Nylon Brushes
Nylon brushes are any type of brush with filaments made from the polymer nylon. Nylon is one of the most frequently used materials in brush creation, for good reason. Brushes made with this nylon filament gain the polymer properties of excellent bend recovery, high heat tolerance, superior abrasion resistance and above average chemical resistance. In addition, they gain and wield positive nylon characteristics such as: exceptional fatigue life, low to moderate water absorption and the ability to work in both wet and dry environments.
Quick links to Nylon Brushes Information
Design of Nylon Brushes
There are many types of nylon that may be used to create a nylon brush. In fact, the properties of a nylon brush, such as its stiffness, are directly related to its bristle grade, length and diameter. A few common nylon grades include 6 and 12. Nylon 6 is known for its toughness, high tensile strength, elasticity, wrinkle-proof nature, luster and resistance to acids and alkalis. Nylon 12 is selected for applications that will benefit from its characteristics of chemical resistance, hardness, tensile stress and insensitivity to stress cracking. Nylon 610 and Nylon 612, or 6 10 and 6 12, respectively, are the most commonly used nylon polymers for filaments. In addition to grades, nylon brush manufacturers make use of many specialty types of nylon, such as abrasive nylon and conductive nylon. Abrasive nylon is created when heat stabilized nylon is coextruded with grains of material that increase abrasiveness, like diamond, aluminum oxide or silicon carbide. The size of the grains with which the nylon is coextruded is related to the diameter of the finished nylon filament. The larger the grains, the greater the diameter. Note that larger diameter nylon filaments are less flexible and more susceptible to fatigue and fracture than their smaller counterparts. Conversely, smaller diameter filaments bend and recover easily. Nylon filaments are generally available in their naturally milky clear color or in any number of dyed colors.
Types of Nylon Brushes
Types of specific brushes in which nylon filament is used include artist brushes, cleaning brushes, spiral brushes, power brushes and strip brushes.
Artist Brushes
Employed for a variety of artistic and industrial purposes. Due to the exacting nature of their strokes, artist brushes must be of high quality. They range greatly in size and shape.
Cleaning Brushes
The term applies to many brushes, even when it is narrowed by the category of nylon brushes, because cleaning is such a vital component of any process. Some of the most widely used nylon cleaning brushes include bottle brushes, tube brushes and handle brushes.
Bottle and Tube Brushes
Designed to clean the inside and hard-to-reach places of narrow mouth glassware and test tubes, respectively.
Handle Brushes
Very common cleaning nylon cleaning brushes, available in a variety of sizes, with different handle designs and materials. Applications they serve include shoe polishing, gentle dusting, surface scouring, critical environment control, descaling, buffing and rust removal.
Spiral Brushes
Can refer to a few different kinds of nylon brushes, like those cylindrical and circular brushes used for commercial and industrial manufacturing. However, most of the time, the term references twisted-in wire brushes.
Power Brushes
Electrically powered or attached to an electrically-powered tool, such as a drill, are generally circularly shaped wheel brushes. Most often, they are used to deburr newly fabricated parts at the beginning of surface finishing.
Strip Brushes
Long, thin brushes that are used for a number of different conveyor sealing, surfacing and cleaning applications. They are available in a number of different forms, such as flexible, metal back, staple set and formed strip brushes, which are offered in a variety of shapes, such as spiral, coils, cups and arcs. They are also offered with a variety of trim and seal options.
Applications for Nylon Brushes
Thanks to their many wonderful qualities, there are many types of applications nylon brushes can serve, including the cleaning and removing of contaminants, dusting, aggressive scrubbing, surface finishing, rough surface preparation and weld blending, and also speciality industrial applications. The demand for speciality applications is especially high in industries like aerospace, medical, semiconductor and electronics. Therefore, nylon brushes are essential ingredients in their processes, as well as the processes of automotive, commercial, industrial, food processing and textile industry applications.
Abrasive nylon brushes have applications that require a somewhat more aggressive touch, like cutting, surface finishing, the finishing of irregular profiles and deburring. The other aforementioned type of speciality nylon, conductive nylon, is created when the surface of nylon filament is coated with a conductive material, such as carbon. It is similar to nylon static dissipative or anti-static brushes. Both are frequently used for static elimination applications, where the anti-static nature of an environment, such as a clean room, must be maintained.
More Nylon Brush Information
Nylon Brushes Informational Video