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Innovative Design of Toothbrush by using Product Design Principles

Article  in  International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology · September 2017

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Innovative Design of Toothbrush by Using

Product Design Principles
Vyankatesh A., Uday G., Shrikant T., Dipanand B.,Sanjay H.,Suraj M.,Pranav D., Sekhar A.S.*,
Machine Design Section, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Madras,Chennai, India
* Corresponding author
Abstract —The design of toothbrush with toothpaste dispenser integrated in it is inspired by the idea
of performing the whole task of brushing teeth single handedly, greatly easing the handicapped. Along
with the designer’s intuition, product design principles are used to make the design decisions
systematically. The designed toothbrush comprises of - head, outer body, helix, collar and a toothpaste
pouch. The toothbrush head has bristles embedded in it. The head is detachable from the outer body
which contains helix, collar and toothpaste pouch in it. The toothbrush can be used for at least fifteen
days to brush teeth when used daily once, before the toothpaste gets exhausted.
Keywords—QFD; TRIZ; function structure; FMEA; value analysis.
I. INTRODUCTION
Toothbrush is an indispensable accessory in the modern lifestyle of humans. A business trip, a camp stay
ordaily life have one thing in common for sure- every morning a toothbrush along with a supplement for
cleaning plaque on teeth is must!
Since the invention of modern toothbrush [1] in 1930s, there have been advances in bristle and toothbrush
body material and in the technology of embedding bristles in the toothbrush body. If the functionality of the
toothbrush is plotted against the time we qualitatively observe an ‘S’ curve (sigmoid curve). With the invention
of electric toothbrush in 1954 [2] and multiple utility toothbrushes thereafter, the functionality of the toothbrush
is constantly evolving with features like travel readiness and integrated toothpaste dispenser.
The product design objective in this paperis concentrated on a toothbrush which has an integrated toothpaste
dispenser. The design challenge here is pumping out the toothpaste from the dispenser to the bristles uniformly
regardless of the amount of paste remaining in the container. The mechanisms for the same can be classified as-
push button operated [3], slider operated [4],[5],[6]and with the ones with rotating input [7]. Along with the
above-mentioned task, freshness of the toothpaste should be maintained. Foreign substance must not travel into
toothpaste chamber via bristles.
Before starting the structural and mechanism design, different pre-design activities like mission statement,
customer survey, function structure, quality function deployment (QFD) of toothbrush are essential. These are
mentioned in section II. In section III, a pool of ideas is generated by brainstorming and surveying existing
patents. The mechanism for pumping out the paste is finalized using the design concept evaluation tools which
explained briefly in section III. Section V gives design and analysis of the toothbrush. The mechanism consists
of a helix, collar and toothpaste pouch contained in a cylindrical body of the toothbrush. Toothbrush head and
neck is a separate part from brush body.After deciding upon the mechanism, dimensions of the relevant parts are
estimated by calculating how much amount of toothpaste is needed at a time and by taking into account of
ergonomic considerations such as force required to rotate the helix and push the toothpaste. The failure modes
of the mechanism and value analysis of the toothbrush are discussed in section V. Finally the estimated cost of
the product is calculated only based upon material and manufacturing processes.

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II. DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

A. Mission statement
Table 1 illustratesthe mission statement of the product. It is a pre-design activity which defines the product.
The product is a toothbrush with toothpaste filled within. It should be compact and affordable. While there are
some limitations like amount of toothpaste, cost, etc. It is important to decide other extra features required to
enhance its utility.
B. Customer Survey
Customer survey was carried out using an online questionnaire. Around 110 customers responded. Most of
the customers were students and working professionals. Following are the main outcomes from the survey.
1. For52.7 % of the respondents, the median of days a trip lasted was not more than 4 days.This
decidesthe number of days toothpaste should last for a travel ready toothbrush
2. Use and throw brush and the brush with interchangeable bristles are preferred almost equally. Views
slightly inclined towards interchangeable technology.
3. A big chunk of people (52.7 %) buy toothbrush in the range of INR 30-50.
4. Most of them usea toothbrush for 2-3 months.
5. Other than toothpaste dispenser, customers preferred tongue cleaner, dental floss, mouthwash dispenser
and hand wash dispenser (in decreasing order) as extra features.
TABLE I. MISSION STATEMENT OF TOOTHBRUSH

A device that
 combines the functionality of toothpaste and toothbrush
Mission Statement
 is light weight, compact, easy to use
 is independent and travel ready
A toothbrush with paste filled within. Utility enhanced with features such
Product description
as tongue cleaner, dental floss etc.
Project goals Reduce preparation time, number of components, toothpaste wastage
Who can brush teeth on their own!
Primary market
And those who are learning to do it!
Secondary Market Travelers
 Size same as old toothbrush or slightly larger
Expected characteristics  Easy to operate and refill
 Affordable , Good bristles and grip
Stakeholders Manufacturers, users, retailers
Avenues for creative design Add more features to improve utility
 Amount of paste stored
Project scope/Limitations  Number of feature incorporated
 Cost
C. Function Structure
For toothpaste to reach bristles from toothpaste dispenser, different activities are to be carried out and their
relation is given by function structure. Fig. 1 shows function structure of the product. In function structure, thick
line shows material flow and normal line indicates energy flow while information flow is shown by dotted line.
D. Quality Function Deployment
The QFD method is used to find important engineering parameters in the design of toothbrush. Standard QFD
method is applied with 10 WHATs and 10 HOWs parameters. AURELLE TOOB and UltiBrush [3] are used as
references. QFD shows following parameters are more important in design.
1. Moderate length of toothbrush
2. High bristle quality
3. Less force to operate and refill
4. Easy assembly
5. Low cost

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Fig. 1. Function structure of the toothbrush

III. CONCEPT GENERATION AND EVALUATION

A. Concept Generation
The process of concept generation begins with customer needs and converting these needs into appropriate
functions of a product. This study usesmorphological method and TRIZ analysis for generating the ideas.
1) Morphology
The function of the toothbrush is divided into mutually independent functions. Morphological analysis is done
for three such functions shown inTable 2. Different concepts generated during morphological analysis are
briefly explained below along with pictorial representation of a few:
a) Orifice:The toothpaste squeezes out through an orifice on toothbrush head. The assumption here is that
the resistance of the orifice to fluid flow and the fact that toothpaste itself is filled upin the narrow duct behind
the orifice will stop water from entering the dispenser. Figure 2 shows toothbrush head with orifice.
b) ManualValve: To avoid return flow of water, manual valve can be used. It can be operated by finger by
slider motion behind bristles. Figure 3 shows toothbrush head with manual value.
c) Check valve:For automatic operation, check valvecan be used. Check valve is spring and block. It will
act as non-return valve. Figure 4 shows schematic of check value.
d) Lead screw-Nut: In this mechanism, lead screw is fixed and nut advances after rotation. It pushes
toothpaste to flow.
e) Roller-Band belt: For only forward motion, Band threads are used on belt. Roller is used to rotate the
belt. After one rotation of roller, disc connected to belt advances through one Band thread and gets locked. Disc
pushes toothpaste to flow.
f) Slider-Disk: A thumb operated slider that simply compresses the toothpaste from dispenser to
toothbrush head.
g) Helix grooves: Helix grooves are provided on inner side of outer cylinder and extrusion is provided on
outer side of inner cylinder which contains toothpaste. As outer cylinder is rotated, toothpaste moves.
Threads, Snap fit, Screw, Adhesion are the options to connect head with dispenser body.
TABLE II MORPHOLOGIICAL ANALYSIS

Functions Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3 Concept 4

Transfer toothpaste on bristles Orifice Manual Valve Check Valve -

Transfer toothpaste from dispenser Lead screw- Roller-Band Helix

Slider-Disk
to head of toothbrush Nut thread belt grooves
Connect Head and Dispenser Threads Snap fit Screw Adhesion

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Fig. 2. Toothbrush head with orifice Fig. 3. Toothbrush head with manual valve

Fig. 4. Toothbrush head with check valve

2) TRIZ analysis
Using TRIZ [8] consists of three steps- identifying the problem, looking up the table of contradictions and trying
out the suggested inventive principles. The objective here is to improve adaptability of the mechanism and
volume of the moving object i.e. paste in this case. While doing so, the conflicting parameters are- area of the
moving object, amount of substance,manufacturability and energy spent by moving object.With selected
conflicting design parameters, the contradiction table suggests following inventive principles:
a) Nesting (07): It says that two parts may be nested. It hints that there should be some kind of function
sharing. In this case, the toothpaste pouch is placed inside the actuating mechanism i.e. the helix, which in turn
is placed inside the outer cylindrical body of the toothbrush.
b) Inversion (13): The mobile parts are made immobile and vice versa. Toothpaste pushing mechanism
inversions were tried out
c) Flexible film or thin membrane (30): It states that an object may be isolated from its environment with
a thin film or fine membranes. This inspired the idea of putting paste in a separate removable pouch.
B. Concept Evaluation
Decision matrix is used to find out the best generated concept for performing the required functions mentioned
in the morphology chart. After applying the decision matrix method, it is found that orifice would be the most
suitable mechanism for transferring the toothpaste on bristles. Similarly, transfer of toothpaste from dispenser to
head of toothbrush is more favorably done by using helix grooves technique. For connecting the toothbrush head
with the dispenser body threads are preferred.
IV. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
A. Structural and Mechanism design
Fig. 5 shows assembly view of the designed toothbrush.
1. Bristles
2. Toothbrush head
3. Outer cylinder (body)
4. Inner helix
5. Collar
6.Dispenser Pouch
B. Working of Toothbrush
Outer cylinder (refer Fig. 5) is used to hold all parts of the toothbrush and other attachments. The outer cylinder
has the two axial straight grooves which enable the axial motion of collar. Inner cylinder, placed inside the outer
cylinder, has helical grooves. With rotation of inner cylinder, collar inside it moves axially by screw action and
pushes the paste in forward direction. The toothbrush head has bristles on one side and the tongue cleaner on the
back side. It also has aductthrough which toothpaste flows up to the bristles. Toothpaste comes out of an orifice
at the end of the ductin toothbrush head. It also resists from water flowing back in the toothpaste dispenser. The
toothpaste dispenser pouch is placed inside the inner cylinder.

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C. Handd tool Design

Total weight of the tooothbrush with polypropylenne as material comes out to be 42.2g. Daiily need of too othpaste is
assumed as 1.67g and if we are to store the toothhpaste for 30 days, it direcctly gives the diameter and length of
the toothhpaste dispennser as 16 mm m and 90 mm m respectiveely. So, with proper clearrance, the diaameter of
toothpastte handle is 20
2 mm which is comfortabble for holding g while brushhing. The headd is bent 5 deegrees for
ergonommic brushing movement.
m Forrce required foor squeezing the
t toothpaste in dispenser ppouch can be estimated
by considdering the varrious losses at sudden contraaction and corrners etc. Heaad loss is givenn by,
∙
                   ∙ 2            1
2 2 2

Fig. 5. Assembbly view of desig

gned toothbrush

Where, V is the averagge velocity off the toothpasste, L is length h of pipe, D is i diameter off pipe, g is acceleration
due to grravity, f  is thee friction coeefficient. k1,  k2 and k3 are minor loss cooefficient. Preessure requireed to push
toothpastte out of orificce,
  1450                             2
Force to be applied at plunger produuct of pressuree and area of plunger. p It com mes out as0.22915 N. Now torque
t (T)
required rotating helixx is can be calcculated. Forcee (F) applied to o rotate inner helix is givenn by,
  tan n
                             ∙ ∙                              3
2 1 ∙ taan
Where dm is mean diaameter of inneer helix, μ is coefficient off friction betw ween inner heelix and dispeenser, α is
helix anggle of inner cylinder. Theerefore, force required forr the operatioon the toothbrrush comes out o to be,
F=0.95344 N. This valuue is fairly small to operate by thumb.
V. OTHER ASPECTS
A. Failuure mode and effect
e analysiss
To deterrmine mode of o failure of every e componnent in produ uct and its efffect on overaall functionality of the
product FMEA
F analyssis is carried out. o From FM MEA analysis table it is fouund out that thhe collar (Rissk Priority
Number (RPN) =200) is the most critical c compoonent in the design,
d its reliability has to be improved. Detailed
FMEA iss given in Tabble A in Appenndix.
B. Valuee Analysis
Toothbruush head and outer body is i manufacturred by injectiion molding. Bristles are stapled onto the head.
Helixes are
a made by spiral
s formingg. Dispenser pouch is manu ufactured by blow molding. Cost of polyp propylene
is assumeed to be INR 63.48/kg.
6 Thee overall cost of o the productt comes out bee INR 40 apprroximately. This cost is
calculated purely for value
v analysis of the producct and does no ot consist of anny other overhheads and marrgins. Fig.
6 shows value analysiis of our toothhbrush. Parts of o the toothbrrush are in rigght most colum mn while fun
nctions are
listed onn top row. In a cell, top right number indicates i wortth and bottom m left numberr indicates co ost of part
relative to
t function. Frrom value anaalysis, we seee out that tooth hpaste motionn is worth a loot function bu ut actually
bristles cost
c a lot. Therre are no suchh parts whose elimination will w reduce the cost further.

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V SUMMARY
VI. Y
Design of
o the toothbruush is accompllished using well-known
w prroduct design principles whhich enhance designer’s
d
intuition.. The toothbruush designed contains toothhpaste within it and once reefilled, it can be used for at
a least 15
days wheen used daily once. The forrce required too operate tootthbrush is smaall enough to be operated by b thumb.
The desiggn is such thaat complete teeeth cleaning process can be
b accomplishhed by single hand, which is a great
benefit foor the disadvaantaged.
TABLE III VALLUE ANALYSIS OFF TOOTHBRUSH

R
REFERENCE
ES
[1] Yu, Hai-Yang;
H Qian, Lin-Mao;
L Zheng, Jing (2013),Denttal Biotribology, Springer. pp. 18––19. ISBN 978-1--4614-4550-0.
[2] "Whoo invented the tooothbrush and wheen was it? (Everydday Mysteries: Fu un Science Facts from the Libraryy of Congress)". lo
oc.gov.
[3] UltiBrushhttp://ultibruush.com/
[4] Shao--Kai Pei, “Brush having
h storage baag”, US8851782 B2, issued Oct 7, 2014
[5] Kyu HoH Kwak,”Valve means for toothbbrush containing toothpaste dispen nser therein”, US44826341 A, issueed May 2, 1989
[6] Narenndra Sudhakar Shhinde,”A device with brush for controlled dispen nsing of liquid/paste from replacceable tube cartriidge” Indian
Patennt 254023, issued Sept 14, 2012
[7] Martiin; Todd A., “Tooothpaste dispensinng toothbrush”, USU 5908257, issued Jun 1, 1999
[8] Hua, Z.; Yang, J.; Cooulibaly, S.; Zhanng, B. (2006). "Inntegration TRIZ with problem-soolving tools: a litterature review frrom 1995 to
2006"". International Joournal of Businesss Innovation andd Research, 1 (1-2
2): 111–128. Retrrieved 2 October 22010
[9] B.D. Johns,”Paste-N-B
J Brush”, US73677737 B2, issued Maay 6, 2008.
[10] C.D. Gordon,”Toothbr
G rush assembly wiith toothpaste disppenser”,US 6729789 B2, issued Apr
A 22, 2003
[11] D.J Rosenberg,”Comb
R bination toothbruush and toothpastee dispenser” US 6206600
6 B1,issueed Nov 18, 1999
[12] Y. F.. Zhu, "A Designn Principle of Tooothbrush Handlee Based on Ergon nomic Theory", Applied
A Mechaniics and Materialss, Vols. 121-
126, pp.
p 622-626, 20122
[13] AshfaaqAkram,Thean Hock H Tang, Boonn Suen Ang, Robbina Shaheen, Ab bdel Hamid Zaki,, “Perception of a New Design off Toothbrush
by Itss Users”, IOSR Joournal of Dental and
a Medical Scieences (IOSR-JDM MS) e-ISSN: 22799-0853, p-ISSN: 2279-0861.Volum me 14, Issue
5 Verr. I (May. 2015), PP
P 58-61
[14] Bealss D , Ngo T , Feng Y , Cook D , Grau
G DG , Weber DA,”Developmeent and laboratoryy evaluation of a new toothbrush with w a novel
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APPENDIX
TABLE A: FMEA OF TOOTHBRUSH

Occurrence

Detection
Severity
Potential Potential cause of Potential effect(s) of Recommended
SI.No Part RPN
failure mode failure failure action

Pull off ,Loss

Improper/Excessive Unpleasant brushing Choose right type of
1 Bristles of elastic 8 3 1 24
use experience head, replace bristles
property
Internal Ingestion of dust, Toothpaste not Do refilling in
7 4 5 140
Toothbrush blockage impure toothpaste appearing on bristle hygienic places
2
head Excessive Brush is unusable/
Break/crack 8 2 2 32 Replace
force/impact potentially hazardous
Excessive Helix operation
3 Outer body Crack/break 7 3 2 42 Replace
force/impact affected
Broken Impact/ collar Collar movement
4 Inner helix 7 4 4 112 Replace
/deformed entangled affected
Bent/Protrusion Inaccurate helix Dispenser pouch not
5 Collar 8 5 5 200 Replace
break shape getting compressed
Brush head not Wastage of
Dispenser
6 Leakage screwed properly to toothpaste / pressure 8 2 2 32 Replace
pouch
outer body loss

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