Sonicare

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Sonicare is an electric toothbrush manufactured by Philips.

Contents

[edit] Product and technology

The brush head vibrates at hundreds of times per second, with the latest models at 40,000 strokes per minute. Rather than connecting to its charger with conductors, it utilizes inductive charging—the charger includes the primary winding of the voltage-reducing transformer and the fat handle of the brush includes the secondary winding. The magnetic field is not shorted out by spilled liquids around the sink, as an electric field would be. The replaceable head also is driven magnetically.

[edit] History

In 1987, David Giuliani, an entrepreneur with a background in electrical engineering, met with University of Washington professors Drs. David Engel and Roy Martin. They formed a new company named GEMTech to promote a dental hygiene device using a piezoelectric multimorph transducer. After several years of research and creating prototypes, the Sonicare toothbrush was introduced in November 1992 at a periodontal convention in Florida.

In 1995, GEMTech changed its name to Optiva Corporation. In October 2000, Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care, a division of Philips, acquired Optiva Corporation. A few months later Optiva Corporation changed its name to Philips Oral Healthcare, Inc. By the end of 2001, Sonicare had become the number-one selling rechargeable power toothbrush in the United States.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sonicare - Our Story. Sonicare.com. Retrieved on 2008-06-04.

[edit] External links