JPH0819427A - Electrically driven tooth brush - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a user to make it a rule to do tooth polishing customarily by providing an electrically driven tooth brush which enables the user to polish the teeth with pleasant. CONSTITUTION:A battery 3, a luminous body 4, a driving motor 5 and a motion converter 7 are built in a case 1 successively from its end. The front end of this motion converter 17 is provided with a tooth brush body 17 via a driving shaft and the rotation of the driving motor 5 is converted to the tooth brushing action of this tooth brush body 17 by the motion converter 7. From part of the battery 3 to the part where the motion converter 17 is housed are formed transparent or translucent and, therefore, the flickering of the luminous body 4 and the rotating state of the motion converter 17 are observable from outside.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electric toothbrush.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various electric toothbrushes have been proposed. In a general configuration, a battery is housed in the base of a cylindrical case, a drive motor is provided next to the base, and a motion conversion device that converts the rotation of the motor into a brushing operation is provided thereon. A brush body having brush bristles planted at its tip is connected to the motion converting device via a drive shaft (for example, JP-A-61-64204). The rotation of the drive motor is converted into a toothbrushing motion of the toothbrush by the motion conversion device, and the toothbrush body is driven via the drive shaft.

[0003]

By the way, it is needless to say that the importance of teeth for maintaining human health is not discussed, and the importance of brushing teeth is also not discussed. Therefore, it is said that enforcing tooth brushing is indispensable for dental health, and to develop a regular tooth brushing habit from early childhood. However, actually, brushing the teeth several times a day is troublesome, and it has an element that is one of the dislikes especially for infants. If an electric toothbrush is used for toothbrushing, even if there are differences depending on the model, it will be possible to efficiently clean the teeth and ease the toothbrushing, so it is expected that toothbrushing will be somewhat alleviated. .

However, although the use of an electric toothbrush has made it convenient in terms of toothbrushing efficiency, it has been removed from the image that a toothbrush that has been moved manually by hand has only been electrically driven. There is a surface that can not be cut off. Therefore, there is a shortage of things that provide fun to brushing teeth, and lack of motivation for brushing habits, and adults and infants have not learned to brush their teeth. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an electric toothbrush that makes it possible to cultivate a toothbrushing habit by making the inside of the electric toothbrush visible and blinking the light emitter to provide visual pleasure during toothbrushing. is there.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a drive motor built in a case, a toothbrush body mounted on a drive shaft provided at one end of the case, In an electric toothbrush provided with a motion conversion device that converts the rotational motion of the drive motor into motion for the toothbrush to brush the teeth and transmits the motion to the drive shaft, the case includes at least a portion of the motion conversion device. The front surface is transparent or translucent. In addition, a blinking light emitting body may be provided inside the transparent or semitransparent case.

[0006]

Since the front surface of at least the portion in which the motion converting device is housed is made transparent or translucent, the structure of the motion converting device can be seen from the outside. Further, by providing a blinking light-emitting body inside the transparent or semi-transparent case, the blinking of the light-emitting body can be observed as the motion converting device moves.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 2, the interior of the cylindrical case 1 includes a battery storage chamber 1a, a motor storage chamber 1b,
It is divided into four chambers, a motion conversion device storage chamber 1c and a connecting portion storage chamber 1d. A battery box 1 formed integrally with a frame (machine frame) 6 is provided in the battery storage chamber 1a located at the lower end (left side in FIG. 1), and the AAA battery 3 is contained therein.
Is attached. Two light emitting diodes (LEDs) 4 and 4 forming a light emitting body are provided at one end of the battery box 2 provided with a minus contact piece (not shown). A DC drive motor 5 is mounted in the motor housing chamber 1b, and a terminal portion 5a provided at one end of the drive motor is brought into contact with a terminal portion provided at an end portion of the battery box 2 for electrical conduction. (See FIG. 3).

A frame 6 is provided in the motion converting device storage chamber 1c.
The motion conversion device 7 is accommodated via the. The motion conversion device 7 includes a bevel gear 8 that meshes with a drive pinion 5b of the motor.
And a gear train including a pinion 8a that rotates integrally with the bevel gear and a cam drive gear 9 that meshes with the pinion. The cam drive gear 9 is supported by a support shaft 10 supported by the frame 6, and an eccentric cam 11 is provided via the support shaft 10 so as to be rotatable integrally with the cam drive gear 9. The eccentric cam 11 is located in a window 12a provided in the antinode of the daruma-shaped cam follower 12. When the eccentric cam rotates, the cam follower 12 reciprocates in the frame 6. . Cam follower 1
The drive shaft 14 is connected to the second head portion 12b through the joint 13.
One end of is connected. The drive shaft 14 is supported by a pair of sleeves 15, 15 mounted on the frame 6 so as to be capable of reciprocating movement, and the other end of the drive shaft 14 projects to the other end of the case 1 via the connecting part storage chamber 1d. The other end of the frame 6 is covered with a rubber cap 16 for waterproofing.

The other end 14a of the drive shaft 14 is formed in a polygonal shape, and an uneven portion 14b is formed at a position slightly inward from the other end of the case 1. This drive shaft 1
A toothbrush body 17 having brush bristles 17a planted at one end is attached to the No. 4 blade. The toothbrush body 17 is detachably attached to the drive shaft 14 via the tip portion 14a and the uneven portion 14b of the drive shaft. As shown in FIG. 1, the case 1 is covered with a small lid 18 for a battery chamber, and the range covering a part of the battery chamber 1a to the entire motion conversion device chamber 1c is transparent.

The transparent portion 19 of the case 1
Is sized to cover a part of the battery chamber 1a to the entire motion conversion device chamber 1c. The transparent portion 19 is made of a plastic molded product such as acrylic, and is engaged with the opaque portion of the case 1 at several places to be integrated with each other to form the case 1. The transparent portion 19 of the case 1 allows a part of the battery 3, the light emitting body 4, the motor 5 and the motion converting device 7 to be seen from the outside.

An operation switch 20 for starting and stopping the motor 5 is provided on the front surface of the transparent part 19 where the drive shaft 14 is located. In this embodiment, when the switch 20 is turned on, the motor 5 is started, and the toothbrush body 17 is moved via the movement conversion device 7 for brushing teeth. At the same time, by blinking the light-emitting body 4, it is possible to give some kind of interest to the person who is brushing teeth, in combination with being able to observe the movement of the internal mechanical section. The blinking operation of the light emitting body 4 is performed by a circuit as shown in FIG. 3, for example. That is, the power source (battery 3), the motor drive block 21 and the LED control block 22 are connected in parallel, and the two LED 4 and 4 which are light emitters are connected to the LED control block 22. The LED 4 is set by the LED control block 22 to blink at regular intervals.

In the present embodiment, the part from the battery storage chamber 1a to the motion converting device chamber 1c is the transparent portion 19.
The range may be such that at least the front surface of the portion accommodating the motion conversion device is transparent, and the other portions may be arbitrarily designed. Further, the transparent portion may be a semi-transparent portion in which a dye such as light blue or pink is added to allow the user to select a desired color. Further, the internal configuration of the motion conversion device or the like is not limited to the above, and may have various functions. Furthermore, the light-emitting body is also provided adjacent to the battery chamber in this embodiment, but the setting place may be changed to another position,
The emission color can be appropriately selected such as red, green, and blue. Although the LED is used as the light emitting body, the light emitting body is not limited to this, and other light emitting bodies such as a miniature bulb may be used. Regarding the blinking method of the light emitting body, it has a function as an operation timer, displays the voltage of the battery, or blinks blue if the pressing pressure of the toothbrush body is proper while brushing teeth, and if it is too strong. Can also function as a sensor, such as blinking red. In addition, when the toothbrush body has a function of reciprocating motion as well as motion such as rolling, various measures can be taken such as emitting different colors for each motion.

[0013]

According to the present invention, since the case of the electric toothbrush is transparent or translucent over a predetermined range, it is possible to observe the blinking state of the internal mechanism and the light emitter from the outside. Because of this, not only infants but also adults can brush their teeth while observing the movement of the internal mechanism, which adds to the fun of brushing teeth and encourages them to practice brushing their teeth without being distracted. be able to. By providing a light-emitting body inside a case that is transparent or semi-transparent, it is possible to add to the fun of light emission.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a circuit block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 case 4 luminous body 5 drive motor 7 motion conversion device 17 toothbrush body 19 transparent or translucent part

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A drive motor incorporated in a case, a toothbrush body mounted on a drive shaft provided at one end of the case, and a rotational movement of the drive motor for the toothbrush body to brush the tooth. In the electric toothbrush including a motion conversion device that converts the motion into the motion and transmits the motion to the drive shaft, at least a front surface of a portion in which the motion conversion device is housed in the case is transparent or translucent. An electric toothbrush characterized by that. 2. The electric toothbrush according to claim 1, wherein a blinking luminous body is provided inside the transparent or translucent case.