Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Article of intermediate shape
Patent
1988-01-25
1989-10-24
Feldman, Peter
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Article of intermediate shape
151672, 300 21, B29B 700, A46B 904
Patent
active
048761575
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a process for producing a toothbrush having a toothbrush head which is provided with two bristle-supporting head portions.
Tooth brushes are known which have a first and a second bristle-supporting head portion, which permit two or more surfaces (outside, inside and masticating surfaces) on a tooth in a series of teeth to be simultaneously brushed. From French patent specification No. 1,230,365 it is known to allow the bristle end planes to form an angle of between 40.degree. and 80.degree.. In Austrian patent specification No. 352,260 bristle end planes are proposed and illustrated which form an angle substantially below 40.degree.. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,894 several different designs of toothbrush heads are proposed with different angles for the head portions and with different angles for the bristle end planes. In order to achieve the best possible effect of brushing teeth with two obliquely impacting groups of bristles provision has been made for the bristles in each group to have the shortest bristle innermost and the longest bristle outermost, reckoned from the point of the bristle end planes impacting in V form. However such a bristle design involves significant manufacturing problems, since it has been difficult with simple means and in a simple way to cut and polish the bristle end plane of the two head portions simultaneously. As a consquence of these manufacturing problems toothbrushes of the afore-mentioned kind, even if they exhibit significantly useful advantages, have not been competitive from a price point of view relative to conventional toothbrushes having a simple toothbrush head.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,266 it has been proposed to install the bristles in the two head portions, while these are present in a flush position to each other, after which the bristles--while the head portions still occupy the same mutually flush position--are cut and polished and the head portions are finally bent into a finished position. The problem with such a mode of manufacture is that the bristle end planes are cut and polished at an angle relative to each other. Both the cutting equipment and the polishing equipment must necessarily be of complicated design if one is to be able to effect the cutting operation and the polishing operation in an accurate manner. Special problems involve the polishing device being mainly able to rotate in a specific position without substantial sideways movement, as is otherwise customary in the polishing of the bristle end surface of a toothbrush. The toothbrush materials must thereby be worked singly to a large extent.
With the present invention the aim is to avoid the afore-mentioned problems, conventional cutting equipment and polishing equipment being able to be employed according to the invention and this equipment being able to be moved in a conventional manner in one and the same plane along the bristle end planes. In this way there is the possibility of simultaneously finishing a large group of toothbrush materials with associated bristles in a common cutting operation and thereafter in a common polishing operation, in a conventional manner.
The process according to the invention is characterised in that the bristles, after they are installed in their respective head portions approximately at right angles (80.degree.-100.degree.) to the main plane of the head portion, are cut and polished at the ends jointly in a position where the head portions form a convex arc or where the main planes of the head portions form an angle d greater than 180.degree. with each other, after which the head portions are bent into a concavely curved contour or into a position where the main planes of the head portions extend at an angle a to each other.
By providing according to the invention a convex arc or a "negative" bending angle for the head portion, while cutting and polishing is effected, there is the possibility of utilising conventional equipment for mass production in a simple and uncomplicated manner, so that there is achieved a precise
REFERENCES:
patent: 2771624 (1956-11-01), Ripper
patent: 2807820 (1957-10-01), Dinhdfer
patent: 4131967 (1979-01-01), Northemann et al.
patent: 4449266 (1984-05-01), Northemann et al.
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