Patent ID: 7370420

Claim:
A rotary electric shaver with a cutter unit, said cutter unit holding a substantially disk-shaped outer cutter in an outer cutter housing installed at an upper portion of a shaver main body that houses therein a motor, said cutter unit further allowing an inner cutter, which is fitted in said outer cutter from below while being pressed elastically toward said outer cutter, to rotate with a drive shaft that is rotationally driven by said motor, said cutter unit comprising: a cutter receiving stage that is held by said outer cutter housing and is coaxially penetrated by said drive shaft, a pivot case holder that is held by said cutter receiving stage so as to be movable upward and downward, said pivot case holder having a case supporting portion located on a hemispheric surface that faces upward from below said outer cutter, a substantially bowl-shaped pivot case that is held by said pivot case holder so as to make sliding contact with said case supporting portion of said pivot case holder, said pivot case being pivotable in an arbitrary direction and surrounding a lower portion of said inner cutter, an outer cutter ring that is detachably provided on an upper edge portion of the pivot case and in which an outer peripheral edge of the outer cutter is secured to an inside thereof, and a return spring that is provided between said pivot case and said cutter receiving stage so that the return spring returns said pivot case to a position coaxial with said drive shaft; and wherein said pivot case makes sliding contact with said case supporting portion of said pivot case holder so that said pivot case is pivotable together with said outer cutter, and said pivot case is movable upward and downward together with said pivot case holder.