Both Benefit and Benefit Plus brushes feature DuPont Tynex bristles in varying lengths and thickness to accomplish different tasks. On the central brush-head, short, “medium bristles” (0.007 inches in width) provide efficient cleaning and polishing of the tooth’s occlusal surface. On the side brush-heads, similarly short, “medium bristles” in the innermost row of bristles clean the side surface enamel. Along the outermost two gum line rows of bristles, longer bristles of the same width (“medium bristle” variant) reach to contact the gingiva and actually enter the gingival sulcus, providing an effective massage and cleaning. To accommodate different sensitivities, this “medium bristle” variant has been developed, with the gum line row of bristles being 0.006 inches in width, as well as with a “soft bristle” variant with the gum line row of bristles being 0.005 inches in width. It features DuPont Tynex bristles in varying lengths and thickness to accomplish different tasks. On the central brush-head, short, “medium bristles” (0.007 inches in width) provide efficient cleaning and polishing of the tooth’s occlusal surface. On the side brush-heads, similarly short, “medium bristles” in the innermost row of bristles clean the side surface enamel. Along the outermost two gum line rows of bristles, longer bristles of the same width (“medium bristle” variant) reach to contact the gingiva and actually enter the gingival sulcus, providing an effective massage and cleaning. To accommodate different sensitivities, this “medium bristle” variant has been developed, with the gum line row of bristles being 0.006 inches in width, as well as with a “soft bristle” variant with the gum line row of bristles being 0.005 inches in width.

Manufacturing Process

The Company’s manufacturing runs utilize a fully automatic toothbrush manufacturing system designed by Machines Boucherie, N.M. ("Boucherie"). This configuration is built around Boucherie’s TB3-FM machine, complete with automatic handle feeding, automatic dual fiber load system, integrated automatic quality inspection and automatic packaging of the finished brushes. Based on the design of the Benefit toothbrush and the specifications of the Boucherie machinery, the Company believes that a completed system will be capable of producing 40 brushes per minute.

The Company currently owns a 16-cavity mold for the handle and central brush-head, a 16-cavity mold for each of the right side and left-side brush-heads, and the tooling for bristling, cutting and end rounding.

The manufacturing steps involved in the production of the Benefit toothbrush are outlined below:

Injection Molding
The production process begins with the injection molding of the handle and the brush-heads (two side brush-heads and one center brush-head). Tenite Propionate 371 A, with plasticizer at a specific formulation designed to optimize elasticity and strength in the Benefit toothbrush, is used as the raw material in this step of the process.

Bristling
Once the pieces are molded and separated from their nunners, they are then automatically placed into the feeding stacks of one of three individual bristling machines. Each of these bristling machines is devoted to a specific part of the brush (i.e., one is for the left-side brush-heads, another for the center brush-heads, and one for the right-side brush-heads).

The correct gauge of Dupont Tynex nylon bristles is selected, depending on the firmness of the specific model (either “firm bristles,” “medium bristles,” or “soft bristles”).

Each machine electronically counts and inserts the correct gauge and proper amount of bristles per tuft to the brush-head (side brush-heads in the “soft bristles” and “medium bristles” variants use two different thicknesses of bristles). Once inserted, the bristles are cut to the proper angle and length and then every bristle is end-rounded and polished through a six-head rounding process.

After this process is completed, each brush-head is air blown, vacuumed and checked for quality. This quality control is accomplished by microphotographlng each and every group of bristles. This process is supervised by a computer that selects any brush with defective bristling separating it from the process.
At this time dye machines can apply a decal or imprint to the toothbrush.

Assembly and Packaging
The next step in the process is to join the two side brush-heads to the central brush head/handle of the toothbrush. The arms of the brush-beads are joined by bonding with a liquid propionate.

Once this assembly is completed, each toothbrush is inserted into a clear clamshell package with the appropriate labeling inserted and then sealed.