Brushes

About Brushes and Brushing Including: Artist Brushes, Bottle Brushes, Brooms, Cleaning Brushes, Nylon Brushes, Power Brushes, Spiral Brushes, Strip Brushes, Sweepers, Wheel Brushes & Wire 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.

Brushes and Brushing Image Provided by Braun Brush Company	Brushes and Brushing Image Provided by Schaefer Brush Manufacturing

Brushes and Brushing Image Provided by Spiral Brushes, Inc.

Brush Types

• Artist brushes have the ability to form a sharp tip, allowing for precisely placed paint, have elasticity of the hair, which allows the brush to return to its original shape after a stroke, and have the ability to hold and dispense paint predictably, allowing for good paint flow control.
• Bottle brushes are a type of brush in which the bristles radiate from a central stem and are most commonly used for cleaning hard to reach areas in bottles.
• Brass brushes are made from brass, which is a softer wire than stainless steel; the wire diameters range from extremely soft to still. Brass brushes are perfect for use in applications that require burnishing, polishing, non-sparking static spark removal and some deburring and material removal.
  
• Brush seals are contacting seals that have centerpieces of very flexible pack consisting of thousands of wires or fiber bristles, which constantly adjust to the moving surface. Brush seals are utilized in static and dynamic applications.
  
• Brush suppliers are manufacturers of industrial brushes.
• Cleaning brushes are a vital component of industrial manufacturing processes that involve cleaning and can come in various sizes, depending on the application.
• Cleanroom or ESD (electrostatic discharge) brushes are resistant to electrostatic buildup and are an important component in electronic manufacturing or industries where static electric buildup or charges are detrimental to the manufacturing process.
  
• Cylinder brushes or roller brushes are strip brushes wound around a core or shaft and secured by welding or mechanical fastening. Cylinder brushes, the most commonly used brushes, can be a variety of sizes and made with different filament materials.
  
• Detail brushes, made with nylon bristles, are able to remove wax and dirt build-up from crevices. Brass bristles are useful for removing corrosion from hard-to-reach places, and stainless steel bristles can be used to remove rust from metal or chrome surfaces.
  
• Nylon brushes have abrasive threads for fast and simple removal of paint, rust, scale and other contaminants.
  
• Pencil-shaped applicator brushes have nylon bristles and are useful in applications that require the cleaning of fine areas. These round brushes work well for applying liquids and fluids.
  
• Power brushes, also called machine brushes, are any power-driven, wheel-shaped brushes powered by a machine at variable speeds. Power brushes are used for metal deburring, removing rust, paint or coatings, gear and thread cleaning, surface preparation for welding or painting and surface finishing on a variety of materials.
  
• Spiral brushes are small brushes used for cleaning, bottles, pipes, and tubes.
  
• Stave brushes are long, rectangular wooden or plastic blocks with one or more rows of tufts.
  
• Steel brushes are non-shedding brushes that are highly corrosion-resistant, rust-proof and very strong. Stainless steel brushes have bristles that range from extremely soft to stiff and are used where contamination or rust is a problem, to prevent harmful ferrous deposits from building up and for burnishing without removing the base material.
  
• Strip brushes are metal channel brushes that clean products on a conveyor system.
  
• Tin acid brushes have extra stiff black horsehair bristles with a tin handle and are utilized in soldering applications that include mucilage and with acid.
  
• Twisted in wire brushes are smaller brushes that are basically pieces of doubled-over-wire with bristle material inserted between the fold of the wire stem. These hand-held or machine-powered brushes are smaller than the wheel brushes, so they are useful to reach smaller areas that need to be deburred or finished.
  
• Vacuum brushes are brushes usually made with soft, natural material, such as camel hair, goat hair or sable hair, but may also be made with nylon and other synthetic materials. Vacuum brushes vary in size and shape depending on the work surface from which removal of excess materials is required.
• Wheel brushes are circular-shaped brushes that are commonly used for deburring parts during initial phases of the surface finishing process and polishing during the final phases.
• Wire brushes come in a variety of sizes with either crimped or twisted wire bristles. Wire brushes are ideal for removing rust, paint or welding splatter.

Brush Terms

Abrasive Nylon - Long-wearing material available in several filament diameters and grit sizes. Abrasive nylon is excellent for surface finishing applications.
 
African Bass - A light brownish, very coarse fiber that is typically used in street brooms.
 
Arbor Hole - The diameter of the brush-mounting hole.  
 
Bore - Inside diameter of a core or hub for a roller brush.
 
Brass Wire - Rust-proof and spark resistant, brass provides gentle brushing action.
 
Bristle - The material that does the actual cleaning or cutting.  Bristles can be made of natural, synthetic or metal material.  
 
Bronze Wire - Stiffer than brass with the same non-sparking benefits as brass.
 
Brush Part - The length of the brush area on a core.  Brush parts can be the same or shorter than the overall length
 
Conductive Nylon - A non-marking synthetic brush fiber that can take the static charge created by the brushing action and send it to the ground.
 
Core Diameter - Diameter of a cylindrical brush core.
 
Crimped - Filament that has been composed with a wave pattern and is measured by amplitude and frequency.  
 
Cut End - Part of a twisted in wire brush where the wire has been flush cut at the brush part end.
 
Cylinder - A drive shaft that powers cylindrically shaped brushes.  The brushes are part of an industrial or manufacturing process that requires a clean conveyor or product at a particular point in the process.  
 
End Tuft - A twisted in wire brush where the filament has been gathered to create a tuft parallel to the twist wire.
 
Face Width - Width of the brush face when the brush is in operation. Filament is usually stiffer acting and eliminates streakage.
 
Ferrule - A seamed or seamless steel tube that gathers and binds bristles in paint brushes.
 
Filament - The synthetic fibers that are used to create a brush tuft.
 
Fill Material Size - Thickness of a single filament or wire size in inches.  Nylon ranges from .003 to .125 and wire from .003' - .020'.
 
Flagged - Filament whose ends have been splintered by a series of knives to produce a softer-tipped brush.
 
Goat Hair - Very fine and soft animal hair that is used for very short trim brushes.
 
Hog Bristles - Animal hair that has soft to slightly stiff texture. The natural flagging of hog bristles allows the brush to fit into cracks to remove fine dust.
 
Horsehair - A resilient and long lasting fiber that is excellent for sweeping polished surfaces.
 
Level Fill Material - The straight filament or wire of a brush.
 
Nylon - The toughest and longest wearing synthetic filament available. Nylon is excellent for industrial and food service applications.
 
Oil Tempered Wire - Also called "flat wire", it is a stiff, hard-working, resilient wire used in hand-scratch and power-driven brushes.
 
Overall Diameter (OD) - The diameter of a cylindrical brush measured at the filament ends.
 
Overall Length (OAL) - The length of a brush, usually measured as the length of the core.  
 
Palmyra - A medium stiff to stiff textured vegetable fiber made from the leaf stalks of the Palmyra Palm of India. Palmyra can be mixed with Tampico to produce Union Fibre.
 
Palpro - A synthetic, long-wearing alternative to palmetto that resists acids, alkalis and organic solvents better than any natural bristle material.
 
Patent - A slightly stiffer, more durable selected grade of polished tampico.
 
Pattern - The distance between the tufts usually given by a row and column distance measurement for block brushes and by tufts per circumference and spacing for cylindrical brushes.
 
Phosphorous Bronze - A non-ferrous, non-corrosive material with more temper than brass.
 
Pitch - The distance between wraps on a coil brush.
 
Poly Bass - A synthetic brush material that is large in diameter and resistant to abrasion and most solvents and acids.
 
Poly Core Roller - A cylindrical brush that has a plastic core.
 
Polyester - Heat and moisture resistant synthetic filament. Polyester is also resistant to petroleum products, acetones, ketones, alcohols and weak acids.
 
Polypropylene - A material that has excellent wet stiffness and is resistant to most petroleum solvents, oils, greases, most acids and chemicals.
 
Power Brushing - Any process that uses a power-driven, rotating industrial brush to deburr, clean or finish a metal part.
 
Stainless Steel Wire - Rust-proof and very strong, stainless steel is used to prevent harmful ferrous deposits on brushed parts.
 
Steel Low Carbon Wire - A soft, magnetic material used for light material removal and for surface finishing of soft materials. Steel low carbon wire will rust easily.
 
Tampico - A natural vegetable fiber that can be used wet or dry for scrubbing, washing and dusting applications and can be treated for applications of grease or abrasives.
 
Trim - Length of brush filament from the core.
 
Ultrasonic Welding - A process that utilizes high frequencies of sound to weld the base of a brush to the fill material.