A guard plate

Abstract

According to an aspect, there is provided a guard plate (10) for a blade set (100) for a hair cutting appliance, the guard plate comprising a skin-facing side (12) and an opposing blade-facing side; a plurality of close-cutting trimming teeth (16) distributed in a longitudinal direction along an edge (18) of the guard plate, each tooth extending from the edge of the guard plate to a respective tip (20), the close-cutting trimming teeth having a thickness of less than (120) microns; a raised section (22) comprising a curved shape in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal direction such that it is raised from the teeth towards the skin-facing side of the guard plate, wherein the curved shape of the raised section does not extend beyond a (30)-degree envelope defined by a line passing through the mg edge of the guard plate and offset from a tangent at the edge of the guard plate by (30) degrees; a pressure relenting zone (30) between the teeth and the raised section defining a continuous surface, wherein there is a transition (32) between the pressure relenting zone and the raised section such that, when the guard plate is passed over a user's taut skin, the skin does not directly follow the contours of the transition thereby locally reducing pressure from the skin; wherein a plurality of apertures (48) are distributed on the raised section at least within a pressure restoring zone (36) of the raised section, the pressure restoring zone being defined between a rising point and a tangent point, wherein the rising point is where a perpendicular distance from the skin-facing surface of the guard plate to a pressure relenting line peaks, wherein the pressure relenting line is defined by a tangent of the raised section in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, the tangent passing through the edge of the guard plate, and wherein the tangent point is on the raised section at the tangent of the pressure relenting line.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.