Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.

Hidekazu Yabuuchi

Ryo Motohashi

Hiroaki Shimizu

Takahiro Nishinaka

Noboru Kobayashi

Katsuhiro Hirata

Hiroki Inoue

Tomio Yamada

Yuya Hasegawa

Masashi Moriguchi

Yasushi Arikawa

Yoshitaka Ichii

Ryuji Otani

Tomohiro Kunita

Kensaku Kanada

Takeshi Shiba

Tomohiro Ota

Masaaki Nishikata

Yoshio Mitsutake

Tomohiro Izumi

Shinji Suematsu

Masayuki Suzuki

Toshiharu Hashimoto

Yoshihiro Kitamura

A claw pole type motor includes a rotor having a magnet arranged on an outer circumferential surface thereof and a stator including an annular iron core and an annular coil received within the iron core. The iron core includes a yoke portion opened in an inner circumferential surface opposite to the rotor, a plurality of upper claw-shaped magnetic poles and a plurality of lower claw-shaped magnetic poles which are arranged along an inner circumferential surface of the annular coil. The upper/lower claw-shaped magnetic poles are curved to extend axially downwardly/upwardly from an upper/lower inner edge of the yoke portion, respectively. The upper and the low claw-shaped magnetic poles are alternately arranged along a circumferential direction of the iron core. The yoke portion has cutout portions formed in non-magnetic path regions which do not include magnetic paths through which magnetic flux flows between neighboring claw-shaped magnetic poles across the annular coil.

Claw pole type motor and pump

In a rolling driving actuator used as a drive source of a power toothbrush, permanent magnets are formed flat plate shape, and constituting a moving object by being attached to grooves formed on an outer peripheral face of a yoke which is press-fitted to and fixed on a shaft. On the other hand, a tubular shaped stator, which is constituted by a coil wound around a bobbin and stationary yokes provided on both side of the bobbin in axial direction of the shaft, is provided to face an outer face of the permanent magnet or an outer face of the yoke of the moving object with a predetermined clearance so that a center axis thereof becomes coaxial with the center axis of the shaft. By supplying an alternating current to the coil, the moving object is driven in rolling driving around the axis of the shaft.

Rolling driving actuator and power toothbrush using the same

A vibratory linear actuator according to one embodiment of the present invention is comprised of a stator having a through hole therein and a winding wire therearound, a movable member having a through hole therein and a member made of a magnetic material, said movable member being provided inside said through hole of said stator, so as to reciprocate in an axis direction upon an application of electric current to said winding wire, a shaft inserted into said through hole of said movable member so as to be movable reciprocally in relation to said movable member, and a coordinating member that enables said shaft to reciprocate in opposite phase to said movable member.

Vibratory linear actuator and electric toothbrush using the same

In a reciprocal linear driving actuator used as a drive source of a power toothbrush, two permanent magnets are formed substantially disc shape or substantially tubular shape, and fitted to and fixed on a shaft directly or via a spacer with a predetermined distance in axial direction of the shaft, so that a moving object is constituted by the shaft and the permanent magnets. On the other hand, a tubular shaped stator, which is constituted by a coil wound around a bobbin and stationary yokes and so on, is provided to face side faces of the permanent magnets of the moving object via a predetermined clearance so that a center axis thereof becomes coaxial with the center axis of the shaft. By supplying alternating current to the coil, the moving object is driven reciprocally and linearly in the axial direction of the shaft.

Reciprocation type linear driving actuator and power toothbrush using the same

A reciprocal linear driving unit and a rolling driving unit are adjacently provided on a common single shaft in axial direction thereof, so that the reciprocal linear driving in the axial direction and the rolling driving around the axis are performed by the single shaft, simultaneously. Permanent magnets constituting the reciprocal linear driving unit and the rolling driving unit are respectively provided on moving object side instead of stator, in other words, they are provided around the axis of the shaft, thereby respective permanent magnets can be miniaturized and light-weighted. Following to this, miniaturization, light-weighting and cost reduction of an actuator and a power toothbrush using the same can be realized.

Actuator capable of reciprocal linear driving and rolling driving and power toothbrush using the same

The linear actuator for both vibrating and rolling movement according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention is comprised of a shaft supported so as to be movable reciprocally in an axis direction and a rotation direction about the axis, a first linear driver including a cylindrical stator having a winding wire thereon and a movable member arranged inside the stator so as to reciprocate the shaft linearly in the axis direction, a second linear driver including a cylindrical stator having a winding wire thereon and a movable member arranged inside the stator so as to reciprocate the shaft rollingly in the rotation direction, one of the movable members being secured on the shaft and another one of the movable members being movable relative to the shaft, and a coordinating member for enabling the shaft and the one of the movable member to move in opposite phase to the another one of the movable member.

Linear actuator for both vibrating and rolling movement and electric toothbrush using the same

A reciprocatory dry shaver has a shaving head carrying an outer cutter, and an inner cutter. An actuator is mounted in the shaving head for driving the inner cutter. The actuator includes an oscillator which carries a joint for driving connection to the inner cutter. Resilient coupling links are provided to support the oscillator to the shaving head in order to allow the oscillator to reciprocate relative to the shaving head. The resilient coupling link has its upper end coupled to the oscillator and has its lower end which is farther away from the inner cutter than the oscillator and is anchored to the shaving head. Thus, the oscillator is supported as being floated or lifted with respect to the shaving head, thereby being allowed to travel along a path which is somewhat arcuate in coincidence with the arc of the outer cutter.

Reciprocatory dry shaver

An electric toothbrush includes a drive part, a driver, a brush part and a vibration-absorber. The drive part includes a drive shaft provided to be lineally movable and a brush part detachably attached to one end of the drive shaft. The driver is configured to apply reciprocal force to the drive shaft to reciprocally lineally move the drive shaft. The vibration-absorber is connected to the drive shaft via a second spring to be lineally movable along the drive shaft. A weight ratio of a weight of the vibration-absorber to a weight of the drive part is at least 0.9 and at most 1.1.

Electric toothbrush with linear oscillator

A linear oscillator and an electric toothbrush capable of emitting a low noise and of being assembled compact are provided. The linear oscillator, which reciprocates a shaft in an axial direction thereof, includes a plunger movable together with the shaft in the axial direction of the shaft, an elastic member for applying an axially acting resilient force to the plunger, an electromagnetic driving unit operable to reciprocate the plunger in the axial direction of the shaft at a resonant frequency when an alternating current is supplied thereto, and a fixing member restricting rotation of the plunger about an axis thereof within a predetermined angle. The electric toothbrush includes the linear oscillator and a brush head attached to the shaft for use in brushing teeth.

Linear oscillator and electrically driven toothbrush

An actuator includes a casing, a stationary member having a coil member and mounted in the casing and a movable member having a moving element and supported by the casing. The moving element has a shaft and is supported by the casing so as to be moved in an axial direction of the shaft and in a rotational direction having the axial direction of the shaft as its rotational axis and the moving element is moved in the axial direction and in the rotational direction by causing electric current to flow through the coil member. The stationary member includes a first stationary member for imparting to the movable member a force oriented in the axial direction and a second stationary member for imparting to the movable member a force oriented in the rotational direction, while the coil member includes a first coil member for exciting a first magnetic path passing through the first stationary member and a second coil member for exciting a second magnetic path passing through the second stationary member.

Actuator

A linear oscillating actuator system which is capable of canceling out the stator vibrations for driving a load with a minimum of vibrations. The system includes an oscillator carrying a permanent magnet as well as an output shaft for connection to the load. A stator assembly is incorporated within a housing and is configured to movably support the oscillator and to carry an electromagnet. The electromagnet generates a magnetic field which interacts with the permanent magnet to reciprocate the oscillator relative to the stator assembly in a linear path. A balancer is added to the system for canceling out undesired stator vibrations. The balancer are commonly supported to the stator assembly to be driven thereby in parallel with the oscillator. The balancer is configured to have a mass generally equal to that of the oscillator and to be devoid of any output member. Thus, the oscillator and the balancer are driven in a counter reciprocating manner, thereby keeping the stator assembly free from counter-vibrations and therefore driving the output shaft with a maximum output power.

Linear oscillating actuator system

In an oscillation type linear actuator for reciprocally moving a plurality of moving members held in parallel with each other in a predetermined direction owing to electromagnetic action between a stator and them, two moving members reciprocally moving in opposite phases with each other are coupled by a coupling member having spring function, and a non-displacing portion of a plate spring portion of the coupling member which is not displaced substantially is restricted by a stopper. Even when an external force is applied to one of two moving members reciprocally moving in the opposite phases each other, motion of the other moving member is transmitted to the moving member via the coupling member, so that reduction of amplitude of the moving member to which the external force is applied can be restricted, and a balance of amplitudes of two moving members is maintained.

Vibration type linear actuator

A linear oscillator includes a reciprocating moving part, a case to contain the moving part, and an amplitude control spindle moveably supported in the case. The moving part and the amplitude control spindle reciprocate at a frequency approximately equal to the resonance frequency of the linear oscillator.

Linear oscillator

An oscillatory linear actuator including a plurality of movable elements configured to move in a linear direction, a stationary component configured to drive the plurality of movable elements to move in the linear direction, and a plurality of connecting devices elastically connecting the plurality of movable elements with each other and positioned on at least one end portion of the plurality of movable elements in the linear direction, each of the plurality of connecting devices being extending away from the plurality of movable elements in opposite directions.

Growing community of inventors

Hikone, Japan

Hidekazu Yabuuchi