Toothbrush Carrier Plate Molded to Support Plate
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing oral care implement manufacturing methods lack flexibility in combining different types of carriers with various handles, limiting the variety of brush designs and increasing production costs.
Innovation Solution
An oral care implement comprising a carrier plate with cleaning elements and a support plate, where the carrier plate is secured to the support plate using a molded plastic material, allowing for a non-detachable connection and enabling the combination of various carrier types with different handle designs in a cost-effective manner.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a fixed mold cavity process is used to injection mold the brush body around the bristle carrier, then the manufacturing process is simple, but the flexibility in combining different handle shapes with various toothbrush heads is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The toothbrush is divided into separate modular components: a handle, a neck, and a head with carrier plate. The neck serves as a standardized interface that can connect different handle configurations with various head designs. This segmentation allows independent manufacturing and assembly of different components, enabling high flexibility in product variation without requiring complete retooling of the manufacturing process.
2Ease of manufacture
If an intermediate layer of additional material component is provided between the bristle carrier and brush body for connection, then the bristle carrier can be connected to the brush body, but the shape of the bristle carrier has to fit into the bowl of the brush body, limiting flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The neck is designed as a universal connecting component with standardized geometry that can interface with both the handle and the head/carrier plate. This universal interface allows any carrier plate design to be connected to any handle configuration through the standardized neck, eliminating the need for custom-fit bowls for each carrier shape and enabling broad product variety.
3Adaptability or versatility
If various types of bristle carriers are combined with brush bodies, then product variety increases, but the manufacturing complexity and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The carrier plate and head are pre-assembled as a unit before final assembly with the handle via the neck. This preliminary assembly allows standardization of the head-carrier interface, so that only the neck needs to be manufactured in various configurations to achieve product variety. The pre-assembled head unit can be stored and later combined with different handle-neck assemblies, simplifying the overall manufacturing process while maintaining high product variety.
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 approach provides a high degree of flexibility in manufacturing, allowing for a wide range of oral care implement designs while reducing production costs by enabling separate production and later combination of carrier and support plates, resulting in improved cleaning performance and user comfort.
Implementation Method 1
a plastic material molded around at least a portion of the back side of the support plate and over at least a portion of the carrier plate to provide a non-detachable connection between the first and the second part
Data Source
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AI summary
An oral care implement comprises a first and a second part. The first part has a carrier plate having a back side and a front side opposite the back side, and at least one cleaning element extending from the front side. The second part has a support plate and at least a portion of a neck, the support plate having a front side and a back side opposite the front side. The back side of the carrier plate is secured to the front side of the support plate by means of a plastic material molded around at least a portion of the back side of the support plate and over at least a portion of the carrier plate to provide a non-detachable connection between the first and the second part.