Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Yasuo Ibuki

Claude Oudet

Kazunori Watanabe

Jyuzaemon Iwasaki

Hiroshi Shigeta

Fumio Taniguchi

Yasunori Ueda

Toyokatsu Okamoto

Hiroyuki Kameoka

Atsuhiro Saito

Hidetoshi Amaya

Kotaro Yanagi

Takio Maekawa

Mikihiro Yamashita

Atsushi Takahashi

Tomohiro Izumi

Hideaki Abe

Takeshi Shiba

Daniel Prudham

Masao Tanahashi

Ryo Motohashi

Masanobu Yamasaki

Shin Hosokawa

Seiichi Iwao

Shinji Nishimura

Yoichi Takaoka

Koji Asakawa

Takafumi Ohba

Kazuya Shigeta

Minoru Kashiwabara

Toshiyuki Tsushio

Hirokazu Kato

Mitsuhiro Kadowaki

Mikihiro Yamasita

Shunichi Watanabe

Mitsuru Takechi

Yoko Onogi

Yoichu Takaoka

Kosaku Takada

A reciprocating electric shaver includes: a rotary motor; a pair of driving elements to which inner blades are individually attached; and a conversion mechanism coupled to the rotary motor and the corresponding driving element to convert rotating motion of the rotary motor to reciprocating motion of the pair of driving elements. Each driving element and coupling members coupled to the driving elements constitute driving blocks. The driving blocks include balance adjusters provided on the opposite sides of a rotation axis of the rotary motor from the driving elements included in the driving blocks, respectively.

Reciprocating electric shaver

A drying system for a hair removing device is safe and convenient for drying and sterilizing a cutter head with a sufficient amount of heat. The drying system includes a casing having a dry chamber with a top opening for detachably receiving a cutter head of the hair removing device, and a heater for heating the cutter head, a blower for generating a forced air flow and drying the cutter head. A lid is provided to close the top opening of the dry chamber such that the drying chamber is kept free from the entry of the environmental dust, which enables to heat the cutter head at an elevated temperature for effective sterilization.

Drying system for a hair removing device

An electromagnetic actuator includes a stator and a movable body. The stator includes a core provided with magnetic poles and a coil wound on at least one of the magnetic poles. The movable body includes a permanent magnet and supported in such a manner as to make reciprocating in a direction perpendicular to a direction in which the permanent magnet opposes the magnetic poles. The movable body is reciprocated upon applying an alternating voltage to the coil. An electromagnetic actuator driving method for driving the electromagnetic actuator includes performing feedback control of the alternating voltage in which the alternating voltage is applied to the coil during a first half of a control period and in which an induced electromotive force generated in the coil during a second half of the control period is used as a control signal.

Electromagnetic actuator driving method

A dryer for hair shaving devices includes a casing having a drying space for removably receiving a blade portion of a hair shaving device, and a heater and a fan for drying the blade portion received in the drying space. Also, a control unit is provided for controlling output power of the heater and the fan to perform operation modes, the operation modes include a drying operation mode in which the heater and the fan are driven simultaneously and a sterilizing operation mode in which the heater alone is driven with the fan kept stopped.

Dryer for hair shaving device

A cleaning system for cleaning an operator head of a hair removing apparatus such as a dry shaver. The system includes a cleaning device having a housing configured to hold the shaver upside down to place the operator head in a basin for cleaning the same with a liquid supplied from a tank. The apparatus incorporates an externally controllable electric circuit for driving the operator head in accordance with an external electric signal generated by a controller within the device. The device's housing has a signal transmitting means for transmitting the electric signal, while the apparatus has a signal receiving means which comes into electrical interconnection with the signal transmitting means. The signal receiving means is disposed intermediate the height of the apparatus such that the electrical interconnection can be made within the height of the apparatus, requiring no extra height dimension to the system for the electrical interconnection.

Cleaning system of a hair removing apparatus

A drying system for a hair removing device is capable of effectively drying the cutter head. The drying system includes a casing having a dry chamber configured to detachably receive a cutter head of the hair removing device, a heater for heating the cutter head; and a blower for generating a forced air flow and drying the cutter head. The casing is formed with an air flow channel configured to direct the forced air flow towards the cutter head. A tray is provided to define the bottom of the dry chamber and bear the cutter head. The tray is formed with a draft port through which the flow channel communicates into the dry chamber so that the forced air flow can be directed straight to the cutter head for effectively cooling or drying the cutter head.

A cleaning device utilizes a cleaning liquid composed of a solute dissolved in a solution for cleaning an operator head of a hair removing apparatus. The device includes a housing configured to hold the hair removing apparatus, a basin mounted in the housing for receiving therein the operator head, and a tank storing the solution or the liquid. A circulator is provided to circulate the cleaning liquid between the tank and the basin. The device includes a container which is configured to hold the solute and is formed separately from the tank. The container is disposed in a circulation path between the basin and the tank in order to replenish the solute into the circulating solution or the liquid. Thus, the solute can be constantly supplied to the solution or the cleaning liquid for maintaining the cleaning effect over a prolonged period of use and for easy replenishment of the solute, eliminating the necessity of replacing the whole cleaning liquid.

Cleaning device for a hair removing apparatus and method of cleaning the same

A cleaning device for an electrical hair removing apparatus is capable of being stored in a compact profile. The apparatus has an operator head at its top, and is formed on its bottom with an electric terminal for receiving an external signal that controls the apparatus. The cleaning device includes a basin for receiving the operator head of the apparatus and also includes a control circuit providing the external signal. The device has a tank storing a volume of a cleaning liquid, and a circulator configured to supply the cleaning liquid into the basin from the tank for cleaning the operator head. A stand is provided on the device to hold the apparatus upside down with the operator head disposed within the basin. The stand is formed at its top end with a header carrying contacts which are connected to the terminal on the bottom of the apparatus. The stand is composed of a fixed support and a movable arm which extends from the support and is formed at its top with the header. The arm is movable relative to the support between an extended position where the header is around the bottom of the apparatus and a retracted position where the header is lowered than at the extended position in the absence of the apparatus. Accordingly, the whole height of the stand can be reduced when the apparatus is detached from the device so that the device can be made into a low profile structure sufficient to be stored in compact.

Cleaning device for an electrical hair removing apparatus

A driving unit of the present invention comprises a moving element, an elastic body configured to support the moving element, a permanent magnet fixed on said moving element, an electromagnet disposed to be opposed to said permanent magnet, and a controller. The moving element and the elastic body constitute a resonance system. The electromagnet includes a magnetic material and a coil wounded around the magnetic material. The controller magnetizes the magnetic material by feeding a current through the coil and gives a vibration force to the moving element by magnetic force acting between the magnetic material and the permanent magnet. The feature of the present invention resides in that the controller determines a current waveform necessary for an intended motion of the moving element, and applies a voltage to the coil intermittently so that a current in the form of the current waveform flows through said coil.

Driving unit

A cleaning device for a hair removing apparatus such as a dry shaver has a basin that receives a shaver head and is supplied with a cleaning liquid for cleaning the head. A single pump is utilized for supplying the liquid from a tank to the basin. The tank is hermetically sealed and is selectively open to the atmosphere by way of an air valve. The valve and the pump are actuated in a controlled manner to selectively give a supply mode for supplying the liquid to the basin from the tank and a recovery mode for recovering the liquid from the basin to the tank.

Cleaning device for a hair removing apparatus

A controlling apparatus for controlling a linear oscillation motor includes a sensor and a controller. The motor has a movable element and a stator one of which includes an electromagnet with a winding. The sensor is configured to detect movement of the movable element. The controller is configured to intermittently supply electric power to the winding of the electromagnet to move the movable element reciprocally and linearly. The controller is configured to begin each intermittent supply of electric power to the winding at a timing before a dead center of the movable element based on an output of the sensor.

Controlling apparatus for linear oscillation motor and method for controlling linear oscillation motor

A dry shaver is capable of being depressed equally at different positions but with differing contact pressures between outer and inner cutters. The shaver has a housing having a motor and inner and outer cutters at its upper end. The inner cutter is driven by the motor to move in shearing engagement with the outer cutter for shaving hairs. The inner cutter is urged upwardly by a bias spring to develop a contact pressure against the outer cutter. The outer cutter is carried by a cutter holder movably supported to a head frame mounted on top of the housing. The shaver has a height adjust mechanism for adjusting the height of the head frame relative to the housing between a high position and a low position while compressing the spring differently to vary the contact pressure, and for allowing the cutter holder to be depressed relative to the head frame from each of the height and low positions.

Dry shaver with a height adjustable cutter head

Vibrating linear actuator and method of operating same. The actuator of the invention includes a stator, a spring vibration system having a moving portion with a magnet and further having a spring configured to support the moving portion. The actuator further includes an electromagnetic coil configured to receive an electrical current, whereupon the coil moves the moving portion against a load supplied by the spring to reciprocally move the moving portion, a frequency detector configured to detect a natural frequency of the spring vibration system, and a frequency controller configured to determine a frequency of an electrical current pulse, the pulse to be received by the coil, in accordance with a detection result of the detector.

Vibrating linear actuator and method of operating same

A control system for a linear vibration motor capable of eliminating necessity of a separate sensor of detecting the motion of the motor. The linear vibration motor includes a stator provided with a winding, and a vibrator provided with a permanent magnet. The winding is fed with a drive current to generate a magnetic field which interacts with the permanent magnet to cause the vibrator to reciprocate linearly relative to the stator for producing a vibration. The control system includes a controller which detects an ongoing amplitude, i.e., the motion represented by the displacement, speed, or acceleration of the vibrator and provides ON-periods of feeding the driving current to the winding in a varying amount based upon the ongoing amplitude detected in order to keep a vibration amplitude of the vibrator constant. The controller is characterized to provide OFF-period in which the controller instructs not to feed the drive current and in which the controller detects a voltage developed across the winding and determines the ongoing amplitude based upon the detected voltage. Thus, the winding can be best utilized commonly to drive the motor and to sense the ongoing amplitude or motion of the vibrator, thereby eliminating an additional sensor for detection of the motion of the vibrator.

Control system for a linear vibration motor

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Hikone, Japan

Yasuo Ibuki