Improvements in the Manufacture of Brushes, and in Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 16th June, 1896-Accepted, 18th July, 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Brushes, and in Apparatus
therefor.
I, CHARLES ADOLPHUS WATKINS, of 96, Clerkenwell Road, in the County
of London, Brush Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of that class of
brushes in which the bristles are secured to the handle by means of a metal
ferrule.
According to my invention the handle of the brush is inserted in the ferrule, in
which it fits tightly, to about the middle of the length of the latter and the upper
end of the said ferrule is then squeezed on to the handle so as to be firmly secured
to the same. The bristles are then inserted in the projecting half of the ferrule
and the end of the latter is then squeezed on to the bristles so as to secure the said
bristles firmly to the handle. Or the handle and bristles are inserted into the
ferrule from opposite ends so as to meet about half way in the same and the ends
of the ferrule are then squeezed in around the handle and bristles in one
operation.
For the purpose of carrying out my invention I provide a machine comprising
two side-supports or standards in the upper ends of which a die formed in two parts
or halves is adapted to work. The said half dies are for the purpose of description
hereinafter referred to as dies.
The dies receive a to-and-fro reciprocating motion by means of suitable cams or
otherwise. The dies are designed to enclose the ferrule which is forced up into the
same by means of a plunger caused to reciprocate up-and-down by suitable means
such as by cams. The upper end of the plunger is provided with a short cylinder
or cup designed to enclose the dies, when closed together, so as to prevent them
opening under the pressure to which they are subjected when the ferrule is being
forced into them.
The two sets of cams are mounted on shafts actuated by a worm on a shaft driven
by a pulley which can be put in and out of gear by a suitable clutch mechanism,
and I also advantageously provide a rod adapted to be reciprocated up and down
in the plunger by a foot lever so as to assist in removing the brushes from the said
plunger when the bristles have been secured to the handle.
To enable my invention to be fully understood I will describe the same by
reference to the accompanying drawings, in which :-
Figure 1 is a side elevation of a machine constructed according to my invention :
Figure 2 is a plan of the same partly in section on the line 2-2, Figure 1:
Figure 3 is a vertical section of the machine:
Figure 4 is a plan of one of the dies:
Figure 5 is a detail view:
Figure 6 is a vertical section illustrating the method of attaching the ferrule to
the handle of the brush:
Figure 7 is a view shewing the ferrule attached to the handle:
Figure 8 is a section similar to Figure 6 shewing the method of attaching the
bristles to the brush bandle: and.

page_text: Figure 9 is a view shewing the bristles attached to the brush handle:
Figures 4 to 9 are drawn to a larger scale than Figures 1 to 3.
a, a are the side-supports or standards, the said standards being cast with or bolted
to a bed-plate a and being provided with projecting portions b, b which are continuous
with one another and are furnished on the underside with guides c, c. d, d are the
dies, the said dies being secured to slides e which are caused to reciprocate in the
guides c formed on the underside of the projecting portions b, b of the standards a.
The dies d, d which are shewn most clearly in Figures 4, 6 and 8 are hollow,
that is to say, are formed on the inside with a recess of a shape corresponding
to that which the ferrule is to have when squeezed on to the handle and on to
the bristles, that is to say, converging towards the centre of the die at its upper
end. The dies d, d are secured to the slides e, e by means of screwed pins gas shewn
clearly in Figure 5.
h, h are the cams which reciprocate the slides e and thereby the dies d through the
medium of rods i, i having rollers j, j which engage on either side of the projecting
cam-surfaces, of each cam.
k is the shaft or spindle on which the cams h, h are mounted, the said shaft being
supported in bearings in the side-supports or standards a, a.
is the plunger, which is reciprocated up and down in the guide m provided in
front of the standards, by means of a lever n pivoted on a shaft o supported in
the standards a, a. The free end of this lever n is caused to oscillate by means
of two cams p and q which are mounted on shafts and s respectively supported
in the standard- a, a.
t is the cylindrical upper end of the plunger 1, the said upper end forming a
cup which fits over the dies d, d when closed so as to prevent them from opening
out under internal pressure. The plunger is made hollow, as shown clearly in
Figures 3 and 6, and into the bottom of the cup-shaped upper end of the same
there is fitted a plug u. This plug is provided with a projecting central
portion screwed into the same and of such a size that it accurately fits the insid:
of the ferrule which rests on the said plug u during the operation of attaching the
ferrule to the brush handle. During the operation in which the bristles are
secured to the handle, the plug u is removed and is replaced by a plug u', Figure 8,
which, in place of the projection v is provided with a recess corresponding in
shape to the curved shape of the ferrule that has been forced or squeezed on t
the brush handle.
w is the rod which is fitted in the plunger and is adapted to be forced upwards
by means of the foot lever a pivoted to a bracket y carried by the bed-plate aº of
the machine, as shewn clearly in Figure 3, the said rod w being designed to force
out the brush from the plug u' after the final operation in cases where the handle
sticks in the same.
2, Figure 1, is the driving pulley, the said pulley being mounted on the shaft a¹
supported in one of the standards a and carrying a worm 6' which gears with two
worm wheels c' mounted respectively on the shafts rands. The shaft r is provided at
its other end with a spur wheel d' which drives the cam-shaft k through the medium
of the gearing el.
is the clutch mounted on the shaft a' and actuated by the hand lever g',
pivoted to a bracket h' fixed to one of the side-supports, through the medium of
the rod and the lever j'.
The operation of the machine is as follows:-
Assuming the parts of the machine to be in the position shewn in the drawings,
that is to say, with the dies open and the plunger in its lowermost position, a
ferrule is placed in position on a brush handle l, and the said handle is then
lowered through the dies on to the plug u in such a manner that the projecting
portion of the ferrule k¹ encloses the projecting portion of the plug, as shewn
clearly in Figure 6. The machine is then put into operation by means of the
hand lever g whereby the cams p, q and h are caused to rotate through the
medium of the worm gear. The shaded portions in Figure 3 on the cam h indicate

page_text: those portions of the cam-surface which cause the dies to reciprocate. This being
the case, the movement of the cams h in the direction of the arrow in the said
Figure 3, will cause the dies to approach one another until they come in contact.
When this has occurred the cams and g, having reached the position in which.
they begin to cause the free end of the lever n to move downwards, force the
plunger upwards so as to cause the cup-shaped upper end t of the same to
enclose the closed dies d, d which it exactly fits. The upward movement of the
plunger also forces upwards the brush handle and ferrule so that the latter
is forced into the recess f in the dies d, d and caused to assume the shape of this.
recess, that is to say, its upper end is forced or squeezed tightly on to the brush
handle as shewn in Figure 7; further movement of the cams p and 7 then lifts the
free end of the lever n thereby lowering the plunger. The dies then open out
from one another and when they have reached the outermost point of their path
the machine is stopped by means of the hand level gi so that the brush handle can
be lifted from the projection v on the plug u.
The plug u is now removed and the plug u, Figure 8, substituted for it. The-
bristles, which are tied together in any suitable manner, are then inserted in the
projecting end of the ferrule k' and the brush handle is then dropped through
the dies into the recess v¹ in the plug u' as shewn clearly in Figure 8. The machine
is then restarted and the same movements occur as those above described, that is to
say, the dies close together and the cup-shaped upper end of the plunger then
passes up so as to enclose the said dies, thereby forcing the ferrule k into the
recess in the dies and causing its upper end to be squeezed around the bristles as
shewn in Figure 9.
Although I prefer to attach the bristles to the handles in two operations as
above described, namely, first attaching the ferrule to the handle and then squeezing
the ferrule on to the bristles, I wish it to be understood that I can also perform the
operation in one stage. In this case the dies, as shewn in Figure 8, are employed.
The handle and the bristles are inserted into the ferrule from opposite ends of the
same so as to meet about half away and the handle is then placed in the plug u'.
The machine is then started and the two ends of the ferrule are squeezed in around
the handle and bristles by the one operation.
As before mentioned the rod w is utilized for forcing out the brush handle should
it become stuck in the plunger.
It will be noticed that in Figure 8 the dies d are shewn shallower than in
Figure 6; this is owing to the increased depth of the plug w over that of the
plug u.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In the manufacture of brushes attaching the bristles to the handles by placing
a ferrule on the handle, squeezing one end of it on to the same and then squeezing
the other end of the ferrule on to the bristles in the manner substantially as
described.
2. In the manufacture of brushes attaching the bristles to the handles by
inserting the handle and the bristles into a ferrule so as to cause them to meet
about half way and then squeezing the ends of the ferrule around the handle and
bristles respectively by one operation in the manner substantially as described.
3. A machine for attaching the bristles to the handles of brushes in the manner
above described wherein two reciprocating dies and a plunger are employed for
compressing the ferrule on to the handle and on to the bristles, substantially as
described.
4. In a machine of the kind described in Claim 2 reciprocating the dies and the
plunger by means of cams substantially as described.
5. The combination of parts forming the improved machine for attaching the

page_text: bristles to the handles of brushes, the said parts being constructed, combined
and operating substantially as herein before described and illustrated in the
accompanying drawings.
6. Brushes manufactured as hereinbefore described.
Deted this 16th dow of June 1906
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.