Ribbed Elastomeric Oral Care Bristles for Enhanced Cleaning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional toothbrushes with injection molded bristles have fewer contact points due to larger bristle size, resulting in reduced effectiveness in cleaning teeth and oral surfaces compared to traditional filament bristles.
Innovation Solution
An oral care implement with a monolithic cleaning unit featuring a base portion and a plurality of bristles, where at least one bristle has a body with an outer surface and a longitudinally elongated or helical rib, providing increased contact points for cleaning, and is formed from an elastomeric material via injection molding.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If injection molded bristles are used, then manufacturing efficiency is improved, but the number of contact points is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The bristle surface is segmented into multiple longitudinal ribs, creating multiple contact edges along each bristle. This segmentation increases the number of contact points without requiring a proportional increase in the number of bristles, thus maintaining manufacturing efficiency while improving cleaning effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from considering only the数量 of bristles to utilizing the surface dimension of each bristle. By adding longitudinal ribs to the bristle surface, the contact points are increased along the length of each bristle, effectively using the longitudinal dimension to compensate for the reduced number of bristles.
2Device complexity
If fewer larger bristles are used, then device complexity is reduced, but cleaning effectiveness is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the bristle surface are given different functional qualities through the addition of longitudinal ribs. The ribs create localized contact edges that enhance cleaning action, while the spaces between ribs allow for flexibility and adaptation to different tooth surfaces, thus improving cleaning effectiveness without significantly increasing overall device complexity.
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
The design increases the number of contact points on the toothbrush head, enhancing cleaning effectiveness while maintaining a comfortable fit in the mouth, even with fewer bristles, by utilizing elastomeric material and ribbed bristles for improved surface interaction.
Implementation Method 1
The monolithic cleaning unit may be formed of an elastomeric material
Data Source
AI summary
An oral care implement that includes a handle and a head. The head may include a support structure and a monolithic cleaning unit coupled thereto. The monolithic cleaning unit may include a base portion coupled to the support structure and a plurality of bristles extending therefrom. At least one, or each, of the plurality of bristles may comprise a body having an outer surface and a rib extending from the outer surface. The rib may be longitudinally elongated in some embodiments and it may be helical in other embodiments. Furthermore, there may be more than one rib extending from the outer surface of the body. The monolithic cleaning unit may be formed of an elastomeric material.