Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Hette Akkerman

Willem Auke Westerhof

Ype Bernardus Brada

Everhardus Johannes Hoexum

Robert Alexander Van Eibergen Santhagens

Hendrik Klaas Paauw

Willem Minkes

Erik Houbolt

Jan Van Driel

Marco Christiaan Hamburg

Mark Wesseling

A shaving head is provided that includes one or more cutting blades and actively driveable skin stretching device arranged behind said cutting blade. The actively driveable skin stretching device operates to reduce the possibility of causing nicks and cuts or skin irritation during a shaving operation. The shaving head provides a pivot axis between the shaving head and a handle that is either attached or attachable to the shaving head. The pivot axis is arranged to be essentially parallel to the cutting blade. By providing the pivot axis, the force ratio between a force applied to the actively driveable skin stretching device and forces applied to other parts of the shaving head may be kept constant for different angles of the handle. This improves the functioning of the actively driveable skin stretching device.

Shaving head with skin stretching member

A method of manufacturing a cutting member () of a shaver () includes the steps of providing a plate-shaped carrier (), cutting at least one cutting element () free from the carrier except for a residual connection between a base () of the cutting element and the carrier, and bending the cutting element relative to the carrier. The steps of cutting free and bending are performed simultaneously using a tool () having a combined punching and bending effect. By using such a tool, the action of cutting free is obtained by a tearing process which does not lead to a free space and a loss of material between the cutting element () and the carrier (). As a result, the strength of the carrier is not reduced by such a free space or loss of material.

Method of manufacturing a cutting member of a shaver

The invention relates to a shaving head () comprising at least two bladeshaped cutting members (&#x2033;) each having a straight cutting edge (&#x2033;) extending parallel to a longitudinal direction (Y) of the shaving head. Each cutting member is supported in a cartridge () of the shaving head by means of a supporting member () which supports the respective cutting member in a supported area () on the respective cutting member. Said supported area extends over a predetermined distance (D) perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. Each supporting member has a first portion () in contact with the supported area at a location remote from the cutting edge of the respective cutting member and a second portion () in contact with the supported area at a location near the cutting edge of the respective cutting member. The first portion has a basic cross-sectional area, seen perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction, and the second portion has a reduced cross-sectional area. According to the invention, the second portion () of the supporting member () of at least one of the cutting members (&#x2033;) extends over at least half of said predetermined distance (D). In this manner, the free space between two adjacent cutting members is considerably increased. As a result, the rinsability of the shaving head is improved, so that the risk of shaving debris accumulation between two adjacent cutting members is reduced.

Shaving head having a blade supporting member with reduced cross-sectional area

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Drachten, Netherlands

Hette Akkerman