EP1901632B1

EP1901632B1 - Method for manufacturing brushes

Info

Publication number: EP1901632B1
Application number: EP07701587A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Bart Gerard Boucherie
Original assignee: GB Boucherie NV
Current assignee: GB Boucherie NV
Priority date: 2006-02-02
Filing date: 2007-01-18
Publication date: 2010-11-10
Anticipated expiration: 2027-01-18
Also published as: JP2009525081A; DE602007010392D1; JP4958917B2; KR101020688B1; WO2007087694A1; KR20090006048A; BE1017018A3; EP1901632A1

Abstract

Method for manufacturing brushes, characterised in that it consists in (A) providing an amount of loose fibres (1) provided with a base end (2) and a sharp tip (3) and which are all oriented in the same direction; (B) composing fibre bundles (4) from this loose amount of fibres (1); (C) pushing the fibre bundles (4) one by one in openings (5) of a support (6) by exerting a pushing force on one far end, in particular on the base end (2) of the fibres (1) according to the longitudinal direction; (D) providing a holder (7) on the support (6) which is provided with openings (5) corresponding to the fibre pattern which must be realised in the brush; (E) pushing the fibre bundles (4) from the support (6) into the openings (5) of the holder (7) by exerting a pushing force on the same above-mentioned base end (2) of the fibres in the same direction as the above- mentioned push movement, whereby it is made sure that the fibre bundles (4) still partly protrude from the holder (7) with the base ends (2); (F) connecting the above-mentioned base ends (2) of the fibre bundles (4) to each other or to a brush body (10) and (G) removing the holder (7) again.

Description

The present invention concerns a method for manufacturing brushes.
Many methods for manufacturing brushes are already known, among others the methods described in documents EP 0,972,464 and EP 0,972,465 which are particularly important in this context.
In this known method, use is made of a device which consists of at least one support with openings which are mutually arranged according to a certain pattern, whereby fibre bundles can be provided in this support which have to be placed in a brush body.
Further, this method consists of the combination of at least four steps, namely laterally separating fibre bundles from a number of loose fibres by means of a fibre bundle remover which is provided with a recess in which fibres can be gathered when the recess passes a , fibre magazine; gradually providing the above-mentioned fibre bundles in the above-mentioned support in a mechanical manner; transferring, by means of the support, the fibre bundles provided therein to a holder by means of a mutual positioning between each respective fibre bundle and the opening in which it has to be provided, and by subsequently pushing the separate fibre bundles in the longitudinal direction in the above-mentioned openings; and fixing the fibre bundles in the brush body, or at least in a part of the brush body, by means of this holder.
This known method is very suitable for applying fibre bundles in a brush body, and it enables us to manufacture brushes in a simple manner in many varieties as far as thickness of the fibre bundles, colour of the fibres, etc. are concerned.
A disadvantage of this method, however, is that it is not suitable for manufacturing brushes with fibres having a pointed head.
For, such fibres with a pointed head cannot be pushed out of a support via the head side without being damaged, as this head is not strong enough and has too little bearing capacity.
Document EP 1,425,989 in the name of Kwon describes how, with a similar known method, tooth brushes with fibres having a pointed head can be manufactured.
With this method, however, the pointed heads of the fibres are constantly being pushed on, which inevitably leads to the fibres being damaged.
Moreover, the method is only applied to fibres having a total length of 8 to 13 mm, whereby the pointed heads may be 4 to 8 mm long.
However, in order to be able to separate fibre bundles from the fibre magazine, for example by means of the above-mentioned fibre bundle remover with the recess, it is necessary to get hold of the fibres on the cylindrical part.
Indeed, if the fibres were picked up at the pointed heads, the fibres would tend to move away from each other and thus they would not form a nice cylindrical bundle, which is necessary to be able to put the fibre bundle in holes in a support.
In other words, an additional disadvantage of the method described in EP 1,425,989 is that only a very small length remains to get hold of the fibres so as to form fibre bundles.
The present invention aims to remedy the above-mentioned and other disadvantages.
To this end, the invention concerns a method for manufacturing brushes according to the steps as claimed in claim 1.
An advantage of this method according to the invention is that, when fibre bundles are applied in the support, as well as when transferring the fibre bundles from the support to a holder, one always pushes in the same direction, namely on one far end of the fibres, which makes the method suitable for manufacturing brushes with sharp brush hairs.
In order to better explain the characteristics of the invention, the following preferred embodiments are given as an example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

figure 1 schematically represents different steps of the method according to the invention;
figure 2 represents means for composing a fibre bundle from an amount of loose fibres;
figure 3 schematically represents how the fibre bundles can be placed in a support;
figures 4 to 6 schematically represent how the fibre bundles can be provided from a support into a holder;
figure 7 illustrates the embedding of the fibre bundles in a brush body by means of injection-moulding; and
figures 8 to 15 represent successive steps of an alternative method according to the invention.

Figure 1 schematically represents the method according to the invention for manufacturing brushes, whereby the method comprises the following steps:

A) providing an amount of loose fibres 1 which are provided with a base end 2 and a sharp tip 3 and which are all oriented in the same direction;
B) composing this loose amount of fibres into fibre bundles 4;
C) pushing the fibre bundles 4 one by one, by means of a push movement on the base end 2 of the fibres 1 according to the longitudinal direction, in openings 5 of a support 6;
D) providing a holder 7 on the support 6 which is provided with openings 8 corresponding to the fibre pattern which is to be realised in the brush;
E) pushing the fibre bundles 4 from the support 6 into the openings 8 of the holder 7 by exerting a combined pushing force on the base ends 2 of the fibres 1 by means of a device 9 which is suitable to that end, whereby it is made sure that the fibre bundles 4, after having been applied in the holder 7, partly protrude from the holder 7 with their base ends 2;
F) connecting the fibre bundles 4 to a brush body 10 and;
G) removing the holder 7 again.

As is described in EP 0,972,464 and as is represented in figure 2, in order to compose the fibre bundles 4 from an amount of loose fibres 1, use can be made of a fibre magazine 11 and a fibre bundle remover 12 working in conjunction with it which is moved along the fibres 1 provided in the fibre magazine 11 by means of rotation, whereby this fibre bundle remover 12 is provided with a recess 13 in which fibres 1 can be collected so as to form a fibre bundle 4 as said recess 13 passes along the fibre magazine 11.
At the recess 13, the fibre bundle remover 12 is preferably some 0.5 to 2 mm thick, and the fibres 1 are 20 to 22 mm long, such that the cylindrical part of the fibres 1 is sufficiently long to hold the fibres 1.
In this manner is avoided that the fibres 1 must be picked up by the fibre bundle remover 12 over a part of the pointed head 3, as a result of which they would be inclined to move away from each other and would not form a nice cylindrical fibre bundle 4.
The fibres 1 can for example be made of polyester or polyamide.
Figure 3 schematically represents how the separated fibre bundles 4 are provided in the openings 5 of the support 6 by appropriately positioning these fibre bundles 4 opposite the openings 5 concerned and by subsequently pushing these fibre bundles 4 axially in the openings 5 concerned, for example by means of a punch 14.
According to the invention, it is hereby of major importance that the above-mentioned punch 14 exerts its pressure force on the fibre bundles 4 at the base end 2 of the fibres 1.
The openings 5 in the support 6 continue from one side of the support 6 to the other side.
This makes it possible to push the fibre bundles 4 out of the support 6 into a holder 7 in a subsequent step E of the method according to the invention, in the same direction as before, i.e. by again exerting a pressure force on the base end 2 of the fibres 1.
Figures 4 to 6 schematically represent an embodiment whereby a support 6 filled with fibre bundles 4 is provided up to a holder 7 by means of transfer means which are not represented in the figures, and whereby on the other side of the support 2 is provided a device 9 designed to transfer the fibre bundles 4 from the support 6 into the holder 7.
To this end, said device 9 consists of push-out pins 15, fixed on a common support 16 according to a pattern which corresponds to the pattern of the openings 5 in the support 6.
Although it is not strictly necessary according to the invention, a fibre guide 17 is provided in the given example of figures 4 to 6 between the support 6 and the holder 7 which makes it possible, for example, to join certain fibre bundles 4 or to move them in a diagonal direction.
In another embodiment, such a fibre guide 17 could also be used to guide the fibre bundles 4 in such a manner that they end up in the brush body 10 at a certain angle.
In this manner, one and the same support 6 can be used for manufacturing brushes with all sorts of different fibre patterns.
One only has to move the push-out pins 15 in the openings 5 of the support 6 now to transfer the fibre bundles 4 into the holder 7, such that the base ends 2 of these fibre bundles 4 extend over a suitable length from the above-mentioned openings 8 of the holder 7, as is represented in figure 6.
A subsequent step F of the method then consists of connecting the fibre bundles 4 to a brush body 10.
This may be done, as is represented in figure 7, by designing the holder 7 as part of a mould 18, whereby a complementary part 19 of the mould 18 can be put against the holder 7 and one or other substance 21, for example a plastic, can be injected in the mould 18 via a passage 20 so as to form a brush body 10, so that, after the substance 21 has cured, the fibre bundles 4 will be embedded in the brush body 10 with their base ends 2.
By removing the holder 7 and the complementary part 19 from the mould 18, the desired brush is then finally obtained.
Alternatively, it is also possible to mutually connect the fibre bundles 4 protruding from the holder with their base ends 2 in the course of a thermal treatment, by fusing them together for example, or by welding them in a base 30, as will be further discussed.
It is also possible to form such a base during a first injection moulding operation, whereby the fibre bundles 4 are embedded in the base, such that they are being held by the base.
Afterwards, the fibre bundles 4 can be removed from the holder 7 to be possibly worked into a brush body 10 at a later stage, for example also by means of injection-moulding or simply by means of gluing or the like. Figures 8 to 15 represent the successive steps of an alternative method according to the invention for manufacturing a brush.
The first steps of this alternative method, represented in figure 8, are analogous to the above-described method, whereby fibre bundles 4 are separated from an amount of loose fibres 1 and are provided in the openings 5 of a support 6 by exerting a pushing force, for example by means of a punch 14, on the base ends 2 of the fibres 1.
In order to obtain a certain profiling of the brush hairs, as is represented in figure 9, after the fibre bundles 4 have been provided one by one in the support 6, a second support 22 is provided against this first support 6, in which openings 23 are provided corresponding to the first support 6.
As is represented in figure 10, use is then made of a device 24, consisting of a series of push-out pins 25 provided on a support 26 whereby the tips 27 of the push-out pins 25 are aligned in relation to each other according to the above-mentioned profiling.
With this device 24, the fibre bundles 4 can be simultaneously pushed out of the first support 6 into the second support 22, whereby the fibre bundles 4 still protrude out of the second support 22 over a certain length 28 with their base ends 22, as a function of the profiling of the push-out pins 25, as is represented in figure 11.
A subsequent step then consists, as is represented in figures 11 and 12, of cutting off the parts 28 of the fibre bundles 4 protruding from the second support 22 by means of a knife 29.
Finally, the method as described above is further applied as of step E whereby the fibre bundles 4 are pushed out of a support, in this case the second support 22, into a holder 7, as is represented in figures 13 to 15.
In the given figures 13 to 15, use is hereby made again of a fibre guide 17, whereby between this fibre guide 17 and the holder 7 is also positioned a base 30, however, with openings 31 corresponding to the openings 8 in the holder 7.
The fibre bundles 4 can then be fixed to the above-mentioned base 30, for example in the course of a thermal treatment, after which the base 30 and fibre bundles 4 can be worked in a brush body 10 as a whole.
Alternatively, it is also possible to keep the fibre bundles 4 together by forming a base in a mould by means of injection-moulding, whereby the fibre bundles are embedded in this base during the injection-moulding.
At a later stage, this base with the fibre bundles can then be worked in a brush body 10, for example also by means of injection-moulding, gluing or the like.
The present invention is by no means limited to the methods described as an example; on the contrary, such a method can be made according to different variants while still remaining within the scope of the invention.

Claims

Method for manufacturing a brush, which consists in (A) providing an amount of loose fibres (1) provided with a base end (2) and a sharp tip (3) and which are all oriented in the same direction; (B) composing fibre bundles (4) from this loose amount of fibres (1); (C) pushing the fibre bundles (4) one by one in openings (5) of a support (6) by means of a push movement on the base end (2) of the fibres (1) according to the longitudinal direction; (D) providing a holder (7) on the support (6) which is provided with openings (5) corresponding to the fibre pattern which must be realised in the brush; (E) pushing the fibre bundles (4) from the support (6) into the openings (5) of the holder (7) by exerting a pushing force on the same above-mentioned base end (2) of the fibres (1) in the same direction as the above-mentioned push movement, whereby it is made sure that the fibre bundles (4) partly protrude from the holder (7) with the base ends (2) of the fibres (1); (F) connecting the base ends (2) of the individual fibres (1) within a fibre bundle (4) to each other and connecting the base ends (2) of the fibres of the fibre bundles (4) to each other or to a brush body (10) and (G) removing the holder (7) again.
Method according to claim 1, characterised in that the fibres have a pointed tip (3) on one far end, whereby the above-mentioned pushing forces are exerted on the other far end (2), in particular on the base end (2) of the fibres (1).
Method according to claim 2, characterised in that the brush body is formed by means of injection-moulding in a mould (18), whereby the above-mentioned holder (7) serves as one half of the mould (18) and the base ends (2) of the fibres are embedded in the brush body (10).
Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the loose fibres (1) initially are 20 to 22 mm long.
Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the loose fibres (1) are made of polyester.
Method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterised in that the loose fibres (1) are made of polyamide.
Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the fibre ends of the individual fibres (1) within a fibre bundle (4) are connected to each other and/or the fibre bundles (4) are mutually connected in the course of a thermal treatment.
Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that in order to obtain a certain profiling of the brush hairs (1), apart from providing the fibre bundles (4) in the support (6), additional steps are carried out which consist in providing a second support (22) up against said first support (6), in which openings (23) have been provided corresponding to the first support (6); in simultaneously pushing the fibre bundles (4) out of the first support (6) into the second support (22), making use of a series of push-out pins (25) whose tips (27) are aligned in relation to each other according to the above-mentioned profiling, whereby the fibre bundles (4) protrude with their base ends (2) out of the second support (22) over a certain length as a function of the profiling of the push-out pins (25); in cutting off the parts of the fibre bundles protruding from the second support and in further applying the method of claim 1 as of step (E) whereby the fibre bundles (4) are pushed out of a support (6), in this case the second support (22), into the holder.
Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that in order to provide the fibre bundles (4) from a support (6) into a holder (7), a fibre guide (17) is additionally placed between the support (6) and the holder (7) so as to guide the fibre bundles (4) from the support (6) to certain openings (8) or positions in the holder (7) or to place the fibres (1) at a certain angle in relation to the brush body (10).
Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that, before the fibre bundles (4) are placed on the above-mentioned holder, a base (30) is positioned on the holder with openings (31) that correspond to the openings (8) in the holder.
Method according to claim 9, characterised in that the fibre bundles (4) are fixed to the above-mentioned base (30), after which the base (30) and fibre bundles (31) are worked as a whole into a brush body (10).
Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the fibre bundles are composed by laterally separating fibre bundles (4) from the fibre magazine (11) by means of at least one fibre bundle remover (12) which is provided with a recess (13) in which fibres (1) can be collected as the recess (13) passes the fibre magazine (11).
Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the recess (13) in the fibre bundle remover (12) is about 1 to 2 mm wide.