Epilation Head Rotating Cylinder Hair Guiding Device

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing epilation devices are inefficient in removing hairs from both thick and sparse hair growth areas, requiring excessive time and effort, and often cause discomfort due to the design of clamping elements that need to be opened and closed to pluck hairs.

Innovation Solution

The epilation head features a rotating cylinder with multiple plucking units, each comprising movable and stationary clamping elements that form closable plucking gaps, where the movable clamping units have associated hair guiding devices and are actuated by a single element to close both gaps in a continuous movement, allowing for efficient hair removal with reduced noise and increased compactness.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If multiple clamping elements are arranged on a rotation cylinder to increase epilation coverage, then the effectiveness of hair removal improves, but the device complexity and time required for operation increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveepilation efficiencyVSAvoidcontrol mechanism complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

Multiple clamping elements are combined into a single integrated rotation cylinder assembly, where all clamping elements rotate together as one unit. This merging approach allows multiple hairs to be plucked simultaneously while maintaining a relatively simple control mechanism that only needs to rotate the entire assembly rather than independently controlling each clamping element.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The rotation cylinder serves multiple functions: it holds multiple clamping elements, provides the rotational motion for plucking, and acts as the primary actuation mechanism. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate control mechanisms for each clamping element, thereby simplifying the overall device complexity while maintaining high productivity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Ease of operation

If clamping elements are designed to open and close in predetermined positions to pluck hairs, then the epilation function is achieved, but the device becomes bulky and operation time increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveoperation simplicityVSAvoidepilation head size
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSVolume of moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The clamping elements are pre-positioned on the rotation cylinder at optimal locations for hair capture. As the cylinder rotates, these pre-positioned clamping elements naturally encounter and grasp hairs without requiring complex real-time adjustment mechanisms, thereby simplifying operation and reducing the space needed for control components.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

Instead of having clamping elements actively open and close through complex mechanisms, the design allows the rotation motion itself to bring the clamping elements into contact with hairs, and the natural geometry of the clamping elements allows them to close on hairs through their own structural design rather than requiring separate actuation for each opening/closing cycle.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #13The other way round (Inversion)

3Productivity

If a single actuation element controls multiple clamping elements to close both gaps in continuous movement, then the operation time reduces, but the precision of hair capture may be compromised

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveplucking speedVSAvoidhair capture precision
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The rotation cylinder is segmented into multiple identical plucking units, each with its own clamping elements positioned at specific intervals. This segmentation allows each unit to operate independently while being driven by a single actuation element, maintaining precision through consistent geometric spacing while achieving high speed through continuous rotation and overlapping plucking cycles.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The single actuation element produces periodic rotation of the cylinder, creating a rhythmic sequence of hair capture events. The periodic nature of this motion, combined with the multiple clamping elements positioned at different angular positions, ensures that hairs are captured at precise intervals while maintaining high overall plucking speed through the continuous cyclic operation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #19Periodic action

Data Source

PatentEP2471403B1Novel tweezer head for epilation
Publication Date: 2018.07.04 BRAUN GMBH
  • EP2471403B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2471403B1 patent drawingFigure 2~3
  • EP2471403B1 patent drawingFigure 4~5

AI summary

The invention relates to an epilation head for an epilation device, in particular for plucking hair from human skin having a rotating cylinder (5) rotating around a rotational axis (20) having a number of plucking units for grasping and plucking out hair, wherein each plucking unit comprises a movable clamping unit (12), a stationary clamping unit (13), wherein the movable clamping unit (12) and the stationary clamping unit (13) form a closable plucking gap (16), characterized in that the movable clamping unit (12) has a hair guiding device (60) which is associated with the movable clamping unit (12).