Portable Hair Dryer

Abstract

An air heating and blowing unit is connected with an arched tube which is designed to be held in the hand and swept forwardly and rearwardly over the crown of the head with portions of the tube on either side of the head. The tube has a plurality of perforations in the inside curve of the arch which deliver an inverse fan-like array of jets of heated air toward the head. In one form the tube is connected with the heater and blower unit by a flexible hose. In another it is mounted on a hand held heater blower unit.

Description

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Portable hair dryers have been in existence for many years. Traditionally, in one form they have included bonnets made of fabric or other sheet material. The bonnet is fitted over the head and means are provided for introducing a supply of heated air to and through the interior of the bonnet so as to pick up moisture from and dry the hair.

More recently another form of instrument has come into use. This unit, rather than having a bonnet, is designed to be used for localized, or "spot," drying. This is a hand held unit and is ordinarily employed in conjunction with styling the hair, i.e., shaping it while at the same time drying to obtain a desired configuration. The hand held units of this type, of which I am aware produce a relatively small stream of heated air and are not ordinarily used for drying the entire hair mass, as for example, when the hair is completely done up or after washing.

The present invention is directed toward providing a non-bonnet type hair dryer having a flow directing and controlling component which is held in the hand of the user and manipulated to deliver the heated air to the head and has the capability of being used as a dryer for obtaining complete drying in a fraction of the time that would be required with known hand held units.

A further object of the invention is to provide a hair dryer in which the hand held component is quite easy to use in the sense of the lack of complexity of manual operations that are required to use it. A feature of the invention in this respect is that it is capable of directing and controlling the flow of heated air so that it is simultaneously delivered toward the sides of the head and over the crown while being held in one hand and in a comfortable position for the arm and holding hand.

A further advantage of the invention is that it provides a dryer in which the relative size of the portions of the controlled heated air stream at the sides and crown are such that the crown receives the greater volume of air per unit of time as compared with the sides. Stated another way, in my invention the flow of heated air delivered across the crown is sufficiently greater than that at the sides that the crown and sides are completely dried at approximately the same.

A still further feature and advantage of the invention is that it provides an arrangement which permits the use of a wide variety of blower and heater units, including stationary as well as portable and hand held units.

Other and further objects of the invention together with the features of novelty which are appurtenant therewith will appear in the course of the following description.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the accompanying drawing, which forms a part of the specification and is to be read in conjunction therewith, and in which like reference numerals indicate like parts in the various views;

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a preferred form of hair dryer according to my invention; and

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the hand held component of the dryer, parts being broken away and parts shown in sections for purposes of illustration.

In FIG. 1 I have shown a typical and preferred combination embodying my invention. It consists of the heating and blowing unit 10, an applicator 11 for directing heated air toward and into the hair, and a coupling means in the form of a flexible hose 12 for connecting the unit 10 with the applicator 11.

The heating and blowing unit 10 may be of any known design, such as those currently in use with bonnet type hair dryers. The details of the structure play no part in the present invention. It will be understood that it includes a blower and a heater and that the blower and heater combine to deliver a stream of heated air to a discharge outlet 10a for communication to the applicator 11. As an example of the satisfactory blower and heater unit, reference is made to the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,304,625, issued Feb. 21, 1967.

The applicator is in the form of an arched tube having an inner curved portion 11a. The curvature of the tube is made such that the tube has a center portion which is adapted to extend over the crown of the head with side portions adapted to come down on either side of the head. Preferably the inner curved portion 11a is flattened so as to provide a band-like surface. The tube may be made of any cross-section consistent with providing an air flow passage extending from the extreme end of the hand grip 11b to the closed tip 11c at the other end. For greatest efficiency the passageway should also taper in diminishing transverse dimensions from inlet to tip, as is generally shown in FIG. 2. The applicator can be made of any structural material, but I prefer a moldable plastic for reasons of weight and cleaniness.

The tube is provided with a hand grip 11b which is tubular and provides for passage of air longitudinally therethrough from the open end 11d thereof to the main portion of the tube.

The band like inner curve of portion 11a is preferably of uniform width along the length of the curve. The tube wall which is defined by such portion is provided with outlet means in the form of a plurality of perforations 12, the axes of which are normal to a tangent to the curve (at the inside wall of the band-like portion 11a of the tube). The perforations thus provide means of establishing inverse fan-like arrays of air jets which are focused generally toward the area bounded by the arched tube and, when in use, toward the head of the user. In the illustrated embodiment there are four lengthwise rows of perforations, the rows being substantially parallel. It is important to note also that over approximately the middle 40 to 50% of the length of the curved surface (the zone which has been identified by the reference numeral 13), the perforations are of greater diameter than those outside that zone. In my preferred unit the ratio of the diameters is 2 to 1, i.e. the perforations in zone 13 are twice the diameter of those outside it.

A specific example of a suitable arrangement is to provide perforations of 1/8 inch in diameter within zone 13 while those outside are 1/16 inch.

The purpose of the size control of the perforations is to assure that a greater amount of heated air per unit of time will be delivered to the crown of the head than at the sides. I have found that by proportioning the flow of heated air in this manner, the hair on the crown can be dried at substantially the same rate as at the sides.

The manner of use of the dryer should be fairly evident from the description and drawing. With the blower and heater unit 10 in the "on" condition, the applicator 11 is grasped in one hand and held so that the arched tube is generally centered over and transversly of the head. An array of jets of heated air in an inverse fan-like pattern will be delivered toward the head to circulate the heated air in and around the hair. The applicator can be swept forward and backward, thus to provide drying to the entire head. If there are portions of the head which dry faster than others the unit can be held longer on the yet undried portions. The dryer has the advantage also that it can be used for drying while permitting at the same time the employment of the other hand for manipulation of a styling implement, such as a comb. Also, it will be evident that the applicator may be shifted from the right to the left hand as is convenient.

While I have shown the dryer with a stationary heater and blower and flexible hose, it will be evident that the applicator 11 can also be mounted to the outlet of a portable hand held blower of any appropriate design which would in effect replace and become part of the hand grip 11b.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that this invention is one well adapted to attain all of the ends and objects hereinabove set forth together with other advantages which are obvious and which are inherent to the structure.

It will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and subcombinations.

As many possible embodiments may be made of the invention without departing from the scope thereof, it is to be understood that all matter herein set forth or shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Claims

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a portable hair dryer, the combination of

a combined blower and heater unit producing a confined stream of heated air at a discharge outlet,

an arched tube having an inlet end, a central portion, side portions extending oppositely from said central portion, said central portion and side portions of a combined length such that when the central portion is above the crown of the head of the user the side portions will extend down the opposite sides of the head, and a hand grip portion formed as a substantially linear continuation of one of said side portions and located between said one side portion and said inlet end, said hand grip portion providing means by which the user can support and manipulate said tube fore and aft, above and behind the head with the center portion generally centered with respect to the fore and aft center plane of the head,

an elongate flexible conduit connecting said inlet end of said tube with said discharge outlet,

said central and side portions of said tube provided with air outlet means along the inter curve thereof whereby to create an inverse fan-like array of forced, heated air which can be directed inwardly toward the crown and sides of the head of the user and moved fore and aft by fore and aft movement of said tube relative to the head of the user.

2. The combination as in claim 1,

said outlet means so constructed as to provide discharge of air at the central portion at a flow rate exceeding that at the side portions.

3. The combination as in claim 2,

said outlet means comprising a plurality of openings spaced along the inside curve of the tube with the openings in the central portion of greater cross sectional area than those of the side portions.