Hair dryer

Abstract

A hair dryer is provided having a first cup-shaped plastic housing with an air inlet and generally tangentially directed outlet to be connected to a hose coupling and thence to a soft bonnet on the head of the user. A sheet metal plate provides a motor and other internal components on one side and a fan on the opposite side with the fan directing air through the outlet. A second plastic cup-shaped housing is provided facing the first and the housing are secured together with the plate between them, the hair dryer having a controlled air heater in the outlet. To this general overall arrangement an improvement comprises a heater formed in the shape of a cone in at least one plane of the outlet and secured to a mounting plate covering the outlet such that, with the housing, the mounting plate and housing form the outlet duct which is faired to form a substantial rectangular-to-round outlet path. The heater has the apex of the cone directed upstream with the arrangement allowing the heater and mounting plate assembly to direct the air flow from rectangular-to-round to minimize air flow restriction to the outlet and the heater provides a constantly increasing heater surface to improve heat transfer to the outlet air. Additionally, the outlet is formed on a radius from the center of the housings to reduce the maximum dimension of the dryer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.