Printed lubricious material disposed on razor blades

Abstract

A razor blade having an improved lubricious material deposited thereon and a method of making a razor blade for a razor cartridge having such a material disposed thereon are described herein. A novel printing process and printing material are provided where at least one printing material is deposited on one or more razor blades via a printing process which includes one or more print heads for printing the at least one printing material and forming at least one printed object on a tip or one or more sides of the razor blade. The printing material may comprise about of about 0.25% solid to about 50% solids by weight of composition of telomer and further desirably comprises glycerol and/or an antifoam material. Optimizing coverage of the printing material may be achieved by changing materials, print heads, the firing frequency of the print head or angling or rotating the print heads.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A razor blade for a razor cartridge, comprising:
 a. a first side, an opposing second side, and a cutting edge extending along a length of said razor blade; and   b. at least one printed object comprised of at least one printing material, said at least one printing material ink-jet printed on said cutting edge of said razor blade.   
     
     
         2 . The razor blade of  claim 1 , wherein said at least one printed object extends along the length of said razor blade. 
     
     
         3 . The razor blade of  claim 1 , wherein said at least one printing material is a polymeric material. 
     
     
         4 . The razor blade of  claim 1 , wherein said at least one printing material is comprised of about 0.25% solid to about 50% solids by weight of composition of telomer. 
     
     
         5 . The razor blade of  claim 1 , further comprises a plurality of printing materials, each one of said plurality of printing materials is comprised of the same composition or of different compositions. 
     
     
         6 . The razor blade of  claim 1 , wherein said at least one printed object has a thickness of about one micrometer as measured in a direction perpendicular to one of said sides of the razor blade. 
     
     
         7 . A razor cartridge comprising a plurality of razor blades each with a cutting edge, with at least one razor blade of said plurality of razor blades having at least one printed object printed thereon, said at least one printed object comprised of at least one printing material and wherein said at least one printing material is comprised of about 0.25% solid to about 50% solids by weight of composition of a telomer material. 
     
     
         8 . The razor cartridge of  claim 7  further comprising about 55% glycerol solution by weight of composition. 
     
     
         9 . The razor cartridge of  claim 7  further comprising less than about 10% by weight of composition of an anti-foaming material. 
     
     
         10 . The razor cartridge of  claim 7 , wherein a diameter of a droplet of printing material ranges from about 10 microns or less to greater than about 200 microns, a volume of a droplet of printing material ranges from about 10 pico liters to about 100 pico liters, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         11 . The razor cartridge of  claim 7 , wherein said at least one printed object has a droplet size ranging from about 40 droplets per inch to about 10,000 droplets per inch. 
     
     
         12 . The razor cartridge of  claim 7 , wherein a first of said at least one razor blades comprises a first printed object comprising a first printing material and a second of said at least one razor blade comprises a second printed object comprising a second printing material, wherein said first printing material and said second printing material are the same or different. 
     
     
         13 . A printing material for razor blades comprising a polymer. 
     
     
         14 . The printing material of  claim 13 , wherein said polymer comprises a telomer from about 0.25% solids to about 50% solids by weight of printing material. 
     
     
         15 . The printing material of  claim 13 , wherein said printing material further comprises a viscosity modifying material. 
     
     
         16 . The printing material of  claim 15 , wherein a viscosity of said printing material is from about 2 centipoise to about 25 centipoise. 
     
     
         17 . The printing material of  claim 13 , wherein said printing material further comprises an anti-foaming material. 
     
     
         18 . The printing material of  claim 17 , wherein said anti-foaming material comprises less than about 10% by weight of composition of said printing material. 
     
     
         19 . The printing material of  claim 13  further comprising about 55% glycerol solution by weight of composition. 
     
     
         20 . The printing material of  claim 13 , wherein said printing material is printed on a razor blade by ink-jet printing.