# US 10,500,743 B2 · Electric shaver > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,500,743 B2 - Document ID: US10500743B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 15/718,397 - Filed: 2017-09-28 - Published: 2018-03-29 - Granted: 2019-12-10 - Earliest claimed: 2016-09-28 - Assignees: Braun GmbH - Applicants: Braun GmbH - Inventors: Joachim Krauss; Johannes Stimpel; Wolfgang Stegmann - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10500743B2 ## CPC - B26B 19/3846: {Blades; Cutters (B26B19/044, B26B19/141 take precedence)} - B26B 19/04: Cutting heads therefor; Cutters therefor; Securing equipment thereof - B26B 19/046: {Cutters being movable in the cutting head} - B26B 19/048: {Complete cutting head being movable} - B26B 19/38: Details of, or accessories for, hair clippers, or dry shavers, e.g. housings, casings, grips, guards (cutters, cutting heads B26B19/04, B26B19/12, B26B19/14; cleaning or disinfecting devices A45D27/46; drying devices A45D27/48; casings for electric apparatus in general H05K) - B26B 19/382: {Built-in accessories} - B26B 19/3853: {Housing or handle} - B26B 19/3866: {Seals or dampers} - B26B 19/282: {Motors without a rotating central drive shaft, e.g. linear motors} - B26B: HAND-HELD CUTTING TOOLS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR (for harvesting A01D; for horticulture, for forestry A01G; for butchering or meat treatment A22; for manufactering or repairing footwear A43D; nail clippers or cutters A45D29/02; kitchen equipment A47J; {vegetable slicers, julienne cutters and similar devices and holders therefor, B26D3/28}; for surgical purposes A61B; for metal B23D; cutting by abrasive fluid jets B24C5/02; plier-like tools with cutting edges B25B7/22; pincers B25C11/02; handles for hand implements, in general B25G; guillotine-type cutters B26D; {perforating by non-mechanical means, e.g. by fluid jet, B26F1/26}; for erasing B43L19/00; for textile materials D06H) ## Abstract The present invention generally relates to cleaning and washing shavers with water or other fluids. More particularly, the present invention relates to electric shavers having a shaver head and at least one rinse opening for rinsing water through the interior of said shaver head. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An electric shaver comprising a handle portion, a shaver head supported by said handle portion and including at least one drivable cutter element, wherein said shaver head comprises an interior of said shaver head, and at least one rinse opening for rinsing water or other fluids through said interior of said shaver head, said electric shaver further comprising a first automatic valve and a second automatic valve, said automatic valves are configured to be controlled such that in a first mode of operation one of said valves is opened and the other valve is closed to achieve one-way washing in said interior of said shaver head, and in a second mode of operation both of said valves are opened at the same time to achieve through-flow with water or fluid entering into said interior of said shaver head, wherein at least one of said first and second automatic valves is adapted to automatically open said at least one rinse opening with said interior of said shaver head when a predetermined velocity and/or predetermined volume of rinsing fluid in said at least one rinse opening is reached and/or exceeded. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The electric shaver according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said first and second automatic valves includes an elastic flap that elastically opens under pressure in the rinse opening and closes automatically in the absence of such pressure. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The electric shaver according to claim 1, wherein said at least one of said first and second automatic valves is positioned spaced away from an outermost portion of said at least one rinse opening wherein said outermost portion of said at least one rinse opening is always open. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The electric shaver according to claim 1, wherein said rinse opening forms a funnel-like inlet channel having a horn- or funnel-shaped contour with a cross-section continuously expanding towards the ambience of said shaver. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The electric shaver according to claim 1, wherein said shaver head has a functional face to be contacted with the skin to be shaved, a pair of oblong side faces neighboring said functional face and a pair of small side faces neighboring said functional face and said oblong side faces, wherein said at least one rinse opening opens toward one of said small side faces. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The electric shaver according to claim 1, wherein said at least one rinse opening has a longitudinal axis extending transverse to a longitudinal axis of said handle portion and extending substantially parallel to a drive axis of the cutter element. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The electric shaver according to claim 1, wherein said at least one rinse opening opens towards a neck portion of said shaver between said handle portion and said shaver head and towards one of a pair of small side faces of the handle neighboring a pair of large side faces of said handle, wherein said shaver head is positioned spaced apart from said handle portion with a gap defined between a bottom surface of the shaver head and a top surface of said handle portion, wherein said gap is bridged by a support structure for connecting the shaver head to said handle and a transmitter for driving said at least one cutter element, wherein said support structure and transmitter form a neck having a cross-section which is considerably smaller than said shaver head's cross-section in a plane transverse to said handle's longitudinal axis. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The electric shaver according to claim 1, wherein said at least one rinse opening has a smooth contour free of steps and free of undercuts, and a rounded or circular or elliptical or oval cross-sectional shape. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The electric shaver according to claim 1, wherein said at least one rinse opening has a cross-sectional contour the shape of which is the same in different cross-sections and the size of which is different in different cross-sections and the size of the cross-sections is the smaller the deeper inside the rinse opening the cross-section is taken. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The electric shaver according to claim 1, wherein said horn- or funnel-shaped contour includes a larger cross-section having a cross-sectional area of at least about 125% of the cross-sectional area of a smaller cross-section of said horn- or funnel-shaped contour and wherein a length of said horn- or funnel-shaped contour measured in the direction of flow through said rinse opening, is more than about 50% of a diameter of said larger cross-section of said horn- or funnel-shaped contour. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The electric shaver according to claim 1, wherein another of said at least one rinse opening is are provided on opposite sides of said shaver, wherein said pair of rinse openings are connected to each other via a connection channel allowing at least a portion of the rinsing fluid coming in from said one or another of said at least one rinse opening is to be drained via the other one of said rinse openings, wherein each of said rinse openings is connectable to said shaver head's interior to rinse water into said shaver head's interior from each of said rinse openings, wherein said pair of rinse openings and said connection channel, at least in one longitudinal cross-section, together define an hourglass-shaped contour with a necked section formed at least in part by said connection channel, wherein at least one rinse channel is branched off from said necked section to extend towards the cutter element and into the interior of the shaver head. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The electric shaver according to claim 1, wherein said pair of rinse openings and said connection channel together form a sight corridor through said shaver from one side thereof to the opposite side thereof. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The electric shaver according to claim 1, further comprising at least one flow-guiding projection for redirecting rinsing fluid flowing in said rinse opening along the longitudinal axis thereof into the interior of the shaver head towards the cutter element. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The electric shaver according to claim 13, wherein said at least one flow-guiding projection has a ramp-shaped contour extending at an acute angle relative to the longitudinal axis of said rinse opening and includes a shovel-like nose extending from a downstream side of a communication opening into said rinse opening towards an outermost section thereof and projecting against a flow direction of rinsing fluid coming in through said rinse opening, wherein said shovel-like nose forms an upstream end-portion of said flow-guiding projection and is inclined relative to the longitudinal axis of the rinse opening at an angle of less than about 60°. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The electric shaver of according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said automatic valves is adapted to automatically close said at least one rinse opening when there is no rinsing fluid in said at least one rinse opening.