Oral care implement
AssigneeColgate-Palmolive Company
InventorsAndreas Wechsler, Robert Moskovich
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An oral care implement having a head that achieves an enhanced cleaning action during brushing. In one embodiment, the invention can be an oral care implement having a handle extending from a proximal end to a distal end and a head having a front surface and an opposite rear surface. The head includes a cantilever extending from the distal end of the handle, a rigid plate that is spaced from the cantilever, and a resilient material that fills in the space between the cantilever and the rigid plate. The resilient material may be in direct contact with an entirety of a front surface of the cantilever and an entirety of a rear surface of the rigid plate. Furthermore, the cantilever, the rigid plate, and the resilient material may collectively form an exposed side surface of the head.
Claims19
An oral care implement comprising:
- a handle extending along a longitudinal axis from a proximal end to a distal end;
- and
- a head having a front surface and an opposite rear surface, the head comprising:
- a cantilever connected to and extending longitudinally from the distal end of the handle, the cantilever having a front surface, a rear surface, and a distal end;
- a rigid plate having a front surface, a rear surface, a first portion, a second portion, and a distal end, the rear surface of the rigid plate spaced from the front surface of the cantilever by a gap, and the distal end of the rigid plate spaced away from the distal end of the handle along the longitudinal axis;
- and
- a resilient material in the gap flexibly coupling the rigid plate to the cantilever, the resilient material covering, via direct surface contact, an entirety of the rear surface of the rigid plate and an entirety of the front surface of the cantilever;
- wherein the first portion of the rigid plate extends longitudinally beyond the distal end of the cantilever and the second portion of the rigid plate overlaps the cantilever, the resilient material extending from the distal end of the cantilever to the distal end of the rigid plate.
An oral care implement comprising:
- a handle extending along a longitudinal axis from a proximal end to a distal end;
- a head having an exposed front surface, an exposed rear surface, and an exposed side surface extending between the exposed front and rear surfaces, the head comprising:
- a cantilever connected to and extending longitudinally from the distal end of the handle;
- a rigid plate that is entirely spaced apart from the cantilever, the rigid plate, the cantilever, and the resilient material all intersecting a transverse axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis;
- a resilient material flexibly coupling the rigid plate to the cantilever;
- and
- a pivot structure positioned between the rigid plate and the cantilever, the resilient material encasing the pivot structure;
- wherein the cantilever, the rigid plate, and the resilient material collectively form the exposed side surface of the head.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.