One-Off Personalization at Production Speed: Decorating Custom Toothbrushes
Toothbrush handles are small, contoured, slick molded-plastic parts — hard to hold, locate, and decorate consistently, and the molded surface resists ink adhesion without pre-treatment. The bigger constraint was the artwork: conventional methods need a new cliché or screen for every design, so one-to-one personalization is uneconomical — each change means new tooling, setup, and downtime. For a program built on “make every brush different,” that model breaks down before it starts.
EPS engineered a linear industrial inkjet line built around custom part handling. Purpose-made nests locate each contoured brush precisely, totes stage individual jobs as they enter the line, and a mechanical rake offloads finished parts to a conveyor — so the awkward geometry is never hand-fed or hand-registered.
Decoration runs as a single inline pass: flame pre-treatment activates the molded surface, a digital inkjet station prints artwork driven by jobs entered remotely at the HMI, machine-vision registration finds every brush, and an LED-UV station cures each print instantly. Because the print is digital and data-driven, the design can change part-to-part at no setup cost — there is no tooling to swap when the artwork changes.
Nests present every contoured brush
Toothbrushes are presented in custom nest fixtures at the load station, locating each contoured part for consistent registration — no hand-feeding an awkward geometry.
Single jobs queued in totes
Totes are loaded with single jobs in queue, so individual designs flow into the line in sequence — every unit can carry a different name, message, or graphic.
Flame and inkjet, one inline pass
Flame pre-treatment activates the molded surface and the inkjet station lays down artwork in the same inline pass — driven straight from the digital file, with no cliché or screen.
A camera locates every brush
A machine-vision camera locates every brush so the image is placed accurately on each part, regardless of small variations in how it sits in the nest.
Instant UV cure, then off the line
An LED-UV station pins each print immediately — no oven, no off-line drying — and a mechanical rake offloads the finished, touch-dry part to the conveyor.
True variable data
Every part can carry a different name, message, or design at no per-design tooling cost.
Instant inline UV cure
Printed parts are dry and handleable immediately, with no drying queue.
Custom handling + vision
Nests and a per-brush camera replace manual handling and registration on an awkward part.
Flame pre-treatment
Activates the low-energy molded surface so the ink bonds durably to the handle.
One inline pass
Pre-treat, print, register, and cure happen in a single coordinated line.
Lowest total cost for variable work
A data-driven inkjet line carries a flat per-image cost regardless of how many designs run.
Engineering a high-mix, personalized decoration challenge?
When every part can be different at no extra cost, the line is engineered around fast changeover and reliable handling — not long static runs. Bring us the part and the program.