Variable vacuum attachment for hair grooming clipper having adjustable auxiliary vacuum relief mechanism

Abstract

A variable vacuum attachment for a hair grooming clipper includes a body and a coupler connected to the body and having an end receiving an end of a hose connected to a vacuum source. The body is a suction head mounted on the hair grooming clipper and defining an air flow passage. A vacuum applied to the body through the coupler and hose will induce a hair cuttings-entrainable flow of air from the cutting head end of the clipper through the air flow passage of the body and therefrom through the coupler to the hose. The coupler has open opposite ends and an internal air flow channel extending therebetween. A vacuum relief mechanism on the coupler includes a vacuum relief port in an annular wall thereof intermediate between the open opposite ends of the channel for providing adjustable flow communication between the channel and the exterior of the coupler. The coupler has an annular recess around its exterior which is intermediate between the open opposite ends thereof such that the vacuum relief port of the coupler is formed within the annular recess. The vacuum relief mechanism further includes an annular closure preferably discontinuous in structure disposed around the exterior of the coupler in the annular recess so as to overlie the vacuum relief port. The annular closure is slidable relative to the coupler for selectively varying the amount of area of the vacuum relief port covered and thus closed by the closure so as to thereby regulate the degree of relief through the vacuum relief port of a vacuum condition within the coupler channel.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.