Hair drier

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a hair drier, and more particularly to a hair drier capable of generating hot wind or cold wind for drying wet hair.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Hair driers have been widely used in the world for the purpose of drying wet hair after persons have washed their hair. Recently, a hair drier capable of generating anion or infrared ray in addition to hot wind has been developed and used.

FIGS. 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and 1E are exploded perspective view of a conventional hair drier, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a grill shown in FIGS. 1A to 1E, and FIG. 3 is an assembled view of the conventional hair drier shown in FIGS. 1A to 1E.

As shown in FIGS. 1A to 3, the conventional hair drier includes a casing 10 having a substantial T-shape. An exhaust pipe 20 and a blower unit 30 are installed in an internal cavity of the casing 10. A grill 40 and a reflective vessel 71 are accommodated in the exhaust pipe 20. A nozzle is coupled to a front end of the exhaust pipe 20 and a heating unit 60 is installed in the reflective vessel 71.

The casing 10 includes a head section 11 forming an upper cavity in the form of an egg, and a leg section 13 forming a linear cavity communicated with the upper cavity.

The casing 10 having the above construction is divided into front and rear parts, which are assembled with each other by means of a screw 74 screw-coupled into the leg section 13 of the casing 10.

A circular opening 11a is formed at a front portion of the head section 11 so as to allow the exhaust pipe 20 to extend towards an exterior through the circular opening 11a. A protective cap 12 formed with a plurality of suction holes 12a is provided at a rear portion of the head section 11. In addition, a coupling protrusion 11b is formed at an inner surface of the front part of the head section 11.

Expose holes 13a and 13b having rectangular shapes are formed in a longitudinal direction of the leg section 13. A power switch 72 and a hot wind/cold wind switch 73 are installed in the expose holes 13a and 13b, respectively, such that they are exposed to an exterior. The exhaust pipe 20 is formed at a front end thereof with a narrow-diameter section 21. An inner large-diameter section 22 and an outer large-diameter section 23 are sequentially formed at a rear end of the exhaust pipe 20.

The outer large-diameter section 23 is formed at an outer surface thereof with a pair of coupling protrusions 23a.

The exhaust pipe 20 is installed in the casing 10 in such a manner that the exhaust pipe 20 may protrude towards the exterior through the circular opening 11a. The inner large-diameter section 22 prevents the exhaust pipe 20 from passing through the circular opening 11a of the casing 10.

An inner surface of the exhaust pipe 20 is coated with an anionic material layer and an infrared material layer.

The blower unit 30 includes an inner pipe section 31, an outer pipe section 32, which surrounds a predetermined portion of the inner pipe section 31, a motor 33 installed in the inner pipe section 31, and a fan 34 installed in the outer pipe section 32. The motor 33 is connected to an external power source (not shown) through a power cable 35.

The inner pipe section 31 is formed at a front end thereof with four coupling slots 31a along a circumferential direction of the inner pipe section 31.

A coupling protrusion 32a is formed at an outer surface of the outer pipe section 32.

Four partition plates 36 are interposed between the inner pipe section 31 and the outer pipe section 32.

The blower unit 30 having the above structure is coupled with the heating unit 60 by inserting a core member 61 of the heating unit into the coupling slots 31a of the blower unit 30.

The grill 40 includes a circular outer frame 41 and a plurality of transverse lattices 42 installed in the circular outer frame 41 while forming a regular interval therebetween. A guide rib 42a is formed at a center portion of each transverse lattice 42.

The grill 40 includes a base layer 40a made from a metallic material and an anionic material layer 40b coated on the base layer 40a.

A diameter of the reflective vessel 71 gradually increases from a front end towards a rear end thereof.

An inner surface of the reflective vessel 71 is coated with an anionic material layer.

The nozzle 50 includes a coupling section 51 having a circular sectional shape and an exhaust section 52 extending from the coupling section 51 and having an opening 52, which has a length larger than a diameter of the coupling section 51.

The nozzle 50 includes a base layer made from a plastic material and an anionic material layer coated on the base layer.

The heating unit 60 includes the core member 61 having a cross sectional shape and a heating wire 62 wound around the core member 61. The heating wire 62 is connected to the external power source through the power cable 35.

An outer surface of the core member 62 is coated with an anionic material layer.

The conventional hair drier having the above structure operates as follows:

First, when a user turns on the power switch 72, power is supplied to the motor 33 so that the motor 33 is driven. Accordingly, the fan 34 is rotated by means of the motor 33.

As the fan 34 rotates, a pressure difference may be created between a front portion and a rear portion of the fan 34. That is, pressure in the front portion of the fan 34 adjacent to the exhaust section 52 becomes lower than pressure in the rear portion of the fan 34 adjacent to the suction holes 12a, so that external air is introduced into the casing 10 through the suction holes 12a. The external air introduced into the casing 10 through the suction holes 12 is exhausted to the exterior through the reflective vessel 71 and the exhaust section 52 of the nozzle 50.

Herein, if the cold wind/hot wind switch 73 is positioned in a hot wind mode, power is supplied to the heating wire 62 through the power cable 35, so the heating wire 62 generates heat. Accordingly, the external air is heated by means of the heat generated from the heating wire 62 while passing through the reflective vessel 71 so that hot wind is exhausted through the exhaust section 52 of the nozzle 50.

At this time, anions and infrared ray generated from the exhaust port 20, the reflective vessel 71, the core member 61, the grill 40 and the nozzle 50 are also exhaust through the exhaust section 52 of the nozzle 50 together with the hot wind.

However, according to the conventional hair drier, since the anionic material layer 40a is coated on the outer surface of the grill 40, the anionic material layer 40a may be laminated from the outer surface of the grill 40 as time goes by due to heat generated from the heating wire 62.

For this reason, even though the anions can effectively prevent hair from being damaged and allow users to easily change their hair styles, the users do not have the benefit of the anions because an anionic effect may be reduced when the conventional hair drier has been used for a long period of time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a hair drier having a grill capable of stably generating anions even if a user has used the hair drier for a long period of time.

In order to accomplish the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a hair drier comprising: a casing formed at a rear portion thereof with at least one suction hole; an exhaust pump coupled with the casing such that the exhaust pump is exposed to an exterior by passing through a front area of the casing; a nozzle coupled with a front opening of the exhaust pump; a grill inserted into the exhaust pump adjacent to the nozzle and made from plastic having thermal-resistant and thermoplastic properties and including an anion material; a heating unit inserted into the exhaust pump at a rearward area of the grill; and a blower unit installed in the casing at a rearward area of the heating unit in order to suck external air and to introduce the external air towards the nozzle.

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, nozzle is made from plastic having thermal-resistant and thermoplastic properties and including an anion material so that the anions can be stably generated from the nozzle even if the user has used the hair drier for a long period of time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1A to 1E are exploded perspective views of a conventional hair drier;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a grill shown in FIGS. 1A to 1E;

FIG. 3 is an assembled view of a hair drier shown in FIGS. 1A to 1E; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a grill according to one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to accompanying drawings.

A hair drier according to the present invention includes a casing, an exhaust pipe, a blower unit, a reflective vessel and a heating unit identical to those of the conventional hair drier shown in FIGS. 1A to 1E, so repetition of the description on the same or similar components will be omitted.

In the following description, the same reference numerals are used to designate the same or similar components.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, the hair drier of the present invention includes a grill 140 having a circular outer frame 141 and a plurality of transverse lattices 142 installed in the circular outer frame 141 while forming a regular interval therebetween. A guide rib 142a is formed at a center portion of each transverse lattice 142.

Even though the hair drier of the present invention has a structure identical to that of the conventional hair drier, the grill 140 of the present invention is manufactured through an injection molding process without coating an anionic material layer on an outer surface of the grill 140 in such a manner that the grill 140 contains anions over the whole area thereof.

Hereinafter, a method for manufacturing the grill 140 and a nozzle according to the present invention will be described.

First, tourmaline is pulverized into powder having a size of about 1 to 3 μm by means of a ball mill machine or a crusher.

Then, ceramics, such as ZrO₂, SiO₂, or Al₂O₃ having thermal-resistant and thermal-insulation properties with reinforced strength, is pulverized into powder having a size of about 1 to 3 μm through a pulverizing process identical to the pulverizing process for tourmaline.

After that, the tourmaline powder is mixed with the ceramics powder in a volume ratio of 1:1 by means of a mixer.

Then, a mixture of the tourmaline powder and ceramics powder (hereinafter, referred to as “additive powder”) is mixed with water and is heated for 24 hours under a high-pressure state.

Thereafter, the heated additive powder is rapidly cooled in a cooling dryer.

Subsequently, the additive powder is mixed with plastic having thermoplastic and heat-resistant properties, such as PBT (Polybuthylene Terephthalate) or LCP (Liquid Crystal Polymer), together with a little amount of adhesive agent in a mixer. Herein, a weight ratio of the additive powder to the plastic is 1:4.

Then, the mixture of the additive powder and the plastic is supplied into a cylinder through a hopper in such a manner that the mixture of the additive powder and the plastic can be injected into a mold through a nozzle. An internal temperature of the cylinder and a temperature of the mold may vary depending on the sort of plastics to be used.

If PBT is used, preferably, the internal temperature of the cylinder is about 260 to 280° C. and the temperature of the mold is about 80 to 120° C. In addition, if LCP is used, the internal temperature of the cylinder is preferably set to 300 to 340° C. and the temperature of the mold is preferably set to 340° C.

As described above, according to the present invention, the grill 140 is manufactured through an injection molding process in such a manner that the grill 140 contains an anion material over the whole area of the grill 140, thereby preventing the anion material from being laminated from the grill 140 even if heat is applied to the grill 140 for a long period of time by means of a heating wire.

In addition, according to the present invention, the nozzle is manufactured through an injection molding process in such a manner that the nozzle contains an anion material over the whole area of the nozzle, thereby preventing the anion material from being laminated from the nozzle even if heat is applied to the nozzle for a long period of time by means of the heating wire.

Accordingly, the grill 140 and the nozzle can stably generate anions even if the hair drier has been used for a long period of time.

Although the present invention mainly uses tourmaline as an anion material, other anion materials, such as the rare-earth elements (cerium, etc), can be used for the grill and the nozzle of the present invention.

According to the present invention, the grill is fabricated such that it contains the anion material over the whole area thereof so the grill can stably generate the anions even if the grill has been used for a long period of time. Therefore, the hair drier according to the present invention can achieve an anionic effect so that hair can be prevented from being damaged and the users can easily change their hair styles.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.