Abstract:
A nail care device assembly having a handle housing a power driven motor, a spindle connected to the shaft of the motor for receiving a removable grooming accessory, the main feature residing on a covered holder for storing a number of grooming accessories. The covered holder is attachable to the handle for portability and is easily detachable from the handle whenever grooming of the fingernails is initiated.

Description:
This invention relates to a one piece portable nail care device assembly having a variety of fingernail grooming accessories stored in a covered compact casing. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Several manicuring devices for fingernail grooming are known. Fingernail grooming includes trimming, shaping, filing, cuticle removing, cuticle pushing, polishing, buffing and cleaning. These devices usually includes a casing enclosing a motor for operating a detachable grooming accessory or hereinafter also referred to as bit. These accessories or bits are not housed with the motor. Only one bit can be left attached with the motor. Consequently, the other accessories or bits are left loose individually. The latter pose the problem of losing these bits which entail cost to replace. This problem may be solved by providing another casing for the accessories which now requires one to carry two casings instead of one to be able to do several desired grooming functions. The problem with this is to remember bringing both casings. An alternate approach is one proposed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,926 which stores the casing holding the motor inside a larger casing holding the bits. Consequently, the casing of this invention is of a size not easily carried in a ladies&#39; purse or bag especially when one already carries in it cosmetics, a telephone, a wallet, a palm, a brush and others. 
     It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a portable nail care device having the fingernail grooming accessories or bits stored in the same casing as the motor. 
     It is also an object of this invention to provide a nail care device that is capable of being manufactured at a low cost. 
     It is a further object of this invention to provide a nail care device that is simple to use and operate. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     A compact one piece nail care device assembly comprising a handle housing a motor having an output shaft and a power supply; a spindle connected to the shaft for receiving a removable grooming accessory referred to as bit having a bit head and a bit stem; a bit holder attaching on top of the handle for carrying and storing the bit; a cover for the bit holder to secure the bit inside the bit holder; a switch to trigger the device; and, means for attaching parts of the nail care device assembly together. The power to run the motor may be supplied by a regular nonrechargeable battery, a rechargeable battery or by plugging into a current supply. The spindle may be covered by a spindle cover to shield the shaft and the spindle. The bit holder may attach to the spindle cover instead of the handle when a spindle cover is used. The main feature of the claimed invention is the covered bit holder having a plurality of tubular openings attached to the handle or the spindle cover for carrying the and storing the bit. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the nail care device. 
     FIG. 2 is a front plan view of the nail care device with front cover off showing the parts inside the handle. 
     FIG. 3 shows the interior surface of the different pieces making up the back and front pieces of the handle. 
     FIG. 4A is a blown up view of the switch in the off position. 
     FIG. 4B is a blown up view of the switch in the on position. 
     FIG. 5 is an exploded view of the components of the nail care device. 
     FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view showing the bit inserted into the inner sleeve of the spindle inside the spindle cover. 
     FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the spindle attached to the shaft with the bottom of the spindle inside the center hole of the elevated plate. 
     FIG. 7A is a perspective view of the inside bottom surface of the spindle cover. 
     FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the spindle with an inner sleeve inside the spindle cover. 
     FIG. 9 is a cross sectional view of the cover covering the bit holder. 
     FIG. 10 shows some examples of bits or grooming accessories used with the nail care device. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 1 shows the nail care device  10  according to the preferred embodiment of the invention. The nail care device has an elongated handle  11  housing an electric motor  12  and a power supply assembly for driving the electric motor. Suitable electric motors for use with the nail care device are commercially available such as one sold by Shanghai Dingling Micromotor Factory, model no. PZB-131-2270. The power supply assembly includes a power source, preferably a battery  13  connected in series by conducting means  14  to a triggering device, an on/off control switch  15 , as shown in FIG.  2 . The power source may also be supplied by plugging the device to an electric current. The battery may be a regular nonrechargeable battery or a rechargeable battery. In the latter, a recharging base with a power cord for plugging into a conventional socket is needed which can conveniently function as a stand when the device is not in use or the battery is being recharged. For the nail care device with a recharging battery, a pair of recharging pads is usually placed near the bottom of the handle  11  to provide electrical connections for recharging the battery. The recharging pads connects to the positive and negative terminals of the rechargeable battery/s to allow for recharging when the device is placed on the recharging base. For illustrative purpose, the claimed invention herein will use a conventional battery as the power source. 
     As shown in FIG. 3, the handle may be made up of two pieces, a back half piece  16  and a front half piece  17 . Preferably, the front half piece  17  is further subdivided into two pieces, an upper front half piece  18  and a lower front half piece  19 . The handle is preferably of a molded plastic construction. The handle may be shaped into any ergonometric design. One such design is shown in FIGS. 1,  5 ,  7  and  8  wherein the handle is rectangularly shaped with rounded concaved sides  20  instead of flat for easily and comfortably gripping the handle. The internal surface of the handle is convex  21  to result in a hollow interior when the pieces of the handle are assembled together. The construction of the back half piece  16  as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 shows the preferable housing position of the motor  12 , the battery  13 , the conducting means  14  and the switch  15 . The location of these parts may be varied according to ones preference. As shown, the motor is preferably located on the upper end  22  of the handle because the motor  12  used herein has an output shaft  23  extending axially from the top of the motor. Consequently, as shown in FIG. 2, the shaft extends from the top surface  24  of the handle. The power supply assembly is placed on the lower end  25  of the handle. To maintain compactness, electrical contact points  26  are placed on the lower end of the motor  12 . These contact points are electrically connected in series with the corresponding positive  27  and negative  28  terminals of the battery  13  by means of conducting means  14  which may be a conducting wire but is preferably a flexible conducting strip. The conducting means  14  which are conducting strips as preferably used herein, are identified separately into several parts, a conducting strip  29  which is connected to the positive contact point  30  of the motor  12 ; conducting strip  31  which is connected to the negative terminal  28  of the battery  13 ; and, conducting strip  32  which is connected to the negative contact point  33  of motor  12 . To keep the conducting strip  31  in position, the conducting strip is clipped into platform  34  and then fastened by the same platform  34  at the bottom  35  space of the back half piece  16 . The conducting strip  31  extends upwards passing through slits  36  of a lower rib  37  and an upper rib  38 . The tip of the conducting strip  31  is at the same level as the conducting strip  32  to facilitate contacting these two strips together. The powering of the motor is controlled by the on/off switch  15  preferably located on a lateral side of the handle at the negative terminal side of the motor as shown in FIG.  2 . The motor is turned off when the negative terminal  28  of the battery is disconnected from the negative contact point  33  of the motor as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4A. The switch  15  is made up of two parallel rectangular strips, an outer strip  39  and an inner strip  40  joined together by a bridge or joint  41  as shown in FIGS. 4A and  4 B. The inner strip is generally more slender than the outer strip with the top end  42  lower than the top end  43  of the outer strip  39 . The bridge connecting the two strips is located along a longitudinal track  44  having an upper end  45  and a lower end  46  which controls the extent of advancement of the inner strip  40 . When the outer strip is slid downwards to the off position as shown in FIG. 4A, the outer strip  39  consequently carries with it the inner strip  40 , thereby preventing the inner strip from pushing the conducting strip  31  into contact with the conducting strip  32 . When the outer strip  39  is slid upwards to the on position as shown in FIG. 4B, the inner strip  40  is pushed upwards which then in turn push the conducting strip  31  into contact with the conducting strip  32 . The outer surface of the outer strip  39  is preferably gridded to provide a better grip on the switch. The conducting strip is made of any conducting metal, preferably those that are flexible such as zinc or silver plated brass or phosphor bronze. 
     The front half piece  17  is preferably made up of two detachable pieces, an upper front cover  18  and a lower front cover  19 . This allows one to selectively remove the lower front cover, leaving the upper front cover when replacing the battery. The two front pieces may be connected by means known in the art such as friction fit, snap fit and the like. The mechanism used herein is to anchor a protruding hook  47  from the inner surface of the lower front cover  19  into a matching lip  48  on the inside surface of the upper front cover  18 . This mechanism allows reversibly connecting and disconnecting the front two pieces together. The front half piece  17  and the back half piece  16  are preferably snapped together to form the handle after the interior components are assembled. Other means of fastening the two pieces are known. Snapping allows the peripheral edges  49  of the front half piece  17  to rest at a recessed track  50  on the peripheral edges of the back half piece  16  and allow a pin  51  protruding from the inside surface of the front half piece to engage fittingly into an opening  52  at the inside surface of the back half piece. The side surfaces of the of the connected front and back pieces must align well after snapping. The handle is preferably made of plastic material but other materials may also be used such as wood and metal. 
     A spindle  53 , preferably made of plastic material, is inserted into the output shaft  23  of the motor  12 . The spindle is cylindrical in shape or preferably slightly tapering at the bottom end to snugly fit into the shaft and prevent disengagement as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. The spindle  53  has two compartments, a top  54  hollow compartment and a solid bottom  55  compartment having a vertical tubular opening  56  for receiving the shaft  23  as shown in FIG.  6 . An inner sleeve  57 , preferably made of silicone, is introduced into the hollow compartment  54 . Other elastic or flexible materials such as rubber or latex may be used instead of silicone. The inner sleeve has a cylindrical outer surface having a diameter just slightly less than the inner diameter of the spindle to allow the inner sleeve to slide into the spindle but prevent it from inadvertently falling from the spindle. A thin film of adhesive, preferably acrylic based, is preferably applied or sprayed at the outer bottom surfaces of the inner sleeve to bond the inner sleeve to the spindle and prevent it from attaching to the grooming accessories when these are removed from the spindle. The inner surface or bore  58  of the inner sleeve may be cylindrical but it is preferably hexagonal in shape as shown in FIGS. 5 and 7 to allow firm gripping of the bit stem  59  but at the same time, allow easy removal during replacements. The bit stem  59  portion of the grooming accessory holds the bit head  60  which contains the different surfaces for grooming a fingernail. The bit head is the working tip that performs the nail grooming functions. The inner diameter of the inner sleeve must be the same or slightly less than the outer diameter of the bit stem. Because the inner sleeve is made up of silicone or equivalent elastic or flexible material, the bit stem will snugly fit into the inner sleeve. For the hexagonal bore, the distance between the edges of the opposite sides must be the same or slightly less than the outer diameter of the bit stem. 
     On the top surface of the handle  24  is molded, an elevated cylindrical plate  61  with a pair of earlike protrusions  62  on opposite sides as shown in FIG.  7 . The plate  61  has a center  63  hole to allow the shaft and the spindle to go through. The bottom edge of the spindle slips into the center hole as shown in FIG.  7 . The diameter of the center hole is greater than the diameter of the spindle to allow unimpeded rotation of the spindle when the device is in operation, that is, when the motor  12  is turned on. The plate  61  is elevated and recessed from the top surface of the handle such that the surfaces not covered by the plate serves as a flange  64  on which a spindle cover  65  rests after the inner surface  66  of the spindle cover snap fits or friction fits into the elevated plate  61 . The tip  67  of the spindle cover  65  is at the same level or just slightly above the tip  68  of the spindle as shown in FIG.  8 . The spindle cover protects the user from the rotating spindle and protects the motor as well from obstructed rotation when the device is on. The spindle cover  65  has a lower section  69  and an upper section  70 . The lower section is shaped like the handle having the contour of its outside surface  71  matching the contour of the outside concaved surface  20  of the handle. The upper section  70  is preferably shaped like a frustum  72  on a cylindrical base  73  as shown in FIG.  5 . The conical shape of the upper section allows for easy access of the bits to the fingernails. The circular base  73  has a diameter smaller than the shorter length across the lower section  69  as shown in FIGS. 5 and 8 thereby making the exposed outside surfaces  74  of the lower section  69  as a flange on which a bit holder  75  rests after the inner surface  76  of the bit holder snaps or friction fits into the cylindrical base  73  of the upper section  70  of the spindle cover as shown in FIG.  5 . The bit holder may also contact the top surface  24  of the handle directly instead of the spindle cover. The plate  61  and the spindle cover  65  are preferably made of the same plastic material as the handle. Preferred plastic materials are those derived from polypropylene, acrylonitrile, butadiene and styrene. The bit holder  75  as shown in FIG. 5 is cylindrical in shape to match the geometric shape of the base  73  of the upper section  70  of the spindle cover. Alternately, the bit holder  75  should match the fastening means on the handle if this is connected directly to the handle instead of the spindle cover. Other geometric shapes are within the scope of this invention. The shape of the bit holder  75  should match the shape of the base  73  of the spindle cover if the attachment is by snap or friction fitting. If other fastening means are used, then it may not be necessary to match the geometric shapes of the bases of the spindle cover and the bit holder. The preferred bit holder  75  has two chambers, a hollow bottom chamber  77  for housing the upper section  70  of the spindle cover and a solid upper chamber  78  having tubular openings  79  for receiving a bit for each opening. The number of openings is at the discretion of the manufacturer and would depend upon the number of bits the holder has to store as well as the size of the upper chamber  78 . The chambers of the bit holder may be molded in one piece or molded separately and later fused together. The height of the upper chamber  78  and consequently, the tubular openings  79  is preferably less than the height of the bit stem  59  so as to allow the bits to axially protrude from the tip of the upper chamber of the bit holder to enable one to easily remove and return a bit to the bit holder as shown in FIG.  1 . To accommodate a cover  80  for the bit holder to keep the bits securely stored, the diameter of the solid upper chamber  78  of the bit holder is smaller than the diameter of the hollow lower chamber  77  so as to form another flange  81  from the top surface  82  of the hollow lower chamber  77  surrounding the bottom edge of the upper chamber  78 . The cover  80  snaps or friction fits over the upper chamber  78  to engage circumferentially with the flange  81 . The height of the cap is preferably just a little bit above the heights of the bits, that is, just a bit taller than the tallest bit, to prevent the tips from slipping out of the bit holder when the nail care device is stored at any position, for example, inside one&#39;s purse or bag, especially at the upside down position. The heights of the bits should be almost the same to prevent the shortest bit from slipping out of the bit holder. The cover  80  also keeps the bits from environmental factors such as dust, moisture, fumes, etc. The bit holder  75  and the cover  80  are preferably made of clear plastic material such as those derived from styrene acrylonitrile copolymer, polycarbonate, and polymethyl methacrylate for easy identification of the types of bit stored in the nail care device. 
     The bits  86  are made preferably of a metal stem  59  such as steel on which a fingernail grooming head or bit head  60  is attached at the top end  83  of the stem  59  as shown in FIG.  10 . The bit head is attached by glue to the top end  83  of the stem or the top end of the stem is etched according to a desired pattern as one found in metal nail files or as in the case of the cuticle remover bit  84  shown in FIG. 10, diamond particles are plated on a slender etched top end  85  of the stem. The materials making up the head  60  of the bit  86  varies according to their function. For example, typical materials used for filing, trimming and shaping are abrasive materials such as sapphire, abrasive stone, crude diamond, carbide, and carborundum while materials for buffing, polishing and cleaning are nonabrasive such as pressed cotton or pressed fabric material or wood. The shape of the bit heads also vary according to its desired function. These head may be cylindrical, wedged shape, crescent shape, disc shaped, frustum shaped, conical, etc. The preferred glue for sticking the bit head  60  to the bit stem  59  is a mixture of epoxy, ethylamine, benzyl and grit powder. 
     To use the nail care device, a user opens the cover or cap  80 , selects the bit  86  appropriate for the desired grooming function and inserts this bit to the inner sleeve  57  of the spindle. The user then turns on the switch  15  to start the electric motor  12  that rotates the shaft  23  and consequently, the spindle  53  that is attached to the shaft. The bit head  60  is then brought into contact with the fingernail surface that the user desires to groom until the desired function is achieved, at which point the switch is turned off to stop the motor. 
     The nail care device may also be used manually without triggering the motor when rotation of the bit head is not required or preferred. 
     The nail care device as shown here is designed for a portable hand held device but this may be manufactured in any desired size. 
     While the embodiment of the present invention has been described, it should be understood that various changes, modifications and adaptations may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims. Those skilled in the art will recognize that other and further variations of the features presented herein are possible. The scope of the present invention should be determined by the teachings disclosed herein, the appended claims and their legal equivalents.