TWI740019B - Verfahren und vorrichtung sowie spritzgussformhalftenteil zum herstellen einer burste - Google Patents

Abstract

Aiming at a method or device for anchoring bristles to a bristle carrier (10), the present invention proposes to provide a heater (39) in a tool used to transport the bristles. After pushing the bristles into the anchoring openings (12) in the bristle carrier (10), the anchoring openings (12) are closed by applying pressure. The extension (82) surrounding the anchor opening (12) provides material for closing the anchor opening (12).

Description

Method, equipment and injection molding half mold part for manufacturing brush

The present invention relates to a method, equipment and injection molding mold half for manufacturing a brush. The brush has a bristle carrier, the bristle carrier is made of thermoplastic and contains at least one anchor into which at least one bristle is inserted and anchored. Fixed opening.

In practice, two methods are commonly used to make brushes, especially toothbrushes and household brushes, namely: fixing the bristle bundles with anchors (metal sheets or loops) or without anchors. Unlike using anchors, the anchorless method is not to bend the bristle bundle and fix the bristle bundle on the bristle carrier at the bend of the bristle bundle, but to fix one end of the bristle bundle to the bristle carrier by bonding or thermally superior. A commonly used method in practice is that the bristle carrier has openings for the bristle bundles to pass through. In this case, the bristle bundles extend out of the openings from the back ends of the bristle bundles and are heated on the back of the bristle carrier. The thermoplastic material of the bristles melts, so that the bristle materials are connected to each other and form a thickened portion, which prevents individual bristles from being pulled forward by the thickened portion. Usually, a large number of bristle bundles are liquefied from the back by hot air or a hot punch (Stempel), so that the materials of a single bristle bundle are connected to each other and form a similar layer structure composed of the ends of the liquefied bristles on the back. Then, the back side is covered by spraying (überspritzt).

The disadvantage of the above-mentioned solution is that, due to the need to cover the backside, considerable additional costs are inevitably incurred in terms of methods and equipment. It should be noted that, precisely in the toothbrush, the interface between adjacent layers is implemented as free as possible to avoid hygiene problems.

The term "bristle carrier" refers to the component that carries the bristles or bristle bundles on the finished brush. Among them, the bristle carrier can be the entire brush body, in the case of a toothbrush, it refers to an integral injection molded part composed of the handle, neck and head, or it can only be a prefabricated part of the brush body in the future. In the latter case, the bristle carrier is usually a sheet made of thermoplastic plastic, and the sheet is provided with one or more openings to fill one or more bristles or bristle bundles. After stuffing and fixing the bristles, the flake-shaped bristle carrier is inserted into the prefabricated brush body, the brush body has, for example, a corresponding groove to accommodate the flake-shaped bristle carrier. An alternative solution (this is a common situation) is to squeeze and encapsulate the sheet-like bristle carrier (umspritzt) to form a brush body composed of a prefabricated bristle carrier and the rest formed on the prefabricated bristle carrier by injection molding.

CH 672 579 A5 proposes a method of fixing the bristle bundles to the bristle carrier by anchor pieces. That is, the bristle bundle is bent, and the anchor piece is located in the bending area and pressed into the wall of the anchor opening, thereby finally fixing the bristle bundle on the bristle carrier. However, in order to close the openings on the end surface or front of the bristle carrier with the best effect, so that bacteria and spores will not grow there, the protrusions on the bristle carrier extending around the anchoring opening and protruding from the end surface should be pressed inward. However, the tufts of bristles themselves are fixed through anchors rather than through this shaping of the protrusions. A single bristle bundle is sequentially inserted into the bristle carrier by a plugging tool, and the plugging tool pushes the bent bristle bundle through the tube. The pipe piece itself has a heater on the end surface of the pipe piece, and the heater only abuts against the protrusion and melts or plasticizes the protrusion, and then presses the protrusion radially inward.

In addition to the above-mentioned method of fixing bristles or bristle bundles to the bristle carrier in an anchorless manner, there are theoretically other methods, but this method has never been realized in practice, namely: pushing the bristle bundles into the bristle carrier, the bristle carrier With openings and preheated. After pushing the bristle bundle into the soft bristle carrier, a press is applied to the front surface of the bristle carrier where the bristle bundle protrudes, thereby compressing the soft material around the edge of the opening and reducing the cross section of the opening. Several related programs will be introduced below.

DE 198 53 030 A1 proposes that the bristle bundles have bristles fused to each other into thickened portions on the back of the bristle bundles. The bristle carrier has openings, and before pushing in the bristle bundle, the cylindrical extension of the heater is inserted into the openings, but does not touch the edge of the opening. The inner edge of the opening is locally heated by this radiant heat. The bristle carrier reaches a temperature in the edge region that can change its structure, such as a softening temperature. The purpose of increasing the temperature is to reduce the cross-section of the hole, so that when the bristle bundle is pushed in, it will inevitably penetrate into the wall. After removing the heater, push the bundle of bristles with thickened ends into the opening, where the cross section of the thickened portion is larger than the cross section of the opening, so that the thickened portion is drilled into the soft zone that defines and surrounds the edge of the opening, That is, drill into the corresponding wall. Then, the front surface of the bristle carrier needs to be deformed by the punch, so that the material of the bristle carrier presses against the bristle bundles and anchors the bristle bundles.

A similar method is known from US 5 224 763, in which the bristle carrier has open perforated edges protruding in a convex shape. Here, the edge of the opening is also heated, and the specific method is: extending a pin-shaped heating element into the opening or processing with hot air. The cross section of the opening is smaller than the thickened end of the bristle bundle, so that the end is pushed into the wall of the soft opening and fixed in it. Then, the holder for the bristle bundle compresses the heated surrounding protrusions to provide additional material to close the openings where the end faces of the bristle carriers meet.

A method known from EP 0 355 412 A1 is to heat the thickened end of the bristle bundle and/or the edge of the opening in the bristle carrier, wherein the size and temperature are selected in such a way that after the thickened end is pushed in , The edge of the opening is squeezed inward and surrounds the thickened end like a snap connection and accommodates the thickened end in a form-fitting manner.

EP 0 472 557 B1 proposes that a plate-shaped bristle carrier made of plastic is drilled by a heated punch with pins, so that the pins form openings to accommodate the bristle bundles. Then the bristle bundle is pressed into the punched hot opening, and the melt rises around the thickened part of the bristle bundle. In addition, the template can be pressed against the top surface of the bristle carrier to further deform the melt. Among them, it is particularly preferable to have extensions or protrusions protruding from the top surface of the undeformed bristle carrier, and these extensions or protrusions form a material that can be pressed toward the opening.

The method proposed in DE 34 22 623 A1 is to weld a plate-shaped bristle carrier without openings and bristle bundles, and the bristle bundles and the bristle carrier are made of the same plastic. Move the heating tool between the bristle carrier and the sides of the bristle bundle that have not been welded together to melt the two sides. The tufts of bristles are then pressed into the melted material of the bristle carrier.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a much simpler brush manufacturing method, which firstly requires less equipment investment, but at the same time can anchor the bristles or bristle bundles securely in the anchoring openings.

The solution of the present invention to achieve this objective is a method for manufacturing a brush, the brush comprising: a bristle carrier made of thermoplastic, the bristle carrier has a front and a back and at least one anchoring opening, which will be made of thermoplastic The at least one bristles of the bristles are inserted and anchored in the anchoring openings without anchoring, so that the bristles protrude from the front face of the bristle carrier, wherein the at least one anchoring opening on the front face has an anchoring opening around the anchoring opening The edge of the end face is characterized by the following steps: a) providing a bristle carrier having at least one extension part facing away from the front face in the area of the end face edge to produce material accumulation, wherein the at least one extension part is injection molded During the period when the bristle carrier is generated and associated with at least one anchoring opening, b) receiving the at least one bristle in the receiving opening of the tool part, c) during the period when the at least one bristle is still in the receiving opening , By pushing the at least one bristle into the bristle carrier by the thickened fixed end of the bristle carrier, the anchor opening formed when the bristle carrier is manufactured, d) reducing the distance between the tool part and the bristle carrier The distance allows the tool piece to contact the bristle carrier, e) the front side of the bristle carrier reaches a temperature that is lower than the melting temperature of the bristle material and/or the bristle carrier material, in particular the highest is The bristle material and (or) the bristle carrier material is 85% of the corresponding melting temperature calculated in °C, f) the tool piece applies pressure to the bristle carrier, and at least in the area surrounding the edge of the end face of the anchor opening Inside, together with the at least one extension, while reducing the cross section of the anchoring opening, the bristle carrier is deformed in the following manner: the at least one bristle is embedded and anchored in the anchoring opening And the material of the bristle carrier in the area of the edge on the at least one extension moves laterally into the anchor opening and presses against the at least one bristle during deformation, g) enlarge the tool The distance from the element to the bristle carrier so that the at least one bristle can be pulled out from the accommodating opening, h) wherein the anchoring opening after the step f) has a thickness measured from the front surface to the thickening fixation The initial depth of the end, and the at least one extension portion associated with the anchor opening has a volume in the range of 60% to 110% of the theoretical volume before the deformation in the step f), the theoretical volume system The depth and the product of the annular surface between the inner side of the anchor opening and the outer side of the individual bristles or the outer side of the envelope of the bristle bundle before the deformation in step f).

In the method according to the invention, the tufts of bristles can be inserted into the anchoring openings. The material of the bristle carrier in the edge area on one extension or multiple extensions then moves laterally into the anchoring opening during the deformation process to grasp the bristles or bristle bundles from behind and prevent the bristles or bristle bundles from being Pull out.

The present invention is based on the following idea: basically the extension part provides a material that closes the anchor opening on the front side and prevents the bristles or bristle bundles from being pulled out. This means that the thickness of the bristle carrier is reduced by deformation to a smaller extent compared with no or only a small-volume extension. This is particularly advantageous for thin bristle carriers with a small distance from the back to the front. By forming the material for closing the anchor openings mainly by the extension part, the contact force when the bristle carrier is deformed can be kept smaller than that without the extension part.

The heating of the bristle carrier may be performed before or during the reduction of the distance between the tool part and the bristle carrier, or after the first contact between the tool part and the bristle carrier. Therefore, the sequence of steps d) and e) may not be consecutive.

In the present invention, a plurality of extensions may generally extend around the anchoring opening and be complementary to each other and only be associated with this anchoring opening.

However, preferably, the extension is annularly closed around the associated anchor opening to provide as much volume as possible. In this regard, it may be an advantage that the annularly closed extension has a different cross-sectional area in the longitudinal extension of the extension. This helps to optimally span the different distances between the inner side of the anchor opening and the tufts or individual bristles.

If at least one anchoring aperture (viewing the front face) is elongated, the anchoring aperture has two relatively long sides and two relatively short sides. All these sides complement each other to form anchoring openings. The annularly closed extension has a larger cross-sectional area in the region of the longer side than in the region of the shorter side. Therefore, in the area of the longer sides, there is more material for inward squeezing. It is in the region of the longer sides that there is a greater risk that the bristles or bristle bundles may be pulled out.

Different cross-sectional areas are particularly advantageous when a bristle tuft having an elongated cross-section is pushed into the elongate anchoring opening, wherein the bristles of the bristle tuft are fused together when forming a thickened fixed end. The protrusions of the fixed end protruding laterally with respect to the bristles are wider in the region of the long side of the elongated bristle bundle than in the region of the shorter cross-sectional side. This wider protrusion is covered and held by additional material during shaping.

The inner side of the elongated anchor opening has, for example, a different distance from the laterally protruding protrusion of the fixed end before deformation, wherein the material is pressed to the outer bristles during the deformation in step f).

At least one extension may be associated with two adjacent anchor openings. In step f), the material of the extension is pressed into the two anchoring openings, wherein the extensions respectively or jointly associated with the two adjacent anchoring openings have an anchorage before the deformation in step f). Determine the volume associated with the opening, which is in the range of 60% to 110% of the theoretical volume. The theoretical volume is the depth and the inner side of the anchor opening and the outer side of the single bristles before the deformation in step f). The product of the annular surface between the outer sides of the envelope of the bristle tuft. It is precisely when the anchoring openings are very close to each other that the following problem may arise: there is not enough material to close the anchoring openings because the connecting piece (Verbindungssteg) is very thin. In the present invention, a common extension is provided in the area of the connecting piece, and the material of the common extension is pressed into the two anchor openings.

In this regard, two adjacent anchoring openings can each be surrounded by a ring-shaped closed extension. Between the anchor openings, the extensions are connected to each other.

The cross section of the connecting part of the extensions should be larger than the cross section of the rest of the extensions.

The bristles or bristle bundles can also be inserted into and anchored in the anchoring opening obliquely to the front in the method according to the invention. To this end, the closed-loop extension has a smaller cross-sectional area on the side close to the bristles or bristle bundle (the bristles or bristle bundle is inclined to this side) than on the opposite side. Due to the inclination of the bristles or bundles of bristles, the volume that needs to be filled with material on this side is smaller, and this volume can be balanced by setting a smaller extension volume. In this way, there is no risk of burrs (Grat) adjacent to the outside of the outer bristles or individual bristles and protruding from the front due to excessive material.

There may be a closed annular extension around all the anchoring openings in the bristle carrier, or only some anchoring openings can be surrounded.

The material that is then pressed into the anchor opening in the exit area does not need to be the material of only one extension or a plurality of extensions itself, but the material below the extension before the extension is shaped can also be side-by-side Press into the anchor opening.

Another embodiment provides that: at least one of the bristles in step b) is inserted into the anchor opening at right angles to the preferably flat front surface or convex or concave curved front surface, and then in step f) The material is squeezed obliquely from the front by moving laterally into the anchoring opening, and then anchored in the oblique orientation, or squeezed perpendicular to the front, because if there is no additional The material, the bristles or the outer bristles of the bristle bundle will tilt outward.

The anchor opening is defined by an annular edge inside the bristle carrier, and this edge may also be referred to as the inner side of the wall defining the anchor opening. Since the bristle carrier is an injection molded part, and one or more anchor openings are produced during the injection molding process, the demolding angle required for injection molding must be observed when working without a slider (Schieber). The inner edge of the anchoring hole (that is, the inner side of the wall defining the anchoring hole) is slightly tapered inward due to the demolding slope caused by not using the guide plate, so that the wall is only substantially perpendicular to the front face extend.

The anchor opening may have an elongated shape in a direction perpendicular to the front view. In bundles of bristles where the ends of the bristles are fused together by heat, it has been found that the resulting protrusions are larger in the longitudinal direction than in the transverse direction. In this case, if such an elongated bristle bundle is inserted into the elongated anchoring opening, the edge of the anchoring opening must be wider in the area on the longitudinal side than in the area on the short side. Squeeze inward to a greater degree. The end side edge may have at least one extension in the area of one or more parts of the edge, on the one or more parts, the distance from the adjacent anchor opening or the outer end face of the bristle carrier The maximum distance from the peripheral side of the device is 0.5 mm. When the anchoring openings very close to each other cause the wall to be too thin, there is not enough material to squeeze inward and hold the bristle tufts. This is avoided by the extension.

The extension particularly has a preferably continuous rectangular cross-sectional profile, which can be easily manufactured and also allows simpler injection molding halves.

The term "injection molding half part" is hereinafter understood as an integral component that completely forms the inside of the cavity in the injection molding half, or as a component formed by one or more parts of a multi-part injection molding half. The multiple parts together form the inside of the cavity in the injection molding half. In the latter case, in particular, the bottom of the cavity in the injection molding half is an independent part that is slidably inserted into the opening of the second part, which in turn defines the edge of the recess.

The one or more extensions are completely or almost completely squeezed flat during shaping, or more precisely pressed into the plane formed by the front face. At best, the consumption of at least one bristle or adjacent bristle bundles can be kept to a minimum.

Preferably, in the method according to the invention, the front side of the bristle carrier is heated. Wherein the front side is brought to a temperature that is lower than the melting temperature of the bristle material and/or the bristle carrier material, in particular the highest is the corresponding melting of the bristle material and (or) the bristle carrier material calculated in °C 85% of temperature. According to feature f), the tool piece exerts a pressure on the heated bristle carrier and deforms the correspondingly heated bristle carrier.

Preferably, the front surface of the bristle carrier is heated by a heated tool piece. If the end surface of the tool piece contacts the front surface for a few seconds (this is the case in the preferred variant), the temperature of the end surface of the tool piece is also equal to the temperature of the front surface of the bristle carrier, so that the temperatures are consistent. This means that the end face of the tool piece reaches a temperature that is lower than the melting temperature of the bristle material and (or) the bristle carrier material, in particular the highest is the corresponding melting temperature of the bristle material and (or) the bristle carrier material calculated in °C 85% of the total.

Although the above processing steps are preferably implemented in the above order, this is not necessary. For example, the front surface of the bristle carrier can also be heated first, and then the distance between the tool part and the bristle carrier can be reduced, or the two steps can be performed simultaneously or partially simultaneously.

The distance change is realized through the relative movement of the tool part and the holding part, which means that the tool part moves while the holding part is stationary, or vice versa, or both the tool part and the holding part move.

The "at least one bristle" mentioned below refers to the only one bristle located in one receiving opening and one anchoring opening, and the plural of the only one bristle bundle located in one receiving opening and one anchoring opening A bristles also refers to a plurality of bristle bundles located in a plurality of accommodating openings and anchoring openings. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the anchoring of a single bristle or a plurality of separated individual bristles. In the following there are several additional mentions of bristle bundles to increase readability, but the present invention is generally applicable to both bristle carriers with one or several single bristles and bristle carriers with one or several bristle bundles. Or a combination of the two. In addition, this point is related to both the method request item and the device request item.

Several improvements will be described below. These improvements are inventions by themselves, but they can be combined to form an optimal solution. It should be emphasized that the equipment described below can also have the features described in this article in connection with the method, in which only the controller is programmed accordingly.

Due to the aforementioned heating, the holder for accommodating the bristle carrier may be heated during operation, for example, in a radiant manner. In addition, a large number of test results show that the time for applying pressure on the bristle carrier may be so long that the deeper area of the bristle carrier away from the front is overheated, so that the bristle carrier is also shaped in these deeper areas. To prevent this, according to a variant of the present invention, the back surface of the bristle carrier is actively cooled during the application of the pressure on the bristle carrier. This means that an independent cooling device that works in a liquid cooling mode is provided, for example. In this way, the following volume area of the bristle carrier can be set within a narrow limit, in which volume area there is a sufficiently high temperature during the application of pressure to achieve shaping. In addition, the cooling device forms a safe zone without deformation inside the bristle carrier.

The backside of the bristle carrier is actively cooled during the application of pressure. Among them, it is better to ensure that the bristle carrier becomes warm during this process, up to 25°C.

In particular, the holder is actively cooled by a liquid cooling method, and the holder is used to apply a reaction force from the back to the bristle carrier and for the bristle carrier to abut.

This cooling can occur not only on the back side of the bristle carrier, but optionally also at least on the so-called side sections of the bristle carrier. The side surface refers to the surface connecting the front and back sides of the bristle carrier. The cooling prevents the side surface from plastically deforming laterally outward when the bristle carrier is squeezed between the front and back sides. To this end, for example, the holder may have an accommodating recess for the bristle carrier, and the accommodating recess is constructed to be complementary to the bristle carrier and ensure that the back and sides abut on the holder.

Preferably, the bristle carrier is heated by the heatable tool part after the at least one bristle is installed.

The tool part can be heated by an integrated resistance heater or by a heated adjacent part that temporarily contacts the tool part outside the contact surface of the bristle carrier, and conducts heat to the tool part during this contact superior. The controlled heating of the tool parts to a predetermined temperature is not achieved by "incidentally" heating more or less adjacent hot parts, but by heaters that are only assigned to the tool parts. The pressure is applied in a device, wherein during the application of the pressure to the bristle carrier, the bristle carrier contacts the tool part on the front and the holder on the back. In particular, the device over travels and hard stops (auf Block gefahren) to apply the pressure. This means that there is no distance between the holder and the tool piece because the two touch each other on the end face. This contact is preferably full contact and occurs in the separation surface between the holder and the tool piece around the enclosed bristle carrier. In this way, the cavity formed between the holder and the tool piece to accommodate the bristle carrier is sealed in the separation surface. Here, the material of the bristle carrier does not enter a gap to form burrs on the finished bristle carrier.

The test results unexpectedly show that the stability of the bristle carrier can be improved if the device is not separated and the bristle carrier is removed immediately after the so-called action time (that is, the time for applying pressure on the bristle carrier between the front and back) And accuracy, and improve the orientation stability and orientation accuracy of the at least one bristles, especially the bristles in the bristle bundle. Although this point is extremely unfavorable for the cycle time, after the action time, a ventilation gap is formed between the front face and the tool part. This means that the tool part and the holder are slightly separated from each other. The device is not completely separated, and the device is not brought to a state where the bristle carrier is removed or can be removed. The bristle carrier together with the at least one bristle, preferably together with the same or several bristle bundles, temporarily enter the resting phase, in which the ventilation gap is used in the equipment to cool the front surface. In this resting phase, the back surface continues to contact the holder depending on the situation, and the side surface also continues to contact the holder depending on the shape of the holder, which can stabilize the shape.

The duration of the predetermined rest period should be at least 1 second, specifically at least 1.5 seconds. During this period of time, it is preferable that no further movement occurs between the holder and the tool part. As an alternative, a slow opening movement can occur.

The following is particularly beneficial: the at least one bristle, especially the bristle bundle(s), stays in the corresponding accommodating opening during the entire rest period. The accommodating opening keeps the bristles or the bristles of one or several bristle bundles in shape during the resting phase. This stabilizes the area around the opening. Obviously, the internal stress is eliminated.

The ventilation gap should have a height of at least 1 mm, which is measured along the moving direction of the device (the direction of movement between the holder and the tool when the device is separated and closed).

As mentioned before, the ventilation gap can preferably be kept constant during the rest phase.

Optionally, cooling air can be blown to the front of the bristle carrier through the ventilation gap. This can shorten the duration of the resting phase.

Another feature of the present invention is: after the tool member and the bristle carrier are relatively implemented to reach the closed position of the device as the end point of the feeding movement, the pressure is applied to the closed position within a predetermined holding time. The bristle carrier. Despite the desire to shorten the cycle time as much as possible, according to this feature of the invention, the device is not closed and opened again immediately, which is usually the case when pressing, shaping or stamping objects. The pressure does not have to be constant during the holding time, because the pressure is related to the resistance of the bristle carrier. Therefore, the pressure decreases as the degree of deformation of the bristle carrier increases.

The holding time should be at least 1 second, preferably at least 1.5 seconds.

The results show that the longest holding time of 3 seconds, in particular, the longest 2.5 seconds of holding time is the best. No longer holding time is required.

The bristle carrier may be heated on the front surface during the holding time, in particular during the entire holding time, but optionally the bristle carrier may have been heated on the front surface during the feeding movement. If heating is already performed during the feed motion, cycle time can be saved. Because even during the feed movement, the front face is heated, for example, due to radiation. In this case, once the front face contacts the heated tool piece, during the subsequent closing of the device, the front face and the bristle carrier are heated and reach a certain temperature.

The action time of the pressure on the bristle carrier is the sum of the holding time and a period of time during the feeding movement. In this period, the tool piece contacts the front surface for the first time and the holder contacts the back surface at the same time, and is compressed to reach the fully closed position. This action time should be at least 4 seconds, specifically at least 5 seconds.

The results show that the longest action time of 15 seconds and, in particular, the longest 10 seconds is the limit.

Wherein, the holding time is preferably shorter than the aforementioned period of time during which the bristle carrier is compressed when closed. This closing and compression is performed at an extremely slow feed rate of the holder relative to the tool piece. In particular, this period of time is at least 3 seconds, specifically at least 4 seconds.

The test results show that the longest holding time is 50% of the above-mentioned time period when the bristle carrier is compressed when closed, and in particular, the longest is 40% of the above-mentioned time period when the bristle carrier is compressed when closed.

In order to shorten the cycle time, the following may make sense: the front side of the bristle carrier has been heated by other measures rather than just by contacting the tool piece. The bristle carrier can be preheated. For example, hot air can be blown to the front of the bristle carrier when the bristle carrier is already in the holder, or the bristle carrier can be exposed to a heat source (such as radiant heat) for a short time, and the heat source does not form the tool part. This point can occur during the feed movement of the tool piece relative to the holder, or it can also occur before this feed movement in time. For example, the bristle carrier can be heated during the adjustment movement of the holder/tool member or before the tool member is moved laterally toward the holder. This can shorten the time required for subsequent heating by contacting the tool piece.

Another feature of the present invention is that the free end of the at least one bristle is supported in the device with an end face. This support should determine the axial position of the bristles or the axial position of the bristles of one or more bristle bundles within the same bristle bundle or the relative axial positions of a plurality of bristle bundles. When there are several tufts of bristles, if the brush is viewed from the side, for example, the ends of the tufts of bristles should be saw-toothed. Other options are: the tufts of bristles are serrated, tapered at one end, or tapered at one end.

It is expected that the above-mentioned support used as a stopping or forming means should also function during the application of pressure on the bristle carrier to prevent the bristles, the bristles or the bristle bundle from moving during this period of time. But the results show that the following is beneficial: at least the support has been removed during the application of pressure on the bristle carrier, preferably before the pressure is applied or during the feeding movement of the device, when the tool or holder is in contact with the front of the bristle carrier and This support has been removed after the back. This means that at least in the final stage of pressure application, and optionally during the entire pressure application period, the above-mentioned support used is removed. The minimum pressure introduced by the support into the bristles at least in the final stage or during the entire deformation process can cause the bristles to deform, or cause the bristles to be skewed or not parallel to each other, even if the bristles inside a bristle bundle are not parallel to each other.

In this case, the following may be meaningful: the cross section of the at least one bristle is adapted to the cross section of the corresponding accommodating opening in the tool part, so that the at least one bristle or the at least one bristle bundle is clamped The axial positioning can be obtained in the accommodating opening and through the clamping. That is, if the bristles of the bristles or a bundle of bristles are oriented axially, the bristles are clamped in the accommodating opening and thereby axially positioned. Of course, this clamping is only a minimum clamping, and it is generally allowed to move during the pre-axis orientation process. However, the weight of the bristles or bristle bundle or the inertia during movement of the device prevents the bristles or bristle bundle from undesirably moving by themselves in the housing opening.

The following is similar to the anchorless fixing used in practice: the at least one bristle or the entire bristle bundle can obtain a thickened fixed end through the thermoforming of the bristle material, and the specific method is: heating the bristle material to exceed the melting temperature . In the case of using a bristle tuft, the bristles of the bristle tuft are merged by thermoforming. However, it is not that the adjacent bristle bundles are also merged, but each bristle bundle itself has a thickened fixed end, and the bristle bundle is inserted into the anchor opening with the thickened fixed end facing forward.

The shaping is performed outside the anchoring station, and at least the steps c) to f) are carried out in the anchoring station.

Therefore, when the corresponding fixed end is inserted into the anchor opening, the material of the thickened fixed end is preferably solidified.

The present invention can not only fix the bristle bundle to the anchor opening through the shaping of the edge of the opening, but also fix the prefabricated so-called elastic cleaning element (for example, made of thermoplastic) to the anchor opening. The thickness of the cleaning element Common filaments that are several times the size of the bristles. These cleaning elements are used to improve the cleaning effect, and if toothbrushes are involved, they are also used to massage the gums. In addition, these cleaning elements do not have to be pin-shaped, but can have any cross-section, especially long, arc, cross or round (round or elliptical) and corresponding ring-shaped with a central opening .

The at least one anchor opening can be filled with a single prefabricated bristle made of elastomer material, especially thermoplastic elastomer (thermoplastischem Elastomer; TPE). The bristle carrier is deformed to anchor the single bristle to the anchor opening.

Measured in cross section, the single prefabricated bristle preferably has a maximum wall thickness greater than 0.6 mm, in particular greater than 0.9 mm. Taking a rectangular cross section as an example, the maximum wall thickness is measured along the longitudinal direction.

Optionally, the single prefabricated bristles may have a thickened fixed end, by which the thickened fixed end pushes the bristles into the anchoring opening, and the thickened fixed end is fixed by the anchoring opening of the bristle carrier. Surrounded by the shaping edge. The thickened fixed end is produced when a single bristles are manufactured, instead of being produced by, for example, the pressing and elastic deformation of the bristles and the shaping of the edges of the anchor openings. As an alternative, if the bristles are thick enough and the edges are pressed into the elastic bristles, the operation can be performed without thickening the fixed end, so that the material extruded from the fixed end thickens.

The thickened fixed end has, for example, the shape of a flat cylinder, and/or the single prefabricated bristles is a multi-component injection molded part. In this case, the thickened fixed end may be made of a material that is at least different from the outer surface of the single prefabricated bristles on the outer surface of the anchor opening, and the material is preferably at least harder than the outer surface, such as polypropylene. The fixed end is preferably even harder than the entire rest of the single prefabricated bristles. The harder fixing end makes the fixing effect of the bristles in the anchor opening better.

The bristle carrier is usually provided with a plurality of anchoring openings, of which at least one of the anchoring openings, preferably the plurality of anchoring openings is only equipped with the single prefabricated bristles or bristles. At least one other anchoring opening, preferably the remaining anchoring openings are equipped with prefabricated bristle tufts, so that the brush contains a hybrid form composed of traditional bristle tufts and thicker elastic cleaning elements.

Viewed from a side view, the free end of the single bristle extends, for example, at least to the free end of the bristle bundle, which means that the single bristle is not shorter than the bristle bundles. It may be beneficial that the elastic cleaning elements (ie, the individual bristles) are even longer than the bristle bundle and protrude from the end of the bristle bundle on the front side. Of course, the elastic cleaning elements can also be shorter than the bristle bundles.

Another feature of the present invention is that the wall portion defining the anchor opening in the bristle carrier is deformed only from the front surface to above the thickened end after the deformation. Wherein, the fixed end can also be, for example, a thickened end or a thickened fixed end of a bristle bundle, and the bristles are integrally connected in the thickened fixed end. It is expected that the entire anchoring opening is as tightly and seamlessly abutted on the fixed end as possible to prevent the bristles or bristle bundles from moving in any direction. But the present invention is different from this. The fixed end is not completely compressed, but has a certain gap inside the anchor opening. Thereby, the position of the at least one bristle can be set more accurately, especially the position of the bristles inside a bristle bundle. For example, when the thickened ends of a tuft of bristles are fully compressed, the bristles will try to diverge and are no longer oriented parallel to each other.

For example, the deformation should only occur in the edge area of the anchor opening, that is, in the wall section area located at the exit area of the anchor opening.

From the perspective of the finished brush, the wall of the anchor opening does not clamp the fixed end and/or deform the fixed end of the bristles or the at least one entire bristle bundle at a depth of at least 0.8 mm. The area where the fixed end is not clamped and/or not deformed starts from the bottom of the anchor opening and extends beyond the at least 0.8 mm toward the front direction of the bristle carrier.

There may even be an air gap between the wall and the at least one bristle or the bristle bundle, especially in the bottom area or the bottom area adjacent to the anchor opening.

As mentioned above, the at least one bristle or the at least one entire bristle bundle may have a thickened fixed end. The edge of the anchor opening is deformed, that is, the area of the wall that is located at the exit area to the front face. In this area, the edge is narrowed so that the anchoring opening expands toward the bottom and the thickened fixed end is caught by the deformed edge from behind in the pull-out direction, so that by acting as a stop (Anschlag) The edge prevents the bristles/bristle bundle from being pulled out.

In terms of the orientation accuracy of the bristles or the bristles of a bristle bundle, as described above, the thickened fixed end may start from the end of the thickened fixed end adjacent to the front surface of the bristle carrier, and move toward the back in the axial direction. Only at most 50% of the total axial length of the thickened fixed end is clamped in the anchor opening. For example, if the fixed end is a sphere usually produced when the ends of the bristles are melted, at most only the half of the sphere pointing to the front side is clamped in the anchor opening.

The anchoring hole is formed by deforming and forming a narrowed "neck" adjacent to the outlet, that is, the anchoring hole catches the deformed edge of the thickened fixed end from behind, which can have a thickness of 0.5 to 1.3 mm, specifically An axial extension of 0.6 to 0.9 mm (within the scope of the present invention, the axial direction always refers to the direction from the front to the back or from the back to the front). This is a fairly small height.

The brush made by the present invention, especially the toothbrush, can have a very small thickness in the bristle carrier area based on the present invention. The conventional toothbrush has a thickness of more than 4 mm in the head area, and the thickness of less than 4 mm can be achieved by the present invention. At the same time, the holding force of the bristles or bristle bundles is better than that of the prior art. In addition, the present invention can also position the bristle bundles (including larger bristle bundles) extremely close to the edge of the front surface, which was not possible in the past.

By deforming the edge of the anchor opening, the cross section of the bristle bundle can also be narrowed. This means that a bundle of bristles is fixed to the anchor opening, and the edge of the anchor opening is deformed so that the edge compresses the bundle of bristles in the area where the bristles are juxtaposed. The area where the bristles are juxtaposed is preferably directly adjacent to the fixed end formed by the melted bristles. Therefore, the cross-section of the bristle bundle obtained after the anchoring opening is deformed and narrowed is smaller than the cross-section of the bristle bundle before being inserted into the anchoring opening.

Preferably, the tuft of bristles is compressed by at least 3%, in particular at least 5%. This compression is determined by the cross section of the accommodating opening in the tool part (to be precise, the cross-sectional area) and the deformation of the edge area (ie, the exit of the anchoring opening to the front). Defined by difference.

However, in a toothbrush, the cross section is reduced by only 0.4 mm at most, for example.

Preferably, the anchoring hole has an interference of less than 0.2 mm in the lateral direction relative to the maximum cross-section of the bristle bundle/fixed end of the bristle before the anchoring hole is deformed, so that the fixed end can be easily pushed Into the anchor opening. After deformation, a shape fit is formed through the narrowed edge of the anchor opening, wherein the cross section of the edge can only be 0.1 to 0.3 mm narrower than the maximum cross section of the fixed end. This minimum excess is sufficient to achieve an outstanding pull-out value (Auszugswerte).

The present invention can also process the bristle carrier whose back surface has been formed into an elastic body by injection molding. That is, when the bristles/bristle bundle is inserted into the anchor opening on the front side, the elastic body has been formed on the back side of the bristle carrier by injection molding. The holder for holding the bristle carrier when pressure is applied has a groove. The groove is constructed to accommodate the bristle carrier from the back side together with the elastic body. In particular, the groove may be constructed to be complementary to the shape of the bristle carrier subjected to the encapsulation treatment. Since the elastic body is mostly implemented as a tongue coating cleaner with protruding protrusions in toothbrushes, the holder correspondingly has recesses complementary to these protrusions.

However, it is preferable to implement the depth of the groove such that the volume of the groove for accommodating the elastic body is smaller than the uncompressed volume of the elastic body. Therefore, when pressure is applied to deform the edge of the anchor opening, the volume in the groove matches the actual volume of the compressed elastic body. Since the elastic body is softer than the bristle carrier, it is necessary to prevent the elastic body located in the middle from making the pressure too small.

The reaction force exerted by the holder during deformation can be completely introduced into the front part of the bristle carrier by the elastic body. That is, without an elastic body in the middle, the back of the bristle carrier does not have to directly contact the holder to introduce the reaction force into the bristle carrier.

The aforementioned various options of the method of the present invention may have the following optimization steps:

The tool piece is heated so that the opposite end surface of the tool piece and the bristle carrier reaches a temperature that is lower than the melting temperature of the bristle material and (or) the bristle carrier material, specifically lower than the bristle material and (or) ) The bristle carrier material is 85% of the corresponding melting temperature calculated in °C. The tool piece is moved relative to the bristle carrier so that the tool piece contacts and heats the bristle carrier.

According to another aspect, the method of the present invention for manufacturing a brush is further developed through the following steps. The brush includes a bristle carrier having at least one anchoring opening and inserting and anchoring no anchor to the anchor At least one bristles in a predetermined opening, wherein the bristles carrier and the at least one bristles are made of thermoplastic, and the thermoplastics may be the same or different:

Making the end surface of the tool piece opposite to the bristle carrier reach a predetermined temperature, the predetermined temperature being in a range between ambient temperature and 210°C, in particular, between ambient temperature and 150°C;

The tool piece is moved relative to the bristle carrier so that the tool piece contacts the bristle carrier and brings the bristle carrier to the predetermined temperature, but does not melt the bristle carrier and the at least one bristle.

In all embodiments, the thermoplastic is preferably selected from polyesters, especially polyethylene terephthalate (Polyethylenterephthalat; PET), preferably BR003, and polybutylenterephthalat (Polybutylenterephthalat; PBT). ), polypropylene (Polypropylen; PP), polycarbonate (Polycarbonat; PC), polyamide (PA), polyvinyl acetate (Polyvinylacetat; PVA), polyethylene (Polyethylen; PE), acrylonitrile-butyl Diene-styrene copolymer (Acrylnitril-Butadien-Styrol-Copolymer; ABS) and styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer (Styrol-Acrylnitril-Copolymer; SAN) are a group. Homopolymers and copolymers including the above-mentioned thermoplastics can be used.

According to the present invention, when the tool part contacts the bristle carrier, the bristle carrier and the at least one bristle inserted into the tool part should not melt. For this reason, the predetermined temperature is preferably at most 85% of the melting temperature of the thermoplastic. This will certainly prevent damage to the bristles and/or the bristle carrier.

The predetermined temperature is preferably within a range between 30°C and 150°C, more preferably between 60°C and 140°C, specifically between 90°C and 130°C, or between 100°C and 115°C.

Further preferably, the predetermined temperature is higher than the glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic. In this way, the thermoplastic plastic has sufficient deformability.

The method of the present invention is fundamentally different from the prior art because, on the one hand, the method only proposes anchorless fixing of the bristles, the bristle bundle or the bristle bundles. The anchor opening itself is prefabricated, which means that the present invention does not press the heated punch into the bristle carrier to form a hole, but the accommodating opening is created when the bristle carrier is formed by injection molding. In addition, it is not necessary to first heat the accommodating opening from the inside to soften the inner edge of the opening, so as to press the bristles or bristle bundle into the soft wall portion of the accommodating opening. To be precise, it is preferable to push the bristles or the bristle bundle(s) into the accommodating opening first, and then heat but not melt the opposite front side of the bristle carrier and the tool part. The operation is performed below the melting temperature of the bristle material and/or bristle carrier material, in which the tool is equipped with bristles or bristle bundles, rather than by a dedicated pure heating tool for example, when the bristles or bristle bundles are provided When, the heating tool must be removed again. The reason why this kind of heating realized by the tool part equipped with bristles or bristle bundles is neither conceivable nor obvious in the prior art is that in the prior art, the bristle bundles should penetrate into the heated soft wall of the bristle carrier Therefore, it must have high inherent stability in order to be able to transmit the pressing force exerted on the bristle bundle. Only by the pressing force applied to the back of the bristle bundle and the inherent rigidity of the cold bristle bundle, can the anchor end be pressed into the softened wall of the bristle carrier. In addition, the heating is achieved by contacting the bristle carrier with a heating tool, instead of the non-contact heating commonly used in the prior art. This can speed up the energy transfer on the one hand, and reduce the number of parts of the device on the other hand.

During the entire shaping process, the bristle carrier is heated to a temperature lower than the melting temperature, preferably to a temperature that is much lower than the melting temperature, if the bristle carrier material has a glass transfer greater than or equal to 300°K The temperature is, for example, at least 15% lower than the relevant melting temperature calculated in °C, and preferably at most 15% higher than the glass transition temperature calculated in °K. If the bristle material has a glass transition temperature less than 300°K, the temperature reached by the bristle carrier during the entire shaping process is higher than the glass transition temperature calculated in °K by up to 50%. Preferably, the bristle carrier is heated to a temperature exceeding the glass transition temperature.

The present invention and the foregoing and following beneficial variants of the present invention specifically propose the use of polypropylene as a bristle carrier material. Several groups of polypropylene have glass transition temperatures of less than 300°K, and other groups have glass transition temperatures of more than 300°K. . Other preferred bristle carrier materials are PET, PBT, PA, ABS, SAN and PC. These bristle carrier materials all have a glass transition temperature of over 300°K.

The glass transition temperature can be measured, for example, by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (Dynamisch-Mechanische Thermoanalyse; DMTA). For partially crystalline thermoplastics, the melting temperature refers to the upper limit of the melting point range. The melting temperature can be measured by dynamic differential calorimetry (Dynamische Differenzkalorimetrie; DSC), for example. For amorphous thermoplastics, the transition to the flow range or processing range is the melting temperature.

In order to make the period of manufacturing the bristle carrier relatively short, an embodiment of the present invention proposes that the tool part is heated before the tool part contacts the bristle carrier. Of course, this method has the disadvantage that the bristles or the bristle bundles are heated together, which is undesirable in the prior art because the bristle bundles should be pressed into the soft wall part. According to the present invention, the tool piece can be heated to the predetermined maximum working temperature of the tool piece before the tool piece contacts the bristle carrier.

The present invention also proposes in a technical solution of the present invention that the melting temperature of the plastic of the bristle carrier is lower than the melting temperature of the bristles or the bristles. However, there are also brushes with the same bristle carrier material and bristle material, such as polypropylene and PA.

As mentioned above, the bristle carrier should be heated by the tool part only after inserting the at least one bristle, and preferably only by contact. Of course, if the bristle carrier is close to a warm or hot tool part, a minimum increase in temperature may occur, but this increase in temperature is absolutely negligible and only occurs on the direct surface.

However, if the feeding movement takes a very long time, as an alternative, the tool piece can make the bristle carrier reach a temperature in the area of the contact surface with the tool during the feeding movement of the tool piece, and the temperature is low. The melting temperature of the bristle carrier material is preferably greater than or equal to the glass transition temperature of the bristle carrier material. As an alternative or supplementary solution, the bristle carrier can also reach the above-mentioned temperature when the tool part contacts the bristle carrier.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the heating operation of heating the bristle carrier to the predetermined above-mentioned temperature or temperature range should reach 0.25 mm to 0.5 mm below the surface (front) of the bristle carrier facing the tool part, until the deformation process ends. Since the tool piece is pressed against the bristle carrier for a long time and heats the bristle carrier in the meantime, the heat energy also penetrates deeper into the bristle carrier. In this way, when the tool part contacts the bristle carrier for the first time, the tool part does not have to be deeply heated, and it is sufficient to realize this heating during the feeding movement and the action time (contact time).

The tool piece can be heated to the bristle carrier at least in the edge area surrounding the anchor opening, but preferably in the entire contact area, in the first stage of the feeding movement made with respect to the bristle carrier A temperature that is higher than a limit temperature. If the bristle carrier material whose glass transition temperature is greater than or equal to 300°K is used, the limit temperature is equivalent to 60% of the glass transition temperature of the bristle carrier material calculated in ℃. Say 80%. This point is especially suitable for bristles carrier materials such as polypropylene variants with glass transition temperature greater than or equal to 300°K, PET, PBT, PA, ABS, SAN and PC. As an alternative, if the bristle carrier material with a glass transition temperature of less than 300°K is used, the limit temperature is the ambient temperature, especially when using polypropylene variants with such a low glass transition temperature. The heating occurs before the tool part deforms the edge and presses the edge against the at least one bristle in the second stage of the feeding movement.

In particular, the bristle carrier material can be heated to a temperature in the range between the glass transition temperature and about 85% or less of the melting temperature of the thermoplastic in °C. Depending on the thermoplastic material used, the temperature is preferably between 30°C and 210°C, more preferably between 60°C and 140°C, preferably between 90°C and 130°C, or between 100°C and 115°C Inside.

The test results indicate that the bristle carrier should be heated to a temperature at least in the edge area surrounding the anchor opening (preferably in the entire contact area) before the tool piece contacts the bristle carrier. The bristles or the bristle bundle are pushed into the containing opening, and the temperature is higher than a limit temperature. If the bristle carrier material whose glass transition temperature is greater than or equal to 300°K is used for operation, the limit temperature is calculated by ℃ higher than the bristle carrier material The glass transition temperature is 40% lower, specifically 20% lower (this point is especially suitable for the bristles carrier materials such as polypropylene variants with glass transition temperature greater than or equal to 300°K, PET, PBT, PA, ABS, SAN and PC) , Or if it is operated with a bristle carrier material with a glass transition temperature of less than 300°K, that is, especially a polypropylene variant with such a low glass transition temperature, the limit temperature is consistent with the ambient temperature. The edge of the anchor opening is at least the outer edge on the front surface of the bristle carrier.

Another variant of the present invention proposes that before the edge of the anchoring hole is heated to a temperature that is at least 30°C higher than the ambient temperature, in particular, the edge of the anchoring hole located inside the anchoring hole is heated by the Before the tool part is heated to exceed the ambient temperature, the at least one bristles or the bristle bundle is pushed into the accommodating opening. That is, in the latter variant, the edge inside the opening is not significantly heated, while in the prior art, the pin that can be heated should be drilled into the opening to remove the inner edge of the opening (that is, the inside edge that defines the opening). The wall) is heated to the bottom of the hole.

The deformation should be carried out in such a way that the edge of the bristle carrier presses against the outer bristles of the fixed bristle bundle at the junction with the front or end surface of the bristle carrier, thereby compressing the bristle bundle. Of course, the compression method and compression range depend on the cross section of the bristle bundle. Taking a toothbrush as an example, the cross-section of the anchor opening is reduced by at most 0.3 mm, preferably at most 0.15 mm.

The non-heating of the wall of the opening is preferably also applicable to the other embodiments. That is to say, depending on the situation, generally only in the front area, that is, at the junction between the front and the anchor opening, so that the edge reaches the specified limit temperature or temperature, and as long as the tool does not touch the bristle carrier, the opening is generally maintained in the environment temperature.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention proposes that the tool part is also heated in the entire contact area where the tool part contacts the bristle carrier, and not only in the dotted area or the linear area around the edge of the anchoring hole . The advantage is that the tool part can utilize the entire contact area and thus the entire adjacent material area of the tool part in order to move and shape the material area by applying a higher pressure. In addition, it is beneficial that the tool piece even contacts the entire end surface of the bristle carrier facing the tool piece, that is, the front surface of the bristle carrier, and at least contacts and exerts pressure on at least 70% of the front surface area. In the prior art, a certain flange-like structure is formed by the protrusions on the made bristle carrier, and the flange forms the only heated and shaped material. However, the present invention is obviously different from this, because the present invention heats and shapes the sections of the bristle carrier away from the edge of the end surface of the anchor opening.

The back side of the bristle carrier should not be heated by the tool part during the anchoring period, so actually only the front side facing the tool part is heated and shaped, and the back side forms a stable plate-like structure, which can be It is called the base of the bristle carrier. Therefore, this part of the bristle carrier is also not shaped or changed during the application of pressure.

The tool part can also heat the bristle carrier from the end surface at least during the entire period of time when the tool part applies pressure to the bristle carrier. That is, the present invention does not preheat the bristle carrier for a short time and then move the bristle bundles into the heated material section of the bristle carrier quickly. The prior art is to preheat the bristle carrier and then push the bristle bundle into the bristle carrier.

The plastics used in the present invention are, for example: copolyesters, especially Eastar ^TM BR003 (with a melting temperature range of 230°C to 280°C), polypropylene, especially homopolymers with a melting temperature of 165°C, such as PPH5042, poly Carbonate, polyamide, polyvinyl acetate or polyethylene. If these materials have a glass transition temperature above the ambient temperature (300°K here), energy should be transferred to the bristle carrier through the tool. This point is also beneficial for materials whose glass transition temperature is lower than the ambient temperature. However, according to a variant of the present invention, when such materials are used for the bristle carrier, it is not necessary to use a tool to heat the bristle carrier. The shaping is achieved only by the pressure applied by the tool piece to the bristle carrier at ambient temperature.

Advantageously, in the method of the present invention, the bristle carrier material is heated to the following temperature by the device of the present invention, which will be described below:

In particular, the present invention proposes heating the front of the bristle carrier in the range of 75°C to 95°C, specifically 80°C to 90°C, for PET, and 115°C to 125°C, specifically 110°C to 120°C for PP. The front side of the bristle carrier is heated within the range.

In particular, PP having a Melt-Flow-Index (MFI) of 6 to 35, preferably 10 to 15 is used.

In a preferred embodiment, the method of the present invention does not only provide one bristle to be inserted into the accommodating opening as a whole, but a plurality of anchoring openings are provided in the bristle carrier and a plurality of accommodating openings are provided in the tool part. hole. The accommodating openings are respectively aligned with the corresponding anchoring openings. The bristle bundles are inserted into the accommodating openings, and then the bristle bundles are pushed into the anchoring openings, preferably at the same time. The tool member heats at least the edges of the anchoring openings, preferably the entire contact surface, at the same time, thereby heating the entire area between the anchoring openings. By applying pressure to the front of the bristle carrier, the anchoring openings are closed at the same time, thereby simultaneously anchoring the bristle bundles.

The contact area between the tool part and the bristle carrier is preferably straight on the tool part, and the front side of the bristle carrier facing the tool part is also straight. However, there are also the following bristle carriers: have a convex or concave curved front surface. The tool piece has an end surface complementary to this.

The feeding movement of the tool piece relative to the bristle carrier can be completed in a manner of pressure and time control and/or pressure and stroke control.

As an alternative, the device moves over-travel and hardly stops. The specific method is: for example, an electric motor (for example, through a spindle drive) is set, wherein the current consumption or power consumption of the electric motor is detected, and the device is considered as it reaches the specified limit. In the closed position, in this closed position, the holder and the tool part are preferably in contact with each other. This point in time can be used as the starting point of the so-called hold time.

The term "movement or feeding movement of the tool member relative to the bristle carrier" refers to the relative movement of one or both of the two parts.

Another variant of the present invention proposes that the tool piece applies a pressure that is preferably kept constant to the bristle carrier within a predetermined time from the point of contact with the bristle carrier. This alternative method is particularly easy to implement because it simply applies pressure to the bristle carrier for a period of time, the so-called action time, and then separates the tool part from the bristle carrier. As with the other variants of the present invention, there is no need to perform other processing steps to anchor the bristles or the bristle bundle or bundles in the bristle carrier.

The feeding movement of the tool piece relative to the bristle carrier and/or the pressure exerted by the tool piece on the bristle carrier can start from the time when the tool piece contacts the bristle carrier until the maximum feeding stroke is reached, in terms of time It is non-linear. In this way, for example, a longer or shorter initial action time of the temperature can be reached, and then another pressure is applied to further permanently deform the bristle carrier material.

Different from the aforementioned prior art, the fixed end of the at least one bristle or the or the entire bristle bundle can be smaller than the cross-section of the anchoring opening when it is pushed into the corresponding anchoring opening, of course, when the bristle carrier is deformed And before being heated. This means that the bristle bundle is not pressed into the lateral wall of the anchor opening as proposed in the prior art. The fixed end is also not pressed into the bottom of the anchor opening, because the bottom is not heated or heated enough to become soft. In addition, no axial force that exceeds the force required to push the bristles out of the accommodating opening is not applied to the bristles.

The key point of this method and the major difference from the prior art is that the tool member acts on the bristle carrier for a long time, during which pressure is applied to the bristle carrier and the bristle carrier is additionally heated. The action time is at least 4 seconds, specifically at least 5 seconds and the longest 15 seconds, specifically, the longest 10 seconds. During such a long acting time, the pressure can remain constant and/or continue to heat the bristle carrier. The anchor opening may be a blind hole, specifically having a maximum depth of 4 mm and a specific maximum of 2.7 mm.

The method of the present invention reduces the thickness of the bristle carrier by deforming the bristle carrier in the front area.

The shaped and narrowed depth of the anchoring opening only accounts for at most 85% of the total depth of the anchoring opening, in particular, at most 70%, preferably even at most 60%, which means that in the blind The bottom area of the hole does not narrow the anchor opening.

Another major difference between the present invention and the prior art lies in the pressure applied, which is much higher than the pressure in the previously proposed methods. Specifically, the tool piece applies a pressure of at least 200 bar, in particular at least 400 bar, to the bristle carrier.

The at least one anchoring opening, preferably all the anchoring openings, does not have a protruding flange at the exit area of the anchoring opening before the tool piece applies pressure to the bristle carrier. Specifically, these bristles The carrier is straight on the front face of the bristle carrier facing the tool piece, at least in the contact area with the tool piece. The huge pressure of 200 bar and above deforms the entire area of the surface or contact surface, and there is no need to have a protruding flange in the form of material accumulation except for the exception when the anchor opening is inclined (see below).

The present invention also enables the manufacture of brushes with tufts of bristles extending obliquely to the front. This is surprising because due to the oblique orientation of the bristle bundles, the exit edge of the anchoring openings can be said to be partially located below the obliquely extending bundles, and therefore, on the one hand, it is more difficult to reach for the tools used for shaping, And on the other hand, shaping the material in this area should actually result in the erection of the oblique extension beam. However, as found in the experiment, this is not the case. With the method and device according to the present invention, the bristle bundle can therefore also be installed in the bristle carrier obliquely.

If the inside of the anchor opening should have an edge section extending obliquely to the front of the tool piece facing the anchor opening, then additional material accumulation may be required in this area. In this case, before the bristle carrier is pressed by the tool member on the edge of the end face, the bristle carrier has a tool facing toward the front face, for example, in the area of the obliquely extending edge section or relative to the obliquely extending edge section. Protruding extension in the direction of the piece. In other cases, the front face of the bristle carrier is beneficially completely straight.

In particular, a cassette is used as the tool part, and the at least one bristle or the at least one bristle bundle is assembled in the cassette. If it is necessary to fix several bristles or several bristle bundles on the bristle carrier, all the bristles or bristle bundles are placed in the same box and pushed in at the same time after assembly.

The fixed end or ends of the bristles or bristle bundles extend out of the box with the fixed end after assembly and are heated on the fixed end without leaving the box in the meantime. In this case, the thickened portion is formed on the fixed end freely protruding from the box. This means that the cassette is not a pure stamping tool, but also a conveying tool that moves laterally toward the bristle carrier from the assembly station and then presses against the bristle carrier.

Then (that is, immediately after the thickened portion is formed), the thickened portion (that is, the thickened fixed end) can be actively cooled, and then the thickened portion can be pushed into the anchor opening in the bristle carrier. This will extend the cycle time. In addition, it is avoided that the thickened portion is subsequently deformed when pressure is applied so that the bristles are no longer optimally oriented with respect to each other. Active cooling does not refer to the use of the ambient temperature existing in the device to cool and thicken the fixed end. Instead, there is a cooling device, such as an active airflow generated by a ventilator. This airflow can transport, for example, ambient air away from the heated part, or it can also transport cooled air from an air conditioning system. Another possibility is to provide a cold room through which the fixed end is transported along with the bristles or bristles.

As mentioned above, the tool part has, for example, a straight end surface facing the bristle carrier (at least in the contact area with the bristle carrier) and/or a geometric shape that cannot extend into the anchoring opening, meaning that it does not It has a pin-shaped protrusion or the like proposed in the prior art.

The results show that the position of the so-called separation surface between the holder and the tool piece (where the two abut on each other) relative to the bristle carrier is important. Therefore, the following is beneficial: the cavity formed for accommodating the bristle carrier is not only formed in the holder, but also partially formed in the tool part. However, judging from the thickness of the bristle carrier, most of the cavity is formed by a recess in the holder. Preferably, the separating surface should be adjacent to or directly adjacent to a rounded joint between the side surface and the front surface of the bristle carrier, that is, located outside the rounded joint. In this way, there will be no bumps or burrs formed by the extruded material of the bristle carrier on the rounded joint portion.

By applying pressure and heat, or only applying pressure, the total thickness of the bristle carrier is permanently reduced, which means that it is not only partially reduced, but overall. In particular, the end surface of the tool piece facing the bristle carrier is brought to a temperature, which is 140°C at the maximum, specifically 130°C at the maximum. For example, polypropylene, PET, ABS or SAN is used here as the material of the bristle carrier.

The results show that when PET is used as the bristle carrier material, the front side of the bristle carrier should reach 75°C to 95°C, specifically 80°C to 90°C, and when using PP (for example, it has 6 In the case of a Melt-Flow-Index (MFI) of 35, preferably 10-15, the front side of the bristle carrier should reach 105°C to 125°C, specifically 110°C to 120°C .

As mentioned above, before or after fixing the at least one bristle, at least one elastic cleaning element protruding from the front side can be formed and fixed on the bristle carrier by injection molding, and the cleaning element is composed of an elastic body, especially TPE , Wherein the cleaning element is arranged on the edge of the bristle carrier and (or) is arranged between the bristles or bristle bundles entering the edge. Therefore, a mixed form of cleaning elements can be used in the same brush. The cleaning element formed by injection molding, the bristle bundle fixed on the bristle carrier by shaping the edge of the anchor opening, and the elastic prefabricated cleaning element form that is also fixed on the bristle carrier by shaping the edge of the anchor opening The individual bristles can be installed on the bristle carrier in any combination. In addition, the bristle carrier can be constructed as a multi-component injection molded part.

The bristles can also be pre-sharpened bristles chemically or mechanically or can be pre-rounded.

Several bristle bundles can be anchored in the same bristle carrier, wherein at least one bristle bundle is composed of bristles meeting the following conditions: the material of the bristles and the melting temperature of the material are different from the bristles of at least one other bristle bundle. The bristle bundles composed of different bristle materials are heated with different intensities, so that the bristles of a bristle bundle are fused with each other to form thickened fixed ends respectively. This can be achieved in different ways: depending on the bristle material, setting different distances between the end of the bristle bundle near the heating device and the heating device, and (or) heating the heating device to different temperatures depending on the bristle material, and (Or), match different heating devices heated to different temperatures for the corresponding bristle materials.

For example, the tufts of bristles are pushed out of the box to varying degrees. The bristle bundles made of materials that are more meltable, for example, are closer to the box than other bristle bundles, so that the bristle bundles with a greater degree of extension are closer to the heating device than other bristle bundles, and thus more intense heating is obtained. As an alternative, the bristle bundles can also be processed in sequence. The specific method is that the fixed ends of the bristle bundles with different bristle materials are pushed out of the box in sequence so as to be closer to the heating device. Then, the heating device is heated to two suitable different temperatures, or heating devices of different temperatures are used for the corresponding bristle bundles.

When the brush has nylon bristles and PBT bristles, for example, the nylon bristles are heated first, and then the PBT bristles are heated.

The aforementioned beneficial variants can also be clearly combined with each other arbitrarily.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a device with which a brush can be manufactured in a simple manner, and the pressure with which the device is used to deform the bristle carrier can be kept low. The object according to the present invention is achieved by the device for implementing the method according to the present invention as follows: the device includes a plurality of stations including an injection molding station for producing bristle carriers and at least one The subsequent station where the bristles are fixed in the bristle carrier, where there is an injection molding half part in the injection molding station, the molding half part has at least one pin protruding into the injection molding cavity, the pin forming the injection molding half part And the pin creates an anchor opening constructed as a blind hole, wherein the pin protrudes from the bottom surface of the injection molding half part, and wherein the injection molding half part is contained in the bottom surface around the pin on the periphery A closed ring-shaped groove with a varying cross-section around the groove. The station for fixing at least one bristle includes a holder for the bristle carrier and a tool part, the tool part including at least one for the at least one The bristles or the accommodating opening of the at least one bristle bundle, the outlet of the accommodating opening is located on the end face of the tool piece facing the bristle carrier, and the tool piece has a heater for heating at least a section of the end face, and the heater passes It is constructed and controlled so that the end face is heated to a temperature of up to 140°C, specifically, up to 130°C.

In particular, polypropylene, PET, ABS or SAN is used here as the material of the bristle carrier.

In the device of the present invention, the tool part serving as the temporary carrier of the bristles or the bundle of bristles is used as a punch and a conveying means at the same time. The heater on the end surface of the tool piece is constructed and controlled by the controller so that when the end surface is pressed against the bristle carrier, the end surface is heated to a temperature of up to 140°C, specifically, up to 130°C. Although theoretically capable of reaching a higher temperature, a device whose controller or regulator limits the temperature in a predetermined manner is of course also a defined device.

As mentioned above in connection with the method, the feed movement of the tool piece relative to the holder of the bristle carrier can be realized through the movement of the holder and/or the tool piece, wherein the feed movement can be pressure and time. Control and/or pressure and stroke control are either only time control or only stroke control.

The device of the present invention can apply a pressure of at least 200 bar, in particular at least 400 bar, to the bristle carrier, that is, toward the holder.

The tool piece should be heated in the entire contact area with the bristle carrier, or even in the entire area of the tool piece's end face: facing the holder and in turn facing the bristles inserted in the holder The end face of the carrier.

In addition, as described above in connection with the method of the present invention, the tool part is, for example, a cassette, which is assembled with the at least one bristles or the at least one bristle bundle at the assembly station of the device. The at least one bristle or the at least one bristle bundle (for the entire specification and the scope of the patent application, "at least one bristle" generally includes one or more bristle bundles) after assembly is assembled with the fixed end of the bristle or the bristle bundle The fixed end extends out of the box. On a melting station located after the assembly station, the fixed end or ends are heated to form thickened portions, respectively. In the case of using one or several bristle tufts, the bristles of the corresponding bristle tufts are merged by thermoforming. In particular, a mushroom-shaped, hemispherical or spherical thickened portion is formed.

Generally speaking, in the apparatus of the present invention, the cassette can be moved and the stations are stationary, or the cassette remains stationary and the plugging tool or heating device or holder moves relative to the cassette. These tools or holders can be provided, for example, on a rotating turntable, which in turn transports the stationary cassettes away. The device of the present invention has a controller that controls the feeding movement of the tool piece relative to the bristle carrier and the heating process of the tool piece, so that the tool piece is heated before the tool piece contacts the bristle carrier . This means that the tool part is already warm before the tool part advances in the direction of the holder. At this stage, it is possible but not necessary to have a maximum operating temperature. The bristle carrier is heated by the tool member after inserting the at least one bristle. This is achieved by thickening the end protruding from the box and passing through the distance from the end face of the box to the corresponding contact surface on the bristle carrier.

The device of the present invention is specifically constructed such that the tool piece is continuously heated to heat the front surface of the bristle carrier to achieve the desired temperature required for the deformation process. That is, when the at least one bristle or the bristle bundle(s) is inserted into the accommodating opening or the accommodating openings, the tool part is already warm and at the desired temperature. If the tool part contains the at least one bristle/bristle bundle when melting the ends of the bristles to form a thickened fixed end, pay attention to the temperature of the tool part and/or the at least one bristle/bristle bundle in the accommodating part. The residence time in the hole does not cause deformation of the bristles or the bristles of a bristle bundle.

The controller can heat the tool piece to such a temperature and control the feeding of the tool piece relative to the bristle carrier so that the tool piece during the feeding movement of the tool piece relative to the bristle carrier and (or ) When contacting the bristle carrier, in the area of the contact surface with the tool piece, the bristle carrier is brought to a temperature that is lower than the melting temperature of the bristle carrier material and is preferably greater than or equal to the glass transfer of the bristle carrier material Temperature, in particular, where the controller is programmed so that when the glass transition temperature of the bristle carrier material is greater than or equal to 300°K, the temperature of the tool is set to be higher than the glass transition temperature calculated in °K 15% higher at most, and when the glass transition temperature of the bristle carrier material is less than 300°K, the temperature of the tool piece is set to be at most 50% higher than the glass transition temperature calculated in °K.

Of course, the method of the present invention or the device of the present invention can provide a brush body or bristle carrier made by a standard single-component or multi-component injection molding method. It is therefore possible to use the handle, (more generally) the brush body or the bristle carrier used in the toothbrush, which was originally plugged with traditional (metal) anchor technology. However, these handles/brush bodies/bristle carriers generally have anchoring openings that are deeper than those required by the method of the present invention.

In anchor technology, there have been multi-component handles or brush bodies or bristle carriers for many years, in which the head area of the brush bodies is formed by injection molding between the anchor openings and/or the edge of the brush head. Way to form an elastic structure. An elastic tongue cleaner can also be installed on the back of the brush head and formed by injection molding. All these possibilities also apply to the method of the invention and the device of the invention.

The anchor technology is to install these elastic structures on the front or back before installing the bristles. The only exception is to install the elastic structure after the bristles are installed, but this is not common. Usually in multi-component injection molding tools, these elastic structures are formed on a relatively hard carrier structure by injection molding. Such multi-component tools for toothbrush bodies are extremely common.

With all currently known brush body injection molding technologies and brush body injection molding tools, the handle, brush body/bristle carrier provided by the method of the invention and/or the device of the invention can be formed without any problem. Wherein, anchor openings are formed in advance by injection molding by forming pins, and the forming pins may have a circular shape or any cross-sectional shape and project into the molding cavity. After the injection plastic is sufficiently cooled and/or hardened, for example, the slider can be used to pull out these pins from the cavity, and then the injection molded part can be completely demolded. Among them, the so-called forming pins can be installed parallel to each other and/or at an angle, so as to correspondingly produce parallel and/or angled anchor openings in the injection molded part. In the method of the present invention and the equipment of the present invention, when such parts are formed by injection molding, the depth of the pin projecting into the molding cavity can generally be slightly smaller than that of the brush body that needs to be plugged by anchor technology when formed by injection molding. Or the penetration depth of the bristle carrier. Accordingly, the anchor opening has a slightly smaller depth in the injection molding length (Spritzlänge). Due to the smaller depth of the openings, the total thickness of the head of the brush made by the method of the present invention and the device of the present invention can be significantly smaller than that of the brush head plugged with anchor technology. To obtain clinical benefits in the manufacture of toothbrushes.

The method of the present invention and the device of the present invention have special advantages when using clear (that is, transparent) materials for the bristle carrier or brush body. Such materials are usually PET, copolyester, SAN, ABS, etc. These materials can also be the same as the bristle carrier/brush body/handle made of polypropylene, with anchor openings pre-formed by injection molding and/or multi-component methods equipped with elastomers (such as TPE) , TPU). After the bristle carrier/brush body/handle is formed by injection molding by a multi-component method, the bristle carrier/brush body/handle can be further processed in the manner described in the previous and below in conjunction with the device as proposed in the present invention. Department.

In the process of making brushes, an injection molding station for generating the hair tuft carrier can be provided before the station (in time and/or in space) with the holder and the tool part that functions as a punch , Wherein there is an injection molding half part on the injection molding station, the injection molding half part has at least one extension part projecting into the molding cavity, and the extension part is immovably fixed on the injection molding half part or It is a part of the injection molding half part (may be an integral part). As a result, the active slider part used for injection molding half molds in the past may even become completely redundant. Specifically, each extension creates an anchor opening constructed as a blind hole. The slider is not only difficult to manufacture, but also troublesome in maintenance and repair. The device of the present invention does not fix the bristles or bristle bundles to the bristle carrier by anchoring the bristles or bristle bundles with the minimum depth of the anchoring holes. Therefore, the anchoring holes with smaller depth are sufficient to fix the bristles or bristle bundles. It should be emphasized that, of course, the injection molding station does not necessarily have to be spatially placed next to the station with the holder. Rather, the injection molding station may be located at another manufacturing station or a remote manufacturing site, for example, in another city, so that, for example, the bristle carrier can be manufactured in stock, and then the bristle carrier can be transported to another station or another manufacturing site. Place to set the bristle bundle.

In an embodiment, the injection molding half part may be formed by the first part and/or the insert contained in the first part. The insert contains pins protruding from the front of the insert. The insert is slidable relative to the first part, that is, it slides in the corresponding opening in the first part closed by the insert.

The device according to the invention has at least one electric motor, preferably a servo motor, for applying the pressure to the bristle carrier. The electric motor has the advantages of being able to easily set the pressure and can reliably and easily adjust the pressure again.

Several electric motors can be provided to apply this pressure. In addition, an electric motor can also apply pressure to several bristle carriers at the same time. The specific method is as follows: a plurality of cavities are defined between a tool piece and a holder. In order to increase the output of the device, in particular, several electric motors are provided, and the electric motors respectively apply pressure to several bristle carriers.

In addition, the use of turntables or the like is also conducive to the increase in output. For example, several units can be set according to which stations require longer cycle time.

The device of the present invention should have a controller which is programmed so that the tool is continuously heated to the desired temperature when the pressure is applied to the bristle carrier during operation. In this way, there is no undesired temperature fluctuation during operation, so that there is no heating time for the tool part that will adversely affect the cycle rate.

Finally, the invention relates to an injection molding half used in a device according to the invention or generally used in a bristle carrier injection molding device, which injection molding half is used to implement the method according to the invention. The injection molding half part has at least one pin protruding into the injection molding cavity, the pin protruding from the bottom surface of the injection molding half part, and the pin creates an anchor opening constructed as a blind hole, and on the bottom surface A ring-shaped groove is closed on the circumference around the pin, wherein the groove has a varying cross-section on the circumference, especially different widths. Through the ring-shaped groove, an extension portion with a varying cross-section is formed on the bristle carrier, and the size of the protrusion formed inward after the application of temperature and pressure can be customized by the extension portion. Multiple pins protruding from the bottom surface can be provided to create multiple anchor openings. A ring-shaped closed groove is extended around the adjacent pins, and the grooves are partially connected to each other. As a result, contiguous extensions of adjacent anchor openings are produced on the bristle carrier.

The annular closed groove surrounding the pin may have portions of different depths and/or portions of different widths.

In addition, it should be clearly pointed out that the advantages and features mentioned above in connection with the method of the present invention are also applicable to the device of the present invention in a single or combined manner corresponding to the method of the present invention.

In addition, it should be emphasized that the method of the present invention and the device of the present invention are applicable to any brush, not limited to toothbrushes. For example, the method and the device are also suitable for household brushes, floor brushes, household brooms or any type of brooms, dishwashing brushes, toilet brushes, hair combs, vacuum cleaner brushes, hand washing brushes and any type of brushes (such as Brushes or nail polish brushes for painting or painting), beauty brushes (manual or electric brushes like toothbrushes). Therefore, the details and variants described in the following drawings also apply to all these brushes.

Figure 1 shows an apparatus for making brushes such as toothbrushes. As we all know, this kind of toothbrush has: a brush head, a neck and a handle including a tuft of bristles protruding from the front. These three sections can be integrated to form a so-called brush body. The brush head can be plugged directly, or implemented as two parts, including a sheet-shaped bristle carrier, which has prefabricated blind hole-shaped anchoring openings after injection molding, which is then welded, glued or extruded Encapsulation technology joins the sheet-like bristle carrier to the rest of the head. The alternative is: the brush head adopts an integrated design, so the brush head itself forms the bristle carrier.

This embodiment is illustrated in Figure 1, where the brush head forms the bristle carrier 10 at the same time. In this view, the bristle carrier 10 is a brush body at the same time, because the bristle carrier includes the handle, neck, and head of the brush. The bristle carrier 10 is a prefabricated injection molded part. As shown in Figure 2, the bristle carrier 10 has a large number of prefabricated openings 12 on the bottom surface of the bristle carrier 10 that are produced during injection molding, and the openings are for the bristle bundles to be inserted and anchored in the openings. . The following description is also applicable to the sheet-shaped bristle carrier 10.

The equipment illustrated in Figure 1 includes several stations, namely: the assembly station 14 illustrated in Figures 1a and 1b, the melting station 16 illustrated in Figure 1c, and Figures 1e and 1f. The anchoring station 18 for bristle bundles is shown in the figure.

A cassette 20 (also called a tool piece) passes through all stations, and the cassette 20 transports the bristle bundles through each station.

Although the box 20 shown in Figure 1 includes a accommodating opening for one brush (see below for details), the box 20 in practice is preferably so large that the box 20 is formed on the box for several brushes. Several juxtaposed accommodating opening groups. There may also be several rows of accommodating opening groups for several brushes.

The cassette 20 is, for example, a plate-shaped member having a uniform thickness, and the member has a flat upper end surface 22 shown in FIG. 1. As an alternative, the substantially plate-shaped box has a recess 200 including a bottom 202 on the flat end surface 22 of the box. As shown in Figure 14, the bottom 202 can also be flat to form a A part of the cavity of the bristle carrier 10 is accommodated.

Since the cassette passes through several stations and is then used to make other brushes, there is a cassette circulation mode in the device, in which a large number of identical cassettes 20 circulate through each station in turn. Therefore, the cassette 20 is a means of transporting the bristle bundle 24 through the device. As an alternative, the cassette may be fixed, and the stations circulate around the cassette, for example on a turntable. Among them, several fixed cassettes can be processed at the same time, to be precise, the bristle bundles arranged in the cassettes can be processed.

The box 20 has a large number of accommodating openings 26, and the accommodating openings 26 have a hole pattern corresponding to the hole pattern of the bristle carrier 10.

Each bristle bundle 24 is composed of several bristles, which are separated from the bristle storage, and as shown in Figure 1a, for example, the bristles are pushed into the box 20 by a pin, as detailed below. The single bristle bundle 24 can be transported in place by means of a tube with compressed air or vacuum.

The bristles are made of thermoplastic materials, especially PA, PBT, polyester, copolyester or polypropylene. The bristles can also be made of elastomers. In addition, co-extruded bristles can also be used, for example comprising a PA core with an elastic coating. As will be explained below in connection with Figures 11 and 12, it is not necessary to use only the bristle bundles 24 and insert the bristle bundles 24 into the anchor openings, but can also follow the methods described above and below , Only a single prefabricated bristle in the form of an elastomer cleaning element is inserted and fixed in the anchor opening of the elastomer cleaning element. Such cleaning elements are separately manufactured by injection molding or foaming technology and are softer than the bristle carrier 10.

The bristle bundles 24 have opposite ends and the rear ends 28 (referred to as fixed ends) of the bristle bundles 24 slightly extend out of the box 20, that is, the bristle bundles 24 slightly protrude from the end surface 22. This point is illustrated in Figure 1b.

The cassette 20 filled with the tufts of bristles 24 is transported laterally to the melting station 16 illustrated in Figure 1c. There is a heating device 30 on the station, and the heating device 30 may be, for example, a plate heater or a hot air heater. The rear end 28 of the bristle bundle 24 is heated in a non-contact manner, so that the bristles exceed the melting temperature of the bristle, and the bristles in a bristle bundle are fused with each other to form a thickened fixed end. As a result, the bristles in one bristle bundle 24 are integrally connected. The thickened portion 32 of the bristle bundle 24 does not engage with the adjacent thickened portion of the adjacent bristle bundle 24, but maintains a spherical or lenticular thickened portion. Preferably, a punch is not used to press against the thickened portion or the liquid material at the ends of the melted bristles.

Several bristle bundles 24 can be anchored in the same bristle carrier 10, wherein at least one bristle bundle 24 is composed of bristles meeting the following conditions: the material of the bristles and the melting temperature of the material are different from at least one other bristle bundle 24 Bristles. The bristle bundles 24 composed of different bristle materials are heated with different intensities, so that the bristles of the bristle bundles are fused with each other to form thickened fixed ends respectively. This can be achieved by different ways and methods: according to the bristle material, set different distances between the end of the bristle bundle 24 near the heating device 30 and the heating device 30, and/or, according to the bristle material, heat the heating device 30 to Different temperatures, and/or, different heating devices 30 heated to different temperatures are matched for the corresponding bristle materials.

For example, the bundles of bristles are pushed out of the box 20 to varying degrees according to the material of the bristles. The bristle bundles 24 made of more meltable materials are, for example, closer to the cassette 20 than other bristle bundles, so that the bristle bundles 24 with a greater degree of extension are closer to the heating device 30 than the other bristle bundles, and thus more intense heating is obtained.

As an alternative, the bristle bundles 24 can also be processed in sequence. The specific method is that the fixed ends of the bristle bundles 24 with different bristle materials are pushed out of the box one by one so as to be closer to the heating device 30. Then, the heating device 30 is heated to two suitable different temperatures, or heating devices 30 of different temperatures are used for the corresponding bristle bundles of the heating devices 30.

For example, by using a geteilt bottom plate 44 (see FIG. 5) to push out a single bristle bundle or a group of bristle bundles, the components of the bottom plate can move along the longitudinal direction of the bristles independently of each other.

When a brush has nylon bristles and PBT bristles, for example, the nylon bristles are heated first, and then the PBT bristles are heated.

While still on the melting station 16, or on the way to the next anchoring station 18, or while on the anchoring station 18, the thickened portion 32 may be actively cooled as appropriate. This can be achieved, for example, by the cold air flow 214 provided by a ventilator (see Figure 1d) or by the following means: the station 1d is constructed as a cold room through which the cassette 20 carries the soft back thickened portion 32 through the cold room. . Cooling the thickened portion 32 may increase the cycle time.

The cassette 20 further transports the bristle bundle 24 to the next anchoring station 18. The function of this anchoring station is to permanently lock the bristle bundle 24 in the anchoring opening 12 of the bristle carrier 10 only in an anchorless manner.

The anchoring station 18 includes at least one retainer 34 (preferably several retainers 34). The retainer 34 has a groove 38 (if there is a number of The bristle carrier 10 to be accommodated, then several grooves), the groove 38 is constructed to be complementary to the corresponding shape of the bristle carrier 10, so that the bristle carrier 10 abuts against the holder 34 with the back plane of the bristle carrier 10上 (see also Figure 14).

The holder 34 itself has a flat end surface 36, but as shown in Figure 2, the bristle carrier 10 slightly protrudes from the end surface 36 so as to extend into the recess 200 on the box 20 that is complementary to the front area of the bristle carrier 10. For example, it is illustrated in Figure 14.

The cassette 20 can be heated, for example, by a plate heater provided from the outside, which is moved laterally toward the cassette 20 on the anchoring station 18, and the cassette 20 can be quickly heated because the cassette 20 is made of metal.

As an alternative, a heater is provided in the cassette 20, particularly the resistance heater 39 shown in Figs. 2 and 14. The heating coils are symbolically illustrated, and the heating coils are arranged adjacent to the end surface 22 or, if the recess 200 is involved, adjacent to the bottom 202 of the recess 200 which forms a part of the end surface 22.

The electrical connection contact 41, such as a sliding contact provided on the side of the cassette 20, can be electrically coupled to the cassette 20 to activate the heater 39 when the cassette 20 is moved into the anchoring station 18. Of course, the end surface 22 including the bottom 202 of the recess 200 can also form a resistance heating layer by itself, so that the end surface is directly heated here.

If the cassette 20 is fixed, the electrical connector for the heater is extremely easy to implement, and the electrical connector can be a permanent design.

The function of the heater 39 is to preferably heat the entire end surface 22 contacting the bristle carrier 10, that is, the section between the thickened portions 32 is also heated.

The temperature reached by the end surface 22 (in the area contacting the bristle carrier 10) is lower than the melting temperature of the bristle material and/or bristle carrier material, preferably lower than the melting temperature of the two materials. In particular, the temperature is up to 85% of the melting temperature of the materials calculated in °C. For example, if the melting temperature of the two materials is 100°C, the temperature on the end surface 22 of the finally heated cassette 20 is at most 85°C.

FIG. 3 shows a cross-sectional view of the anchoring station 18 shown in FIG. 1e before the box 20 and the bristle carrier 10 move toward each other.

Viewed in the longitudinal direction A (also known as the axial direction or the feed direction), the thickened portion 32 has a size such that the thickened portion 32 is smaller than the corresponding cross section of the anchor opening 12, so that the thickened portion 32 can be The inner edge of the anchor hole 12 (also referred to as the inner side 40 of the wall restricting the anchor hole) is pushed into the anchor hole 12 without touching the inner side 40. In particular, the cylindrical anchor opening 12 has only an excess size of at most 0.2 mm, in particular, a maximum of 0.15 mm with respect to the maximum cross section of the thickened portion 32 (fixed end) at this point in time.

The cassette 20 and/or the holder 34 that are heated to the desired temperature continuously (that is, during the entire operation) move toward each other. In this example, only the holder 34 carries the bristle carrier 10 to move, so that the thickened portion 32 enters first. The opening 12 is anchored, and then the end surface 22 is in contact with the straight end surface 42 of the bristle carrier 10 facing the end surface 22. During the feeding movement, as long as the bristle carrier 10 is not in contact with the cassette 20, the bristle carrier 10 is not actually heated. This is because the feeding speed is extremely fast and the anchoring station 18 is in the open position as shown in Figure 3 Above, there is no residence time.

The bottom plate 44 (see FIG. 3) supporting the free ends of the positive end faces of all the bristle bundles 24 can be used to align the front ends of the bristle bundles 24 with each other and at the same time form a distance between the thickened portion 32 and the end face 22 as required. The bottom plate 44 is used to support individual bristles and bristle bundles 24.

As shown in Figure 4, the end surface 22 contacts the front surface 42 of the bristle carrier 10 and thereby heats the bristle carrier 10 on the entire contact surface between the two components.

The bristle carrier 10 is composed of a thermoplastic material, especially the aforementioned plastic such as polypropylene, ABS, PA, PBT, PET or PC.

However, the movement of the holder 34 is not maintained at the position of the first contact shown in FIG. 4, because the holder 34 and the box 20 exert extremely high pressure on the bristle carrier 10.

For example, a pressure of at least 200 bar, preferably at least 400 bar, is applied to the bristle carrier 10 through the opposite movement. This pressure has been applied since the first contact between the bristle carrier 10 and the cassette 20 and remains constant during the action time (contact time).

While heating the bristle carrier 10, the pressure is maintained for an action time of at least 4 seconds, specifically at least 5 seconds, and a maximum of 15 seconds, specifically, a maximum of 10 seconds.

The action time is composed of a holding time and a period of time during the feeding movement (referred to as the compression time). The period starts when the cassette 20 contacts the front surface 42 and the holder 34 contacts the back surface of the bristle carrier 10 at the same time. The compression time ends when the maximum closed position is reached and the distance between the holder and the tool part remains constant during the holding time. The holding time refers to the time during which the feeding movement ends (that is, the device is completely closed) and the bristle carrier 10 is contained in the closed cavity. The holding time is preferably at least 1 second, preferably at least 1.5 seconds and/or 3 seconds at the longest, specifically 2.5 seconds at the longest.

During the compression time, the distance from the holder to the tool piece decreases very slowly at a constant speed. For example, a total compression distance of 0.3 mm can be completed in 3 seconds at the fastest.

During the action time, it is preferable to continue heating the cassette 20, wherein the greater mass of the cassette 20 may also allow the heating to be stopped after the first heating to the working temperature. Nevertheless, the bristle carrier 10 continues to be heated during the action time.

The device specifically refers to overtravel movement and hard stop, which means that the holder 34 contacts the area outside the recess 200 with the end surface 36 (see Figure 14) outside the cavity formed by the groove 38 and the recess 200. part. There is no gap in this contact area for the material from the cavity to enter, to be precise, the cavity is sealed by the contact area surrounded by a ring.

In addition, preferably generally (not limited to the illustrated embodiment), there is no heater in the contact area between the holder 34 and the cassette 20, so the heater only exists in the contact area between the front surface 42 and the cassette 20 And play a role.

Compared with the back surface of the bristle carrier 10, the separation surface defined by the end surface 36 between the holder 34 and the tool piece (herein the finger box 20) is preferably closer to the front surface 42 of the bristle carrier 10. Specifically, the separating surface is close to or close to a rounded joint portion connecting the front surface 42 and the side surface 212 of the back surface.

It is beneficial that the support in the form of the bottom plate 44 is removed at least at the last stage of the application of pressure (ie at the end of the application time) and no longer contacts the bristles. In this way, the alignment accuracy of the bristles with respect to each other and with respect to the bristle carrier 10 is improved. However, as symbolically illustrated by the arrow Y in FIGS. 3 to 5, it is preferable to remove the bottom plate 44 before the holding time starts or even before the action time. For example, the base plate 44 is used only on the station c) illustrated in Figure 1 and optionally d).

However, in order to also fix the axial position of the bristle bundle and the individual bristles during the entire acting time, the cross section of the accommodating opening 26 is adapted to the cross section of the bristle bundle 24 inserted into the accommodating opening 26, so that The bristle bundle 24 is clamped in the accommodating opening 26 and thus securely positioned in the axial direction. During intra-station and inter-station movement, its own weight or inertia ensures that the bristle bundle does not move.

In the above example, the entire straight end surface is heated, at least where the front surface 42 of the bristle carrier 10 contacts the box 20. If the cassette 20 has a recess 200, only a heater needs to be installed in the bottom 202 area of the recess 200, and this is beneficial. Since the cassette 20 is usually made of steel, the entire cassette 20 is heated. The set temperature means that the front surface 42 of the bristle carrier 10 reaches a desired temperature.

The front 42 area of the bristle carrier is heated to a temperature lower than the melting temperature of the bristle material and (or) the bristle carrier material during the action time, specifically, 85% of the relevant melting temperature calculated in °C or lower than in °C 85% of the calculated melting temperature. Therefore, this temperature is consistent with the aforementioned maximum operating temperature of the box 20 at the end surface 22 or the bottom 202 area.

As an alternative, it is possible to heat at least the edge 50 of the anchoring aperture 12 in the area of the front face 42, which edge 50 forms the wall area of the anchoring aperture 12, which edge 50 adjoins the exit to the front face 42.

The temperature reached by the bristle carrier 10 at least in the area of the edge 50, preferably in the entire contact area in contact with the box, should not only be lower or far lower than the melting temperature of the materials, but also should be in the glass transition temperature range of the bristle carrier material . For example, with an ultra-high pressure exceeding 600 bar, the bristle carrier 10 can be heated only to a temperature in the front 42 area, at least in the edge 50 area, which is higher than a limit temperature, if the bristle carrier material has a temperature greater than or equal to 300°K Glass transition temperature, the limit temperature is 60% of the glass transition temperature of the bristle carrier material calculated in °C, specifically, 80% of the glass transition temperature of the bristle carrier material calculated in °C. However, the limit temperature is preferably the glass transition temperature or at least exceeds the glass transition temperature. When the glass transition temperature of the bristle carrier material is lower than 300°K, the heating temperature should exceed 50% of the glass transition temperature calculated in °K.

Another variant is: in particular, before the inside 40 of the anchor opening 12 is heated by the cassette 20 to exceed the ambient temperature, at least the heater at the edge 50 of the front surface 42 is used, specifically, the bristle carrier 10 is placed in the area of the front surface 42 The heater on the entire contact surface is heated to a temperature that is at least 30°C higher than the ambient temperature.

As shown in the figure, the box 20 does not have any extensions or similar structures that can help the box 20 extend into the anchor opening 12, because the box 20 has a flat end surface 22 or a flat bottom in the area of the front surface 42 202.

When pressure and temperature are applied to the bristle carrier material, the bristle carrier 10 is optionally even deformed across the surface in the area of the front face 42. The material wants to transfer and thereby enter the anchor openings 12 in the exit area and shrink the anchor openings 12.

By applying heat and pressure, the total thickness D and the maximum thickness of the bristle carrier 10 at the exit area of the anchor opening 12 to the front face 42 are optionally permanently reduced. A kind of protrusion or constriction is formed, and the constriction catches the thickened fixed end from behind in the pull-out direction and thereby locks the bristle bundle 24.

No adhesion force is generated between the thickened fixed end and the wall of the anchor opening 12.

Edge shaping does not have to be extreme. The results show that, taking a toothbrush as an example, the cross section of the anchor opening 12 with the original width or diameter D3 at the edge 218 (see Figure 5A) is reduced to only a width or diameter D1, so that the thickened portion 32 The difference between the width or diameter D2 of the thickest part (relative to the relevant cross-sectional plane) and the width or diameter D1 of the edge 218 area is only about 0.1 to 0.5 mm, which is sufficient.

The following is beneficial: when the thickened portion 32 is pushed in, the size is too small relative to the anchor opening 12 that has not been deformed (that is, D2 is smaller than D3).

But this is not mandatory. For example, the following is feasible: the thickened portion 32 has the smallest lateral offset relative to the anchor opening 12, although the size of the thickened portion 32 is too small, and it is between the thickest part of the thickened portion and the inner side of the anchor opening 12 There should be a wrap-around gap between. Due to this offset, when the thickened portion is pushed into the anchor opening 12, one side of the thickened portion can contact the wall of the anchor opening. In this case, the following may be meaningful: when the thickened portion 32 is pushed into the anchor opening, the material of the thickened portion has not solidified very much inside. For example, if the thickened portion forms a relatively thin cooling skin on the outside and the inside is still soft, the outer skin and the inside of the thickened portion will deflect inward without damaging the thickened portion itself. The thickened part is still suitable for being caught from behind by the deformed edge in a peripherally closed manner.

Through this concept, that is, when the thickened portion 32 is not completely solidified, the thickened portion is pushed into the anchoring opening 12, and the thickened portion 32 can also be used generally. The thickened portion 32 is constructed to be opposite to the anchor The cross-sectional size of the opening 12 is too large, that is, D2 is greater than or equal to D3.

FIG. 5A exaggerates the space for arranging the thickened portion 32 formed by the anchoring opening 12 and delimited outward by the narrowed edge 218. Similarly, the ratio of the thickened portion 32 to the diameter D1 is also exaggerated.

However, the fact is that not the entire wall forming the anchor opening 12 abuts on the thickened portion 32 or the external bristles starting from the thickened portion 32. To be precise, the wall is shaped only in the area of the edge 218 and in the section 220 that directly adjoins the edge 218 and expands outward toward the bottom 208, and only abuts the bristles or thickened portion 32 in these areas. And apply pressure on the bristles or the thickened portion 32.

However, the thickened portion should contact the bottom 208 to accurately fix the axial position of the bristle bundle.

In the remaining areas, such as between the bottom 208 and the thickened portion 32, or in the peripheral area where the wall adjoins the bottom 208, there are one or several air gaps 222 between the wall and the outside of the thickened portion 32, so that the The thickened portion 32 is not compressed, clamped and/or deformed in this area.

In the edge 218 area, by narrowing and shrinking the edge 218 by at least 3%, specifically at least 5%, the bristle bundle 24 is compressed relative to the state of the bristle bundle 24 in the cassette 20. Here, the cross-sectional area of the opening in the box is compared with the cross-sectional area of the edge 218 at the narrowest part of the edge 218.

With the equipment shown in the figure and the corresponding method, all the anchoring openings 12 are closed at the same time, and thereby all the bristle bundles 24 are anchored in the bristle carrier 10 at the same time.

As further illustrated in Figures 4 and 5A, not the entire anchoring opening is shaped, but only reaching a certain depth t, which is equivalent to at most 85% of the total depth T of the anchoring opening 12 , Specifically 70%, and (or), the depth t has an axial extension of 0.5 to 1.3 mm, specifically 0.6 to 1.0 mm.

The thickened portion 32 itself is preferably only clamped in the anchor opening by at most 50% of the total axial length of the thickened portion 32 in the axial direction. The remaining part of the clamping takes place in the area of the bristles starting from the thickened portion 32.

The wall portion of the anchor opening 12 does not deform and/or does not clamp the thickened portion 32 and the bristles in this area at a depth Z of at least 0.8 mm starting from the bottom 208 (see Figure 5A).

The depth T of the anchor opening after the brush is made is a maximum of 4 mm, specifically, a maximum of 2.7 mm.

All the anchor openings 12 are blind holes, so there is no need to cover the back of the bristle carrier 10 because no bristle bundles will be seen or protruded from this surface.

The anchoring achieved in this way is the only anchor for the bristle carrier, and it is not necessary to use a metal anchor or a metal rope.

Generally, it should be emphasized (not limited to the illustrated embodiment) that the bristle carrier 10 should not be brought close to the melting temperature of the bristle carrier 10, but close to the glass transition temperature and significantly away from the melting temperature. Specifically, the heating temperature, the temperature of the end surface 22 of the box 20 and the temperature of the end surface of the bristle carrier 10 should not be higher than the glass transition temperature of the bristle carrier material and/or bristle material by more than 15%.

According to a preferred variant of the present invention, when PET is used, the front face 42 is heated to a temperature of 75°C to 95°C, specifically 80°C to 90°C, when using PP, and is heated to 105°C to 125°C, Specifically speaking, the temperature ranges from 110°C to 120°C. Specifically, the PP is selected so that the PP has a Melt-Flow-Index (MFI) of 6 to 35, preferably 10 to 15 in the initial state.

An embodiment of the present invention proposes to heat the end surface 22 and the bristle carrier 10 to a temperature of up to 140°C, specifically up to 130°C, preferably to a temperature in the range of 100°C to 115°C. In particular, the material of the bristle carrier is polypropylene, PET, ABS, copolyester and SAN.

The back surface 206 of the bristle carrier 10 and the area starting from the back surface 206 and extending at least to the bottom 208 of the anchor opening 12 (preferably even further extending toward the front surface 42) should not be deformed. In order to enable the temperature limit of deformation caused by the applied pressure to be as close as possible to the front surface 42 of the bristle carrier 10, the holder 34 may be equipped with an active cooler.

Fig. 3 and Fig. 14 symbolically illustrate this cooler with a cooling channel 210 through which a cooling liquid passes. The cooling channel 210 is connected to a cooling water circuit, which pumps cold water preferably below 20° C., in particular even below 10° C., through the holder 34. As a result, the back surface 206 becomes warm during the application of pressure, up to 25°C. The side surface 212 of the bristle carrier 10 connecting the front surface 42 and the back surface 206 (see FIG. 14) can also be cooled to a sufficient degree in the holder 34 to prevent deformation and keep it below the corresponding temperature that can cause deformation and deformation.

After the prescribed action time, the holder 34 and the box 20 are separated again to pull out the bristle bundle 24 from the accommodating opening 26. There is no need to perform post-processing, which means that no other forming processing is required for the bristle carrier 10.

However, the above-mentioned separation is preferably not completed in one step, but a resting stage is provided in the separation process. To this end, the tool part (i.e. box 20) and the holder 34 are separated from each other to a minimum, so as to form a small ventilation gap 228 (which is greater than or equal to 0.5 mm) between the front surface 42 and the top surface of the tool piece (i.e. box 20). (See Figure 5A). When the specified ventilation gap 228 is reached in height, the distance is preferably kept constant during the rest period of at least 1 second, in particular at least 1.5 seconds.

In this resting phase, cooling air can also be blown to the front of the bristle carrier 10 through the ventilation gap 228 as appropriate to cool the front.

In this resting phase, as shown in FIG. 5A, the bristles stay in the accommodating opening 26. The shaped area of the anchor opening is stabilized in the resting phase, so that the bristles of the tuft are parallel and oriented neatly.

After the resting phase, the device is separated so that the finished bristle carrier can be taken out.

In order to precisely control the corresponding movement and temperature, the device has a controller 51, which is used not only to control the heating temperature, but also to control the applied pressure and the movement process. The heater 30 can also be controlled by the same controller 51.

If the bristle carrier material is a material whose glass transition temperature does not exceed the ambient temperature, such as certain types of polypropylene, the heating of the bristle carrier can be eliminated, but this is not necessary. Minimal heating to barely exceed the glass transition temperature, but still well below the melting temperature, may also be beneficial here. If this type of bristle carrier material does not need to be heated or not heated, the anchor opening 12 can be closed only by applying the aforementioned pressure during the aforementioned action time. In this case, the cassette 20 without heater can be used, or the cassette with heater can be used but the heater is not activated.

The following has nothing to do with the bristle carrier material: the feed movement of the cassette 20 relative to the holder 34 and therefore relative to the bristle carrier 10 (the relative movement of the parts means that one or both of these parts can be directed towards the other part) In travel), pressure and time controlled feed motion and/or pressure and stroke controlled feed motion can be beneficial.

The following is particularly beneficial: in the first stage of the feed movement, the edge 50 or the entire front face 42 is heated to a temperature that is higher than a limit temperature. If the bristle carrier material has a glass transition temperature of more than 300°K, this limit temperature is 60% lower than the glass transition temperature of the bristle carrier material calculated in °C, specifically 80% lower. However, the limit temperature is preferably the glass transition temperature, which is at most 20% higher than the glass transition temperature calculated in °C. In the next second phase of the feed movement, the edge 50 is deformed and pressed against the bristles.

As an alternative, if the front and back sides of the bristle carrier are contacted and thus compressed in the axial direction, the feeding movement is completed at a constant lower speed, and the cassette 20 and the holder 34 move toward overtravel and stop hard.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5, the material is also pressed against the bristles at the edge 50 area in the closed state, so that there is no gap between the bristles and the edge 50.

The assembly of the cassette 20 can be achieved directly by a bristle separator as shown in FIG. 1a, or by another modification shown in FIG. 6. Here, first, the box 60 with a large number of accommodating openings is filled with bundles of bristles. Then, the box can also be used to store the separated bristle bundles until the bristle bundles are finally pressed directly into the cassette 20 by the movable pin 62, for example.

As an alternative, there may also be a deflecting plate 64 between the box 60 and the cassette 20, and the deflecting plate has an inclined conveying opening 66 for the bristle bundles 24 passing through the deflecting plate. For example, when the brush is required to include bristle bundles of different thicknesses, several bristle bundles 24 can also be combined into a larger bristle bundle through the converging and conveying opening 66 shown in the left part of FIG. 6. Of course, the box may further have an accommodating opening 26 that extends obliquely, because the bristle bundles of some brushes do not extend perpendicular to the front surface 42 but in a cylindrical shape, but are arranged obliquely to the front surface 42. The anchoring at this time is also shown in the diagram. As an alternative, the anchoring opening 12 can of course also be slightly inclined or tapered for these obliquely oriented bristle bundles 24, or as shown in Figure 7, only when the bristle bundles 24 are inclined towards the anchoring opening 12 The area on one side is tapered. This means that the accommodating opening 26 may have differently inclined edge portions.

In the embodiment according to FIG. 7, an oblique extension of the anchor opening 12, in particular an edge section 80 extending parallel to the oblique receiving opening 26 is provided, and an edge section 81 opposite to the edge section 80 is provided. In the illustrated embodiment, the edge section 81 extends perpendicular to the front surface of the bristle carrier 10. However, alternatively, as shown by the dashed line, the edge section 81 can also extend obliquely, and the inclination of the edge section 80 may be different.

Fig. 8 shows an anchoring hole with an edge section 80 extending obliquely to face the front face 42 of the tool part inside the anchoring hole. Before the bristle carrier is pressed by the tool part on the edge 50 of the end face, the bristle carrier in the area of the obliquely extending edge section 80 and opposite to the edge section 80 has a protrusion on the edge section 81 relative to the front face 42 in the direction of the tool part. The ring-shaped extension 82 is closed and has a flat front face 42 in other cases. The extension 82 is used to provide a material that closes the outlet of the anchor opening 12 and orients the bristle bundle 24 in the anchor opening 12 obliquely during shaping. Of course, in this embodiment, the edge section 81 may not only extend at right angles to the front of the bristle carrier 10, but also may extend obliquely to the front of the bristle carrier 10, as shown by the dotted line.

In the embodiments already described above and in subsequent embodiments, at least some or all of the anchoring openings 12 are completely surrounded by the extension 82. The extension 82 is formed directly on the edge 50 which forms a transition to the inner side (also referred to as the inner edge) on the front face 42. For the sake of clarity, the extension 82 is not shown in the previous drawings. The details of the extension 82 are explained below with reference to FIGS. 16 to 24. The options and details that will be given later are also clearly applicable or applicable to the previously described and the following embodiments.

As can be seen in Figure 16, the anchoring opening 12 has an edge 50 on the flat front surface 12 (for clarity, only some anchoring openings 12 are marked with component symbols), and the edge 50 is made of a closed ring The extension 82 is formed. The extension 82 has been produced during the injection molding of the bristle carrier 10.

Although in the embodiment shown in FIG. 16, all the anchoring openings 12 include their own closed annular extension 82, alternatively, only some of the anchoring openings 12 may be provided with such extension 82 .

In addition, particularly where the anchoring openings 12 are very close to each other, the extension portions 82 can be engaged with each other. This results in a common segment 182 of adjacent extensions 82 between adjacent anchor openings 12.

Optionally, according to Figure 16, except for the common segment 182, all extensions 82 have no cross-sectional changes along the circumference (this should not be construed as a limitation). This means that in a cross-section perpendicular to the front surface 42, the extension 82 always has the same cross-sectional area, regardless of where the cross-section is placed.

However, the cross-sectional area of each extension 82 may be different or the same. This mainly depends on the volume: in order to close the anchor opening 12 in the area of the edge 50, the volume of the material of the extension 82 should be provided. This will be explained in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, especially Figures 18-22.

The goal to be achieved by the extension 82 is to provide as much available material as possible, which is necessary for closing the anchor opening 12 in the area of the edge 50.

In Figure 18, an example is shown for this. The bristle bundles 24 (here perpendicular to the front face 42) are inserted into the anchor openings 12 to which the bristle bundles 24 belong. At this point, the volume of the ring-shaped extension 82 is calculated from the imaginary plane abutting the front surface 42. In order to better identify the extensions 82 in Figures 18 and 20, the extensions 82 are hatched in a manner different from the rest of the bristle carrier 10. Although this is incorrect in terms of drawing technology, it is In the simplified illustration, the difference between the extension 82 and the rest of the bristle carrier 10 is shown.

The volume of the annular extension 82 is in the range of 60% to 110% of the theoretical volume V, which is generated by the product of the depth T and the annular surface R. The depth T is measured from the front face 42 (i.e., the imaginary plane described above) and the beginning 277 of the thickened fixed end 32. The annular surface R is formed between the inner side 40 of the associated anchoring opening 12 and the outer side of the individual bristles (see FIG. 12) or the so-called envelope of the bristle bundle 24.

In Figure 23, the envelope 279 of the bristle bundle 24 is shown in dashed lines. The individual small circles symbolize individual bristles. FIG. 23 is a cross-section of the bristle carrier 10 in a cross-sectional plane parallel to the front surface 42. Figure 23 also shows the annular surface R.

As described above, when the bristle carrier is deformed, both the front face 42 and the corresponding extension 82 are heated. The material squeezed inward according to FIG. 5A is partly provided by the extension 82 to close the anchor opening 12 in the transition area from the inner side 40 to the front side 12. Of course, a part of the material of the extension 82 is also or can be pressed inwardly against the material below (adjacent to the inner side 40) below the plane of the front, so that the material is also pushed inward to help close the anchoring opening. Hole 12.

In Figure 19, the material being pressed inward is shown in a narrower shade to clearly show the volume formed by the material being pushed.

The thickness D of the bristle carrier 10 is slightly reduced due to deformation. The volume of the extension 82 matches the volume of the gap, so that on the one hand, too much material is not provided, and on the other hand, the material is not too small, so that the anchor opening 12 is fully closed. In the case of too much material, the material between the box 20 and the bristle bundle 24 may be pushed out (see the small gap between the opening in the box 20 and the bristle bundle 24 in Figure 4), which may cause collar-like burrs. The collar-shaped burr protrudes outward from the front surface 42 and surrounds the bristle bundle 24 after being shaped.

It can also be seen in Figure 18 that the extension 82 of the left anchor opening 12 transitions into the extension of the central anchor opening 12 as a whole. This means that when the volume of the extension 82 for each anchor opening 12 is determined, in the common segment 182, a part of the total volume of the common segment 182 is calculated to be applied to the left anchor opening 12 , And another part of the total volume of the common segment 182 is applied to the central anchoring opening 12. In this regard, the common segment 182 is usually divided theoretically.

In general, for all the extensions 82 related via the common section 182, the total volume of the extensions 82 is the total volume of the corresponding volume around the bristle bundles in the anchor openings above the fixed end. 60 to 110%.

In Figure 17, a long anchor opening 12 is shown, which has opposite long sides 281 and opposite shorter sides 283, which alternate and complement each other. The closed-loop extension 82 has different cross-sectional areas, which is formed by the following: for example, the extension 82 has different heights around the extension 82, and the different heights are measured perpendicular to the plane of the front surface 42 .

For example, along the longer side portion 281, the cross-sectional area of the extension portion 82 is larger and/or wider than along the shorter side portion 283, and therefore, the height/width along the side portion 281 is greater than along the side portion 283 The height/width.

In Fig. 17, only the extension portion 82 has a large height. In this case, for example, a kind of waveform of the extension 82 can be generated. When the individual bristles of the bristle bundle 24 are fused, a thickened fixed end 32 having a protrusion 285 (see Figure 17) protruding in the direction of the bristles is formed. The protrusion 285 is larger in the area of the longer side portion 281 The area of the short side portion 283 protrudes more outward. Due to the additional usable material available by the larger cross-section of the extension 82 in the region of the longer side 281, the space between the inner side 40 and the bristles of the bristle bundle 24 can be joined and closed.

In the embodiment according to Figures 20 to 22, the bristles or bristle bundles 24 are inserted into the anchoring opening 12 obliquely with respect to the front face 42 (see Figure 20) and are also obliquely anchored in the anchoring opening 12 (see Section 21). Due to this inclination, the annular space around the bristle bundle 24 in the anchor opening 12 above the thickened fixed end 32 is uneven in cross section. It can be seen from FIG. 20 that the annular space is smaller than the relative space in the area of the inner side 40 (where the bristle bundle 24 is closer and facing obliquely). The extension 82 is adapted to this uneven space. For this reason, the extension 82 has a smaller cross-section on the side close to the bristles or bristle bundle (the right side of the bristle bundle 24 in Figure 20) than on the opposite side (the left side of the bristle bundle 24 in Figure 20). area.

The cross-sectional area can be achieved by changing the height and/or width of the extension 82. In the embodiment according to Figs. 20 to 22, as seen in Fig. 22, the height of the extension 82 is the same over the entire annular area, but the width is changed.

The annular surface R is here determined in the region of the axial center of the depth T in order to take into account the trapezoidal shape of the annular space.

In FIGS. 9 and 10, the bristle carrier 10 is manufactured by the injection molding mold including the injection molding halves 100 and 102 at the injection molding station subordinate to the equipment of the present invention. The injection molding station is located in front of the aforementioned station for plugging the bristle carrier 10 in terms of time and/or space as described above. The injection molding station forms a bristle carrier injection molding device. A cavity 104 is formed between the injection molding halves 100 and 102, and liquid plastic is injected into the cavity to manufacture the bristle carrier 10. In the injection molding station used in the past, the injection molding half 100 is equipped with pin-shaped active sliders, which extend through the injection molding half 100 into the cavity 104 and are pulled out before the injection molding mold is opened. Compared with this, the solution provided by this variant is much simpler. Specifically, this modification is to immovably install one or more integrally formed pins 106 that freely extend into any cross-section of the cavity 104 on the injection molding half 100. Then, the pins 106 produce anchor openings 12. The depth of the anchor opening 12 is much smaller than that of the bristle carrier made by plugging the hole by anchor technology in the past. In the case of an integrally formed injection molding half (a part that defines the entire inside of the cavity), the injection molding half is called an injection molding half part.

As an alternative, the bottom of the injection molding half 100 may have a movable insert 107 (see FIG. 10), the pins 106 are located on the insert 107, and the pins are integrally formed on the insert 107, for example. The insert 107 preferably contains all the pins 106 required to make the anchor opening 12. After the injection molding, the insert 107 is pulled down into the recess in the molding half to facilitate demolding, so that the pin 106 is pulled out of the anchor opening 12 formed by injection molding, thereby simplifying the subsequent removal or The operation of removing the bristle carrier 10.

In this case, the injection molding half 100 includes a first injection molding half part 101 that defines the entire lower mold half 100 except for the area of the insert. In addition, the injection molding half 100 includes an insert 107 received in an opening in the first part 101, the opening being complementary to the insert 107, the insert 107 forming a second injection molding half part. The insert 107 is movably installed in the direction of the tuft carrier and away from the tuft carrier with respect to the first part 101 of the injection molding half 100. Preferably, no gap is provided between the first part 101 and the insert 107 into which the liquid plastic can be injected. In Figure 10, it can be seen on the right pin 106 that the pin 106 can be used because the pin 106 has at least one edge segment extending obliquely to the adjustment direction of the insert 107 (see the double arrow in Figure 10). To manufacture the obliquely extending opening 12 as shown in Figs. 7 and 8.

The insert 107 preferably defines the entire area of the front face of the brush head. With the insert 107, it is possible to easily manufacture brushes, which include the same bristle carrier 10, but include different opening patterns and different bristle bundle patterns.

Figure 24 illustrates an embodiment of the injection molding half 100 or (alternatively) the insert 107 (ie, the injection molding half part) according to the present invention.

The pin 106 protrudes from a flat bottom surface 109 which is responsible for forming the front face 42. Around the pin 106, a closed annular groove 111 is provided at the root of the pin 106 in the bottom surface 109, and the groove 111 is necessary for manufacturing the extension 82. In the illustrated embodiment, the cross-section of the groove 111 has portions of different widths along the circumference, for example to produce the extension 82 according to FIG. 22 (this should not be construed as a limitation).

The other pins 106 that are more closely juxtaposed may each have a groove 111 in which adjacent musical notes 111 are connected to each other to form a common segment of adjacent extensions 82.

The grooves 111 can have the same depth along the circumference (as illustrated in Figure 24), or have portions with different depths, for example to produce extensions with different height portions (as illustrated in accordance with Figure 17) .

Figure 9 illustrates various variations on how the bristle carrier 10 is implemented. Not only can the anchor opening 12 be provided with a round or oval shape, but any shape can be designed. For example, long strip, X-shaped, C-shaped anchor openings or any other design of anchor openings can be realized. The larger anchor openings are equipped with bristle bundles composed of several separated bristle bundles, and the ends of the bristle bundles are melted to connect the bristle bundles into a larger bristle bundle. These larger bristle bundles form a corresponding wall-like bristle structure.

It should be emphasized that the device of the present invention and the method of the present invention can be applied not only to several bristle bundles, but also to only one bristle bundle, for example, to make a brush pen, and one bristle or a single bristle can be fixed to the bristles. Carrier.

That is, generally speaking, the anchor opening 12 does not have to be used only for accommodating and fixing the bristle bundles. To be precise, a single prefabricated bristle made of any elastic plastic and in any shape can be combined with the bristle bundles described above. The way is accurately accommodated and fixed. These bristles may be plate-shaped and may be, for example, fed into the elongated anchoring hole 12 and embedded in the anchoring hole 12 through the edge of the anchoring hole 12. The C-shaped anchor opening 12 can be used for inserting a cleaning element with a C-shaped cross section and formed in advance by injection molding as a single bristle, for example. In addition, the bristle bundle 24 composed of a large number of bristles 24' can of course also be inserted into the bristle carrier 10. For example, a single bristle 24' may also be located in the middle of a plurality of bristle bundles 24, or conversely surround a single or a plurality of bristle bundles 24.

It should be emphasized that the aforementioned features described in relation to the bristle bundles can also be applied to larger individual bristles. The following is only an example: insert and anchor the plate-shaped bristles extending obliquely to the bristle carrier 10 into the oblique anchor opening 12 shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. A single bristle may also have an anchoring end 32, and the remaining part of the elongated shape is bent and protruding from the anchoring end 32, so that the single bristle can be pushed into the cylindrical anchoring opening 12 shown in Figure 4, However, the bristles located outside the anchor opening 12 extend obliquely.

A single, separately made bristle 24' or several bristles 24' are preferably fixed to the bristle carrier 10 simultaneously with the bristle bundle 24 through the shaping of the corresponding edges of the anchor opening 12. As an alternative, several individual, sequential shaping operations can be performed for different bristles or bristle bundles. Among them, since the bristles or bundles of bristles are made of different materials, depending on the situation, different pressures and/or temperatures can be applied by the heated tool part(s).

As a supplement or alternative to the aforementioned modification, for example, the elastic cleaning element 108 may be formed on the edge of the bristle carrier 10 in an injection molding manner. The cleaning elements 108 are not prefabricated, but the cleaning elements also protrude from the bristle carrier 10 on the front side and are used to massage the gums.

To this end, the bristle carrier 10 may have, for example, a hole or an edge slot on the edge for forming the cleaning element 108 by injection molding. In addition, a softer plastic can be used to encapsulate the back of the bristle carrier 10, which is more and more common in brushes.

In the latter case, the cleaning element 108 is suitable for integrally connecting the back layer made of softer plastic. As shown in the upper half of Figure 9 (the upper half shows a modification of the lower half), the back layer made of softer plastic can also form a harder plastic that surrounds the bristle carrier 10 The frame, for example, acts as a shock absorber.

Another variation is that the bristle carrier 10 (here, the toothbrush head) is coupled to the neck of the brush body through a hinge 110 made of softer plastic.

The following generality applies to all variants: the bristle carrier can be a thin sheet as part of the future brush body or the entire brush body. For example, the bristle carrier can also be a multi-component injection molded part. When the bristles are embedded, the multi-component injection molded part has formed a finished brush body. However, conversely, it is also possible to embed the bristles in a part of the brush body that will form the bristle carrier, and then perform the subsequent squeezing and encapsulation of the bristle carrier on which the bristles are installed.

Accordingly, the injection molding station may also be implemented as a multi-component injection molding station, or several injection molding stations may be provided. In this case, the station for anchoring the bristles is located between the injection molding stations.

The cleaning element 108 and/or a single prefabricated bristle with any cross-sectional shape made of elastic material preferably extends forward at least to the same extent as the bristle bundle. However, the cleaning element 108 and/or is composed of an elastic material and has a cross-sectional shape. A single prefabricated bristle with any shape can also protrude from the bristle bundle or have a length shorter than the bristle bundle.

As shown in Fig. 11, as mentioned above, not only the bristle bundle 24 is inserted into the anchor opening 12 by the thickened portion 32 on the fixed end and anchored in the anchor opening 12 through edge shaping, but also The single prefabricated bristles 24' (with any shape in the side view and the cross-sectional view) can also be embedded in the bristle carrier without anchors by the aforementioned method and the aforementioned equipment. The bristles 24' are made of elastic materials, especially TPE, and are formed by injection molding.

The bristles 24' have a maximum wall thickness d (measured in cross section) in the section of the bristles 24' protruding from the bristle carrier 10. The maximum wall thickness d is greater than 0.6 mm, in particular greater than 0.9 mm.

In addition, the bristles 24' may or should have a thickened fixed end 32', the height of the fixed end 32 is smaller than the depth of the corresponding anchor opening 12, so that the inwardly shaped edge surrounds the fixed end 32' to achieve a shape-fitting and retaining effect . The fixed end 32' is, for example, a flat cylinder, and the shape of the flat cylinder matches the shape of the anchor opening 12. The outer dimension of the fixed end 32' is adapted to the cross-section of the anchor opening 12, so that during insertion, there is a lateral gap between the fixed end 32' and the wall of the anchor opening 12 before being shaped.

The fixed end 32' may be made of a material different from the rest of the bristles 24', for example, a harder material than the rest of the bristles 24'. For example, the fixed end 32' is made of polypropylene. It is also possible that only the core of the bristles 24' is made of a harder material. In this case, the core is then encapsulated with a softer material. Therefore, a disk body made of a harder material may be used, which disk body forms the entire fixed end 32' or the core of the fixed end 32'.

As shown in the left part of Figure 12, the disk body 112 forming the core may also have an extension 114 integrally formed on the disk body 112. The extension portion extending into the bristles 24' will be located outside the bristle carrier 10. Part.

The right part of Figure 12 shows a modification of the bristles 24'. The bristles 24' have a fixed end 32' made of hard plastic and a region formed on the fixed end 32' by injection molding and made of softer plastic.段118.

The single bristle 24' illustrated in Figure 12 is tapered at one end, and this point should not be construed as limiting.

Taking a toothbrush as an example, the back of the bristle carrier is often formed with elastic regions as shown in Figure 15 by injection molding. These elastic regions are wider than the rest of the bristle carrier 10 and are used as a tongue fur cleaner. The elastic body 232 may have protrusions or ribs. The groove 38 in the holder 34 is complementary to the shape of the elastic body 232 in the uncompressed state in the outer surface area of the elastic body 232. However, the volume allocated to the elastic body 232 to achieve the compressed state (the closed state of the device, see Figure 15) is smaller than the volume in the unloaded state. That is, the height allocated to the elastic body 232 is reduced to compression under the desired pressure. Depending on the circumstances, all the back pressure during deformation can even be introduced into the bristle carrier 10 from the holder 34 through the elastic body 232.

When the elastic element 300 on the front side is ejected together with the elastic body 232 and connected to the elastic body 232 through the through hole or the elastic body 32' is embedded (as shown in Figure 12), it may be advantageous: Apply less pressure in this area. In this case, optionally, as shown by the dashed line 302 in Figure 15, the holder 34 is partially removed slightly, so that not all pressure is applied when the tool is closed. This is because excessive pressure on the end side edges around the anchor openings of the elastomer cleaning element will deform the elastomer cleaning element. Figure 13 shows the complete equipment including various stations. It should be emphasized that the device of the present invention does not have to have all the stations described below.

In particular, refer to the foregoing drawings, especially all the variants and details described in connection with Figure 1, whether it is for example, cooling, ventilation, etc., as well as the aforementioned temperature, temperature range, time, and materials used. In this embodiment, it is implemented individually or in combination.

At station A, the bristles or bristle bundles are separated and the bristles or bristle bundles are further transported. The left figure shows a so-called fiber box 120 from which the tuft separator 122 takes out the finished bristles that can be sharpened mechanically or chemically in a bundle.

The bristle bundles 24 are transported by the conveying equipment to station B, where the bristle bundles 24 have become the final bristle bundle geometry and the hole pattern of the future brush as appropriate.

For example, the bristle bundle 24 is pushed into the first intermediate box 124 in the form of a plate. Then, the tappet 126 pushes the bristle bundle 24 through the intermediate box 124 into another plate 128. In the plate 128, there are shaped or deflected holes 130 as appropriate or used to merge several bristle bundles 24. It forms the same larger bristle bundle or the opening 132 for obliquely orientating the bristle bundle 24.

Then the bristle bundle 24 is pushed further into the cassette 20. Then, the hole geometry of the future brush is better realized in the cassette 20, but this is not necessary, and this will be explained below.

However, the plate 128 and/or the middle box 124 may be omitted as appropriate, so that the bristle bundle 24 is directly sent into the box 20. All of this depends on the desired final tuft distribution or tuft geometry and the hole pattern of the finished brush.

After the separation is completed, the bristles bundle 24 can be mechanically sent into the first intermediate box 124 and/or the box 20 on the station B by means of the slider or the tappet 126 shown in FIG. 2. On station A, the second picture on the left shows another alternative: the separated bristles bundles are sent to the middle box 124 or box 20 through the pipe or hose 134 with overpressure or negative pressure applied inside. .

No matter what transportation means is used for the bristle bundles, the bristle bundles can be provided and/or pushed into the cassette 20 individually, in groups, or all at the same time.

The third alternative at station A illustrates a coiled strand 136 consisting of several parallel filaments. The strand 136 is wound on the reel 138 and continuously unwound from the reel 138. The ends of the strands 136 are inserted into the openings in the middle cassette 124 or cassette 20 and then cut. After cutting the ends of the strands, a bundle of bristles 24 cut to length is formed. Then, for example, with a movable XY table, on the one hand, the end of the reel or the strand accommodated in the movable guide is moved relative to the cassette 20 or the intermediate cassette 124, or on the other hand, the cassette 20/intermediate cassette 124 is relatively Move at the end of the strand to fill all the openings on the cassette 20 or the intermediate cassette 124 in sequence. In addition, several reels or strands can also be moved relative to the cassette 20/intermediate cassette 124. Then, the filled cassette 20 or the intermediate cassette 124 is transported from the station and sent to the station B or directly to the station C. At station B, the tappet 126 presses the tufts of bristles 24 into the cassette 20.

In order to save the X-Y station, it is also possible to feed the strands from several reels 138 into the openings on the cassette 20 or the intermediate cassette 124, and then cut the strands.

Station C is a so-called modeling station. The tufts of bristles 24 move in this axial direction, so that the ends of the tufts of bristles used to form the brush in the future lie in a plane, or more generally, terminate in an arbitrary predetermined plane.

In the illustrated embodiment, a wave shape is specified, and therefore, the baffle 140 having a complementary wave shape is separated from the cassette 20. Then, the bristle bundle 24 is pressed downward by a pressing plate 142 having a shape complementary to the surface of the baffle 140 until the ends of all the bristle bundles abut the baffle 140.

However, if the desired shape can already be achieved at station B by suitable tappets 126 of different lengths or the same length, station C can be omitted as appropriate. The two variants can also be mixed with each other. The specific method is: the so-called pre-sculpting is performed on the station B by tappets 126 of different lengths, and then the fine sculpting is performed on the station C by the baffle 140.

Station D is a cutting station, where the rear end of the bristle bundle is cut off in order to melt the end of the bristle bundle with the best effect in the next station. With the blade 144 mechanically or by the hot wire 146 thermally, the bristle bundles 24 protruding from the back of the box 20 may be cut off to varying degrees at a location quite close to the box 20. If a mechanical blade 144 is used, the cassette 20 can also function as a counter blade as appropriate. In this case, the bristle bundles 24 are slightly pushed out of the back of the box 20 after being cut, so that the bristle bundles slightly protrude from the box 20.

If the ends of the hair bundles protrude neatly from the back of the box 20 after station B or station C, station D may be omitted as appropriate. This point is particularly applicable to the following situations: the end of the frontal tufts should end on a plane.

Then, the protruding section of the bristle bundle 24 is melted on the station E, so that all the filaments in a tuft are connected to each other through the mushroom-shaped thickened tuft ends formed thereby. The thickness of the ends of the tufts is controlled by the amount of filament protruding from the back of the box 20. This can also set the geometry of the ends of the tufts.

The melting operation can be realized by a heated punch 148, which can contact the ends of the tufts or keep a distance from the ends of the tufts, so as to melt the filaments using radiant heat (especially infrared light). As an alternative, the melting can also be accomplished by hot air. It is important that only one corresponding thickening is always produced for the formed bristle bundle, because only those filaments that should also be fixed in the same anchor opening in the future should be connected to each other by melting. As described above, the thickened portion 32 can be cooled here depending on the situation.

At the next station F, push the bristle bundle into the anchor opening 12 of the bristle carrier 10 with the thickened fixed end facing forward, and press the bristle bundle into the anchor opening 12 in the aforementioned manner. middle. This push can be done simultaneously, sequentially or in groups.

Another variant is to provide a deflecting plate containing a corresponding channel, and push the bristles 24 into the deflecting plate with the thickened fixed end facing forward, and then push the bristles further into the anchoring opening of the bristle carrier. hole. This variant is suitable for situations where the future hole pattern of the brush or the orientation of the bristle bundle 24 has not yet been fully realized in the cassette.

The aforementioned individually manufactured individual bristles 24' can be provided at each station arbitrarily, that is, provided to the cassette 20, or provided to the bristle carrier 10 first.

For example, with at least one driver, such as an electric motor 240 (see FIG. 1f), if a transmission element such as a spindle nut 242 is connected as appropriate, pressure is preferably applied to the holder 34. Of course, this point applies to all embodiments.

The electric motor is especially a servo motor.

Generally speaking, several bristle carriers 10 can also be deformed simultaneously by a single driver, so as to hold the at least one bristle or the at least one bristle bundle 24 in the anchor opening. To this end, the holder 34 has several grooves 38 whose shapes are complementary to the bristle carriers.

In order to increase the output of finished brushes, in particular, a plurality of juxtaposed drives are provided, and the drives drive a plurality of holders 34, and the holders 34 contain a plurality of bristle carriers 10 in turn.

The controller 51 adopts programming design accordingly to implement the aforementioned method in the device.

With the equipment of the present invention and the method of the present invention, an ultra-long and ultra-thin bristle bundle can be anchored in a bristle carrier. The present invention provides a bristle carrier equipped with bristle bundles, wherein the length of the bristle bundles exceeds 8 mm, and the width is less than 2 mm, in particular, less than 1 mm.

With such a large edge length as described above, the corresponding edge of the anchor opening does not have to be deformed inward to the same degree. The results show that it is sufficient to provide a number of overhanging edge segments that deform inwardly toward the anchor opening to a greater degree, and that these edge segments are alternately distributed with those that deform inwardly to a lesser degree.

10‧‧‧Bristle carrier 12‧‧‧Anchor opening 14‧‧‧Assembly station 16‧‧‧Melting station 18‧‧‧Anchor station 20‧‧‧Box 22‧‧‧End face 24 '‧‧‧Bristles 26‧‧‧Accommodating opening 28‧‧‧Back end 30‧‧‧Heating device 32‧‧‧Thickening part, anchoring end 32'‧‧‧Fixed end 34‧‧‧Retainer 36 ‧‧‧End surface 38‧‧‧Recession heater 40‧‧‧Inside edge 41‧‧‧Electrical connection point 42‧‧‧Front surface 44‧‧‧Bottom plate 50‧‧‧Edge 51‧‧‧ Controller 60 ‧ ‧ Box 62 ‧ ‧ Pin 64 ‧ ‧ Offset plate 66 ‧ ‧ Transport opening 80 ‧ ‧ Edge segment 81 ‧ ‧ Edge segment 82 ‧ ‧ Extension 100 ‧ ‧ injection Injection molding half part 101‧‧‧Injection molding half part 102‧‧‧Injection molding half 104‧‧‧Cavity 106‧‧‧Extension 107‧‧‧Insert 108‧‧‧Cleaning element 109‧‧‧Bottom surface 110‧‧‧Hinge 111‧‧‧Groove 112‧‧‧Plate 114‧‧‧Extension 118‧‧‧Section 120‧‧‧Fiber Box 122‧‧‧Bill Bundle Separator 124‧‧‧First Intermediate Box 126‧‧‧ Tappet 128‧‧‧Plate 130‧‧‧Shaped or deviated opening 132‧‧‧Opening 134‧‧‧Hose 136‧‧‧Share 138‧‧‧Reel 140‧‧ ‧Baffle plate 142‧‧‧Press plate 144‧‧‧Blade 146‧‧‧Hot wire 148‧‧‧Punch 182‧‧‧Common section 200‧‧‧Recessed 202‧‧Bottom 206‧‧‧Back 208‧‧‧Bottom 210. Spindle nut 277‧‧‧Start 279‧‧Envelope 281‧‧‧Side 283‧‧‧Side 285‧‧‧Protrusion 300‧‧‧Elastomer element 302‧‧‧Dotted line A‧‧‧Longitudinal d‧ ‧‧Maximum wall thickness D‧‧‧Total thickness D1‧‧‧Diameter D2‧‧‧Diameter D3‧‧‧Diameter t‧‧‧Depth R‧‧‧Annular surface V‧‧‧Volume T‧‧‧Depth Y‧‧ ‧Arrow Z‧‧‧Depth

The further features and advantages of the present invention will be described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the scheme:

Figures 1a to 1g illustrate a perspective top view and a perspective bottom view of various steps of the successive implementation of the method of the present invention, both of which also illustrate the equipment of the present invention;

Figure 2 illustrates an enlarged view of the perspective bottom view of the anchoring station in Figure 1e;

Figure 3 shows a cross-sectional view of the anchoring station shown in Figures 1e and 1f before the box and the bristle carrier move towards each other;

Figure 4 shows the corresponding view when the standing box and the bristle carrier are in contact for the first time as shown in Figure 3;

Figures 5 and 5A illustrate the corresponding views of the anchoring station shown in Figure 3 after the end of the feed movement and the end of the action time, and when the station is about to be separated and opened;

Figure 6 shows a cross-sectional view of an alternative assembly station;

Figure 7 shows a cross-sectional view of the anchoring station shown in Figure 3, on which the oblique bristle bundles are processed;

Figure 8 illustrates a cross-sectional view of an alternative bristle carrier used in the present invention;

Figure 9 illustrates a front view of the bristle carrier produced by the present invention;

Fig. 10 is a cross-sectional view of an injection molding mold used to inject and form the bristle carrier shown in Fig. 9, wherein the injection molding mold includes: an injection molding half part;

Figure 11 shows a cross-sectional view of the bristle carrier when the bristle bundle and (or) a single elastic bristle is inserted;

Figure 12 illustrates a modification of the single prefabricated bristles used in the present invention;

Figure 13 illustrates a variant of the method of the invention and the device of the invention;

Figure 14 shows an enlarged cross-sectional view of a variant of the device of the present invention, here an anchoring station, with the holder of the present invention;

Figure 15 shows an enlarged cross-sectional view of another modification of the device of the present invention, in this case an anchoring station, with the holder of the present invention for arranging the bristle carrier of the elastic body;

Figure 16 illustrates a perspective view of a bristle carrier used in the method and equipment of the present invention and manufactured by the injection molding half mold part of the present invention;

Figure 17 illustrates a top view of the elongated anchor openings of the bristle carrier with inserted bristle bundles before being shaped. The bristle carrier is similar to the bristle carrier according to Figure 16, but has extensions of different heights;

Figure 18 illustrates a cross-sectional view of another bristle carrier used in the method of the present invention before being shaped, with inserted bristle bundles;

Figure 19 illustrates a cross-sectional view of the bristle carrier according to Figure 18 after being shaped;

Figure 20 shows a cross-sectional view of another bristle carrier before being shaped, where there is a bundle of bristles inserted obliquely;

Figure 21 illustrates a cross-sectional view of the bristle carrier according to Figure 20 after being shaped, with the bristle bundle inserted;

Figure 22 illustrates a perspective top view of the bristle carrier according to Figure 20;

Figure 23 illustrates a detailed cross-sectional view of the bristle carrier according to Figure 18 before being shaped; and

Figure 24 is a partial perspective cross-sectional view of the injection molding half part of the present invention of the apparatus of the present invention.

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10‧‧‧Bristle carrier

12‧‧‧Anchor opening

20‧‧‧Box

32‧‧‧Thickened part, anchored end

34‧‧‧Holder

36‧‧‧End face

38‧‧‧Groove

39‧‧‧Resistance heater

41‧‧‧Electrical connection contact

42‧‧‧Front

Claims (31)

A method for manufacturing a brush, the brush comprising: a bristle carrier made of thermoplastic plastic, the bristle carrier has a front and a back and at least one anchor opening, inserting at least one bristle made of thermoplastic plastic without An anchor is anchored in the anchor opening so that the bristles protrude from the front face of the bristle carrier, wherein the at least one anchor opening on the front face has an end face edge surrounding the anchor opening, and is characterized by It consists of the following steps: a) Provide a bristle carrier, the bristle carrier has at least one extension part facing away from the front surface in the area of the edge of the end face to generate a material accumulation, wherein the at least one extension part is produced during injection molding of the bristle carrier And is associated with at least one anchoring opening, b) accommodating the at least one bristle in an accommodating opening of a tool part, c) while the at least one bristles is still in the accommodating opening, by The thickened fixed end of the at least one bristle pushes the at least one bristle into the bristle carrier into the anchor opening formed when the bristle carrier is manufactured, d) reduces the distance from the tool part to the bristle carrier, Make the tool part contact the bristle carrier, e) bring the front surface of the bristle carrier to a temperature lower than the melting temperature of the bristle material and/or the bristle carrier material, in particular the highest is the bristle material And (or) 85% of the corresponding melting temperature of the bristle carrier material calculated in °C, f) the tool piece applies a pressure to the bristle carrier, and at least in the area surrounding the edge of the end surface of the anchor opening, Together with the at least one extension, while reducing the cross section of the anchoring opening, the bristle carrier is deformed in the following manner: the at least one bristle is embedded and anchored in the anchoring opening, And a material of the bristle carrier in the area of the edge on the at least one extension moves laterally into the anchor opening and presses against the at least one bristle during deformation, g) enlarge the tool piece The distance to the bristle carrier to pull the at least one bristle out of the accommodating opening, h) wherein the anchoring opening after the step f) has a thickness measured from the front face to the thickened fixed end The initial depth, and the at least one extension portion associated with the anchor opening has a volume in the range of 60% to 110% of a theoretical volume before the deformation in step f), the theoretical volume The volume refers to the depth and an inner side of the anchor opening and an outer side of the single bristle before the deformation in step f) Or a product of an annular surface between an outer side of an envelope of a bundle of bristles. The method according to claim 1, wherein the extension part associated with an anchor opening is formed in a ring-shaped closure to surround the extension part of the anchor opening. The method according to claim 2, wherein the annularly closed extension portion has a different cross-sectional area in the longitudinal extension of the extension portion. The method according to claim 3, wherein when looking down on the front face, the anchoring opening is an elongated anchoring opening, having longer and shorter sides that are complementary to each other, and the ring-shaped closed extension is at The area of the longer side portions has a larger cross-sectional area than the area of the shorter side portions. The method according to claim 4, wherein a bundle of bristles having an elongated cross-section is pushed into the elongated anchor opening, wherein the bristles of the bundle of bristles are fused when forming the thickened fixed end Together, and wherein the protrusions of the fixed end protruding laterally with respect to the bristles are wider in the region of the long side of the elongated bristle bundle than in the region of the shorter cross-sectional side. The method according to claim 5, wherein the inner side of the elongated anchor opening has a different distance from the laterally protruding protrusion of the fixed end before being deformed, and wherein during the deformation in the step f) Press the material onto the outer bristles. The method according to one of the above claims, wherein at least one extension is associated with two adjacent anchoring openings, and in this step f), the material of the extension is pressed into the two anchoring openings , Wherein the extensions respectively or collectively associated with the two adjacent anchoring openings have a volume associated with the anchoring openings before the deformation in the step f), the volume being In the range of 60% to 110% of the theoretical volume, the theoretical volume refers to the depth and the inner sides of the anchor openings and the outer sides of the individual bristles before the deformation in the step f). The product of the annular surfaces between the outer sides of the envelope of the bristle bundle. The method according to claim 7, wherein two adjacent anchoring openings are each surrounded by a ring-shaped closed extension, and the extensions between the anchoring openings are connected to each other. The method according to claim 8, wherein the cross-sectional area of the part where the extensions are connected to each other is larger than the cross-sectional area of the rest of the extensions. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the bristles or the bristle bundle are inserted into the anchor opening obliquely from the front side, and the extension is on the side close to the bristles or the bristle bundle It has a smaller cross-sectional area than on the opposite side. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein in the step f), by moving the material in the anchoring hole inside the region of the edge, the at least one bristle is The angular orientation of the at least one bristle relative to the front face changes, in particular it is squeezed perpendicular to the front face. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the at least one bristles is inserted into the anchor opening in the step b) at right angles to the preferably flat front surface, and in the step In f), the material moved laterally into the anchor opening is squeezed obliquely or at right angles to the front surface. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the anchoring opening is defined in the interior of the bristle carrier by an annular inner side of a wall, wherein the at least one extension and the inner side A part is associated, and the part extends perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to the front face before the bristle carrier is pressed by the tool piece. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein in a direction perpendicular to the front view, the at least one extension is an elongated protrusion extending along the edge of the end surface, and the protrusion has It is preferably a continuous rectangular cross-sectional profile. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the front surface of the bristle carrier is brought to a temperature lower than the melting temperature of the bristle material and/or the bristle carrier material, in particular The highest is the bristle material and (or) the bristle carrier material 85% of the corresponding melting temperature calculated in °C, and wherein the tool piece exerts a pressure on the heated bristle carrier and deforms the bristle carrier according to feature f). The method according to claim 15, wherein during the application of the pressure on the bristle carrier, the back surface of the bristle carrier is actively cooled. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the bristle carrier is heated by the heatable tool member after the at least one bristle is loaded. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the tool piece is heated by an integrated resistance heater or by a heated component, the integrated resistance heater being outside a contact surface contacting the bristle carrier Temporarily contact the tool piece and heat it by heat conduction. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the at least one bristle or the entire bristle bundle has a thickened fixed end by thermoforming one of the bristle materials, wherein when a bristle bundle is used The bristles of the bristle bundle are joined together by thermal shaping, and the shaping is performed outside an anchoring station, and at least the steps c) to f) are performed in the anchoring station. The method of claim 19, wherein the thermoformed bristles or bristle bundles are inserted into the bristle carrier in the anchoring station in a cooled state. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the wall portion defining the anchor opening in the bristle carrier is deformed from the front surface only to above the thickened end. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the method is provided with the following step: heating the tool piece so that the end surface of the tool piece opposite to the bristle carrier reaches a temperature that is lower than the bristle material and (Or) The melting temperature of the bristle carrier material, in particular the highest is 85% of the corresponding melting temperature of the bristle material and (or) the bristle carrier material calculated in °C, and the tool piece is moved relative to the bristle carrier , So that the tool piece contacts and heats the bristle carrier. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the method is provided with the following steps: the end surface of the tool piece opposite to the bristle carrier reaches a predetermined temperature, the predetermined temperature is between the ambient temperature and 210°C, Preferably, it is within a range between ambient temperature and 150°C, and the tool piece is moved relative to the bristle carrier so that the tool piece contacts and heats the bristle carrier, but does not melt the bristle carrier and the at least one bristle. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the tool part is in contact with the tool part during the feeding movement of the tool part relative to the bristle carrier and/or when contacting the bristle carrier. The contact surface area makes the bristle carrier reach a temperature that is lower than the melting temperature of the bristle carrier material and is preferably greater than or equal to the glass transition temperature of the material of the bristle carrier, in particular, if a bristle carrier The material has a glass transition temperature greater than or equal to 300°K, the temperature is at most 15% higher than the glass transition temperature calculated in °K, and if a bristle carrier material has a glass transition temperature less than 300°K, the The temperature is at most 50% higher than the glass transition temperature calculated in °K. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the tool piece heats the bristle carrier from the end surface at least during the entire period of time when the tool piece applies pressure on the bristle carrier. An apparatus for implementing the method according to any one of the above claims to manufacture a brush, the brush comprising at least one bristle or at least one bristle bundle, the brush having a bristle carrier, the bristle carrier having at least one for The anchor opening of the at least one bristle or the at least one bristle bundle is characterized in that: the device includes a plurality of stations, and the plurality of stations include an injection molding station for producing the bristle carrier and an injection molding station for producing the at least one bristle carrier. A subsequent station where a bristle is fixed in the bristle carrier, wherein there is an injection molding half part in the injection molding station, the injection molding half part has at least one pin protruding into an injection molding cavity, the pin Forming a part of the injection molding half part, and the pin creates an anchor opening constructed as a blind hole, wherein the pin protrudes from a bottom surface of the injection molding half part, and wherein the injection molding half part is contained in The bottom surface surrounds the pin and a ring-shaped groove is closed on the circumference, the groove has a varying cross-section on the circumference, and the station for fixing the at least one bristle includes a bristle carrier for the bristle carrier A holder and a tool part, the tool part comprising at least one accommodating opening for the at least one bristle or the at least one bristle bundle, and the outlet of the accommodating opening is located at the end surface of the tool part facing the bristle carrier And wherein the tool piece has at least one heater for heating the end surface, and the heater is constructed and controlled so that the end surface is heated to a temperature of up to 140°C, in particular, up to 130°C. The device according to claim 26, wherein the device is constructed such that the tool member can apply a pressure of at least 200 bar, preferably at least 400 bar, to the bristle carrier. The device according to any one of claim 26 or 27, wherein the tool part is a cassette, and the cassette is assembled with the at least one bristle or the at least one bristle bundle at an assembly station of the device, wherein the at least one The bristles or the at least one bristle bundle protrudes out of the box with the fixed end after assembly, wherein after the assembly station there is a melting station on which the fixed end is heated and a thickening is formed therebetween, wherein In the case of using a bristle bundle, the bristles of the bristle bundle are merged by thermoforming. An injection molding half-mold part for the equipment according to any one of claims 26 to 28, for generating a bristle carrier for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 25, which It is characterized in that the molding half mold portion has at least one pin protruding into an injection molding cavity, the pin protruding from a bottom surface of the injection molding half mold portion, and the pin generates the anchor opening configured as a blind hole The hole, and a groove in the bottom surface that surrounds the pin and closes a ring on the circumference, wherein the groove has a varying cross-section on the circumference, in particular a different width. The injection molding half part according to claim 29, wherein a plurality of protruding pins for creating anchor openings protrude from the bottom surface, and annular closed grooves surrounding adjacent pins are partially engaged with each other. The injection molding half part according to claim 29, wherein a plurality of protruding pins for creating anchor openings protrude from the bottom surface, and/or a part where the annular closed groove surrounding the pins has different depths And (or) parts of different widths.

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