►Thickness
Normal thickness
- Range: 0.3mm~0.5mm
- Features:Low cost, suitable for large-scale production.
- Applications: most ordinary makeup brushes, portable makeup brushes, disposable or mid-to-low-end makeup brushes,taking into account lightweight and basic strength.
Thickened ferrule
Thickness Range: 0.6mm~0.8mm (up to 1.0mm for some customized requirements)
Features:
High strength and strong pressure resistance, suitable for high-end or long-term use makeup brushes.
The surface treatment effect is more stable (such as high-precision printing, electroplating, etc.).
Applications: high-end makeup brushes, limited edition products
►Processing
Raw material selection
- Material: commonly used 3003 or 5052 aluminum alloy (corrosion-resistant, easy to form).
- State: H14 or H24 (semi-hard state, balanced ductility and strength).
Stamping
- Cold stamping: Aluminum coils are stamped into tubular blanks through a die.
- Stretching: Multiple stretching (3 to 5 times) gradually reduces the diameter, increases the length, and controls the uniformity of wall thickness.
Annealing
- Temperature: 300℃~400℃ (eliminate work hardening and restore aluminum ductility).
- Time: 2~4 hours (adjusted according to furnace type and batch).
Surface treatment
- Anodizing: form an oxide film (thickness 5~20μm), improve wear resistance and color adhesion.
- Spraying/electroplating: matte, glossy or metallic texture effect (such as champagne gold, rose gold).
- Printing process: silk screen printing, hot stamping or UV digital printing (need to control ink adhesion and scratch resistance).
- Wall thickness uniformity: ultrasonic thickness gauge sampling.
- Surface defects: eye inspection or machine vision system inspection.
►Key process considerations
- Balance between thickness and cost: Thickening the aluminum ferrule requires increasing the number of stretching and annealing processes, and the cost increases by about 20% to 30%.
- Surface treatment matching: Thickened aluminum ferrules are more suitable for complex printing (such as gradient colors), but the thickness of the oxide film needs to be controlled to avoid brittle cracking.
- Environmental protection requirements: Aluminum ferrules can be 100% recycled, but the electroplating process may involve heavy metals and must comply with RoHS standards.
►Industry Trends
- Lightweight: Reduce thickness (such as 0.25mm ultra-thin tubes) through alloy optimization while maintaining strength.
- Customization: The processing of special-shaped ferrules (ovals, polygons) requires adjustment of molds and stretching processes.
- Intelligent detection: AI visual systems replace manual quality inspections to improve efficiency.
Before finalizing the makeup brush OEM orders, makeup brush manufacturers should deeply communicate with customers and fully understand customers’ exact specific requirements on the ferrules, and offer satisfied makeup brushes and support customers’ market explore.