Ion emitting brush

#This invention relates to grooming products and more specifically to brushes that remove hair, lint, etc. from clothing and promote grooming by emitting ionized air directed to the clothing being brushed.

#However common experience indicates that removing lint, hair, and the like from clothing by conventional brushing is not always successful. For example, static electricity may tend to bind hairs, lint, and other small debris to the surface of clothing. Although brushing one's clothing can mechanically remove some lint, hair, or other particles from the clothing surface, the brushing does not provide any conditioning of the clothing. Too often the lint and other material on the clothing is simply mechanically repositioned.

#It is known in the art to produce an air flow electro-kinetically by directly converting electrical power into a flow of air without mechanically moving components. One such system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,801 to Lee (1988), depicted herein in simplified form as FIGS. 1A and 1B. Lee's system 10 provides a first array of small area (“minisectional”) electrodes 20 is spaced-apart symmetrically from a second array of larger area (“maxisectional”) electrodes 30, with a high voltage (e.g., 5 KV) pulse generator 40 coupled between the two arrays. Generator 40 outputs high voltage pulses that ionize the air between the arrays, producing an air flow 50 from the minisectional array toward the maxisectional array results. The high voltage field present between the two arrays can release ozone (O3), which can advantageously safely destroy many types of bacteria if excessive quantities of ozone are not released.

#FIGS. 1A and 1B are depictions of Lee-type electrostatic generators, according to the prior art;

#FIG. 2A is an perspective view of a preferred embodiment of an ionizing brush according to the present invention;

#FIG. 2B is a bottom view of a preferred embodiment of an ionizing brush, according to the present invention;

#FIGS. 2A and 2B depict an ionized brush 100 according to the present invention as having a body that includes a handle portion 110 and a head portion 120. Head portion 120 includes one or more air intake vents 130, brush bristles 140 that protrude from a brush plate 145 attached to the brushing surface of the brush, and one or more outlet vents 150.

#Brush 100 is similar to what was described in FIGS. 2A and 2B in the parent application, except that for a brush to remove lint, hair, etc., bristles 140 will typically be shorter and maybe biased at a common angle and formed on a cloth substrate. However whether brush plate 145 includes long bristles or short bristles is unimportant to operation of the present invention.

#Internal to the brush body is an ion generating unit 160, powered by a battery B1 (preferably at least 6 VDC) contained within the brush and energizable via a switch S1, preferably mounted on the brush 100. As such, ion generating unit 160 is self-contained in that other than ambient air, nothing is required from beyond the body of the brush for operation of the present invention. Of course if desired, a DC power supply could be disposed external to the brush body, and power brought into the hair brush via a cable.