How To Choose a Brush Wheel For Your Stenter

What the brush wheel does

The brush wheel presses the fabric onto the pins and keeps loose fibre from accumulating in the pin bed. When it wears down, the cloth is no longer seated fully on the pins and fibre starts to build up, and both faults show on the cloth before anything looks wrong on the machine.

Getting the size right

Sizes are close across brands and not interchangeable. Monforts uses 220 by 167 large and 180 by 22 small. Bruckner uses 220 by 158 and 155 by 85. Artos is 205 by 145 and F2 is 205 by 157, the same diameter and 12 mm apart in width. LK is 207 by 80 and ALKAN 225 by 90.

Measure the wheel you are replacing rather than ordering by machine name. Several of these differ by a few millimetres, which does not show on a shelf but does show in the housing.

Choosing the bristle

Five options are available on every size: PP bristle, nylon for high temperature, brown pig hair, black pig hair, and hard hair with glue.

PP is the general purpose choice. Nylon is the one for positions that run hot, and if you have seen PP deform at a position, that position needs nylon. Pig hair and hard glued hair are available where a different stiffness is wanted.

Using colour for position coding

Wheel bodies are available in red, green and purple. The colours carry no fixed meaning, which makes them useful: a plant can code by position, by bristle type or by change interval, and then audit brush maintenance at a glance.

When to change them

On a schedule, not on complaint. Pressing effect degrades gradually, so by the time a fault reaches the quality department a quantity of cloth has already been affected. Replace in matched sets across a position so the pressing is even across the width.