Pivotable Heatable Plates for Hair Styling Appliance
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional hair styling appliances face challenges in maintaining even clamping force and preventing hair from escaping during the styling process, as they often require flexing arms and materials that can be difficult to manage, leading to inefficiencies and limited construction options.
Innovation Solution
The hair styling apparatus features pivotable heatable plates that move in a 'seesaw' action, reducing pressure differential and stress on ceramic heaters, allowing for easier use and increased construction flexibility, with a plate pivot configuration that ensures plates abut at the end furthest from the arm coupling, preventing hair escape and maintaining thermal contact.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional hair styling appliances use fixed heatable plates, then the structure is simple, but hair may be pushed off the end of the plates during clamping, requiring repeated reclamping and increasing styling time
Solution Approach 1:
The heatable plate is made dynamically adjustable through a pivot mechanism that allows it to rotate about a pivot point. This enables the plate to change its angle and position during operation, allowing the endpoints to be angled toward each other to prevent hair escape while maintaining the ability to clamp flat when needed.
2Reliability
If the arms are arranged at an angle to prevent hair escape, then hair security is improved, but the plates may not maintain even clamping force across the hair section
Solution Approach 1:
The pivotable plate allows dynamic adjustment of the plate angle during clamping. The plate can be positioned at an angle to prevent hair escape, then adjusted during clamping to maintain even contact and uniform clamping force across the entire hair section being styled.
3Reliability
If ceramic heaters are coupled to the underside of fixed plates, then thermal control is optimized, but the heaters are under stress and prone to cracking, reducing appliance lifetime
Solution Approach 1:
By making the plate pivotable rather than fixed, the system reduces stress concentration on the ceramic heater. The pivot mechanism allows the plate to rotate and adjust, preventing the buildup of excessive stress that would otherwise cause the brittle ceramic heater to crack, thereby extending appliance lifetime.
4Manufacturing precision
If users apply squeezing pressure to flex the arms for realignment, then plate alignment with hair is improved, but the required force is difficult to sustain and limits material choices
Solution Approach 1:
The pivotable plate provides automatic alignment through its rotational degree of freedom. As the plate pivots during clamping, it naturally aligns with the hair section being styled, eliminating the need for users to apply and sustain squeezing pressure to flex the arms for alignment.
5Manufacturing precision
If the plates are made rigid to maintain shape, then styling precision is improved, but the construction options are limited and the structure cannot adapt to different hair sections
Solution Approach 1:
The pivotable plate combines rigidity for maintaining shape during styling with rotational flexibility for adaptation. The plate remains rigid in its local form to ensure precise styling, but can rotate about the pivot to adapt to different hair sections and angles, expanding construction options.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design reduces the force required for styling, increases the lifespan of ceramic heaters, and provides a more secure clamping mechanism, preventing hair from falling off and ensuring consistent thermal contact for efficient styling.
Implementation Method 1
hair is clamped between the hot heatable plates and then pulled under tension through the plates so as to mould it into a straightened form
Implementation Method 2
Ceramic heaters, in particular those with a pure resistive profile enable optimisation of the thermal control loop, thus allowing the plates in contact with hair to remain near transition temperature during styling
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3a~3c
Figure 4~5
AI summary
The invention relates to hair styling apparatus. A hair styling apparatus comprises a first and a second arm each comprising a heatable plate and arm member. The first and second arms are moveable between a closed position in which the heatable plate of the first arm is adjacent the heatable plate of the second arm and an open position in which the heatable plates of each arm are spaced apart. The heatable plate of at least one of the arms is coupled to a respective arm member about a pivot arranged to allow the heatable plate to move relative to the respective arm member about an axis transverse to the length of said respective arm member such that the plate pivots.