Occasionally pipe-cleaning brushes are made by hand but most are manufactured using machinery either on a small or large scale. This is how a simple pipe-cleaning brush is manufactured:
Firstly, the bristle fibres are lined up neatly by a machine, at right-angles to the twisting machine, ready to be twisted between two wires.
The machine moves the fibres forward as the twisting machine starts to spin. The fibres are picked up between the two wires and spun into them tightly causing the bristles to stick out from the newly-formed core. A row of brushes can be made and then cut up into individual brushes.
Once clamped between the wires, the bristles are run past a blade which cuts them to the correct length and neatens up any slipped bristles.
The blunt ends of these brushes can be glued into a hole in a plastic or wooden handle.
Pipe-cleaning brushes with loops have to be made individually. The wire is bent in the middle and the machine creates a loop at the bend before twisting the rest of the wire into a stem.
Plastic or wood handles could be added at this stage by bending the loop tightly around the handle to hold the handle in place before twisting the wires into a stem.
Plastic handles are made by injecting plastic into a mould. When the plastic cools it will harden in the shape of a handle and can be attached to the brush.
Wooden handles are made from blocks of wood cut into a handle shape using a series of electric-powered saws and specialised cutters.
