APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR BENDING BRUSH FIBERS TO PROVIDE AN ANGLED BRUSH

An apparatus for bending brush fibers has a rotating shaft with an outer surface along which a flexible backing strip of a brush partially wraps around to dispose fibers extending from the backing strip outwards as such brush travels along the outer surface of the shaft, and an energy delivery head, positioned along the backing strip when curving around the shaft, bends the fibers as the backing strip travels along the outer surface of the shaft. Energy delivered by the head deforms the fibers, when being bent by the head, to retain at least a portion of the fibers bent at an angle to provide an angled brush. The angled brush has fibers each deformed along a region, at a location between the backing strip and the end or tip of the fiber, to bend at the angle from the region to the end or tip of the fiber.