U.S. patent number 3,889,693 [Application Number 05/333,320] was granted by the patent office on 1975-06-17 for electric hair dryer with spray.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.. Invention is credited to Seiichro Shiba, Hisayuki Tanaka, Yukio Wada.
United States Patent |
3,889,693 |
Tanaka , et al. |
June 17, 1975 |
Electric hair dryer with spray
Abstract
An electric hair dryer having a hair moistening spray means of
which hot-air outlet and water spray nozzle are proximate and air
blowing and water spray directions are substantially coincided is
provided. Water spray unit is separately assembled from dryer unit
and mounted adjacent the hot-air outlet so that operating means for
the spray will be disposed adjacent control means in the dryer unit
for allowing one-hand operation. Water tank for supplying water to
the spray unit is detachably mounted to the spray unit through a
water-tight sealing means.
Inventors: |
Tanaka; Hisayuki (Hikone,
JA), Wada; Yukio (Hikone, JA), Shiba;
Seiichro (Hikone, JA) |
Assignee: |
Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.
(JA)
|
Family
ID: |
26357669 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/333,320 |
Filed: |
February 16, 1973 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
|
|
|
|
|
Feb 19, 1972 [JA] |
|
|
47-20694 |
Feb 19, 1972 [JA] |
|
|
47-20695 |
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
132/272;
D28/13 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A45D
20/10 (20130101); A45D 20/00 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A45D
20/10 (20060101); A45D 20/00 (20060101); A45d
001/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;132/9,11,148,118 ;34/97
;239/357 ;222/130,193 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: McNeill; G. E.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Wolfe, Hubbard, Leydig, Voit &
Osann, Ltd.
Claims
What we claim is:
1. An electric hair dryer apparatus comprising:
a dryer unit including a pistol shaped body having a barrel portion
and a handle portion disposed at an angle to said barrel portion,
said body consisting of two half members that are separable from
each other along a longitudinal plane of said body, said body
having an air inlet and a hot-air outlet with said hot-air outlet
being at the end of said barrel, an air blowing fan and a motor for
driving said fan both contained within said body, an electric
heater means mounted adjacent said hot-air outlet, trigger means on
said handle portion for operating said fan motor and heater to
effect the discharge of hot air from said outlet,
a spray unit having a pistol like configuration, said spray unit
including a fluid reservoir tank, pump means and a spray nozzle
disposed above said tank and respectively forming a barrel portion
of said configuration, lever means for operating said pump means to
cause fluid in the tank to be discharged from said nozzle and
forming a handle portion of said configuration,
a mouthpiece removably coupling the barrel portions of said spray
and dryer units with the barrel and handle portions of said spray
unit in closely adjacent relation to the respective barrel and
handle portions of said dryer unit, said spray unit lever means
being located immediately adjacent said dryer unit trigger means,
said lever means and trigger means being on a common side of said
dryer unit handle portion, said sprayer unit nozzle and dryer unit
outlet causing fluid spray and hot air respectively to be emitted
from said apparatus in a common direction, and
said dryer unit body being formed with a pawl for resiliently
engaging and supporting said reservoir tank in operative relation
below said spray unit nozzle and pump means, and said tank being
selectively removeable from said spray unit without uncoupling said
dryer unit and said spray unit from said mouthpiece.
Description
This invention relates to electric hair dryers having a spray for
moistening hairs.
In conventional hair dryers with the spray of this kind, water
straying nozzle and hot air outlet are disposed so as not to
proximate to each other and, unless the dryer device is removed at
each time of moistening and drying, spray applying position and hot
air applying position on the user's hair cannot be coincided and
thereby the use is caused to be inconvenient. Further, required
changeover of the dryer's use between the water spraying and the
hair drying can be enabled only when the user re-holds the device
to gain access to one of spray actuating lever and dryer actuating
lever on the like in stead of the other. Therefore, the dryers of
the ring referred to have been inconvenient in that the hot air
drying operation has had to be performed after the user once
changed his holding posture of the device subsequent to initially
performed hair moistening operation by means of the water
spray.
The present invention is suggested to eliminate the above mentioned
defects of the conventional devices.
A principal object of the present invention is therefore to provide
an electric hair dryer having a water spray, wherein a spray unit
including a spray nozzle disposed horizontally in general in the
upper part is provided fixedly substantially below the hot air
outlet so that the hot air outlet and spray outlet are so to be
adjacent to each other in the same direction so as to render the
hair dryer to be very convenient in the practical use.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hair dryer
having the spray wherein the spray operating handle or lever and
dryer operating lever or button are disposed to proximate relation
to each other so that the dryer can be operated with one hand and
the hair style setting can be performed without removing the dryer
device with respect to desired hair portion.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a hair
dryer having the spray means wherein a spray unit is made to be a
block independent of the dryer unit so as to be easy to assemble
and to be particularly easy to have the quality guaranteed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hair dryer
having the spray wherein the waterproof structure of the spray
part, in particular water tank, is perfect.
Other objects and effects of the present invention will be able to
be easily understood from the description detailed in the following
with reference to accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment as assembled of the
hair dryer having a water spray according to the present
invention;
FIG. 2 is a side elevation showing arrangement of component parts
within the hair dryer of FIG. 1 with one half body cover
removed;
FIG. 3 is a vertically sectioned view of water spray unit in the
dryer of FIG. 1 in an enlarged scale to show its structure;
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of water tank in the spray unit of
FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the spray unit as disassembled into
main parts with the water tank removed; and
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the hair dryer of FIG. 1 as
disassembled.
Referring to FIG. 1, A is a spray unit, 12 is a spray nozzle, 19 is
a mouthpiece of hot-air outlet, 27 is one half of dryer unit cover,
16 is a spray operating lever and 35 is a hair dryer operating
button.
In FIG. 2 showing the arrangement of component parts within the
dryer unit with the one half cover member 27 removed, A is the
spray unit, 19 is the mouthpiece, 28 is the other one half cover
member, 31 is a heater, 33 is a motor, 32 is a fan, 44 is a
selenium rectifier, 34 is a switch unit, 35 is the operating button
for the switch, 16 is the spray operating lever, 45 is a bushing
and 46 is a power source cord.
Referring now to FIG. 3, a cylindrical projection 2 is provided to
project downward at right angles to the lengthwise axis direction
from a spray cylinder 1 and the cyliner 1 and the interior of the
projection 2 communicate with each other. 3 is an O-ring preferably
made of a resilient material and fitted in a groove made
circumferentially outside the lower part of the projection 2, and 4
is a water tank which is preferably made of a synthetic resin, in
which a cylindrical projection 5 is formed so as to project inward
from the upper surface as preferably tapered to have gradually
reduced diameter so that the O-ring 3 will be pressed against inner
periphery of the projection 5 of the water tank to perform close
contact therewith. Further, a groove 6 is made vertically, as shown
in FIG. 4, on the outside surface of one side wall of the water
tank 4 and an outward tapered engaging step 7 is made in the upper
part of said groove 6. 18 is an orifice for a pipe to take air into
the water tank.
A holding frame 8 is formed integrally with the cylinder 1 in the
rear part of it and is arranged substantially at right angles with
the axis of the cylinder 1. A resilient pawl 9 is provided
substantially in the middle of said holding frame 8, which is
formed integrally at the lower part thereof with the holding frame
8 and resiliently projects at the tip on the water tank 4 side. 10
is a suction tube having a check valve 11 and has the upper outside
wall pressed and tightly fixed in the projection 2 of the cylinder
1.
In fitting the water tank 4 to the cylinder 1, the water tank 4 is
pushed up along the holding frame 8, then the water tank 4 will
move upward as guided by the pawl 9 integral with the holding frame
while the groove 6 of the water tank is engaged with said pawl 9
and the cylindrical projection 5 of the water tank will be fitted
onto the projection 2 of the cylinder so that the O-ring 3 will be
tightly in close contact with the inside wall of the cylindrical
projection 5 of the water tank, the pawl 9 of the holding frame
will resiliently receive the step 7 of the groove 6 of the water
tank and thus the water tank 4 will be held by the cylinder 1.
In removing the water tank 4 from the cylinder 1 for supplying
water, the water tank 4 should be pulled down as held on both
sides. The pawl 9 will then resiliently retreat to the side of the
holding frame 8 by being pushed by the step 7 in the upper part so
that the engagement of the pawl 9 with the groove 6 will become
loose and, therefore, when the tank 4 is further pulled down, the
cylindrical projection 5 of the water tank will come off the
projection 2 of the cylinder 1.
12 is a nozzle fitted to the head of the cylinder 1. 13 is a spring
fitted in the cylinder, 14 is a piston, 15 is a packing which is
slidable within the cylinder, and 16 is an operating lever for the
spray rotatably fitted to a supporting wall 17 provided to the
holding frame 8. A bent part at the tip of this operating lever 16
is engaged with exposed rear end of the piston 14. The spray unit A
is formed as described above.
Referring next to FIG. 5, 19 is a substantially cylindrically
formed mouthpiece provided with a hot air outlet 20 in the front
upper part. The mouthpiece 19 has a downwardly extending sleeve
plate 22 integrally formed in the lower part of a rear opening 21
and a substantially horseshoe-shaped cylinder embracing part 23
formed in the upper bent part of the sleeve plate 22, so that the
cylinder 1 will be inserted and fitted in this embracing part 23. A
vertical through hole 24 provided in the middle of the sleeve plate
22 communicates with a slit 25 in the lower part of the embracing
part 23. The spray unit A is mounted to the dryer body as
preliminarily fitted to the mounth piece 19.
In fitting the spray unit A to the mouthpiece 19, the cylinder 1 is
inserted into the embracing part 23, so that the nozzle 12 will
project slightly out of the front surface of the mouthpiece 19. At
the same time, the projection 2 and suction tube 10 of the cylinder
1 are passed through the vertical through hole 24 in the sleeve
plate 24 so as to be exposed out of front surface of the plate and,
on the other hand, the holding frame 8 formed integrally with the
cylinder will be received in the rear space of the sleeve plate 22.
In this position, the sleeve plate 22 and holding frame 8 are fixed
together by means of screws 26.
In FIG. 6 showing the entire apparatus as disassembled, a partition
wall 29 is provided to project in each of the two-split halves 27
and 28 of the dryer body cover so that, in case the two half cover
members 27 and 28 are overlapped together, a space to contain the
rear part of the spray unit A, in particular the operating lever
16, will be formed in the front lower part of the cover. The heater
block 31 is disposed inside a wind tunnel 30 of the cover member 28
and a blower fan 32 is contained in a blowing chamber disposed
inside the tunnel 30 as secured to rotary shaft of the motor 33
fixed in the chamber inside an air intake port of the cover member
28. Screws 41 are to fix the two cover members 27 and 28
together.
In mounting the spray unit A which is already integral with the
mouthpiece 19 to the front surface of the cover members 27 and 28
thus assembled, the operating lever 16 is inserted at its downward
tip through an opening 37 provided on the front surface of the
assembly of the cover members 27 and 28, a projection 38 provided
on the front surface of the cover members 27 and 28 (see FIG. 2) is
fitted in a resess 39 provided on the inside wall of the mouthpiece
19 (see FIG. 3) and the sleeve plate 22 of the mouthpiece 19 is
fixed to the front surface of the assembled cover members 27 and 28
by means of screws 40.
The way of using the hair dryer of the present invention shall be
explained in the following. When the push-button 35 is pushed, the
motor will rotate and hot air will come out through the outlet 20.
Then, keeping water in the water tank 4, the operating lever 16 is
pulled, the tip of the operating lever will push the piston 14 and
further the packing 15, so that the pressure in the cylinder 1 will
rise. Therefore, the water contained in the cylinder will be jetted
as a spray out of the nozzle 12 at the tip of the cylinder. When
the operating lever 16 is released, it will return due to the force
of the spring 13 and a negative pressure will be produced within
the cylinder 1 and will suck up water in the tank through the
suction tube 10. The ball 11 in the suction tube will act as a chek
valve. When water jetted out in the form of a spray as above is
blown onto the user's hair and then the hot air is applied to the
hair by operating the dryer button 35, the hair will be reset as
moistened with the water spray and, at the same time, will be dried
with the hot air so that the hair style setting will be performed
much easier by the hair dryer according to the present
invention.
* * * * *