Patent ID: 7325550

Claim:
An applicator for liquid or pasty media and for decorative cosmetics such as mascara, the applicator comprising: a rod-shaped reinforcing core made from a first plastic material; and a support sleeve made from a second plastic material, said support sleeve surrounding said core at least in a region of a front end thereof, said support sleeve having a plurality of radially outwardly projecting fingers which are integrally formed on said support sleeve and which are made from said second plastic material, wherein a plurality of said fingers are distributed over a periphery of said support sleeve to form a finger collar (K 1 , K 2 , K 3 . . . ), wherein a plurality N of finger collars (K 1 , K 2 , K 3 . . . ), with equal numbers n of fingers, are disposed one behind the other in a longitudinal direction of said support sleeve wherein: I. a number n of fingers per finger collar (K 1 , K 2 , K 3 . . . ) ranges from 8 to 16; II. a number N of finger collars (K 1 , K 2 , K 3 . . . ), lying one behind the other in an axial direction of said support sleeve, ranges from 14≦N≦30; III. a length l of fingers ranges from 1.5 mm≦l≦3.0 mm; IV. a separation s 1 of free ends of similar fingers of neighboring finger collars (K 1 , K 2 , K 3 . . . ) ranges from 0.6 mm≦s 1 ≦1.5 mm; V. a separation s 2 between feet of fingers of neighboring finger collars (K 1 , K 2 , K 3 . . . ) ranges from 0.2 mm≦s 2 ≦0.5 mm; and VI. an applicator outer diameter D in a range between 6.0 mm and 10.0 mm.