Patent Publication Number: US-6667462-B2

Title: Electric hair waver

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to a kind of electric hair wavers. 
     With reference to FIG.  1  and FIG. 2, the conventional electric hair waver is fitted with thermal insulating sleeve  13  on its handle  2 . Aluminum barrel  1  is fixed on the front end of sleeve  13 . An insulation sheath  6  and lower temperature head  7  are installed one by one onto the front end of aluminum barrel  1 . Clip  5  is hinged to the aluminum barrel and forms a clamp with the handle by means of spring  12  fitted between them. The front part of clip  5  is extended to the front end of the barrel. The heating element  4  inside barrel  1  is successively connected through the wire with indicator  9 , switch  10  and power cord  11  that are all installed inside handle  2 . This kind of hair waver can permanently set curled hair, but is not for the permanent setting of straight hair. When people want to straighten the hair that is out of shape, this kind of hair waver cannot satisfy the demand. In addition, in hair curling, the temperature of the clip of the waver is lower than that temperature of the barrel. This causes uneven heating in different parts of hair, which brings about undesirable curling effects. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An objective of the present invention is to provide a new and improved electric hair waver that heats hair uniformly and can permanently set not only curled hair but also straight hair. 
     Briefly stated, the invention in a preferred form is a hair waver that includes a handle and a clip. The clip is hinged to the handle and forms a clamp with the handle by means of a spring. A sealed lower semi-barrel is fixed on the front end of the handle. An upper semi-barrel and the clip are all hinged to the handle, and the clip is also joined with the upper semi-barrel by a flexible connection. The heater that is connected to the power cord is installed respectively inside of the upper semi-barrel and lower semi-barrel, and the front of them links with a lower temperature head through an insulation sheath. The flexible connection includes a strip keyhole with a large circle that locates on the clip and a joint-pin fitted on the upper semi-barrel that matches the strip keyhole. A push button fixed on the handle is connected to the joint-pin through the drawbar. A reset spring is disposed between the push button and the handle. 
     These two semi-barrels in accordance with one preferred embodiment are fitted with PTC heaters, which possess the features of temperature stabilization so that the hair can be heated uniformly with a uniform temperature. In addition, the flat surfaces of these two semi-barrels can be used to clamp the hair. Traditional curled hair can be formed by rolling, and if moving along the hair, the required straight hairstyle can be obtained. In addition, the hair may be fitted with semi-barrels having different shapes of surfaces, so that the hair can be permanently set in a variety of hairstyles, such as the hair with small waves, etc. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Further description is given below with attached drawings and practical examples in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the inner structure of a conventional electric hair waver; 
     FIG. 2 is a general view for the conventional electric hair waver of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a sectional view of one embodiment of an electric hair waver in accordance with the present invention; 
     FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 for a first operation condition; 
     FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 for a second operation condition; 
     FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 for a third operation condition; and 
     FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 for a fourth operation condition. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     With reference to FIGS. 3,  4 , and  5 , a hair waver in accordance with the invention includes a handle  2  and a clip  5 . Clip  5  is hinged to handle  2  and forms the clamp with the handle by means of spring  12 . A sealed lower semi-barrel  3  is fixed on the front end of the handle  2 . An upper semi-barrel  1  and the clip  5  are all hinged to handle  2 . Clip  5  is also joined with the upper semi-barrel  1  by a flexible connection. 
     A heater  4  that is connected with a power cord is installed respectively inside upper semi-barrel  1  and lower semi-barrel  3 . The front of the barrels links with lower temperature head  7  through an insulation sheath  6 . 
     The flexible connection includes a strip keyhole  19  with a large circle that locates on the clip  5  and a joint-pin  17  fitted on the upper barrel that matches the strip keyhole. A push button  15  fixed on the handle  2  is connected to the draw-pin through a drawbar  16 . Reset spring  18  is fitted between the push button and the handle. In addition as shown in FIG. 7, there are meshing elongated sawtooth lugs  8  on the opposite surfaces of the upper semi-barrel and the lower semi-barrel. The sawtooth lugs  8  of upper semi-barrel are located on a moving meshing plate  9 . The meshing plate  9  links with a movable joint bar  11  that is hinged to handle  2 . Joint bar  11  also has a strip keyhole  19  with a large circle on it, which matches the joint-pin  17  that is fixed on the upper semi-barrel. The other parts of this embodiment are substantially the same as conventional electric hair wavers. 
     Through the reciprocating movement of push button  15  inside handle  2 , drawbar  16  is moved and makes the joint-pin  17  move back and forth in the strip hole  19 . As shown in FIG. 4, if the push button  15  is pushed to the left, the head of the joint-pin  16  will align with the large circle of the keyhole in clip  5 , and therefore, clip  5  can swing up and down to clamp and roll the hair. This is the curling function of the waver. 
     With reference to FIG. 5, if the push button  15  is pushed to the right, the joint-pin  17  goes right and enters into the narrow hole of the keyhole in clip  5 , then the clip and the upper semi-barrel are integrated into an organic whole by joint-pin  17 . Consequently, the upper semi-barrel and lower semi-barrel can be driven by the clamp to provide the operation of hair straightening. 
     As shown in FIG. 6, if joint-pin  17  turns left and enters into the narrow hole of the keyhole in meshing plate  9 , then meshing plate  9  and the upper semi-barrel are integrated into an organic whole by joint-pin  17 . As a result, the upper semi-barrel with meshing plate can be advanced by the clip to swing up and down the hair, which is being clamped in sawtooth lugs  8  between the meshing plate and the lower semi-barrel. By this way, the hairstyle with small waves or combinations of hairstyles can be permanently set.