Nylon Brushes
Nylon filled industrial brushes are suitable for a range of applications from aggressive scrubbing to dusting, in both dry and wet environments. Brushes with Nylon fill offer the following characteristics in most applications: excellent fatigue life, good abrasion resistance, low to moderate absorption of water (3% to 9%) leading to only a temporary reduction in stiffness, an excellent bend recovery rate, resistance to most common solvents, and suitability for use in weak acids.
Nylon 6.6 is a medium grade suitable for most dry industrial applications and constitutes our regular duty filament for industrial applications. Nylon 6.6 has a higher moisture absorption rate at 9%, and therefore loses approximately half its stiffness when exposed to wet environments. Nylon 6.6 also has limited resistance to many common chemicals.
Nylon 6.12 is a higher performance grade for industrial and food-contact applications with the following attributes: a significantly greater wet stiffness modulus than 6.6 nylon, resistance to petroleum distillates, benzene aromatic hydrocarbons, ethyl acetate esters, and trichloroethylene hydrocarbons. Nylon 6.12 is FDA approved for direct food contact.
Heat Stabilized Nylon has been post-extrusion treated to raise the temperature where the loss of physical properties becomes evident.
Conductive Nylon is available for static reduction applications in both a 100% load and a lower 20% load for cost reduction. Conductive nylon can be mixed with other brush fill materials to provide static reduction along with other brushing functionality at a more economical cost.
Abrasive Nylon is a hard working filament choice for deburring, surface finishing, and edge blending or radiusing after machining.
Types of brushes available in nylon: wheel brush, cup brush, end brush, strip brush, formed strip cup brush, inside disk brush, cylinder brush, single coil.
| Material Properties | 6-6 Nylon | 6-12 Nylon | Polyester | Polypropylene |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stiffness Modulus Dry | 512 | 450 | 450 | 745 |
| Stiffness Modulus Wet | 160 | 400 | 447 | 700 |
| Water Absorption % | 9% | 3% | 0.33% | 0.03% |
| Bend Recovery % | 90% | 90% | 90% | 75% |
| Softening Point (°F) | 250° | 250° | 250° | 240° |
| Melting Point (°F) | 495° | 410° | 482° | 330° |
Nylon is available in both black and natural (milky clear), and on special order in a variety of colors to meet customer requirements. Both crimped and level material formats are available. Crimped brush fill is preferred in power brush applications to extend fatigue life, while level (non-crimped) may be preferred for brush seal applications to increase brush density. A range of filament diameters are available from 0.003″ (very fine) to 0.060″ (stiff) to suit specific applications and a variety of trim length requirements.
References:
Dupont Technical Information: “Filament Performance in Brushes“. 
Polymers Inc, “Buyers Guide to Synthetic Fibers”, November 1987.