Collapsible brush

A brush frame is provided which supports a slidable handle and a plurality of rotatable bristle-carrying rods arranged with their longitudinal axes parallel to one another. The handle includes projections extending into curved grooves within the rods whereby when the handle is displaced relative to the frame, the rods are rotated about their axes to raise or lower the bristles.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a collapsible hair brush construction 
which is compact, lightweight and portable. 
A number of attempts have been made to develop collapsible brushes. 
However, such prior efforts have usually suffered important shortcomings 
which the present invention overcomes. A typical example of the prior art 
is U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,914 which issued on Apr. 6, 1976 to Albert Jacoby. 
The Jacoby patent discloses a compact hairbrush having a collapsible 
handle which, when extended, raises rows of bristles from collapsed 
overlying relationship to an erected state. This is accomplished by a type 
of rack and pinion arrangement which is expensive to produce and which is 
subject to wear and breakage. Additionally, the bristles are raised to 
substantially parallel planes which produce less than optimum 
effectiveness in the normal brushing of one's hair. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention constitutes a substantial improvement over prior art 
devices by providing a simple, economical collapsible brush construction 
wherein, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, extension of a 
retractable handle causes the bristles to elevate to lie in non-parallel 
planes thereby permitting better management of the hair during the normal 
brushing stroke. 
The foregoing is accomplished by joining the handle in operative 
relationship with a plurality of cylindrical rods which support the 
bristles. When the handle is actuated, the rods are rotated about their 
longitudinal axes by differing amounts, thereby displacing the bristles 
between their collapsed and erected states.

Referring now to the drawings, FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate a frame member 10 
comprising a pair of walls 12 and 14 joined by spaced bottom portions 16 
and 18. Preferably, frame 10 is a one-piece construction molded from a 
lightweight plastic material. 
A plurality of apertures 20 are provided at corresponding locations in 
walls 12 and 14 in order to rotatably receive a plurality of cylindrical 
rods 22 having their longitudinal axes extending parallel to one another. 
Each of the rods supports a row of brush bristles 26. 
A handle 28 (FIG. 3) comprises base member 30 supporting a plurality of 
T-shaped projections 32 which cooperate with rods 22 as hereinafter will 
be described. The handle further includes a flared projecting portion 34 
and a grip portion 36. Again, the handle preferably is a single piece 
construction of molded plastic. 
The sections of handle base member 30 outwardly of flared portion 34 rest 
on bottom portions 16 and 18 of the frame, while the flared and grip 
portions 34 and 36 of the handle are positioned in the space between 
portions 16 and 18. The handle is movable in a direction parallel to the 
longitudinal axes of rods 22, as shown by the arrowheads in FIG. 1, 
between a retracted position wherein the handle is completely within the 
frame and an extended position limited by the flaring portion 34 engaging 
the wall 14. 
As can be appreciated from FIGS. 2, 4 and 5, each of the rods 22 is 
provided with a groove 38 having a T-shaped cross-section to receive the 
projections 32 of the handle 28. While a T-shape is employed for the 
projections 32 of the handle and the cross-section of grooves 38, it will 
be appreciated that other convenient shapes also may be employed. Each 
groove 38 extends generally longitudinally of its respective rod for a 
portion of its distance and then describes a partially helical curve 
transcribing up to 90.degree. of the circumference of the rod. 
Consequently, when the projections 32 are moved within the curved portions 
of the grooves due to activation of the handle 28, the rods 22 are rotated 
up to 90.degree.. 
As can be seen in FIG. 5, in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the 
curvature of the grooves 38 commences at different points along the 
respective rods 22. In the central rod, the curvature begins at a point 
located closer to wall 12 of the frame 10 than in the case of the 
remaining rods, the distances to the beginning of curvature increasing for 
successive rods positioned outwardly of the central rod. Accordingly, with 
the projections 32 of handle 28 lying in a plane transverse to the 
longitudinal axes of rods 22, for a given displacement of the projections 
with respect to the curved grooves in the rods, the latter will be rotated 
by differing amounts. Thus, if the rows of bristles on the rods are 
arranged to be in overlapping contacting relationship with bristles of one 
or more adjacent rods when the handle 28 is fully retracted within the 
frame, subsequent extension of the handle to a point where the center rod 
rotates 90.degree. results in its bristles being erected 90.degree. while 
the remaining bristles are raised by lesser amounts. Consequently, the 
tips of the bristles define an arc, as indicated by the line designated as 
40 in FIG. 1. This bristle arrangement facilitates the brushing of one's 
hair. 
It should be noted that the direction of curvature of the grooves in rods 
22 positioned outwardly of the central rod(s) is a symmetrical 
arrangement. This results in corresponding ones of these rods being 
rotated in different directions. Thus, when the handle 28 is retracted, 
approximately half the bristles will collapse in one direction and half in 
the other. 
While such an arrangement as just described with respect to FIGS. 1-5 is 
preferred, it should also be appreciated that by not staggering the 
locations along rods 22 where curvature of the grooves 38 begins, 
actuation of the handle 28 results in the rods rotating by equal amounts. 
With such an arrangement each of the rows of bristles can be raised 
90.degree. so that the planes of the bristles are parallel when they are 
erected. In this case, there is no arc described by the bristle tips 
unless the bristles in adjacent rows are of different size and/or the axes 
of the rods 22 are not in the same plane. By appropriate arrangement of 
the curvature of the grooves 38 in the rods 22, the bristles also can be 
collapsed in one direction. 
With the brush construction just described, a compact, portable, 
lightweight and collapsible brush is provided which is economical to 
produce and which does not include components which are subject to 
substantial wear.