EP2377424A1 - Device and method for manufacturing brushes - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves removing the bristle tufts (16) from a bristle stock in a sequential manner, in which the bristles are packed in a parallel manner. The removed bristle tufts are transported to a base part (12) forming a part of the finished brush by a transporting device (18). The base part has openings for incorporation of the individual bristle tuft. An independent claim is also included for a device for manufacturing brushes.

Description

The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for producing brushes.

Various methods of making brushes are known. Conventionally, a brush body is provided with an array of holes ("hole pattern") corresponding to the desired arrangement of bristles. Bundles or tufts of bristles are then inserted into the holes of the brush body and anchored therein by means of impressed small metallic anchors or by means of loops.

In an alternative method of making brushes that has become established in just a few years and is referred to as Anchor Free Tufting (AFT), the bristle tufts are attached to a small brush head plate without the use of loops or anchors. and the carrier plate is then inserted into or attached to a brush body or handle. In a variant of the AFT method brush handles are made with a hole pattern that corresponds to the desired tuft pattern. Bristle tufts are then inserted into these holes and attached to the brush handles. The attachment ends of the tufts are then covered with a small plate.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for making brushes based on this AFT method.

The invention provides a method and a device that are simple and above all very fast and low maintenance.

• sequenzielles Entnehmen von Borstenbüscheln aus einem Borstenvorrat, in welchem die Borsten parallel gepackt untergebracht sind,
• Transportieren des entnommenen Borstenbüschels mittels einer Transporteinrichtung zu einem, einen Teil der fertigen Bürste bildenden Basisteil, welches Öffnungen zur Aufnahme von einzelnen Borstenbüscheln hat,
• sequenzielles Einstoßen des Borstenbüschels in die zugeordnete Öffnung von der Rückseite des Basisteils aus, wobei zwischen der Transporteinrichtung und der Öffnung ein führungsfreier Spalt vorgesehen ist, durch den die Borstenbüschel in die Öffnung eingestoßen werden, und
• ankerfreies Befestigen der Borstenbüschel am Basisteil.

The method according to the invention is used in particular for the production of toothbrushes and provides the following steps:

• sequentially removing bristle tufts from a bristle supply in which the bristles are housed packed in parallel,
• Transporting the removed bristle tufts by means of a transport device to a base part which forms part of the finished brush and which has openings for receiving individual bristle tufts,
• sequentially pushing the tuft of bristles into the associated opening from the back of the base, with a guide-free gap between the transport and the opening through which the tufts of bristles are forced into the opening, and
• Ankerfreies attaching the bristle tufts on the base part.

In the method according to the invention, tufts of bristle stock, in particular a magazine, are removed in succession, that is to say sequentially, and transported to form a base part. This base part may be either a kind of plate, which is then connected to the brush body, or be a portion of the brush body itself. The front side of the base part is the side from which the bristles of the later brush protrude, whereas the back side is the usually closed, that is bristle-free, side. While in the prior art, the individual tufts are stuffed into the openings either via a device-side support or holder, which rests against the base part, a guide-free gap between the base part and the device is present in the method according to the invention. The bristle tufts must be pushed through this gap from the device into the base part. A wear on the device can not come about thereby.

Since the bristle tufts are sequentially individually, ie successively individually stuffed directly into the base part, no great adaptation of the tool to other base parts is required on the device side.

In addition, in the state of the art, work has mostly been carried out with a tool-side support whose openings correspond exactly to the openings in the base part. First, this carrier was filled with bristle tufts, and Subsequently, this carrier was transported to the base part to be filled. The manufacture of the numerous carriers operating in a device is relatively expensive. In addition, the conversion of the device for other brushes consuming.

In the method according to the invention and in the device according to the invention, this conversion can be made much simpler.

In the method according to the invention, the position of the base part is aligned with the stationary tool for pushing for each hole to be filled and thus moved. One possibility for this is to move the base part for the sequential piercing at least in two directions, in order to align the opening to be filled with the bristle tufts to be inserted.

This method is, as immediately apparent, very easily adaptable to completely new tufts.

In particular, the method can be adapted very quickly to new patterns if the base part is moved using a freely programmable, at least 2-axis positioning device, in particular a freely programmable, preferably 2-axis industrial robot.

It is particularly advantageous if the bristle tufts are transported sequentially by a tuft picker to the final position, from which they are pushed axially into the opening to be filled. For the separation of the bristle tufts as well as for the transport, only one movement is required, which can be, for example, a circular arc movement or a linear movement of the tufts collector.

The tuft picker does not necessarily have to move back and forth between the pickup position and the dispensing position. It would also be conceivable to provide a ring-shaped or circular tuft picker which rotates permanently in one direction.

The bristles used are made of plastic.

The back stuffing of the bristle tufts has the advantage that the tufts protrude so far from the base part as far as possible, thanks to a usually front stop, as desired, regardless of the length tolerances of the individual bristles. In addition, can also be optional Use bristles with pre-machined bristle tips, for example, rounded, pointed bristle tips or the like.

According to the preferred embodiment, during the insertion of the tufts into the base part in the transport device, only axial pressure is exerted on the bristle tufts. That is, the bristle tufts is not clamped radially. When clamping, namely, the tuft end could widen in the gap, which would make it difficult to insert into the openings. Such a radial clamping force will occur in particular in so-called tenter.

The gap height, measured perpendicularly to the rear side of the base part, should in particular be greater than half the diameter of the bristle tuft; in particular, the gap should be more than twice the cross section of the openings in the base part.

The gap exists between the edge of the openings and the transport device, but in particular the gap is even so large that the device is completely spaced from the rear side of the base part.

Since the base part usually has a small thickness and the length of the openings over which the tufts are held, also correspondingly low, provides an advantageous method step, that a guide member is positioned on the device side with through holes before inserting the tufts on the front of the base part , The bristle tufts are inserted through the openings in the through holes in the guide part. Preferably, but this is not necessarily the case, the tufts protrude on the front even out of the guide part.

The front ends of the tufts may contact a profiled pressure member during or after loading of the base member to provide a profiled brushing surface. The brush surface is the front side working surface of the brush formed by the bristle ends. This pressure part can either already be present during the plug and serve as a stop or pressed against the bristles after the plug, so that they rest against the pressure part and image the shape of the pressure part.

The bristle tufts protruding from the back of the openings of the base part are cut off after being pushed in according to the preferred embodiment. The tolerances of the individual bristle lengths are thereby complete Compensated, because on the front can be done on the pressure part a precise length adjustment, the back is then simply cut off.

This cutting can be done by cutting tools or a heated tool, especially a so-called hot knife. There is a contact between the hot tool and the individual tufts, the life of the cutting tool is very high.

The bristle tufts are attached on the back, for example by thermal fusion and / or gluing and / or embedding in a molded plastic compound. Of course, these attachment methods can also be combined with each other arbitrarily.

As already explained above, the bristles stuffed into the base part are preferably pre-rounded or preprocessed in advance.

During cutting, according to one embodiment, the tufts are held radially only from the base part and, if present, the guide part. At the two ends no lateral fixation is provided, the ends are only frontally on the device and are thus fixed axially.

The back of the bristle tufts and the base part is covered. This can be done, for example, that the brush body has a recess in the region of the back tuft ends, which is closed by a prefabricated or molded lid part. Another possibility of covering the bristle tufts on the back is to form a prefabricated cover part on its side facing the base part with molded-on projections, so-called sacrificial structures, which soften during the subsequent heating, in particular become liquid, in order then to strike against the base part or, more generally to be pressed against the brush body. If the base part and the brush body are two different parts, it goes without saying that the brush body can also be provided with such sacrificial structures in order, after its heating, to be connected to the possibly also heated base part. This lid member may be provided with protruding cleaning protrusions in any shape to be used as a tongue cleaner or the like.

Alternatively, the base part is overmolded. If the base part is not already at the same time already on the brush body, but a part to be fastened to the rest of the brush body, the base part can be encapsulated during the manufacture of the brush body.

Some of the openings in the base can remain tuft-free and can be closed by spraying. This makes it possible to realize different bristle tuft arrangements with the same base part. Alternatively or in addition to closing the tuft-free openings, elastomeric profile parts, which have any cross-sectional shapes, can be injected or injected or fastened in openings. These profile parts are not bristles, but different profile parts with smaller or larger cross-sectional area than the usual bristles. For example, the parts can also have a cross-sectional shape deviating from the circular shape. In particular, such profile parts are used to produce a gum massaging effect.

The aforementioned other way to close the tuft-free openings, is in the back molding of plastic. In this case, either only the tuft-free openings can be closed, or it can front side projecting profile parts are molded with at the same time. The front-side guide part can serve as an injection mold.

The bristle tufts are separated from the bristle supply to the side of the bristle longitudinal direction and, in particular, moved individually to the openings via the transport device. Thus, no transport tubes known in the prior art are used for the transport device, which dip into the supply in the longitudinal direction of the bristles and receive and clamp a tuft of bristles. On the one hand, high cycle times can be realized by the lateral removal, and on the other hand, the tufts are significantly less or not compressed at all, which improves their positioning when entering the openings.

The invention moreover also provides a device for producing brushes, in particular a so-called brush-making machine, which preferably uses the aforementioned method according to the invention. The apparatus comprises a magazine having a bristle stock in which bristles are packed in parallel, a bristle tuft picking unit sequentially picking bristle tufts from the bristle stock laterally to their longitudinal extent, transporting the individual bristle tufts to a stuffing station, the stuffing station comprising a holder for base parts of the brush to be installed, and means, over which the tufts of bristles are sequentially bridged by a guide - free, to the back of the Base part adjacent gap are introduced from the back into the base part and pushed through.

In particular, the device comprises a closed-loop receiving device, for example a receiving table, a chain, an index table or, more generally, a type of circle with receptacles for the base parts on which they are moved, to individual stations, e.g. to cut through the bristle tufts and attachment of the tufts and optionally closing the back of the open brush body or molding of the brush body.

Preferably, the removal device is integrated into the transport device.

Another possibility is that the transport device moves the tufts along a linear or curved path to the stuffing station. Such so-called tufts are in the EP 0 972 465 B1 shown.

The device according to the invention preferably further comprises a tuft picker, which transports the tufts sequentially to the final position, from which they are pushed axially into the opening to be filled. A transfer after the separation of the bristle tufts on another device or a carrier that brings the tufts up to the position immediately before the impact, thus eliminating.

The device according to the invention also comprises a station in which the base part for the sequential piercing is moved at least in two directions in order to align the opening to be filled with the bristle tufts to be filled, this station in particular having a freely programmable, preferably 2-axis industrial robot Has shift of the base part.

The preferred embodiment provides for integrating a cutting device into the device with which the bristles protruding from the base part on the rear side are cut off. In particular, the cutting device is moved transversely to the bristles without any support. In the prior art, the bristles are cut off at the back by acting as a counter knife a device-side support plate through which the tufts protrude. This plate stabilizes the tufts and on the surface of the plate a knife is driven along, which cuts off the tufts. Although this type of cut is reliable, but leads to the wear of the cutting device and is therefore Maintenance and replacement part intensive than the device according to the invention, in which no support plate is provided on the tool.

As has been found, this support-free cutting is preferably easy to implement by a heatable tool in which the hot tool contacts the bristles and cuts.

The heatable tool is in particular formed with a current-carrying heating wire, which may be a round wire or a flat wire, wherein in experiments with the flat wire very good results have been achieved.

In a fixing station for the bristle tufts, the bristles are welded together in tufts or in total and / or glued and / or potted.

The device-side guide member, which is fed to the front of the base member is moved along with the base member from station to station and positioned the tufts.

In order to make the position of the front ends of the bristles unambiguous, in particular in the case of a profiled brush surface, the device has an deliverable profiled pressure part which contacts the bristle tufts during or after the stopper. A counter-pressure part can be driven from the back against the tufts.

• Figuren 1a bis 1h aufeinanderfolgende Schritte des erfindungsgemäßen Verfahrens, die in der erfindungsgemäßen Vorrichtung durchgeführt werden,
• Figur 2 eine schematische Draufsicht auf eine Station der erfindungsgemäßen Vorrichtung, in der Borstenbüschel einem Magazin entnommen werden,
• Figur 3 eine perspektivische Ansicht der Station nach Figur 2 mit einigen weggelassenen Teilen,
• Figur 4 eine vergrößerte Detailansicht von Figur 3,
• Figur 5 eine Schnittansicht durch die Station nach Figur 3,
• Figur 6 eine schematische Perspektivansicht einer weiteren Station der erfindungsgemäßen Vorrichtung, bei der Borsten geschnitten werden,
• Figur 7 eine Detailschnittansicht durch die Station von Figur 6,
• Figuren 8a bis 8c aufeinanderfolgende Schritte in der Station nach Figur 6 mit einem anderen Messer, und
• Figur 9 eine schematische Draufsicht auf eine erfindungsgemäße Vorrichtung.

Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description and from the following drawings, to which reference is made. In the drawings show:

• FIGS. 1a to 1h successive steps of the method according to the invention, which are carried out in the device according to the invention,
• FIG. 2 a schematic plan view of a station of the device according to the invention in which tufts are removed from a magazine,
• FIG. 3 a perspective view of the station after FIG. 2 with some omitted parts,
• FIG. 4 an enlarged detail view of FIG. 3 .
• FIG. 5 a sectional view through the station after FIG. 3 .
• FIG. 6 a schematic perspective view of another station of the device according to the invention, are cut in the bristles,
• FIG. 7 a detailed sectional view through the station of FIG. 6 .
• FIGS. 8a to 8c successive steps in the station FIG. 6 with another knife, and
• FIG. 9 a schematic plan view of a device according to the invention.

In FIG. 1 Several sequential steps for making brushes, here in the form of toothbrushes, are shown. The brush has a brush body 10 with a brush head, which in the following forms a base part 12. The base part 12 has numerous passage openings 14, which are filled with bristle tufts 16, which are fastened to the base part 12.

In FIG. 1 It can be seen that a transport device 18, which will be explained in more detail below, conveys individual bristle tufts 16, which are pushed by a device from the transport device 18 into the openings 14 from the rear side of the base part 12.

For this purpose, the transport device 18 has a receiving opening 22 which is filled with a bristle tuft 16 and moved to the base part 12. The device 20 comprises a linearly movable plunger 24, which is inserted axially into the receiving opening 22 in order to push the bristle tufts 16 into the opening 14 of the base part 12 which is aligned with the receiving opening 22. The base part is moved along two axes and aligned with the opening to be filled 14 on the bristle tufts 16 to be introduced.

As in FIG. 1a 4, on the front side of the base part 12, a device-side guide part 26, preferably in contact with the front side of the base part 12, is arranged, whose through-holes 28 are aligned with the openings 14 to be populated.

Distanced from the guide member 26 is a stop member 30. The bristle tufts 16 are so deeply into the base member 12 and the guide member 26 from the back of the base member 12, that is, from the back of the brush 10, pushed in that they protrude from the front of the guide member 16 again and abut against the stop member 30.

As soon as all openings 14 to be equipped with bristle tufts 16 are provided, the in FIG. 1b fully populated state reached.

It should be emphasized that, depending on the embodiment of the brush 10, not all openings 14 have to be filled with bristle tufts 16. To enable variations of tufts patterns and other bristle geometries, it is possible to optionally populate different apertures 14 with bristle tufts 16.

In the in Figure 1c shown next method step, the stop member 30 is removed. Instead, a pressure member 32 is moved from the front axially to the bristle tufts 16 upwards, so that it contacts all the bristle tufts 16. The top of the pressure member 32 is profiled to form a complementary brush surface (formed by the front ends of the bristle tufts 16).

By the pressure member 32, the bristle tufts 16 are pressed back up in part and are unevenly back against the base member 12 out.

Optionally, a counterpressure part 36 complementary to the pressure part can be provided on this rear side so that the bristle tufts 16 can be axially fixed between the pressure part 32 and counterpressure part 36 as far as possible without play.

In order to achieve a tolerance compensation due to the different lengths of the individual bristles, it would be conceivable to design one of the pressure parts 32, 36 either elastically or elastically mounted.

Due to the pressure part 32, the front ends of the bristle tufts 16 have an exact alignment with the base part 12.

In the next step, which will be explained more clearly in the following, the bristle tufts 16 projecting from the rear side relative to the base part 12 are cut off ( Figure 1d ), so that the resulting free ends are just above the base part 12.

In the next process step, which could be carried out in the subsequent station, bristle tufts 16 are attached at the back. This attachment is done for example by welding.

One way of welding is in Figure 1e shown in which a hot plate 38 is pressed against the bristle tufts 16. The back ends of the thermoplastic bristles fuse together, preferably to form a continuous layer 40 (see FIG FIG. 1f ). During this fastening operation and also during the preceding cutting operation, the pressure part 32 preferably remains on the bristle tufts 16. The pressure part 32 can now be removed (FIG. Figure 1g ), and then a rear lid part 40 is applied to the back of the base part 12, at least in the region of the ends of the bristle tufts 16 welded together. This cover part 40 may be a prefabricated part. Alternatively, the lid member 40 may also be made by injection molding to the base member 12 or to the brush body. Of course, the aforementioned use of sacrificial structures on the lid or on the brush body can also be used.

During the foregoing process steps, it is preferable (not limiting) for the guide member 26 to be supported on the base member 12 to provide support and sealing.

In the following, individual of the method steps just explained above will be illustrated and described in more detail.

So shows FIG. 2 Further details of a possible embodiment of the station of the device according to the invention, in which the bristle tufts 16 are separated and transported to the base part 12. The device has its own station with a magazine 42, in which a bristle supply 44 is housed.

The bristles are aligned in magazine 42 parallel and ungrouped housed. They are pressed by adapted pressure means in the direction of the transport device 18.

The transport device 18 includes in the present, also not limiting embodiment to be pivoted about a pivot axis 46 to be pivoted removal device 48 with a plate-shaped bundle pickup, in the illustrated embodiment, a so-called circular arc having a receiving opening 50 for a bristle tufts 16. The receiving opening 50 is open on the side facing the brush holder 44 side. If the bundle taker to the right, based on FIG. 2 is pivoted, the receiving opening 50 comes into contact with the bristle supply 44. Due to the Preload of the bristle supply 44 in the direction of this receiving opening 50 press so many bristles in the receiving opening 50 that it is completely filled.

The separation of the bristle tufts 16 thus takes place laterally to the longitudinal extension of the bristles, which in the present case would be perpendicular to the plane of the drawing. When the receiving opening 50 is filled with bristles, it is pivoted clockwise and in the in FIG. 2 shown position moves. A guide plate 52, which conforms to the shape of the plate 48, ensures that no bristles can fall out of the receiving opening 50.

As an alternative to the curved path, which has the transport device 18 in the embodiments, a linear method can also be used.

From the transport device 18, the bristle tufts 16 are pushed directly into the base part 12 directly, without the interposition of a carrier plate or the like. It should be noted that the individual bristle tufts are removed sequentially from the magazine 42 and transported with the tuft picker to their final position before impact. A transfer to subcarrier is avoided here.

However, since the base portion 12 has numerous openings 14 which must be successively filled with bristle tufts 16, the base portion 12 is moved in two directions X, Y. In order to be filled openings 14 are aligned with the receiving opening 50 and the next bristle tufts 16 to be injected.

The corresponding station preferably has a so-called X-Y carriage, on which the base parts 12 can be fastened and moved in one plane. A so-called X-Y carriage is a simple embodiment of a freely programmable, at least 2-axis positioning device, in particular a freely programmable 2-axis industrial robot.

FIG. 3 shows the magazine 42 with the tuft stock 44 in perspective view. To clarify the entire station several parts have been omitted.

FIG. 3 further shows a bristle tufts 16, which is being pushed by the device 20 into an opening of the base part 12. A holder 54 positions and locks the guide member 26 to an alignment unit, for example an XY carriage, over which the alignment of the base part 12 to the receiving opening 50 takes place.

FIG. 4 shows that the bristle tufts 16 project from the guide member 26 on the front side after being pushed into the openings 14 of the base part 12. However, the bristle tufts 16 are also in front of the base part 12, either directly after the impact or after the start of the pressure part 32.

The loading with the bristle tufts 16 is in FIG. 5 shown in more detail. It can be seen that the bristle tufts 16 accommodated in the transport device 18 are spaced from the rear side of the base part 12 before being inserted into the openings 14. The transport device is spaced from the base part 12 in the region of the openings 14 via a gap 60 with the gap thickness d. This gap 60 is bridged by no guide member or the like.

Also with respect to the remaining base part 12, the transport device 18 is spaced. A corresponding gap D shows the smallest distance between the transport device 18 and the rear side of the base part 12. Optionally, this gap D could also be zero, but the gap 60 is always present.

When the bristle tufts 16 are pushed in, they consequently have to bridge the gap 60 freely.

For easy insertion of the bristle tufts 16, the openings 14 are preferably provided on the back with a flared chamfer 62.

Also can be seen in FIG. 5 in that the base part 12 has a depression 64 in the region of the openings 14 on the rear side. In this recess 64, the lid member 14 is introduced or molded.

The transport device 18 is designed so that during the insertion of the bristles into the openings 14 in the transport device 18 exclusively axial pressure (that is, pressure in the bristle longitudinal direction) is exerted on the bristle tufts 16 to be introduced. That is, the wall around the receiving opening 50 is rigid, no radial clamping force is exerted on the bristles. The only clamping force is achieved by the bias in the bristle supply 44, which is forwarded so to speak in the receiving opening 50 when separating the bristles.

The cutting of the bristle tufts 16 preferably takes place in a separate station of the device according to the invention, preferably by means of a heated tool.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of such a heated tool 70, which comprises a current-carrying, hot wire. This wire is moved substantially parallel to the back of the base part 12, as close as possible to the base part 12 along and separates the protruding bristle ends. Bristles can also partly melt together.

FIG. 7 shows the effects of heat on not yet cut bristle tufts 16, which merge together. In addition, however, the already separated ends of remaining in the base part 12 bristle tufts 16 merge, which is advantageous for positioning and attachment.

While in the Figures 5 and 6 a substantially circular cross-section wire as a tool 70 is shown in the FIGS. 8a to 8c to see an alternative embodiment with a so-called flat wire. This also current-carrying, heated wire is placed like a knife obliquely to the bristles to be separated.

In the FIGS. 5 to 8 It can also be seen that the bristle tufts 16 are not laterally supported in the region of their interface. Also, the tool 70 is not supported in the region of the base part 12, so that no wear occurs during cutting. The cutting takes place, so to speak, without support.

The bristle tufts 16 are either laterally only through the base part 12 (see FIGS. 8a to 8c ) or held by the base part 12 and the guide member 26. In the axial direction, the bristle tufts 16 are positioned between the pressure part 32 and the counter-pressure part 36. This positioning should, but not in a limiting sense, be ensured even during cutting.

In order to prevent the severed ends of the bristle tufts 16 from falling onto the base part 12, the cutting is preferably carried out over the head, that is to say with the back side downwards (see, for example, FIG FIG. 8 ). Thus, the severed ends 72 simply fall down.

The fixing of the bristle tufts 16 on the base part 12 is, as I said, either by welding and / or by gluing and / or by casting, for example during the production of the cover part 40th Das Lid portion 40 may in particular have rearwardly projecting cleaning projections 80 to form a tongue cleaner. Alternatively, the supplied cover part 40 can be subsequently pressed or glued, even using the aforementioned sacrificial structures.

Not all openings 14 must be closed by a bristle tufts 16. It may, as already mentioned, even one or the other opening 14 remain unfilled. When later gluing or potting or injection molding, the corresponding opening 14 is then closed.

In addition, it is also possible that some openings with an elastomeric profile member 82 are fitted, as exemplified in FIG. 6 is shown. The corresponding opening 14 in the base part 12 corresponds to this one-piece profile part, whose cross section is significantly larger than that of a bristle tufts 16. The profile part 82 can serve as a massage extension for gums or the like. The profile part 82 may either be prefabricated and then mounted in the opening or molded immediately in / at the opening.

In FIG. 9 a device for producing the brush according to the method described above is shown. This device is designed as a tool, for example with a rotating table 100. Preferably, outside of the tool table 100, each bristle tuft 16 is individually moved to the base part 12 (in this case the brush body 10) via the removal device 48 and the transport device 18, wherein previously the brush body 10 is placed on the guide member 26. A magazine with empty guide parts 26 may be present and is not shown here for clarity.

As already mentioned, in the feed station, each individual bristle tuft 16 is stuffed into the associated opening 14 by moving the laterally held guide part 26 in the X and Y directions.

The finished assembled base 12 is then moved to the tool table 100 and attached to this. The rotating tool table 100 transports one or more of the base parts 12 to a station in which Figure 1c Pressure and counterpressure 32, 36 align the tufts.

Thereafter, the tufts are cut off at the back by means of the tool 70. This cutting can be done in a subsequent station or in the Station occur in the pressure and counter-pressure member 32, 36 are applied for the first time.

Subsequently, the bristle tufts 16 are fastened on the back, for example under the action of heat.

Finally, the lid part 40 is sprayed on. The finished brushes are removed and stacked, for example. The transport of the guide members 26 into the first station is not explicitly shown.

It should be emphasized in this context that instead of the base part 12 already formed on the brush body 10, it is also possible to use a plate-shaped base part which passes through all the stations before it is fastened to the brush body 10, for example by extrusion coating.

Claims (18)

Method for producing brushes (10) by means of a device, characterized by the following steps: sequentially removing bristle tufts (16) from a bristle supply (44) in which the bristles are housed packed in parallel, Transporting the removed bristle tufts (16) by means of a transport device (18) to form a base part (12) which forms part of the finished brush and has openings (14) for receiving individual bristle tufts (16), sequentially pushing the tuft of bristles (16) into the associated opening (14) from the back of the base (12), there being provided between the transport means (18) and the opening (14) a guide-free gap (60) through which the bristle tufts (16) are pushed into the opening (14), and Ankerfreies attaching the bristle tufts (16) on the base part (12). Method according to Claim 1, characterized in that the sequential piercing base part (12) is moved in at least two directions in order to align the opening (14) to be filled with the bristle tuft (16) to be inserted. A method according to claim 2, characterized in that the base part (12) is moved using a freely programmable, at least 2-axis positioning device, in particular a freely programmable, preferably 2-axis industrial robot. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the bristle tufts (16) are transported sequentially by a tuft picker to the final position, from which they are pushed axially into the opening (14) to be filled. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that during the impact in the transport device (18) exclusively axial pressure is exerted on the bristle tufts (16). Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that on the front side of the base part (12) a device-side guide part (26) with through-holes (28) in front of the Pushing the bristle tufts (16) is positioned, wherein the bristle tufts (16) via the openings (14) in the through holes (28) are inserted so far that they preferably protrude from the guide member (26) on the front side. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the front ends of the tufts (16) during or after the loading of the base part (12) contact a profiled pressure part (32) to provide a profiled brush surface. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that after the tufts of bristle tufts (16) are pushed in, the tufts protrude from the openings (14) at the back and are cut off. A method according to claim 8, characterized in that the cutting takes place by means of a heated tool (70), in particular a hot knife. A method according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that for securing the bristle tufts (16) these thermally fused back and / or glued and / or the ends are embedded in a molded plastic compound. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the bristle tufts (16) are separated from the bristle supply (44) laterally to the longitudinal direction of the bristle and are moved over the transport device (18) to individual openings (14). Device for producing brushes, in particular with a method according to one of the preceding claims, comprising: a magazine (42) having a bristle supply (44) in which bristles are housed packed in parallel, a bristle tuft removal device (48) which sequentially removes bristle tufts (16) from the bristle supply (44) laterally to their longitudinal extent; a transport device (18) for transporting the individual bristle tufts (16) to a stuffing station, and Means, over which the bristle tufts (16) are pushed and pushed sequentially into the base part (12) from the rear side, bridging a guide-free gap (60) adjoining the rear side of the base part (12). Apparatus according to claim 12, characterized in that the transport device (18) moves the tufts (16) along a linear or curved path to the stuffing station. Apparatus according to claim 12 or 13, characterized by a cutting device with which the back of the base part (12) projecting bristles are cut off, the cutting device moves in particular without supporting body transverse to the bristles and these cuts. Apparatus according to claim 14, characterized in that the cutting device has a heatable tool (70), with which the bristles are cut off. Device according to one of claims 12 to 15, characterized in that a fastening station for the bristle tufts (16) is provided, in which the bristles are welded in tufts or in total together and / or glued and / or shed. Device according to one of claims 12 to 16, characterized in that a device-side guide member (26) is provided which can be fed to the front of the base part (12) and passes through stations together with the base part (12). Device according to one of Claims 12 to 17, characterized by a profiled pressure part (32) which can be fed to the base part (12) and the bristle tufts (16) and contacts the bristle tufts (16) for profiling the front brush surface, preferably a back-side counterpressure part (36) is provided so that the bristle tufts (16) between the pressure member (32) and the counter-pressure member (36) are axially positioned.

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