FEIBP General Assembly 2021 – Working Group Reports

Scroll for reports from:

Working Group Technical Brushes (Alessandro Acquaderni)
Working Group Paint Brushes (Fons Ceelaert)
Working Group Professional Hygiene Brushware (Fons Ceelaert)
Working Group Personal Care (Peter Langenegger)

Technical Brush Working Group– Alessandro Aquaderni, Chair

Alessandro commenced by inviting interested parties to attend the various meetings of the Technical Brush Working Group which are of great benefit to its members.

The main project in last year has been to continue with the EN 1083 revisions 1&2 relating to power-driven brushes’ safety and nomenclature. With the participation of 10 representatives from 7 different countries, the 1st round draft revision has been approved and is now in translation phase. This is a great success as the revision of such European standards usually takes considerably longer.

Alessandro also reported on new projects about to be undertaken by the Working Group which includes the idea for the creation of a new procedure for testing performance and life of technical and power brushes which is expected ultimately to lead to a new FEIBP standard / guideline.

With Alessandro due to soon hand over Chair responsibilities, the Working Group has also been working on a succession plan and delegates be will notified of the decision in due course.

Paintbrush Working Group – Fons Ceelaert, FEIBP General Manager

The Paintbrush Working Group has hosted 2 meetings in 2021, the last having been in September. For this group there has also been a change in Chair from Alessandro Civiero to Piet van Erp who will continue in the role until Prague Congress.

Last meeting saw a lower attendance than usual, and it was suggested that more paint brush manufactures could be encouraged to attend. This is an important forum for discussing such topics as sustainability, reshoring, and the need to add credibility to paintbrush products.

Fons explained the need to continue to develop research projects in this area and that “by working together you can achieve a lot as an industry and build upon our competitiveness”.

Overall, the paintbrush market is doing well, with some companies seeing sales volumes exploding over the lockdown periods and, in general, companies are quite happy and, for them, COVID has not been a negative business experience. However, concerns remain over increasing prices of raw materials and transport costs.

Professional Hygiene Brushware (PHB) Working Group – Fons Ceelaert, FEIBP General Manager

In 2021, there was unfortunately no physical meeting of the PHB Working Group owing to the pandemic restrictions. It is hoped that the planned in-person meetings will return in 2022.

Carbon footprint and sustainability were also themes discussed in deeper detail as part of the Working Group meeting and has been put forward as a general item for next year’s FEIBP Congress.

The PHB Working Group shares the same worries over the pricing of raw materials and transportation costs as their counterparts from the different sectors.

Fons stated that the PHB Working Group intends to complete its update on standards applicable to the Charter and will renew all registrations ending in 2021.

All in all, it was a very good meeting but not at its usual high standards due to the absence of the guidance of its Chair, Philip Coward, said Fons.

Personal Care Working Group – Peter Langenegger, Chair

Peter Langenegger, who has only recently taken over from previous Chair Chris Boomer, who is no longer in industry, commented that this Working Group was a slow burner to start with but hopes to fully reboot the Personal Care Working Group at the physical FEIBP Congress planned for 2022 in Prague.

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