 96.03177 (SEB) describes a plurality of hair-removing devices equipped with a pain-soothing device. According to a first form of construction, the hair-removing roller is itself mounted in a vibrating stirrup. According to a second form of construction, the roller comprises radially moveable massage elements. According to a third form of construction, the roller comprises massage elements in the form of a lever pivotally mounted on the hair-removal roller in such a manner that their extremities come to strike the skin radially. According to a fourth form of construction, the hair-removing device comprises a stirrup surrounding the roller and mounted on the housing in a vibratory manner. These forms of construction have however been found to be equally complicated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is a hair-removing device comprising a hair-removing roller driven in rotation by a motor around an axis arranged behind a window of the housing, this roller comprising one or several rows of tweezing blades to be pressed against one another in order to tweeze the hairs to be plucked then to spread apart, the pain-soothing device of which is efficacious, simple in structure, reliable and inexpensive to produce.
This goal is achieved due to the fact that the pain-soothing device comprises elements mounted in a fixed manner on the rotating wheel, presenting one or several protuberances which extend beyond the virtual cylinder coaxial to the roller in which are inscribed the tweezing edges of the blades, each protuberance being inclined and/or rounded along the plane transverse to the axis of rotation of the roller passing through the fixed element.
The cylinder coaxial to the roller in which are inscribed the tweezing edges of the blades constitutes a type of virtual protection cylinder by the fact that, in this cylinder, there are equally inscribed smooth parts of the roller, either in the form of elongated shells angularly off-set with respect to the blades, or in the form of a series of transverse discs open at the level of the blades, these smooth parts when bearing on the skin preventing the latter from being grasped by the tweezers.
In setting the rounded protuberancies of the fixed elements beyond this virtual protection cylinder in order to thus protrude, one obtains a substantial pain-soothing effect effectively diminishing the pain caused by the plucking of the hairs and this in a simple and solid manner.
Due to this inclined and/or rounded part, it is assured that the part of the protuberance which comes to strike the skin at the peripheral speed of the roller is presented in an oblique and non-perpendicular manner at this skin. This provokes a very pronounced massage effect leading to a pain sensation which masks the hair-remo
Bontoux Daniel
Cathaud Muriel
Delay Jean-Pascal
Rosson Yves
Browdy and Neimark
Robert Eduardo C.
SEB
Wilson John J.
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