Patent attributes
A guard element (4) for use in a hair cutting unit as a guard of a movable hair cutting element of the hair cutting unit has a disc-shaped base (10) and an annular wall (20) comprising a main part (21) extending from the periphery of the base (10), and a flange-shaped part (22) comprising an outwardly bent section (24). The annular wall (20) is reinforced on the basis of at least one of a design where a smallest inner periphery of the flange-shaped part (22) has a diameter which is smaller than a diameter of a largest inner periphery of a straight section (23) of the main part (21) connected to the periphery of the base (10), and a design where a free end section (25) of the flange-shaped part (22) is at least partially bent. In an embodiment, at least a portion of the main wall part (21) of the guard element (4) tapers inwardly in a direction along a central axis (11) of the disc-shaped base (10), from the disc-shaped base (10) to the flange-shaped wall part (22), such that the flange-shaped wall part (22) is enlarged with respect to a flange-shaped wall part (22) of a guard element (5) not having the tapered shape of the main wall part (21), resulting in increased stiffness and an increased resonant frequency of the guard element (4).
