SHAVING CARTRIDGES HAVING A PLURALITY OF ARRAYS

• US 20100288294A1
• Filed: 03/23/2010
• Published: 11/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Gillette Company LLC (The Procter & Gamble Company)
• Original Assignee: Gillette Company (The Procter & Gamble Company)
• Inventors: Fathallah, Paul, Johnson, Robert Harold, O'Connor, William Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 8,661,689 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 132/200
• CPC Class Codes: B26B 21/4012 Housing details, e.g. for cartridges
• CPC Class Codes: B26B 21/4018 Guard elements

Abstract

A razor blade cartridge which has a housing with a proximal end portion, a distal end portion, and one or more blades mounted within the housing. An elongated resilient skin contacting element is joined to the proximal end portion of the housing. The elongated resilient skin contacting element has an alignment array of skin contacting members having a pattern of one or more flexible skin-engaging projections that are generally transverse to one or more of the blades and define a plurality of open channels that facilitate the generally unobstructed passage of hair to one or more of the blades during shaving. The elongated resilient skin contacting element also has at least one additional array of skin contacting members having a pattern that is different than the pattern of the alignment array of skin contacting members.

Claims

1. A razor cartridge comprising:

a housing having a proximal end portion and a distal end portion;

one or more blades mounted within the housing; and

an elongated resilient skin contacting element joined to the proximal end portion of the housing, the elongated resilient skin contacting element comprising

an alignment array of skin contacting members having a pattern of one or more flexible skin-engaging projections that are generally transverse to one or more of the blades and define a plurality of open channels that facilitate the generally unobstructed passage of hair to one or more of the blades during shaving; and

at least one additional array of skin contacting members having a pattern that is different than the pattern of the alignment array of skin contacting members.

2. The razor cartridge of claim 1 wherein the arrays of skin contacting members have different lengths.

3. The razor cartridge of claim 2 wherein the arrays of skin contacting members have different widths.

4. The razor cartridge of claim 1 wherein the additional array of skin contacting members includes one or more flexible skin-engaging projections that is generally parallel to the blades.

5. The razor cartridge of claim 1 wherein the arrays of skin contacting members are spaced apart to define a first elongated gap.

6. The razor cartridge of claim 5 wherein the elongated resilient skin contacting element and the housing are spaced apart to define a second elongated gap.

7. The razor cartridge of claim 1, wherein the elongated resilient skin contacting element has a proximal end portion and a distal end portion and the alignment array of skin contacting members is disposed at the distal end portion of the elongated resilient skin contacting element.

8. The razor cartridge of claim 7 further comprising at least one lateral array of skin contacting members positioned laterally of the alignment array of skin contacting members.

9. The razor cartridge of claim 7 wherein the additional array of skin contacting members is positioned at the proximal end portion of the elongated resilient skin contacting element.

10. A razor cartridge comprising:

a housing;

one or more blades mounted within the housing;

an elongated resilient skin contacting element joined to the housing, the elongated resilient skin contacting element having a proximal end portion and a distal end portion,

a pair of lateral arrays of skin contacting members disposed between the proximal end portion and the distal end portion; and

an alignment array of skin contacting members disposed at the distal end portion of the elongated resilient skin contacting element between the pair of lateral arrays of skin contacting members, wherein the alignment array of skin contacting members includes a plurality of flexible skin-engaging projections that are generally transverse to one or more of the blades and define a plurality of open channels that facilitate the generally unobstructed passage of hair to one or more of the blades during shaving.

11. The razor cartridge of claim 10 wherein a length of the alignment array of skin contacting members is greater than a length of at least one of the pair of lateral arrays of skin contacting members.

12. The razor cartridge of claim 10 further comprising an elongated array of skin contacting members disposed at the proximal end portion of the elongated resilient skin contacting element.

13. The razor cartridge of claim 10 wherein at least one of the lateral arrays of skin contacting members includes one or more rows of flexible skin-engaging projections that are generally parallel to one or more of the blades.

14. The razor cartridge of claim 12 wherein the elongated array of skin contacting members includes one or more rows of flexible skin-engaging projections that are generally parallel to one or more of the blades.

15. The razor cartridge of claim 12 wherein the elongated resilient skin contacting element includes a first and second lateral end portions and the elongated array of skin contacting members extends from the first lateral end portion to the second lateral end portion.

16. The razor cartridge of claim 10 wherein the housing is generally rigid.

17. The razor cartridge of claim 16 further comprising a skin contacting bar positioned between the one or more blades and the elongated resilient skin contacting element.

18. The razor cartridge of claim 17 wherein the skin contacting bar includes a plurality generally rigid projections that are generally aligned with plurality of flexible skin-engaging projections.

19. The razor cartridge of claim 18 wherein the plurality generally rigid projections are spaced apart by about 0.10 mm to about 0.49 mm

20. A method of shaving comprising the steps of:

providing a shaving razor cartridge with at least one blade and an elongated resilient skin contacting element;

stretching a first area of skin in front of the blade with the elongated resilient skin contacting element;

aligning a plurality of hairs behind the first area being stretched with the elongated resilient skin contacting element, whereby the hairs are aligned generally perpendicular to the at least one blade;

stretching another area of skin lateral of the hairs being aligned with the elongated resilient skin contacting element; and

cutting the generally aligned hairs with the one or more blades.