Brushes

All of the uses for which brushes are needed across the contexts of industry, commerce and consumer products have inspired the creation of countless brush configurations. Artist brushes, which can be used for painting and detailed cleaning, can be fitted with time-tested sable hair as well as new, innovative synthetic bristles. Bottle brushes, just one example of the many cleaning brush configurations, can be used for cleaning bottles, machinery and other objects that may be difficult to clean with large brushes. Strip brushes, which are brushes arranged in a long strip, can be used as seals in the space between doors and door frames, and they can also be used as cleaning tools. Like many other brush varieties, their bristles are often composed of Nylon, a synthetic material that is characterized by abrasion resistance, strength and other favorable qualities. For heavy duty surface treatment applications, metal wire brushes can be used; wire bristles are often useful in finishing and deburring, especially when used with wheel brushes. Both wheel brushes and spiral brushes can be attached to machinery that spin the brush around at high speeds, making them exceptional surface treatment tools.

Industrial operations, commercial enterprises and individuals all over the world make use of some variety of brush for some purpose. The most widely used brush variety in the world is the broom, and its variations can be found in more homes and places of business than not. Even in the cleanest offices, dust accumulation warrants the use of brooms to maintain the appearance and healthiness of workspaces. In homes, where cleanliness and safety are also very important, brooms serve the same purpose. Successful professionals in industry make the connection between workspace safety and productivity; brooms of all shapes and sizes are employed on warehouse and factory floors as well as in break rooms and all other spaces in and around an industrial operation. The manufacture and fabrication of plastic, wooden and metal parts in particular creates a high volume of debris, and using push brooms and sweepers in concert with ventilation systems and vacuums can improve the safety of a workspace. Brooms are the most basic of all brush designs, though they share the same basic principal that all brush varieties have in common; all brushes are collections of bristles mounted to a surface.

Every kind of brush meets this basic criterion, but they distinguish themselves from each other based on their construction, composition and their use. Metal manufacturers and fabricators rely on metal wire brushes for deburring, surface brushing and parts cleaning. Metal wire brushes can be hand-held or machine-operated; hand-held metal wire brushes tend to be used for heavy duty scrubbing, and machine-operated metal wire brushes are used to machine or treat a surface. Strip brushes, cylinder brushes, spiral brushes and cup brushes also, depending on their construction, can be used for light and heavy-duty manufacturing processes. A strip brush, for example, can be affixed to doors and used as seals, or they can be used as components in manufacturing equipment. Specialized processes call for brushes with special qualities. During the fabrication of sensitive electronics, ESD cleanroom nylon static dissipative or conductive brushes must be used for parts cleaning and static elimination. Nylon bristles can also be used in food processing, but in the form of nylon cup, strip and cylinder brushes used for fruit and vegetable cleaning. All other brush varieties are specifically designed to suit their intended use.

The possibilities for brush bristle composition are extensive because of the great variety of tasks to which brushes are assigned. Metal wire brush bristles can be made of steel, stainless steel, brass, bronze, copper, nickel silver or titanium filaments. Each material is chosen based on its qualities of abrasiveness, conductivity and corrosion resistance. Wheel, cup and end power brushes' filaments are usually crimped to maintain cutting action as the brush wears; some metals bend better than others, which is another important variable to consider when choosing bristle composition. Abrasive nylon embedded with 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 horse hair, polypropylene and nylon. Twisted-in wire tube and bottle cleaning brush filaments are usually either nylon or metal. Filament density, material type and coarseness determine a brush's performance. As nature of the demand for brushes in industrial processes changes, brush materials will change to meet those needs.

Image Provided by Braun Brush Company	Image Provided by Schaefer Brush Manufacturing

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. Brass brushes are perfect for use in applications that require burnishing, polishing, non-sparking static spark removal and some deburring and material removal.
• Brooms are bristled, manual cleaning tools attached to a handle.
• 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 or distributors of 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.
• Industrial brushes are bristled tools used for machining, cleaning and surface treatment in industrial contexts.
• 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; they prevent harmful ferrous deposits from building up, and they can burnish without removing the base material.
  
• Strip brushes are metal channel brushes that are used to seal doors and that clean products on conveyor systems.
• Sweepers are bristled cleaning tools used for the cleaning of floors and streets.
• 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.