HEARD, Dale (11 Sainsbury Court, Mount Clear, VIC 3350, AU)
HEARD, Dale (11 Sainsbury Court, Mount Clear, VIC 3350, AU)
The claims defining the invention are as follows:
1. Head lice removal tweezers with opposing coarse nylon bristles contained within moulded ends on each prong, that when squeezed together form an inter-weaved mesh that allows hair strands to pass through, and are tight enough to catch head lice and eggs within the bristles and remove them from the hair strand.
2. Tweezers as claimed in claim 1, wherein the tweezers have small ridges on the external sides to assist with holding and maintaining grip on the tweezers.
3. Tweezers as claimed in claim 1 and 2, wherein the tweezers have reinforcing added to the inside of the tweezer arms to prevent excessive flexing during use.
4. Tweezers according to any of one of the claims 1 - 3, wherein the tweezers are made of material to allow sterilisation for repetitive use and prevent re- infestation. 5. The tweezers substantially as herein before described with reference to figures
1 - 4 of the accompanying drawings.
Serena Heard 24 January 2009 (Name of applicant(s)) (Date) |
AUSTRALIA
Patents Act 1990
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT
HEAD LICE REMOVAL TWEEZERS "Nit Ripper"
The following statement is a full description of this invention, with suggested manufacturing process
HEAD LICE REMOVAL TWEEZERS
Head lice and eggs in hair can be difficult to remove. Commonly available methods such as chemical treatments or head lice combs will remove multiple lice and eggs from the hair, but it is difficult to remove individual eggs from the base of hair strands and hard to reach areas around the head using traditional head lice combs. Tweezers can be utilised, but the flat design of available tweezers often grab the hair rather than the egg, pulling the hair strand and causing discomfort. This invention has been devised to incorporate coarse nylon bristles that inter-mesh at the end of tweezers prongs, which allows the hair strand to pull through the bristles to capture and remove the lice and/or egg without pulling the hair.
The head lice removal tweezers have multiple coarse nylon bristles that are contained within moulded ends on each prong, providing two opposing sets of bristles that when squeezed together form an inter-weaved mesh that allows hair strands to pass through, and are tight enough to catch head lice and eggs within the bristles and remove them from the hair strand. On the external sides on the tweezers, small ridges would provide areas to assist with holding and maintaining grip on the tweezers while grasping lice and eggs on the hair strand.
The tweezers would be created from moulded plastic to provide an easy method for fixing the nylon bristles to the tweezers prongs, as well as using material that can allow for sterilisation for repetitive use. Each side of the tweezer would be manufactured independently, and clipped together after bristles have been added. This method of manufacture removes the tooling complexity of fixing the bristles to the inner part of a single mould.
The invention may be better understood with reference to the illustrations of the invention which:-
Figure 1 is a side elevation of the nit removal tweezers showing bristles and grip locations,
Figure 2 is top view of the tweezers showing raised ridges to maintain grip of the tweezers,
Figure 3 shows the placement of the bristles within the prongs which would be positioned during the moulding process,
Figure 4 is an internal view of the reinforcing design of the grip section and top view of the bristle placement within the tweezer head.
Figure 5 shows the two tweezer pieces and the method of joining each piece once bristles have been added.
The tweezers shown have opposing bristles 10a and 10b which intermesh to allow the hair to pull through while trapping the lice and/or egg in the bristles, which are encased within the tweezer heads 11 during the head mould process. The body of the tweezers are covered by ridges 12a and 12b to provide a grip location when using the tweezers. To prevent the tweezer arms from flexing during use, additional reinforcing 13 is built into the tweezer arms to keep them rigid and maintain a suitable amount of pressure to the bristles, maintaining contact while the lice and/or egg is being removed and hair is being pulled through the bristles. An alternative to the row of bristles 10a and 10b could be one single bristle grouping on each tweezer head 11 for a single contact point, providing a smaller contact area and also increasing visibility at the bristle contact point. The tweezer arms are joined by clipping together interlocking pieces 14a and 14b.