How is a Toothbrush Made
A toothbrush is a instrument that is used to clean the teeth, gums and tounge. The toothbrush is used to brush the plague and other contaminates from the surface of the teeth and gums. It is generally used in conjunction with toothpaste and dentists recommend that your teeth should be brushed at least twice a day. Whilst toothbrushes come in a variety of sizes, colours and bristle types they generally consist of a cluster of bristles attached to a handle. Toothbrushes have been around for a very long time with the earliest bristle toothbrush dated to 1600 BC. Since then toothbrushes have evolved from their original form which used hog derived bristles to the synthetic ones that we use today. So how is a toothbrush made? Read this article to find out.
How is a Toothbrush Made?
Most toothbrushes on the market today are made from synthetic materials such as plastics. The base material is small plastic pellets that are sucked into an injection mold machine. The plastic pellets are melted down into a soft dough like consistency which is then injected into a stainless steel mold. Each mold produces ten toothbrush handles at once, making ten handles every 35 seconds. The mold allows for holes where the bristles will be placed. Coloured rubber pellets are then melted to make the grips for the toothbrush handles. The melted rubber is piped into mold which are then pressed onto the handles forming the grip.
Once the plastic has cooled the handles are removed from the mold and passed along a conveyer belt to the next step where the bristles will be added. The bristles on modern toothbrushes are formed from nylon fibers. The nylon fibers are placed into a machine which taps them down so that they are even in length and height. The nylon fiber is then fed through the machine and placed into the holes in the head of the toothbrush handle. The machine selects 22-24 nylon fibers for each bristle in the toothbrush. The machine bends the fibers in half as they are placed into the holes and places a small pieces of wire in between the fold to anchor the bristles to the toothbrush.
The toothbrushes are them passed through another machine which trims the bristles to the same length and in the same pattern. Creating the zigzag like appearance of the toothbrush. The toothbrushes are them passed over sanding discs coated in diamond dust which sands the edges of the bristles.
The toothbrushes are then sent to the final machine which sorts and packs the toothbrushes for shipping. During this step and number of toothbrushes are tested for quality assurance and once they pass the test the rest of the allotment can be packaged and shipped.
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