Brushes Industry Information
IQS Newsroom Articles on Brushes
Brushes are a vital component of industrial
manufacturing processes such as surface finishing, facility cleaning,
conveyorized processing and small parts technical cleaning. Brush
suppliers manufacture brushes for many different applications in
a range of application-specific configurations such as artist brushes, cleaning brushes and bottle brushes. Power
brushes are wire
brushes or abrasive nylon brushes which include wheel brushes, cup
brushes, twisted knot brushes and end brushes; these brushes are typically
attached to grinders or other machinery that spin at high speeds for
heavy deburring, metal brushing, plating and polishing. Strip
brushes are black nylon filament clamped together in a thin, straight
line by metal channels, used as flexible seals for doors and product
guides on conveyors, or they are twisted into spiral
brushes or cylinder brushes for textile surfacing or product cleaning.
Twisted-in-wire brushes are nylon or metal filament twisted between a
folded wire and used most often for tube polishing and bottle cleaning. Brooms,
mops, block scrubbers and wire scratch brushes are hand brushes used
in maintenance, parts cleaning and janitorial services.
Parts manufacturers
and metal fabricators rely on brushes to do deburring, surface
brushing and parts cleaning, but many other industries use strip brushes,
cylinder brushes, spiral brushes and cup brushes in their manufacturing
processes as well. Electronic and computer equipment require ESD cleanroom
nylon static dissipative or conductive brushes for cleaning and static
elimination. Food processing uses soft-bristled nylon cup, strip and
cylinder brushes for fruit and vegetable cleaning; textile mills use
cylinder brushes for sueding and felting, while commercial industries
such as household, cosmetic, painting and art rely on brush manufactures
for both products and manufacturing tools. Brushes are made by a variety
of techniques, including twisted-in-wire brush making, hand drawing,
staple setting and strip brush folding. Block wire brush scrubbers are
most often hand-drawn, while other types of block scrubbers, brooms and
cylinder brushes are staple-set.
Power
brushes and wire
brushes
are manufactured with steel, stainless steel, brass, bronze, copper,
nickel silver or titanium wire filament. Different types of metals are
used for their various properties of abrasion, conductivity and
corrosion resistance. Wheel, cup and end power brushes' filament is
usually crimped to maintain cutting action as the brush wears. Abrasive
nylon embedded with abrasive mineral grit is sometimes substituted for
wire filament in power brushes, and power brushes' cutting action is
often amplified by knot twisting sections of wire in wheel, cup or end
brushes or by encasing them in a semi-hard polymer. Other types of
cleanroom, strip, cylinder and maintenance brushes are made from a
variety of natural and synthetic fibers, such as horsehair,
polypropylene and nylon. Twisted-in-wire tube and bottle cleaning
brushes have either nylon or metal filament. Filament density, material
type and coarseness allow a brush to be soft or abrasive, porous or
impervious; for example, a broom made with horsehair fibers will be an
excellent dust and fine dirt collector, while a cylinder brush thinly
bristled with short nylon bristles will be good at texturing fabric.
Power
brushes and other surface finishing brushes may replace deburring
machinery, vibratory
finishers and part
washers in many situations. They present a cost-effective alternative
to purchasing large, expensive deburring
machines for medium to large parts surfacing, since power brushes can
often be attached to a manufacturer's pre-existing equipment or assembly
line. Polishing, plating and cleaning brushes can often be used with
wet solutions to achieve the same result as a tumbler or vibratory
finisher. Cleaning and maintenance brushes such as brooms and
cleanroom brushes have no substitutes in the manufacturing world, and are
a vital part of many processes. Brush
suppliers are constantly innovating the brush industry, designing products
that achieve finer microfinishes, or "plateau finishing" for
superior part performance and safety. Most brush manufacturers offer custom
manufacturing, pledging innovation and advancement in today's rapidly
advancing market of technology and industry.