Wooden pins for hairbrushes: an icon of manufacturing

Among the most important products of Minelli’s ability in wood manufacturing are wooden pins for hairbrushes. Creating wooden pins requires specific technical skills, competency, and knowledge of wood as well as the right machines, software, and tools to guarantee the same quality for each object.

In this article, we’ll discuss why wooden pins can be considered an icon of manufacturing.

Why are wooden pins so difficult to manage?

Most brushes and combs that are marketed as wooden have a wooden handle but plastic pins. As sustainability is an important trend today and people are more prone to buy eco-friendly objects, many suppliers advertise hairbrushes made of wood, but they aren’t.

The reason is that manufacturing wooden pins is quite complicated, as they are very small and must be managed perfectly to be safe (without splinters) and functional for people.

A manufacturer must have a deep experience in wood manufacturing and the right tools to manage them properly.

Here are the necessary skills to create perfect wooden pins for hairbrushes.

Fully automated production lines

Advanced technologies and digitalized production processes are necessary to create top-quality wooden pins for hairbrushes and ensure the highest standards in terms of safety and aesthetics as well.

When choosing a wood maker, its manufacturing process is the first aspect to consider. If it is fully automated and controlled by sophisticated software and digital systems, you can expect the highest precision, quality, and consistency.

Production of wooden items, in fact, consists of many different phases, and digitalization makes them more accurate and efficient:

• optimizing production costs
• reducing time to market
• ensuring the best customer experience

To create such small and complicated objects, the manufacturer can’t use multipurpose production equipment; instead, it needs dedicated production lines to ensure maximum accuracy at a very high production volume.

Moreover, the company must be able to react timely to any inconvenience that may occur while monitoring the production process at each stage.

Quality consistency

Creating one hundred wooden pins can be easy, but producing millions of perfect and top-quality components is impossible without the right competency and technologies.

To maintain the highest standards in the market, your wood maker should perform deep quality controls during production.

All wooden pins must be individually checked with sophisticated automatic systems of infrared video cameras that operate at 360° all around the object to verify:

• dimensional and functional aspects (size and shape)
• milling accuracy (missing parts, dents, splinters, breakage)
• the presence of morphological defects (open knots, heavy discoloration)

Precise measurements are very difficult if made manually. That is why 3D laser technology and sophisticated metrology software are necessary.

How do they work?

The wooden object is completely scanned with a laser gun; then, the metrology software creates a three-dimensional representation that must be compared with the original technical drawing to verify that nominal dimensions and tolerances are correct.

Finally, wooden pins must undergo final quality control to check all the details and finishes before being approved and shipped.

Digitalized quality control processes guarantee the highest accuracy.

Industrial capacity

A leading wood manufacturing company that sells its products all over the world must be able to produce more than 300 million pieces every year.

Producing such a large number of top-quality wooden pins is virtually impossible without cutting-edge technologies and competency.

Only a leading and well-structured wood manufacturing company can rely on:

• robots & industrial automation systems
• made-for-purpose machines
• sophisticated software
• technologically advanced tools
• dedicated production lines
• deep industry knowledge

to make wood manufacturing processes faster and more reliable. A supplier that invests a lot to get the newest technologies and systems demonstrates a culture of continuous innovation and the desire to make its company a smart factory that exploits the power of Industry 4.0.

Possibility of customization

The finishing phase is one of the most important aspects of the wood manufacturing process. Custom wood products, in fact, can command premium prices that clients will pay, as they will recognize the added value and let you be competitive in the market.

Customers today ask for exclusive and personalized objects that are unique compared with others. Therefore, you must be able to offer many finishing options in your catalogue.

Automatic systems, automatic painting systems, and advanced laser finishing techniques as well as anthropomorphic laser robots—which can adapt to every shape with radial movements and different engraving depths—are crucial to create unique shapes and complex designs.

Why wooden pins are better than plastic

Plastic injection molded pins are much less accurate than wooden pins made with automated manufacturing processes and the latest machinery and software.

As you can see in the picture, the plastic pin (on the left) has burrs on both the head and along the length of the pin itself, while the wooden pin (on the right) is soft, smooth, and free from any sharp and irregular corners that could rip hair out when brushing.

These burrs, in fact, might:

• break the hair due to the irregular profile of the pin that stresses them
• scratch the scalp because of the protrusion of the head of the pin
• irritate the skin because of the dirt and bacteria that remain trapped
• cause split ends, as plastic does not absorb oil, and people tend to overbrush their hair

If you want to offer 100% sustainable wooden items, you should also ensure that your supplier adopts sustainable practices and manufacturing processes and uses only FSC/PEFC-certified wood that comes from sustainably managed forests.

Since 1937, Minelli S.p.A. has ensured perfection in the quality and design of each product manufactured, relying on the experience of our employees, the most innovative tools, and sustainable wood manufacturing processes.

If you would like to widen your catalogue with eco-friendly hairbrushes with wooden pins, do not hesitate to contact us!