Berkenhoff, a leading manufacturer of anchor wires, launched two new products under its bedra brand: the bercobrush arrow & bercobrush octopus. With the design inspired by our natural living world, these new anchor wires offer increased tuft retention and enable a new generation of sustainable toothbrushes made from bamboo and wood. Patents for these world novelties have been applied.

bercobrush arrow is aimed at manufacturers of bamboo and wooden toothbrushes. More and more customers ask for sustainable brushing solutions that reduce the use of fossil raw materials and plastics. As a result, the market for bamboo and wooden toothbrushes is growing. These new materials require special anchor wire constructions to meet the 15N tuft retention required by the DIN standard (DIN EN ISO 20126-2018-05). Berkenhoff has taken up this challenge and developed a new anchor wire especially for bamboo and wooden toothbrushes.

The design for the bercobrush arrow is modeled after the barbs of plants and animals, which make pulling the wire out more difficult. Tests show that the tuft retention of a toothbrush equipped with bercobrush arrow is more than 100% higher than that of commercially available bamboo toothbrushes. Due to the arrow-like shape of the wire, the fibres are smoothly displaced when punched into the bamboo without causing deformation. Due to the relaxation of the bamboo, the filaments are distributed into the barbs, thus increasing the retention of the tufts. This has the following advantage for the processor: The anchors and the filaments are not attacked and remain intact. In addition, the lack of dimensional stability of the bamboo toothbrush body is offset by increased tuft retention.

bercobrush octopus, used for plastic toothbrushes, got its name because of its tentacle structure on the surface, which is similar to that of an octopus. The resulting arrangement of the grooved structure boosts tuft retention by increasing the contact surface between the anchor wire and the toothbrush material. This leads to a reduction in the size of the toothbrush heads along with a lower weight per meter. This results in material cost savings of up to 3% compared to a double-sided triple-grooved wire, and up to 9% savings compared to a single-sided triple-grooved wire. Tests show the tuft retention of bercobrush octopus is up to 20% higher than that of commercially available plastic toothbrushes, without deformation during punching. By further developing existing technologies, the developers at bedra have succeeded in reproducing new structures for anchor wires. The bercobrush octopus is a representative for the various possibilities and the individual adaptation to customer requirements.

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