Brush filling machine, method for filling brushes, and use of a preloaded force sensor

Abstract

The invention relates, inter alia, to a brush filling machine (1) comprising a filling tool (2) which has a rammer tongue (3) designed to fill bristle bundles (4) into bundle receiving holes (5) in a brush body (6), wherein the brush filling machine (1) has a force sensor (10) which is preloaded with a preloading force (24) in the starting position and which is designed to measure a force resulting from a filling force (25) acting on the rammer tongue (3) when filling bristle bundles (4) and from the preloading force (24) applied to the force sensor (10) in the starting position.

Description

[0001] The invention relates to a brush stuffing machine, a method for stuffing brushes and the use of a force sensor pre-tensioned with a pre-tension force on a brush stuffing machine.

[0002] Brush stuffing machines are used to manufacture brushes, specifically to stuff bundles of bristles into bundle receiving holes of brush bodies, thus creating a bristle covering for a brush.

[0003] For this purpose, brush stuffing machines have a stuffing tool with a ramming tongue designed and intended to stuff bristle bundles into bundle-receiving holes in a brush body. Typically, the bristle bundles are stuffed into the bundle-receiving holes together with fastening anchors and secured there.

[0004] To prevent damage to the brush stuffing machine, it can be useful to monitor the stuffing force acting on the ram tongue when stuffing bristle bundles. Various approaches for this are known from the prior art.

[0005] DE 92 03 928 U1 discloses a device for measuring, and optionally adjusting, etc., the tongue of a tamping tool in a brush manufacturing machine. The tongue is connected to a ram pressure measuring device which measures the pressure when a predefined minimum and / or maximum ram pressure occurs and indicates when these predefined pressure limits are exceeded and / or outputs control pulses for the brush manufacturing machine.

[0006] DE 196 00 192 A1 discloses a method for monitoring a brush stuffing machine with a brush holder for holding a brush body with bristle holes, each of which is aligned with a stuffing axis, a slide which is movable back and forth on a slide guide in the direction of the stuffing axis and carries a tool head which can be placed against the brush body, a ram channel extending along the stuffing axis through the slide and the tool head, which has a first inlet for a fastening means and a second inlet for bristle bundles, a bundle conveyor for conveying one bristle bundle at a time from a bristle supply to the second inlet, a ram which is movable back and forth in the ram channel along the stuffing axis between a rest position in which it is retracted behind the first inlet and a stuffing position in which it protrudes from the tool head to engage in a bristle hole,and a device for switching off the brush tamping machine when a predetermined drive force required to move the ram is exceeded. During the execution of the method, a predetermined drive force profile for the entire reciprocating movement of the ram is stored. The actual drive force is measured during the entire reciprocating movement of the ram. The measured drive force is continuously compared with the predetermined drive force, and the tamping machine is switched off if the two forces differ from each other by more than a predetermined tolerance range.

[0007] If the tamping force acting on the tamping tongue falls outside a tolerance range, this may indicate damage to the tamping tongue, contamination or wear of the tamping tool, and thus the need for cleaning or maintenance of the brush tamping machine.

[0008] If the stuffing force acting on the ram tongue becomes too great, this can in the worst case lead to a breakage of the ram tongue or to damage to a drive of the brush stuffing machine and thus to a failure of the brush stuffing machine.

[0009] The object of the invention is to prevent damage to a brush stuffing machine during the manufacture of brushes.

[0010] To solve the problem, a brush stuffing machine is proposed with the means and features of the independent claim directed to such a brush stuffing machine. Specifically, to solve the problem, a brush stuffing machine is proposed with a stuffing tool having a ramming tongue configured to stuff bristle bundles, in particular together with fastening anchors, into bundle-receiving holes of a brush body. The brush stuffing machine has a force sensor pre-tensioned in its initial position, configured to measure a force resulting from a stuffing force acting on the ramming tongue during the stuffing of bristle bundles and the pre-tension applied to the force sensor in its initial position.

[0011] The preload force and the tamping force can be at least partially opposite to each other. The tamping force can be determined by measuring the resulting force.

[0012] The force resulting from the preload force and the packing force, as measured by the force sensor, can be used to determine the packing force, especially if the preload force is known. The force sensor can then be used to determine whether the packing force is within its tolerance range. If the packing force is outside its tolerance range, this may indicate a malfunction of the brush packing machine. In such cases, reducing the power output of the brush packing machine or even shutting it down may be necessary.

[0013] If the force sensor is relieved of stress by the packing force, meaning the resulting force from the preload and packing force is less than the preload applied to the force sensor in its initial position, damage to the force sensor can be effectively prevented even with increasing packing force. The degree of relief of stress on the force sensor then corresponds to the degree of stress on the tamping tongue due to the packing force and can be used to monitor the packing process, the brush packing machine, and especially the tamping tongue.

[0014] The brush stuffing machine can include a drive connected to the ramming tongue via a power transmission lever, designed to drive the ramming tongue in a stuffing motion. The power transmission lever can be biased against the force sensor in the stuffing direction to pre-tension the force sensor. The power transmission lever thus has a dual function: firstly, it transmits the drive motion and force of the brush stuffing machine's drive to the ramming tongue; secondly, it provides the pre-tension for the force sensor.

[0015] In one embodiment of the brush stuffing machine, the force transmission lever is movably mounted and / or flexibly such that the force sensor can be relieved of the force by the stuffing force acting on the force transmission lever via the stuffing tongue, particularly in the opposite direction to the stuffing direction of the ram tongue. Relieving the force sensor counteracts the preload force applied to the force sensor in its initial position, resulting in a correspondingly reduced resultant force that can be measured by the force sensor.

[0016] The preload force acting on the force sensor in its initial position can be dimensioned such that the force transmission contact between the force transmission lever and the force sensor is broken as soon as the packing force reaches a defined overload force. In this case, the packing force cancels out the preload force, and the resulting force is zero or even negative, i.e., directed away from the force sensor. Due to its flexibility and / or movable bearing, the force transmission lever can then detach from the force sensor because of the packing force it has absorbed. The force sensor is then relieved of the load, from which it can be deduced that the packing force has at least reached the value of the overload force.

[0017] The flexibility and / or movable mounting of the force transmission lever can simultaneously provide overload protection for the ram tongue, thus preventing damage. If, upon release of the preload force by a sufficiently high ramming force, the force transmission lever can deflect against the ramming direction or at least remain stationary due to its movable mounting and / or flexibility, the transmission of a ramming force exceeding the overload force to the ram tongue can be avoided, thereby protecting the ram tongue.

[0018] As soon as a defined overload force acts on the shock absorber, which may be so large that the shock absorber can still tolerate it without failure, the force transmission lever, which is held preloaded against the force sensor, can detach from the force sensor. This is detectable by a corresponding signal or a corresponding drop in the force sensor signal. Because the force transmission lever detaches from the force sensor in this overload situation, damage to the force transmission lever, the force sensor, and ultimately the shock absorber can be effectively prevented. Once the overload force is reached, the preload force with which the force transmission lever is held in its initial position against the force sensor is overcome, and the force transmission lever and the force sensor can separate.

[0019] In a preferred embodiment of the brush stuffing machine, it has a tongue lever comprising at least two parts. One part of the tongue lever is a drive lever, and the other part is the previously mentioned power transmission lever. The drive lever can be connected at one end, for example via a connecting rod, to the drive of the brush stuffing machine and at the other end to the power transmission lever.

[0020] Via the drive lever of the tongue lever, a driving force and a driving movement of the drive can first be transferred to the force transmission lever and from there to the ram tongue in order to move the ram tongue in the tamping movement.

[0021] The drive lever and the power transmission lever can be articulated together in such a way that the force sensor is relieved by the tamping force acting on the power transmission lever via the pusher tongue in the opposite direction to the tamping direction.

[0022] If a tamping force that releases the preload is present, for example the aforementioned overload force, the power transmission contact between the power transmission lever and the force sensor can be completely broken. Specifically, this can mean that when the overload force acting on the power transmission lever occurs, the power transmission lever and the drive lever change their angular position relative to each other.

[0023] The articulated connection between the drive lever and the power transmission lever allows the relative position of the power transmission lever and the drive lever to change during further movement of the drive lever, thus relieving the force sensor. This effectively prevents damage to the two-part tongue lever, particularly the power transmission lever, and also to the shock tongue.

[0024] When an overload force occurs, the preload force holding the force transmission lever against the force sensor is released, potentially interrupting the force transmission contact between the lever and the sensor. This leads to a corresponding drop or even a complete loss of the sensor signal. Such a drop or loss of signal may indicate a malfunction of the brush filling machine. In this case, the force measured by the sensor, resulting from the filling force and preload force, may be zero.

[0025] In a preferred embodiment of the brush stuffing machine, the force sensor is arranged between the drive lever and the force transmission lever. The force sensor can, for example, be located on the drive lever.

[0026] Due to its position between the drive lever and the power transmission lever, the force sensor can detect the force resulting from the tamping force acting on the power transmission lever against the tamping direction and the preload force particularly reliably.

[0027] The brush stuffing machine can have a pre-tensioning device to generate the pre-tensioning force acting on the force sensor. The previously mentioned force transmission lever can be pre-tensioned against the force sensor by the pre-tensioning device, particularly in the stuffing direction.

[0028] The preload device can, for example, be arranged on the drive lever. The preload device can also include a compression spring that generates the preload force. The magnitude of the preload force can be dimensioned such that the preload is released when an overload force occurs. This protects the force sensor from overload.

[0029] The brush stuffing machine may have a control unit. The control unit may be configured to reduce the stuffing speed of the ram or to stop the ram as soon as the resulting force applied to the force sensor reaches or falls below a limit value.

[0030] The control unit can be configured to control, for example, the previously mentioned drive of the brush filling machine based on a sensor signal from the force sensor. In particular, the control unit can be configured to reduce the speed of the drive or stop the drive as soon as the resulting force applied to the force sensor reaches or falls below a certain limit. For example, the control unit can stop the drive of the brush filling machine as soon as the force sensor is completely relieved of its load.

[0031] The limit value of the resulting force that must be reached or fallen below to reduce the ramming speed of the ram tongue and / or to reduce the speed of the drive may be greater than the limit value of the resulting force that must be reached or fallen below to stop the ram tongue and / or the drive.

[0032] To solve this problem, a method for stuffing brushes using a brush stuffing machine according to the invention is also proposed. It is provided that bristle bundles are stuffed into bundle receiving holes of brush bodies using the ramming tongue of the stuffing tool of the brush stuffing machine, wherein, to determine a stuffing force acting on the ramming tongue, a force resulting from the preload force and the stuffing force is measured with the force sensor, and the stuffing force is derived from this.

[0033] The derivation of the packing force from the measured resulting force can be done, for example, using the previously mentioned control unit of the brush manufacturing machine.

[0034] In one embodiment of the method, it is provided that a stuffing speed is reduced or a stuffing process is interrupted as soon as the resulting force reaches or falls below a limit value.

[0035] In one embodiment of the method, a control unit of the brush stuffing machine reduces the speed of the drive of the brush stuffing machine or stops the drive as soon as the resulting force reaches or falls below a limit value.

[0036] The drive can be stopped, for example, when there is no longer a preload force applied to the force sensor, i.e., when the resulting force measured by the force sensor is zero.

[0037] In one embodiment of the method, it is provided that the force sensor and the force transmission lever of the aforementioned brush manufacturing machine move away from each other with increasing packing force and even separate from each other when the packing force is so great that it cancels out the preload force acting on the force sensor.

[0038] To solve the problem, the use of a force sensor pre-tensioned with a pre-loading force on a brush stuffing machine is also proposed to determine a stuffing force by measuring a force resulting from the pre-loading force and the stuffing force with the force sensor.

[0039] The force sensor can, for example, be pre-tensioned by a force transmission lever between a drive and a ram tongue of the brush filling machine. The filling force can be a filling force acting on a ram tongue of the brush filling machine.

[0040] The invention is described in more detail below with reference to an exemplary embodiment, but is not limited to this embodiment. Further exemplary embodiments result from combining the features of one or more claims with one another and / or from combining one or more features of the exemplary embodiment. The following are shown: Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a brush stuffing machine with a stuffing tool, wherein a ram tongue of the stuffing tool is connected to a drive of the brush stuffing machine via a two-part tongue lever, wherein a force sensor is arranged between a drive lever and a force transmission lever of the two-part tongue lever, against which the force transmission lever is pre-tensioned in the stuffing direction with a defined preload force, and Figure 2 shows a diagram with a characteristic curve of the force sensor of the Figure 1The brush stuffing machine shown in the diagram depicts a magnitude of a sensor signal from the force sensor versus the force acting on the force sensor.

[0041] Figure 1 Figure 1 shows a brush stuffing machine, designated as a whole by 1. The brush stuffing machine 1 has a stuffing tool 2 which includes a ramming tongue 3. The ramming tongue 3 is designed to stuff bristle bundles 4 together with fastening anchors into bundle receiving holes 5 of a brush body 6.

[0042] The brush stuffing machine 1 has a drive 7 which is connected to the ram tongue 3 via a power transmission lever 8 and is designed to drive the ram tongue 3 in a stuffing motion.

[0043] Figure 1Figure 9 shows that the force transmission lever 8 is biased against a force sensor 10 in a tamping direction of the thrust tongue 3, as indicated by the arrow 9. The direction of the biasing force acting on the force sensor 10 is shown by arrow 24. Figure 1 illustrated.

[0044] The force sensor 10, pre-tensioned with the pre-tension force 24, is designed to measure a force resulting from the pre-tension force 24 and a stuffing force 25, which acts on the pusher tongue 3 when stuffing bristle bundles 4.

[0045] The force sensor 10 is located in the Figure 1 The brush stuffing machine 1 shown is arranged such that it is relieved by the stuffing force 25 acting on the force transmission lever 8 via the pusher tongue 3, contrary to the stuffing direction 9. As the stuffing force increases, the resulting force measurable by the force sensor 10 thus decreases.

[0046] The relief of the force sensor 10 with increasing packing force is made possible by a corresponding movable mounting of the force transmission lever 8. The force transmission lever 8 is movably mounted and initially connected to the force sensor 10 in such a way that the force sensor 10 is relieved by the packing force 25 acting on the force transmission lever 8 via the pusher tongue 3 in the opposite direction to the packing direction 9 of the pusher tongue 3.

[0047] If a tamping force 24 acting against the tamping direction 9 of the pusher tongue 3 is applied in the amount of an overload force which is so large that it cancels the preload of the force transmission lever 8 against the force sensor 10, a force transmission contact between the force transmission lever 8 and the force sensor 10 is cancelled.

[0048] The relief of the force sensor 10 that occurs when the impact tongue 3 is subjected to load is detected by the sensor as a change in the resultant force and leads to the output of a corresponding sensor signal. The sensor signal represents the resultant force currently acting on the force sensor 10 and allows a conclusion to be drawn about the specific impact force 25 and thus about the load to which the impact tongue 3 is subjected.

[0049] Since the force sensor 10 is relieved of stress by a load on the impact tongue 3 opposite to the stuffing direction 9, no damage to the force sensor 10 is to be expected in the event of an overload of the impact tongue 3 in this direction. The force sensor 10 is thus effectively protected from damage without impairing the monitoring of the impact tongue 3.

[0050] The brush stuffing machine 1 has a two-part tongue lever 11, wherein one part of the tongue lever 11 is a drive lever 12 and a second part of the tongue lever 11 is the previously mentioned power transmission lever 8.

[0051] The drive lever 12 is connected to the drive 7 of the brush stuffing machine 1 via a connecting rod 13. The end of the drive lever 12 opposite the connecting rod 13 is connected to the power transmission lever 8.

[0052] The drive lever 12 and the power transmission lever 8 are articulated together in such a way that the force sensor 10 is relieved by the tamping force 25 acting on the power transmission lever 8 via the pusher tongue 3 in the opposite direction to the tamping direction 9. The tamping force 25 allows the power transmission lever 8 to change its angular position relative to the drive lever 12 by pivoting a certain distance about a pivot axis 30 of the articulated connection between the drive lever 12 and the power transmission lever 8 relative to the drive lever 12.

[0053] The articulated connection between the drive lever 12 and the force transmission lever 8 is formed by a pivot joint 14. The force sensor 10 is located on the drive lever 12 and positioned between the drive lever 12 and the force transmission lever 8. By changing the angular position between the force transmission lever 8 and the drive lever 12, the force sensor 10 and the drive lever 12 can move away from the force transmission lever 8 and detach from it with increasing tamping force 25, when the tamping force 25 is large enough to overcome the preload force 24.

[0054] The preload force 24 is generated by a preloading device 15 of the brush stuffing machine 1. For this purpose, the force transmission lever 8 is preloaded in the stuffing direction 9 against the force sensor 10 by the preloading device 15. The preloading device 15 is arranged on the drive lever 12 and comprises a compression spring designated 16, which tensions the force transmission lever 8 against the force sensor 10 arranged on the drive lever 12.

[0055] The brush stuffing machine 1 has a control unit 17.

[0056] The control unit 17 is designed to reduce the tamping speed of the ram tongue 3 or to stop the ram tongue 3 as soon as the resulting force measured by the force sensor 10 reaches or falls below a limit value.

[0057] For this purpose, the control unit 17 can control the drive 7 of the brush stuffing machine 1 depending on a sensor signal from the force sensor 10, for example reducing the speed of the drive 7 or even stopping the drive 7 as soon as the resulting force measured by the force sensor 10 reaches or falls below a limit value.

[0058] The limit value of the resulting force that must be reached or fallen below to reduce the tamping speed of the ram tongue 3 and / or to reduce the speed of the drive 7 may be greater than the limit value that must be reached or fallen below to stop the ram tongue 3 and / or the drive 7.

[0059] The brush manufacturing machine 1 has a bristle magazine 26 containing bristle filaments and a bundle divider 27 with a bundle removal notch 28. The bundle removal notch 28 moves the bundle divider 27 past the bristle magazine 26 to extract a bristle bundle 4 from the magazine. The bundle divider 27 then transfers the extracted bristle bundle 4 to the downstream tamping tool 2. The tamping tool 2 then inserts the bristle bundle 4 into a bundle receiving hole 5 of a brush body 6 mounted on a holding device 29 of the brush tamping machine 1.

[0060] The previously described brush stuffing machine 1 is set up to carry out the following described method for stuffing brushes. Bristle bundles 4 are stuffed into bundle receiving holes 5 of brush bodies 6 held in place by the ramming tongue 3 of the stuffing tool 2 of the brush stuffing machine 1.

[0061] To determine a tamping force 25 acting on the impact tongue 3, a force resulting from the preload force 24 and the tamping force 25 is measured with the force sensor 10 and the tamping force 25 is derived from this.

[0062] The stuffing speed is reduced or the stuffing process is even interrupted as soon as the resulting force measurable by the force sensor 10 reaches or falls below a limit value.

[0063] Specifically, the control unit 17 of the brush stuffing machine 1 is used to reduce the speed of the drive 7 of the brush stuffing machine 1 or to stop the drive 7 as soon as the resulting force reaches or falls below a limit value.

[0064] The force sensor 10, which is pre-tensioned by the pre-tension force 24, is thus used on the brush stuffing machine 1 to determine the stuffing force 25 acting on the impact tongue 3 of the brush manufacturing machine 1 by measuring a force resulting from pre-tension force 24 and stuffing force 25 with the force sensor 10.

[0065] The diagram from Figure 2 The characteristic curve of the force sensor 10 of the brush stuffing machine 1 is shown. In the diagram, the sensor signal 18 output by the force sensor 10 is plotted against the force 19 acting on the force sensor 10.

[0066] The diagram shows the beginning of the measuring range 20, the end of the measuring range 21, and the overload limit 22 of the force sensor 10. If the force sensor 10 is subjected to a load exceeding its overload limit 22, it may be damaged. Reliable measurements are only possible between the beginning of the measuring range 20 and the end of the measuring range 22.

[0067] Due to the in Figure 1In the installation situation of the force sensor 10 shown, the force sensor 10 is relieved of stress as the load on the shock tongue 3 increases. This effectively prevents the force sensor 10 from being subjected to forces exceeding its overload limit 22.

[0068] The diagram also shows a setting point 23. At setting point 23, the force applied to the force sensor 10 is the force with which the force transmission lever 8 is preloaded against the force sensor 10. By appropriately selecting the preload force 24, setting point 23 can be positioned as desired, for example, centrally, within the measuring range of the force sensor 10, which is defined by the beginning 21 and the end 23 of the measuring range. This ensures that the force sensor 10 can be used to monitor the force acting on the impact tongue 3 in the best possible way.

[0069] The so-called negative installation direction of the force sensor 10, as it is in Figure 1As shown, this has the advantage that the comparatively expensive force sensor 10 is not damaged in the event of an overload of the shock tongue 3, but is relieved with increasing load.

[0070] Based on the one in Figure 2 At the setting point marked 23, where the defined preload force 24 is applied to the force sensor 10, the force sensor 10 is relieved by increasing the tamping force 25 acting on the impact tongue 3, until the force resulting from preload force 24 and tamping force 25 reaches or falls below a limit value, for example zero.

[0071] Reaching or falling below the limit value can serve as a trigger criterion to selectively control the drive 7 of the brush stuffing machine 1 using control unit 17, for example to reduce the stuffing speed or to stop the drive 7.

Claims

1. Brush filling machine (1) comprising a filling tool (2) which has a rammer tongue (3) designed to fill bristle bundles (4) into bundle receiving holes (5) in a brush body (6), characterized in that the brush filling machine (1) has a force sensor (10) which is preloaded with a preloading force (24) in the starting position and which is designed to measure a force resulting from a filling force (25) acting on the rammer tongue (3) when filling bristle bundles (4) and from the preloading force (24) applied to the force sensor (10) in the starting position.

2. Brush filling machine (1) according to the preceding claim, wherein the brush filling machine (1) comprises a drive (7) which is connected to the rammer tongue (3) via a force transmission lever (8) and is designed to drive the rammer tongue (3) in a filling movement, wherein the force transmission lever (8) is preloaded against the force sensor (10) for preloading the force sensor (10) in the filling direction (9) of the rammer tongue (3).

3. Brush filling machine (1) according to the preceding claim, wherein the force transmission lever (8) is movably mounted and / or flexible in such a way that the force sensor (10) can be relieved by the filling force (25) acting on the force transmission lever (8) via the rammer tongue (3).

4. Brush filling machine (1) according to one of the two preceding claims, wherein the preloading force (24) is dimensioned such that a force transmission contact between force transmission lever (8) and force sensor (10) is released as soon as the filling force (25) reaches a defined overload force.

5. Brush filling machine (1) according to one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the brush filling machine (1) has an at least two-part tongue lever (11), wherein one part of the tongue lever (11) is a drive lever (12) and a second part of the tongue lever (11) is the force transmission lever (8), wherein the drive lever (12) is connected, in particular via a connecting rod (13), to the drive (7) and to the force transmission lever (8).

6. Brush filling machine (1) according to the preceding claim, wherein the drive lever (12) and the force transmission lever (8) are articulated to one another in such a way that the force sensor (10) is relieved by the filling force (24) acting on the force transmission lever (8) via the rammer tongue (3) in the opposite direction to the filling direction (9).

7. Brush filling machine (1) according to one of the two preceding claims, wherein the force sensor (10) is arranged between the drive lever (12) and the force transmission lever (8), in particular on the drive lever (12) or on the force transmission lever (8).

8. Brush filling machine (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the brush filling machine (1) has, in particular on the drive lever (12), a preloading device (15) for generating the preloading force (24), in particular wherein the force transmission lever (8) is preloaded against the force sensor (10) by the preloading device (15).

9. Brush filling machine (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the brush filling machine (1) has a controller unit (17) which is designed to reduce a filling speed of the rammer tongue (3) or to stop the rammer tongue (3) as soon as the preloading force (24) applied to the force sensor (10) reaches or falls below a limit value.

10. Brush filling machine (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the brush filling machine (1) has a controller unit (17) which is designed to control a drive (7) of the brush filling machine (1) as a function of a sensor signal of the force sensor (10), in particular to reduce a speed of the drive (7) or to stop the drive (7) as soon as the preloading force (24) applied to the force sensor (10) reaches or falls below a limit value.

11. Method for filling brushes using a brush filling machine (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein bristle bundles (4) are filled into bundle receiving holes (5) in brush bodies (6) with a rammer tongue (3) of a filling tool (2) of the brush filling machine (1), and wherein, in order to determine a filling force (25) which acts on the rammer tongue (3) in the process, a force resulting from the preloading force (24) and the filling force (25) is measured with the force sensor (10) and the filling force (25) is derived therefrom.

12. Method according to the preceding claim, wherein a filling speed is reduced or a filling process is interrupted as soon as the resulting force reaches or falls below a limit value.

13. Method according to one of the two preceding claims, wherein a controller unit (17) of the brush filling machine (1) reduces a speed of the drive (7) of the brush filling machine (1) or stops the drive (7) as soon as the resulting force reaches or falls below a limit value.

14. Use of a force sensor (10) preloaded with a preloading force (24) on a brush filling machine (1) for determining a filling force (25), in particular acting on a rammer tongue (3) of the brush manufacturing machine (1), by measuring a force resulting from the preloading force (24) and the filling force (25) with the force sensor (10).

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