Patent ID: 8475697

Claim:
A method to produce a plurality of brushes with applicators comprising the steps of; obtaining a plurality of wicks, each wick having a pair of opposed ends; obtaining a molding apparatus comprising an upper molding box and a lower molding box, wherein the upper molding box comprises a first plurality of applicator molding half molds arranged in series, and the lower molding box comprises a second plurality of applicator molding half molds arranged in series and the first plurality of applicator molding half molds and the second plurality of applicator molding half molds are matched to form a plurality of aligned applicator molds, each applicator mold having a contour of an applicator, and a horizontal extracting block provided in a block groove in the lower molding box, the horizontal extracting block having defined in an upper surface thereof a plurality of spaced apart horizontal wick grooves, each horizontal wick groove extending between two of the plurality of applicator molds, with the extracting block extending in a direction generally transverse to a direction of the horizontal wick grooves, and the extracting block being configured to move between a lowered position in the block groove and a raised position above the lower molding box; arranging the plurality of wicks in the molding apparatus in the horizontal wick grooves in the horizontal extracting block between the upper molding box and the lower molding box so that the opposed ends of the wicks are located in the applicator molds; injecting a molding material into the molding apparatus so that the molding material fills the first plurality of applicator molding half molds and the second plurality of applicator molding half molds, and forms a plurality of applicators affixed to the opposed end portions of the wicks to define brushes with applicators in a horizontal arrangement defined by the wick grooves and the applicator molds; opening the molding apparatus; raising the horizontal extracting block to the raised position, simultaneously raising all of the horizontally—arranged brushes above the lower molding box; and removing the plurality of brushes from the wick grooves in the extracting block.