Wire Brushes: Types, Uses, and Manufacturing

What is a Wire Brush?

A wire brush is an abrasive tool that is made of durable filaments from many rigid materials that are designed to clean or prepare metal surfaces.

A wire brush has closely packed filaments meant to create a strong and abrasive cleaning characteristics on a surface that needs to be cleaned. Depending on the type of brush as well as the surface, there are manual and machine options.

In addition to cleaning surfaces, wire brushes are useful for multiple uses beyond cleaning like preparing a surface for paint and removing slag and spatter after welding.

Wire brushes have a unique depluralizing value to many production and product development processes, to be sure that products are all properly prepared for additional processing, finishing, and treatment.

How are wire brushes made?

Wire brushes come in many different types and each is built differently. The differences in filaments, handles, cups, channels, and other components depend on the specific type of brush.

However, every brush shares two components: a handle or holder, and filaments.  The complicated, automatic production processes are designed to produce wire brushes of high quality in which filaments are securely locked down for excellent performance.   

Wire Brush Filament

The filaments are the primary component of a wire brush. Filament type, diameter, density, and length determine how the wire brush is going to be applied. The diameter of filaments, also measured with either a micrometer or caliper, can be from .003 to .050 inches.

Filaments with smaller diameter will have more cutting tips per square inch than filaments with larger diameter. One would think that the larger diameters would be better, but they tend to get fatigued faster, causing a shorter life of the brush.

There are many types of wire filaments that are used in the construction of wire brushes. The type of filament is important; if you require a certain end result with the surface treatment, the filament type is critical.  

Crimped Steel

Crimped steel filaments are great for lighter cuts, deburring, and brushing with flexibility. Twisted or knotted steel filaments are the best types of wire filaments for more stringent applications, and tougher surfaces

Steel

Steel wire cuts faster and more aggressively and is usually more durable and longer lasting in harsher brushing applications.

Coated Tin

Coated tin brushes have specialized uses. They can have either straight or crimped filaments that can be used for deburring or decarbonizing.

Brass

Brass filaments are useful when removing material from a surface without damaging the actual substrate. Because brass doesn’t spark, it is a safe material to use when flammability is a concern, making it a safe versatile substitute for steel.

Stainless Steel Grades

Stainless steel filaments come in several grades, 302, 304, and 316. Grade 302 has good resistance to corrosion and rust and to provide food processing, high temperature, and humid conditions.

Grade 304 is appropriate for low moisture and humidity conditions; its corrosion resistance is lower than other grades. Grade 316 has the best corrosion resistance of all the grades and is used in high humidity applications and seawater environments.

Nickel Silver

Nickel silver is an alloy containing 10% nickel, 65% copper, and 25% zinc. When adding nickel to the copper and zinc mixture the final filament material benefits from increased tensile strength, and corrosion resistance compared to brass.

Styles of Filaments

Filaments generally are offered in 4 basic styles: twisted, crimped, level (or straight), and rectangular.

• Twisted: Twisted filaments are made from twisting several crimped or not crimped filaments together in one batch. The different twists and diameters of filaments combine to enlarge the diameter of the individual filaments, which helps them clean a larger area.
• Round Crimp: The round crimp that appears in the filament results in an overall more dense wave that allows for more brush action. Characteristics of the crimp include amplitude, depth of crimp, frequency, and crimps per inch.
• Level or Straight: Straight or Level filaments are less dense and are composed of either; or equally of additional filaments that composed of straight wire for light to moderate application only.
• Rectangular: Rectangular shaped filaments can apply far more abrasion to a surface since they have solid line contact with a surface, and offer good performance for heavy-duty applications.

Wire Brush Filament Holders

Unlike conventional brushes that have handles, wire brush filaments are attached to different types of holders, used to keep the while tool compact and secure.

These holders come in different styles; handles, cups, wire, and metal strip. There are different methods used to hold the filaments securely in the holder.

Cup

Wire Cup Brushes are abrasive tools that filaments are attached to a cup shape base. The filaments can be crimped or twisted.

Crimped filaments stay crimped to keep filaments apart, and work with different brushing action. Twisted filaments are twisted groups that have been twisted together, and they can be inserted into the cup and perform a more aggressive operation.

Handles

The handles of wire brushes are the same as a conventional household brush, of equally as well as, plastic, wood, metal, or wire when producing wire brushes.

In the manufacturing process for brushes, holes are generally drilled into the handles. Brushes are made by twisting, compressing, forcing, and/or pressurizing the filaments to attach them to the handles.

The filaments can be molded into plastic handles during the manufacturing, which gives a more permanent way to attach the filaments.

Twisted wire brush handles have a different construction method for attaching to filaments.

For twisted wire brushes, the filaments are simply put in between two twisted wires, which hold the filaments. In this case, the handle comes from the twisted wire assembly, which is formed just by twisting.

Cylinder

Cylinder brushes are also called rotary or coil brushes. They can be made with a back strip construction or stapled set construction. The cylinder brushes vary from each other, based upon the type of filaments, the density of the filaments, and the length of the filaments.

Wheel

Wheel brushes are sometimes referred to spiral brushes as well. There circular brushes can have solid centers or open centers.

The filaments attached as a whole around the wheel circumference, and are generally attached to the wheel brush by compressing the sides of the metal core tightly together.

Solid center wheel brushes can have a shaft for use on power tools, and the open center wheel brushes would fit onto grinders. The length of the filaments can vary and shorter filaments create a more aggressive more abrasive action.

Strip

A strip brush is simply a long metal strip with filaments attached to it. The strip brush metal sheet is typically bent to create a channel during the manufacturing process.

The metal strip is typically used for heavy duty applications, for example 6″ that you would use on tractor trailers, uses heavy duty strip brushes. The filaments are inserted into this channel, which you crimp down to secure the filaments.

The channel’s layout size, depth, and width are determined based on filament diameter and brush trim specifications.

Types Of Wire Brushes

The types of wire brushes are infinite because there are always new types of brushes being developed as well as various brushes and strange designs that are needed for specific applications.

The types of wire brushes should be understood and this is important, because wire brushes are a useful tool that can be found in homes, and in factories, and manufacturing, and process production.

Wire brushes may look simple when you put it together; it simply looks like filaments on a handle. While this is true, there are many ways to attach handles and filaments, which is no easy task to plan out and require some engineering capabilities.

Brush engineering involves many types of handles and many types of filaments. The most used filaments are metal filaments. A brush is designed for the intended use whether it is a brush to strip wallpaper, descaling, or debur parts.

#1. Scratch Brushes.

Scratch brushes are a multipurpose tool and are often used for the removal of paint, rust, and dirt. Scratch brushes will have either a plastic or wood handle and then this fill can be made from steel, stainless steel, brass, or bronze.

#2. Channel Scratch Brushes.

Channel scratch brushes are made to clean threads and remove light rust or paint. Channel scratch brushes come in many lengths, though the most commonly used filaments will commonly state 7 – 12 inches.

The handles are shaped as either bent or straight to suit the application. The filaments can be steel, stainless steel, brass or bronze and come in a range of wire sizes, like most scratch brushes.

#3. Welder Brushes.

Welding brushes are very well made to withstand the rigors of welding. Using a welding brush can prepare surfaces for welding to remove oils, dirt, dust and contaminants.

After welding the brushes will remove excess slag and minor burrs that may remain. The filaments are made from metals that are sturdy and heat resistant for welded metal and can handle the welding heat.

#4. Toothbrush Style Wire Brushes.

The toothbrush style wire brush comes in several different versions and styles of handles. Use smaller-sized wires that will provide the abrasive force for removing rust, paint and contaminants, like a larger brush while being small enough to fit into tight confined space.

This size of brush is common in the electronics industry, uses steel, stainless steel or brass wire filaments.

#5. Utility Brushes.

The recognizable utility brush is generally about 2 by 3 inches in face size and about 8 inches in overall length. These brushes are widely used for many applications begins as a household brush cleaning BBQ grills to preparing parts for some industrial function.

The most recognized utility brush has a wooden handle and the head is angled slightly to be user friendlier.

#6. Flat Wire Broom Brushes.

For cleaning and removing heavy residue, sticky, and thick buildups that a traditional push broom cannot manage, a wire head push broom is often necessary.

Wire head push brooms have flat steel wire filaments that provide justified abrasive properties required to loosen, action, and remove heavy debris.

Wire head push brooms perform the same task as a regular push broom with enhanced capability for more demanding cleaning applications.

#7. Cup Brushes.

Like other wire brushes, cup wire brushes come in many variations and forms, some of them produced to specifically handle production or finishing job tasks.

Cup brushes are used for surface preparation, polishing, and descaling and use crimped wire. Cup brushes are built with high wire density.

The wire cups received their name from their distinctive construction that includes wire filaments made of brass, steel, and stainless steel and the cup shape design. Wire filaments come crimped, knotted, rectangular, or twisted, depending on the purpose the brush is being used for.

#8. Wheel Brushes.

Design feature designates wheel wire brushes to run with grinders, robotic finishing tools, or be mounted on an arbor. Wheel wire brushes may have crimped or knotted wires made of steel, stainless steel, or brass.

Typically, wheel wire brushes have a two-inch arbor hole, available in different wire diameters, and most filament lengths vary from six to eight inches.

These are great brushes for cleaning in a straight line, surface finishing, polishing, deburring, or removing paint. Manufacturers offer a wide variety of wheel brushes which can be used singularly or in groups for larger jobs.

#9. Twisted Wire Brushes.

Twisted wire brushes are versatile tools with many names, depending on the manufacturer and/or the usage of the brush, such as tube, bottle, pipe, spiral or internal cleaning brushes.

Twisted wire brushes come in various sizes and can be operated manually or power driven with drills or CNC machine. Twisted brushes are made by inserting filaments between a pair of stem wires, then twisting the stem wires tightly to hold the filaments into place.

These brushes can come in different sizes including miniature or micro twisted brushes meant for deburring and cleaning precision holes in metallic and non-metallic components.

#10. Cylinder Brushes.

Cylinder wire brushes are used for cleaning large surface areas. Cylinder brushes are also known as rotary, coil, or spiral brushes. In fact, the term ‘cylinder brush’ pertains to any brush which has a wide surface area to clean.

Cylinder style brushes include a strip brush mounted on a cylindrical core, or tufts of filament fixed to a core. The cleaning action aggressiveness is dependent on the length of the filament.

Shorter filament provides a more aggressive clean, while the longer filament still cleans well, it will provide a less aggressive clean.

#11. End Wire Brushes.

End wire brushes (or wire end or stem brushes) are meant to be used in tight or confined spaces. End brushes are an effective tool for polishing molds, cleaning castings, deburring holes, flash remover, spot-facing, and pre-welding metal surface prep.

End brushes look like cup brushes, but their filament containers can be less than one inch in diameter and up to four inches in diameter.

End brushes can feature many styles of filament including crimped, twisted, flared, or hollow-center. Regarding filament wire types, you will typically have steel, stainless steel, brass, or bronze.

#12. Strip Brushes.

Strip brushes (also known as channel brushes or metal channel strip brushes) are linear brushes with a central wire, a metal channel, and the metal filaments which can be of various types.

Metal channel strip brushes range in length from one inch, to feet and can have metal filaments short to half inch anchoring, to longer than eight inches of anchoring because the filaments bend around a central wire.

A metol channel strip brush can be comprised of metal filaments which are anchored in the channel using a U-shaped channel and central wire. The channel is metal and consists of flat sheet metal (bent) into a “U” shape.

The anchor filaments are anchored by folding the filaments into a U shape which attaches around the central wire and inserted inside of the U-shaped channel. Then the U shaped channel is compressed to hold both the filaments and central wire in place.

Application of wire brushes

Abrading with Wire Brushes

All wire brushes have some kind of abrasive qualities; however, they are not all designed for abrasive uses.

There are wire brushes used for finishing or cleaning, but there are those that are specifically abrasive, and used to remove heavy duty items, such as paint, rust, particulate matter, or metal filings from primarily metal surfaces.

These abrasive brushes will grub into their surface removing everything in their path. After the initial abrasion, a second gentler brush can be used for a finish or a smooth surface.

Abrasive brushes that grub into non removable cut metal surfaces are going to prepare that substrate for another coating or finishing process. This initial abrasion is important in order to create a surface suitable for another treatment.

While most abrasive brushes were designed for steel tools, some are made for manual use with wood or plastic handles.

The manual brush will also be used to remove wallpaper, paint, and rust by hand. Manual brushes are not as aggressive and can be handled more delicately especially for something like drywall or wood.

Acid Brushing with Wire Brushes

Acid brushes are small brushes for applying glues, liquids or chemicals and can be a great tool for quickly cleaning small areas. Typically, they have crimped filaments made out of stainless steel, but can be made with many different filament materials.

Pipe Cleaning with Wire Brushes

Pipe brushes are used by plumbers as a means of cleaning pipes and surfaces that are difficult to reach. As the diameter of the pipe brushes is equal or greater than the diameter of the pipe, the brushes fit firmly against the inner surface of the pipe.

While certainly useful in cleaning pipes, pipe brushes can also push or destroy a blockage in pipe. The flexible wire version can bend with the curves in pipe and can even conform to the shape of the pipe.

Rust Removal with Wire Brushes

Cup and wheel wire brushes are more common for rust removal and especially powered wheel wire brushes. Powered wheel wire brushes are useful for cleaning rust with abrasive power that reaches and cleans not just on surfaces but in tight or hard to reach spaces, enough abrasive power to penetrate cracks or limited space.

Cup brushes can come in a variety of sizes and in addition diameters (including hollow versions) providing lots of options for dealing with rust and paint off larger surfaces.

For cleaning stainless steel surfaces, brass filament cup or wheel wire brushes are the preferred tools because brass filaments have comparable cutting power as steel, but less abrasive power so catch parts from flushing up any contamination from the stainless steel surface.

Hand wire brushes can also be used for cleaning rust; however, hand wire brushes should not be use on large or heavily encrusted surfaces because they do not have enough cutting power and require more of an effort from the user.

Powered cup and wheel wire brushes are more efficient, more versatile and can be used for cleaning rust from many surfaces including ; machines, vehicles, fences or barriers.

Surface Preparation with Wire Brushes

Wire brushes may be more associated with cleaning and removal than with surface preparation for finishing; however, it is worth noting that wire brushes are as important in preparing a surface for finishing as they are in actual cleaning.

Once the cleaning is complete, the surface is prepared for a protective covering. In industrial environments, blasting may be the first method of cleaning and surface preparation; and there may be some areas that require detailing in order to be prepared for a finish. Handheld cup or wheel wire brushes may be used in this instance.

When preparing a surface, you want some roughness to be certain the protective material bonds properly. The wire brush chosen for surface preparation depends on the substrate being prepared.

In addition, when considering which wire brush to use, you want to consider the way that the filaments are made on the brush.

Wood Distressing with Wire Brushes

Distressing wood, while using wire brushes involves removing the lighter, softer parts of the wood grain leaving the harder dense parts. This creates an aged, weathered look.

In effect this creates a time-worn look as though the wood has been aged by the elements. This process can also be done using a handheld wire brush and creates a softer looking, sanded look to the wood.

Depending on the type of filament used, you can create a roughness by using a wire brush. You would use a wire brush with aluminum filament of grits, that you would utilize for sanding the surface, which would have the same effect as sanding paper.

Deburring with Wire Brushes

Deburring is performed for a variety of reasons. For instance, deburring is performed to clean holes that were cut in metal, deburr edges after metal cut-off operations, or to deburr molded parts.

Wire brushes represent a useful, economical way to deburr and clean metal components. In terms of cost and durability, wire brushes are typically less expensive and have a longer life than chamfering tools.

There are few limitations when it comes to wire brushes when performing deburring operations. In fact, wire brushes can deburr thin-walled tubing without changing its dimensions at all.

Additionally, wire brushes remove burrs in a way that does not leave microburrs compared with other deburring processes.

Static Removal with Wire Brushes

Static is a common problem in production for many companies regarding the assembly process.

Static does not usually hurt a person when they touch a static charged object, however, it does attract dust, dirt, and any other contaminant that will end up in the final product making it much more difficult to clean the product and requiring more time.

Wire brushes can be utilized in the assembly operation to help deal with static. Wire brushes can collect/stick up and ground static to the zero volts, neutralizing the static. There are a number of wire brushes of varying lengths and filament diameter that can be used to remove static.

Welding with Wire Brushes

Wire brushes are an essential component in welding applications and serve multiple purposes. Before welding is performed, wire brushes are used to prepare metal surfaces for welding.

A wire brush is helpful in removing tapered material such as oil, dirt, rust, corrosion, coatings or other contaminants that might affect the bonded joints of metal or pose safety risks.

The surface area of metal after welding will require smoothing, deoxidizing, and removing inconsistencies and impurities, similar to what we previously stated in the preparation steps.

Typically grinding might be used when rough, inconsistent, and weld spatter is present; however, the finishing and evening out of surfaces is a requirement for wire brushes in this process.

There are four types of wire brushes/brushes that can be used to prepare welding surfaces and then finish welding surfaces. Wire wheel brushes are for all three tasks, and are very versatile and durable.

The cup wire brushes can be used to clean larger areas, but it is a less detailed cleaning, better for quicker applications. The end wire brushes can be used to clean tighter spots/work such as T-joint corners.

They also will have very fine, crimped wires to get into the tight spots. End brushes will be used as lighter surface-cleaning tasks.

Handheld wire brushes can be used for smaller items or tasks and lighter tasks where a brush will not break up the weld too much and is used to remove slag between welds.

Crematorium with Wire Brushes

As with all applications using wire brushes, the cleanliness of the crematorium oven is also very important to maintain the ability of the oven be effective. Brass wire brushes are best for the crematorium oven, as they clean the oven chamber and other surfaces, without damaging it.

The softness of brass means that it preserves the integrity of the oven surface. Most uses of brass brushes in crematoriums are with a straight brush that can be made to attach to threaded handles. Straight brushes are made in various widths, with 12 inches being a standard size.

Concrete Floors with Wire Brushes

Concrete rotary wire brushes are used to remove greasy grime, oil, long set-in dirt, and thick/dried substances that may have accumulated on a concrete surface.

In many cases, though hand wire brushes attached to a mop handle could theoretically be able to do the work, would only require attached to a larger rotary brush to a floor scrubber, will give you the best results.

Effectively makes concrete clean, as the rotary wire brush units are fabricated from heavy gauge steel, and will remove concrete surfaces accumulated from shipping or industrial processes. Their activity is similar to that of using a strong detergent, but there are no toxicity issues to deal with.

Very aggressive brushes primarily used for scraping, scrubbing, scouring, and stripping floors are specifically designed to deal with the most obstinate soil, grease, and oil. Floor scrubbing brushes are available in a range of diameters from 13 inches all the way up to 20 inches and beyond.

How to Select the Right Wire Brush?

Selecting the proper wire brush for an application can be difficult due to the number of options. It is important to consider a few factors in an effort to avoid possible issues or damage to the surface being treated.

Wire brushes are by nature aggressive tools; however, the aggressiveness of the abrasive force can vary significantly from one brush to another. This is an important consideration when selecting a wire brush.

If you are using a cup brush, a straight brush, a wheel brush, or a handle brush, you will have a range of available abrasiveness, from soft and smooth to very aggressive and damaging depending on the task.

Wire Filament Type

One factor that distinguishes wire brushes is the type of wire used; from stiff aluminum to high tensile strength steel. When using wire, choosing the wire type should reflect the task.

Filament Configuration

In addition to type of wire, the filament configuration must also be considered. Wire filament types can be twisted, knotted, crimped or straight. Twisted and knotted provide maximum impact and surface coverage making them ideal for use in cup and end wire brushes.

This will have high coverage and work best for heavy-duty applications such as welding, cleanup, and the removal of heavy corrosion.

Straight wire is not as aggressive as twisted or knotted wire since it will cover less surface area. Crimped wire is also less aggressive than twisted or knotted wire however, it is flexible and has good cleaning action. It will be used for lighter applications.

Surface Size

When selecting wire brushes, considering the size of wire brush that is required is also a consideration. This is based on the surface area of material to be cleaned, prepared or finished.

Hand brushes will work for small parts/surfaces. The task may invest excessive amounts of labor for larger surfaces, it may be more ergonomic to consider powered brushes and wire brush substitutes.

Wheel and end brushes are engineered to reach tight spaces, and toothbrush-style wire brushes will work well on small jobs which may not warrant using powered wire brushes.

For larger flat surfaces (especially surfaces with heavy corrosion, rust, slag or other heavy material), rotary brushes and cup brushes will be the best options.

The wire filament material will also be important when evaluating wire brushes, as softer materials like bronze or aluminum may not be grade when removing products or contaminants.

Wire Filament Diameters

Wire filament comes in diameters of .005 to .032 inches (o.13 to 0.8 mm). The filament diameters can play a role regarding the gauge of wire that can be incorporated into the brush as many brushes will secure the wire filament in a filament holder size.

Larger diameter filaments will require a larger filament holder to attach less firmly than smaller diameter filaments. The chart below will help determine what wire diameter correlates with it’s gauge.

Length of Filaments

As regards filaments, length will also be vital when considering the abrasive quality of a wire brushes depending on the application.

If you want a milder gentler brushing think longer more flexible filaments, conversely, if you want a more aggressive, more rigid and more efficient brushing then shorter, stiffer filaments will be the best option.