What's inside a toothbrush?

I used a toothbrush from the brand 'Braun', to find out how the toothbrush looks on the inside. I've cut the outer case on it's lenght.

The inside consist of different parts, assembled in such way that you can remove them out of the outer case in one part. Here's a picture of the inside in one part.

The inside parts: 

When you recharge your toothbrush, the coil supplies electric flux. The electric flux recharges the battery in the toothbrush.

When you turn on the electric toothbrush, the electric flux flows from the battery to the motor, which converts electric energy into mechanical movement. The operation of the toothbrush is explained later on, in this blog.

update: 23/10/10

last update: 31/10/10

The electric toothbrush: info, history and research

Introduction
I'm a student Industrial Design, for the course Technological Design Engineering, we have to choose a product device and study the technological side of the product: How does the product work? What kind of materials are used?...


On this blog I'll explain the technology behind the electric toothbrush. I'll explain why the product is designed in such way, and how everything works that everyone who reads this blog understands everything as well, even for the ones who are not very familiar with technology.





The electric toothbrush


The electric toothbrush uses electric power supplied by a battery to move the brush head of the toothbrush. There are 2 types of electric toothbrushes: sonic toothbrushes and rotating sonic toothbrushes. The rotating toothbrushes have a round brushhead, the sonic ones have the normal shape. Research proved that electric toothbrushes can remove more plaque than normal ones.


                       sonic                                               rotating

 

 

I analised a rotating toothbrush, as you can see on the picture, from the brand Braun.

History

The first real electric toothbrush was introduced in 1880, but in 1939 it was fabricated for the first time in Switzerland. 


The electrical toothbrush was first marketed in the United States in 1959 by Squibb. The brush was called the Broxodent.


General Electric introduced a rechargeable cordless toothbrush in 1961. 
Similar to the Broxodent in function, it differed in that it was cordless with rechargeable NiCad batteries, while the Broxodent plugged into a standard wall outlet and run on AC line voltage. 

  

                            Broxodent                                              General Electric

Interplak was the first rotary action electrical toothbrush for home use, introduced in 1987.

Today the brands, types, and colours of toothbrushes on the market are almost endless. In spite of this, certain African and American populations still use tree branches to care for their teeth!




Research

I also found some interesting video's and websites with information of electric toothbrushes, what's inside the toothbrush and how they work.

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/electrictoothbrush.html

http://kmoddl.library.cornell.edu/leonardo/