Inside an Electric Razor

Electric razors share a remarkable similarity to electric screwdrivers! When you take apart a razor you find:

A rechargeable battery
A switch
An electric motor
A gear system
The blades that cut the whiskers

Here is the razor we will be exploring today:

When you take the cover off, you find the parts nestled inside very compactly:

The batteries and motor are a unit, and they come out fairly easily. In this picture you can also see the switch on the inside of the front cover:

Printed Circuit Board

The batteries are bonded to the printed circuit board that also contains the charging system, the contacts for the switch and the motor controller. A printed circuit board is a thin piece of fiberglass with copper wires etched on it's surface (we also saw a PCB in the remote control we took apart).

There is also a very tiny auxiliary PCB that holds the 2 LEDs. These LEDs indicate that the battery needs recharging, that the razor is on or that the razor is recharging.

The business end of the razor consists of three rotating blades. The blades engage on three shafts, all of which mesh with the motor's gear in a direct-drive system.