Hair Brush

Abstract

Hair brush having a solid rigid base member with a plurality of spaced recesses formed therein, each recess having a plurality of tufts of fine bristles being bent back upon themselves and a single thick strand of a length greater than the length of tuft of fine bristles.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to brushes of the type commonly used in brushing and combing a person's hair. A hair brush during its use or operation should be able to perform three functions, namely, comb the hair, then clean the hair while at the same time distributing its natural or artificial secretions to give it luster and finally to dress the hair. A combing brush is generally one having metal or plastic pins mounted in rubber or molded in plastic with the pins being of a monostrand or filament type which are sufficiently strong and stiff so as to act like the teeth of a comb. A brush for cleaning a giving the hair its luster should be one having relatively thick tufts of fine bristles so that one may brush the hair for a long time without breaking or damaging the hair. A dress or setting brush is preferably one having a relatively long and narrow shape with relatively hard and well degraded bristles that will catch and put the hair in place.

It has been known to fabricate brushes of the aforementioned type with the tufts of fine bristles usually bent in two and then mounted in a rubber cap. The thicker and heavier monostrand or filaments are then inserted into the finer bristles. Such types of brushes have been known wherein both the finer bristles and the monostrand or filament project through the rubber back and are secured thereto after which the rubber backing or cap is affixed to a suitable base or mounting. A brush of this type is rather expensive to fabricate in comparison to a conventional type of brush. While a brush formed with the tufts of fine bristles and a strong monostrand or filament is readily susceptible of coming and cleaning during its use it assures one of a poor performance of setting due to its general oval shape or configuration, such that a hair dresser will use such a brush to comb and brush a person's hair but will use a second or different brush for setting.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a hair brush having a plurality of tufts of fine bristles with a single thick strand or filament being associated with each tuft and wherein each tuft and its thick strand or filament are positioned in and secured in a blind hole provided in the base or brush mounting structure. The tuft of fine bristles is usually bent in half and then inserted into the hole or recess provided in the base member or portion of the brush. The single thick strand or filament is of a length greater than one-half of the length of the tuft of fine bristles so that one end portion of the thick strand or filament may be bent back a short distance upon itself but still leaving the major portion of its length such that it will project beyond the ends of the tuft of fine bristles so as to be capable of producing a combing effect. The bent tuft of fine bristles and the bent thick strand or filament are secured to the bottom of the hole or recess by a suitable fastener.

One of the objects of the present invention relates to a novel system of mounting at a reasonable cost the bristles and thick strands in a hair brush which can perform the functions of combing, cleaning and setting.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of a tuft of fine bristles and a thick monostrand or filament secured in a recess or hole of a brush base or support;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of a hair brush embodying the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a fragmentary portion of brush forming machine showing the magazines for holding the various bristles;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a fragmentary portion of a modified brush forming machine embodying the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the strand and bristle collecting elements of the brush forming machine of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a modification of the brush forming machine shown in FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown the base or body portion 10 of a hair brush having a plurality of spaced recesses or holes 12 defined for the reception of thick tufts of fine bristles 14 together with a very strong monostrand or filament 16 of a rather large diameter. The inner end portion 18 of the monostrand or filament 16 is bent back upon itself for a short distance and said inner end portion 18 as well as the tuft of fine bristles 14 are secured in the bottom of each recess or hole 12 by a suitable fastener 20. It is to be noted that the monostrand or filament 16 is of a greater length than the fine bristles 14 so that the brush will be capable of performing the combing operation or effect when using same.

In an effort to achieve automatic mounting of the bristles in a brush of the aforementioned type and under the same conditions as in a regular conventional brush and therefore, at practically identical cost, various mechanical processes can be used which are adapted in standard brush mounting machines. To make the ideas clear, two possible processes, among others, will be described, without these two processes being limiting.

It is possible to use a regular brush mounting machine provided it is equipped with a double magazine to provide bristles or synthetic filaments, namely, a magazine 22 for fine bristles and a magazine 24 for thick bristles (FIG. 3). A mobile piece or member 26 is employed to pick up the bristles or filaments in the magazines and bring them to the insertion tool. The mobile 26 is provided with two notches, one 28 to take a thick filament in its magazine 24, the other 30 to take fine filaments or bristles in their magazine 22. In the general case where one of the notches has to pass by a magazine where it is not supposed to pick up bristles or filaments, this can be avoided by the addition on the mobile piece of a cam member 32 judiciously placed, making it possible to bypass the bristles or filaments which are not supposed to be grasped when the notch passes by the corresponding magazine.

If the fine bristles are located in the magazine closer to the insertion tool, and the thicker filaments in the magazine farther away, the notch intended to pick up the thick filament will first pass by the magazine containing the fine bristles if the two notches are hollowed out on an alternating arc going from the magazines to the insertion tool by a back and forth movement. Naturally, the notch intended for the thick filament should not be filled with fine bristles in passing by the magazine of fine bristles and this can easily be achieved by moving the fine bristles aside at the time of passage of this notch, by using, for example, the difference in length of the bristles or filaments between the two magazines. Attachment of the double tuft thus constituted will be assured in the holes of the brush mounting be regular fasteners by regular tools of brushmaking machines.

The invention also has for its object a variant of this process wherein the mobile part comprises a single notch, the machine comprising, on the one hand, a stationary part arranged so as partially to block the notch of the arc part when said notch comes opposite the outlet of the thick strand magazine, so as to permit only one strand to enter into said notch, and on the other hand, a mobile part, attached to the insertion tool so as to block the outlet of the fine bristle magazine when the notch, in the forward travel of the mobile part, passes by said magazine before being passed by the thick strand magazine, and moves away to uncover the outlet of the fine bristle magazine when the notch, having received a thick strand, passes back by said outlet in the return travel of the mobile part. Thus, the notch is prevented from filling up with fine bristles before having received the thick strand.

FIG. 6 represents hypothetically, and simply by way of example, a possible embodiment of the machine according to said variant. In this Figure, the mobile arc part 36 is provided with a notch 38 for collecting fine bristles from the magazine 40 and thick strands from the magazine 42. The insertion tool is designated by 44. According to the invention, the machine comprises, on the one hand, a stationary part 46 arranged as said above to block notch 38 partially when it goes by the outlet of magazine 42, and, on the other hand, a mobile part 48, connected to insertion tool 44 by coupling 50. This coupling is made to achieve the following function: when the mobile arc part or member 36 descends in its forward travel, mobile part 48 is lowered and consequently, blocks fine bristle magazine 40, thus preventing these bristles from going into notch 38 when it passes by the outlet of magazine 40. On the other hand, when arc part 36 rises on its return travel, mobile part 48 moves away from the magazine 40 so that when notch 38, having previously received a thick strand from magazine 42, again moves past the outlet of fine bristle magazine 40, these latter bristles may pass or feed into said notch 38.

It is also possible to use a machine provided with two magazines which are located to the right and left of the insertion tool so that such a machine is provided with two arcs or paths of movement, one from the right and the other from the left for delivering bristles to the insertion tool. A magazine 22 will contain the fine bristles, and this time a single notch in the mobile arc part or member 26, FIG. 5, will be able to deliver the necessary amount to the insertion tool, the magazine being adjusted in height to obtain a bending in two of the bristles.

Simultaneously, a notch in the other mobile arc member 26 designed to pick up only one thick strand from the magazine 24 will deliver this thick strand to the insertion tool, the thick strand being picked up very much off center by an adjustment of the height of the corresponding magazine 24.

The insertion tool will thus receive, from both sides, two types of strands or filaments in a suitable amount and regulated to a suitable height, and the tuft thus constituted by the meeting of the two feeds will be pushed into the mounting hole in the usual way, its attachment always being assured by a fastener, FIG. 1.

As already indicated, this mounting process for hair brushes applies to all types of mountings, both from the viewpoint of the shape of the mounting and its composition, wood, cut plastic, molded plastic, etc.

In regard to the strands, it is possible to use, for example, and without restrictive character, for the monostrand either a synthetic fiber such as nylon, for example, or very thick strands of very hard boar, but this latter only for very expensive brushes. The strands can be made up of a finer synthetic fiber, for example, a nylon with a very fine diameter or by various quality hog bristles, particularly, relatively cheap bristles.

Although the foregoing description is necessarily of a detailed character in order that the invention may be completely set forth, it is to be understood that the specific terminology is not intended to be restrictive or confining and that various rearrangements of parts and modifications of detail may be resorted to without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention as herein claimed.

Claims

What is claimed:

1. A hair brush having a solid rigid base member with a plurality of spaced recesses formed therein and extending partially therethrough, a plurality of mixed tufts of bristles, each tuft including a plurality of fine bristles and a single thick strand, said fine bristles being bent back upon themselves with the portion containing said bend being positioned upon the bottom of said recess in said base member, said single thick strand having an end portion bent back upon itself with the bent portion being positioned upon the bottom of said recess, and a fastener member engaging the bent portion of said thick strand and the bent portion of said fine bristles for securing same to the bottom of the recess in said base member.

2. A hair brush as set forth in claim 1 wherein, said single strand is longer than the fine bristles so as to project beyond the ends of said bristles.

3. A hair brush as set forth in claim 1 wherein the ends of said fine bristles are of substantially the same length.