In an old-fashioned factory building in the South Bronx, Izzy Kirschner’s half dozen employees stuff tufts of bristles into metal casings. They’re making paint brushes, but their product is a bit more unusual than your standard broom. It’s a power tool for concrete workers to smooth and level poured concrete before it can be finished with a brush or roller. It costs $2,000 a pop, but it can save up to 75 percent of the time compared with manual labor. It’s one of several strategies that small brush machines are using to survive a big shift in the industry.
As the market for household cleaning brushes continues to decline, many manufacturers are embracing new products. A few years ago, Haven sold a dual-blade shear cutoff and wire brush machine to a U.S. conduit manufacturer that allows the company to make a variety of products. The new machine can be used to produce various diameters and lengths of pipe, which is important for the customer’s diverse production needs.
Disc brushes are another type of specialty brush that is becoming more popular in the industrial and technical markets. Those manufacturers have seen a need to reduce their production costs by improving flexibility, which requires more versatile machines. Borghi’s new GIOTTO machine is designed to help them do just that. The machine has three stations and is capable of tufting disc brushes with either synthetic fibers (up to eight per tuft hole) or steel flat wire, and it can also tuft mixed bristles with both types of materials in the same tuft hole.
The GIOTTO can also be equipped with a double-unwinding system, which makes it possible to have two different spools of material fed into the machine at the same time. This helps reduce downtime and labor by allowing the operator to keep one station preparing the filament while another is tufting the brushes. It’s also possible to add a simple automatic handle feeder, which further reduces the amount of manual handling that is required.
Another option for reducing production costs is to use a carrousel transfer machine to move the brush from one station to another. This can be a particularly effective option when the brush has been made with an open-end yarn and needs to be closed up before it can be packaged. In addition to reducing the amount of handling that is required, this can help reduce scrap rates and production costs.
Finally, some manufacturers are experimenting with innovative packaging machines to keep their products sterile until they’re ready for use. Simple machines can seal a toothbrush into a plastic bag, but more complicated models can form hard plastic or cardboard containers around the brushes to prevent bacteria from getting into the packaging. The machines can also be programmed to include a barcode and other information to ensure the brushes are shipped to customers in the best condition. This is an important step in ensuring that consumers are receiving a high quality product and helping to prevent the spread of germs. brush machine factory