Electric Toothbrush Brush Head with Thin Filaments
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electric toothbrush brush heads struggle to combine gentleness with effective cleaning, as soft brush heads often fail to provide adequate cleaning efficacy due to their design, leading to concerns about gum irritation and enamel abrasion.
Innovation Solution
A brush head design featuring tufts with thin filaments (140 μm to 102 μm in diameter) and increased tufting areas (at least 2.0 mm²) to balance gentleness and cleaning efficacy, along with elongated cross-sectional shapes and tapered filaments to enhance stability and cleaning performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If soft brush heads are used to provide gentle brushing, then gum irritation and enamel abrasion are reduced, but cleaning efficacy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by precisely controlling filament diameter within the range of 140-102 μm and tuft cross-sectional area to be at least 2.0 mm². This quantitative adjustment of physical parameters allows the brush to achieve both gentleness (through thin filaments) and cleaning efficacy (through large tuft area), resolving the contradiction between soft brushing and effective cleaning.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs composite material strategy by combining multiple filaments with specific diameter ranges into tufts with optimized cross-sectional areas. The composite structure of numerous thin filaments working together in a large tuft area creates a synergistic effect that provides both gentle individual filament interaction with teeth and sufficient collective cleaning power through the enlarged tuft footprint.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If thin filaments are used to provide gentle brushing, then gum irritation is reduced, but cleaning efficacy deteriorates due to low bending stiffness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple thin filaments into a single tuft structure with large cross-sectional area. By combining the gentle properties of individual thin filaments (140-102 μm diameter) with the collective strength of numerous filaments working together in a large tuft (≥2.0 mm² area), the design achieves both gum gentleness and cleaning efficacy that individual filaments could not provide alone.
3Productivity
If large tufting areas are used to improve cleaning efficacy, then cleaning performance is enhanced, but gentle brushing impression is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the tuft into numerous individual thin filaments (140-102 μm diameter) within the large cross-sectional area. This segmentation allows the tuft to maintain large area for cleaning efficacy while each individual filament remains thin enough to provide gentle brushing, preventing the large tuft from feeling harsh despite its size.
Data Source
AI summary
A brush head for an electric toothbrush comprises an attachable housing and a carrier having a mounting side and mounted for driven oscillatory rotational motion around a rotation axis that extends through a center point on the carrier's mounting side. Each of the tufts has a tufting area of at least about 2.0 mm2. Filaments in each of the tufts have a cross-sectional area perpendicular to their length extension direction that corresponds to a circular cross sectional area having a diameter in the range of between 140 μm and 102 μm, wherein the brush head comprises only tufts of the defined type.