Patent ID: 8904592

Claim:
A bristle drying and shaping assembly for drying and shaping bristles of a brush, including: a brush comprising a handle elongate in a longitudinal direction, a plurality of bristles, and a ferrule at a distal end of the handle to support the bristles with respect to the handle in a generally longitudinal extension away from the distal end to form a bundle being composed of the plurality of bristles extending generally in a longitudinal direction and interstitial regions between and among the bristles; and a resilient, moisture permeable tubular band member disposed about a tube axis of the tubular band member, the tubular band member having a nominal tube diameter less than a diameter of the bundle when in a contracted state and the tubular band member being extensible elastically in a circumferential direction along a circumference thereof to a radially expanded state to allow placement of the tubular band member in surrounding contiguous relation to accommodate the bundle of the brush, with the tube axis extending substantially in the longitudinal direction; wherein the tubular band member when in said surrounding contiguous relation surrounds the bundle with the tube axis oriented substantially in the longitudinal direction and in the radially expanded state produces an elastic restoring force acting radially inwardly against the bundle to compress adjacent ones of the bristles against one another to substantially close the interstitial regions, wherein the elastic restoring force exceeds a level of radially inward force necessary to establish a frictional engagement of the tubular member and the bundle by more than an order of magnitude.