JPH11253233A - Motor-driven toothbrush - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a rotary base from being broken and retain usability of a toothbrush by forming the toothbrush so that the outer periphery of the rotary base of the rotary brush brushing teeth while rotating is positioned at almost the same height with the top of an attachment holder. SOLUTION: In this motor-driven toothbrush, a rotary brush 7 is turned by a specified angle by driving a motor 2 to brush teeth by the revolution of the motor. There is a fear that the motor-driven toothbrush drops during use by mistake but since there is almost no level difference between the outer periphery of the rotary base 8 and the top 11 of an attachment holder 6, the top 11 of the attachment holder is hit together with the rotary base 8 and hence, the rotary base 8 can be prevented from being broken. Further, since the diameter of a round part 13 is made smaller than the diameter of the rotary brush 7, even if the top 11 is flush with the outer periphery of the rotary base 8, the usability in the mouth is favorable.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a structure of a rotating brush portion as an attachment of an electric toothbrush.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An example of a conventional electric toothbrush is shown in FIG. The motor 2, the battery 3, the motion conversion mechanism 4, and the drive shaft 5 are provided inside the electric toothbrush main body 1. When the motor 2 is driven by the battery 3, the rotary motion is linearly reciprocated by the motion conversion mechanism 4. The drive shaft 5 is reciprocally driven in the axial direction of the electric toothbrush main body 1. Attachment holder 6 is detachably attached to the tip of this electric toothbrush body 1,
The slide shaft 21 inserted into the attachment holder 6 is reciprocated together with the drive shaft 5 in conjunction with the drive shaft 5. The rotating brush 7 as an attachment is formed by implanting a brush 9 on a rotating table 8, and the rotating table 8 of the rotating brush 7 is mounted rotatably on a shaft 10. When the slide shaft 21 reciprocates with the reciprocating motion of the drive shaft 5, the reciprocating motion of the slide shaft 21 rotates the rotary brush 7 around the axis 10 within a predetermined angle range. It is supposed to be.

[0003]

In the above conventional example, the center of the rotary table 8 of the rotary brush 7 is rotatably mounted on the shaft 10 at the center of the round portion 13 at the tip of the attachment holder 6. The diameter of the turntable 8 of the rotary brush 7 is larger than the diameter of the round portion 13, and a step D is formed between the outer circumference of the turntable 8 and the top 11 of the attachment holder 9.
Can be. For this reason, when the electric toothbrush receives an impact such as dropping, a large load is applied to the turntable 8 and the turntable 8 is easily broken.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above description, and provides an electric toothbrush capable of preventing a load from being applied to a turntable portion and causing the turntable portion to break even when subjected to an impact such as a drop. It is in.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric toothbrush for rotating a toothbrush which is rotatably driven at a tip end of an attachment holder. The outer periphery of the turntable 8 of the rotating brush 7 and the attachment holder 6
Is formed so as to have substantially the same height as the top portion 11 of the base member. When the electric toothbrush receives an impact such as dropping, the turntable 8 alone does not hit, and the top 11 of the attachment holder 6 hits with the turntable 8, thereby preventing the turntable section 8 from being broken. .

[0006] The electric toothbrush according to claim 2 of the present invention comprises:
2. The top part 1 of the attachment holder 6 according to claim 1,
1 is formed in a planar shape. When receiving an impact such as dropping, the top 11 becomes easier to hit than the turntable 8,
It is possible to further prevent the turntable 8 from being destroyed. The electric toothbrush according to claim 3 of the present invention is characterized in that, in claim 1 or claim 2, when the flocking of the rotating table 8 of the rotating brush 7 is performed.
It is characterized in that a flocking bundle 9a, which is higher than the other parts, is asymmetrically arranged with five bundles on the upper part of the turntable 8 and three bundles on the lower part. The high bristles of the rotating brush 7 effectively scrape the plaque between the teeth, thereby enabling effective brushing.

[0007] The electric toothbrush according to a fourth aspect of the present invention comprises:
In claim 3, the bristle wire diameter of the asymmetric flocking bundle 9a is changed from that of another flocking bundle 9b. Plaque removal can be made more effective by making the bristle wire diameter of the flocking bundle 9a thicker and harder.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As shown in FIG. 1, a motor 2, a battery 3, a motion conversion mechanism 4, and a drive shaft 5 are provided inside an electric toothbrush body 1. When the motor 2 is driven by the battery 3, ,
The rotational motion is converted into a linear reciprocating motion by the motion converting mechanism 4, and the drive shaft 5 is driven to reciprocate in the axial direction of the electric toothbrush main body 1. An operation switch 14 for operating the motor 2 is provided on the outer surface of the electric toothbrush main body 1. An attachment holder 6 is detachably attached to the tip of the electric toothbrush main body 1. A slide shaft 21 inserted into the attachment holder 6 is reciprocated together with the drive shaft 5 in conjunction with the drive shaft 5. It has become. Rotary brush 7 as an attachment
Is formed by implanting a brush 9 on a disk-shaped rotary table 8, and the rotary table 8 of the rotary brush 7 is rotatably mounted on a tip of the attachment holder 6 by a shaft 10.
A round portion 13 is provided at the tip of the attachment holder 6, and the center of the turntable 8 is rotatably mounted on the shaft 10 at the center of the round portion 13. Although the diameter of the round part 13 is smaller than the diameter of the turntable 8,
Only the top 11 is bulged upward, and the top 1
There is almost no step between 1 and the turntable 8. Even if the step ΔD is formed, it is set to about 0.5 mm. As shown in FIG. 2, an eccentric pin 15 eccentric to the shaft 10 is provided on the turntable 8 inside the tip of the attachment holder 6 so as to be parallel to the shaft 10. One end of 16 is rotatably mounted, and the other end of the interlocking rod 16 is integrally connected to the slide shaft 21. When the slide shaft 21 reciprocates with the reciprocating motion of the drive shaft 5,
The revolving base 8 rotates up and down around the shaft 10 by reciprocation of the slide shaft 21, and the rotation of the rotating brush 7 brushes the teeth. 1 (c) and 4 (a) show the interlocking rod 1.
6 is the state of the top dead center that has moved to the top, and FIG.
FIGS. 4A and 4B show a state of the bottom dead center in which the interlocking rod 16 has moved to the lowermost position. As a result, the rotating brush 7 is reciprocated by an angle of 2α as shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 18 denotes a rotation restricting guide groove, and the rotation restricting guide groove 18 slides with respect to the restriction pin 19 to restrict the rotation of the rotary brush 7.

In the electric toothbrush constructed as described above, when the motor 2 is driven, the rotary brush 7 is rotated by a predetermined angle as described above, and the rotation of the rotary brush 7 performs tooth brushing. I have. This electric toothbrush may be accidentally dropped during use or the like. However, even if it is accidentally dropped, the outer periphery of the turntable 8 and the attachment holder 6 may be dropped.
Since there is almost no step with the top 11 of the rotary brush 8, only the outer periphery of the turntable 8 of the rotary brush 7 does not hit, and the top 11 of the attachment holder 6 hits with the turntable 8 and the turntable 8 is destroyed. Can be prevented. Further, at this time, since the top portion 11 is planar, the top portion 11 is more easily hit and the turntable 8 can be further prevented from being broken. Even if the top 11 is flush with the outer circumference of the turntable 8, the round shape 13 is smaller in size than the diameter of the rotating brush 7, so that the convenience in the oral cavity does not deteriorate. In other words, if the diameter of the round portion 13 at the distal end of the attachment holder 6 is increased, it is necessary to reduce the size to a minimum size because the contact in the oral cavity occurs and the usability is reduced.

FIG. 3 shows the appearance of the flocked portion of the brush 9 of the rotating brush 7. As shown in FIG. The brush 9 is formed of a plurality of flocking bundles, and the plurality of flocking bundles are formed as a two-stage flocking of a tall flocking bundle 9a and a normal flocking bundle 9b. The height of the flocking bundle 9a is eight bundles, including five bundles in the tip direction of the rotating brush 7 and three bundles in the body direction. Since eight bundles of tall tufts 9a are formed by performing two-stage flocking in this manner, the bristle tip can easily reach the portion between the teeth 20. In addition, the flocking bundle 9a having a high height in the tip direction of the rotating brush 7 is
Since it is a bundle, an effective brushing area can be secured when the rotating brush 7 rotates.

FIG. 4 shows a state at the time of brushing by the rotating brush 7. Flocked bundle 9a of 5 bundles with high hair height
As shown in the figure, the bristle tips of the three bundles of flocked bundles 9a in the direction toward the main body with high bristle height can effectively scrape the plaque between the teeth 20 as shown in the figure. In addition, by increasing the diameter of the bristle of the eight bundles of bristle tufts 9a with the bristle height or increasing the number of the bristle by the rotating brush 7 of FIG.
If the hardness is higher than b, it is effective for plaque removal and the like. At this time, since the eight bundles of the flocks are hardened, the hair length may be the same as that of the other flocks.

[0012]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric toothbrush provided with a rotary brush rotatably driven at a distal end portion of an attachment holder for brushing a tooth. Since the top of the attachment holder is formed to be approximately the same height, when the electric toothbrush receives an impact such as dropping, only the turntable does not hit, and the top of the attachment holder together with the turntable This will prevent the turntable from being destroyed, and it will not be difficult to use it by keeping the top almost flush (the diameter of the tip of the attachment holder will increase. This does not impair ease of use), so that strength can be maintained without impairing usability.

Further, the invention of claim 2 of the present invention relates to claim 1
In this case, since the top of the attachment holder is planar, the top becomes easier to hit than the turntable when it receives an impact such as a fall, so that the turntable can be further prevented from being destroyed. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, at the time of flocking of the rotating table of the rotating brush, five bundles of flocking bundles having a height higher than other portions are arranged on the upper part of the rotating table and the lower part thereof Since the three bundles are arranged asymmetrically in the portion, the bristle bundle having a high bristle of the rotating brush effectively scrapes plaque between the teeth so that effective brushing can be performed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a third aspect is provided.
In the above, the bristle wire diameter of the asymmetrical flocking bundle is changed from that of other flocking bundles, so that the plaque removal can be more effectively performed by increasing the bristle wire diameter of the flocking bundle to make it harder.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1A and 1B show an example of an embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1A is a front view of a state in which a rotating brush is rotated to a bottom dead center, FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view seen from a side, and FIG. FIG. 3D is a front view of a main part in a state where the brush is rotated to a top dead center, and FIG.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are cross-sectional views showing a mechanism for rotating the rotating brush, as viewed from the back, in which FIG. 2A is a state in which the rotating brush is rotated to a top dead center, and FIG. It is in a state where it has turned to the bottom dead center.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the rotary brush and the attachment holder according to the first embodiment, wherein (a) is a front view and (b) is a side view.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a tooth brushing state according to the first embodiment.

5A and 5B show a conventional example, wherein FIG. 5A is a front view, FIG. 5B is a cross-sectional view as viewed from a side, and FIG. 5C is a rear view of a main part.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 6 Attachment holder 7 Rotating brush 8 Rotating table 9 Brush 9a Tall flocking bundle 11 Top

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electric toothbrush in which a rotating brush for performing tooth brushing by being driven to rotate is rotatably provided at a tip portion of an attachment holder, wherein an outer circumference of a rotary table of the rotating brush and a top of the attachment holder have substantially the same height. An electric toothbrush characterized by being formed so as to become. 2. The electric toothbrush according to claim 1, wherein the top of the attachment holder has a planar shape. 3. In the flocking of the rotating table of the rotating brush, five bundles of flocking that are taller than other parts are provided above the rotating table.
3. The electric toothbrush according to claim 1, wherein the three bundles are arranged asymmetrically in the lower part. 4. The electric toothbrush according to claim 3, wherein the bristle wire diameter of the asymmetrical flocking is changed from that of another flocking.