Tampico Fiber

Tampico Fiber belongs to the natural plant fiber group, supplied as natural fiber, drawn in natural porous and irregular sections and set in straight rows, staggered, zoned and random fill patterns.

Tampico Fiber is used in custom cleaning brushes for wet scrubbing, polishing-compound application, dusting and floor or deck cleaning with an absorbent plant fiber.

Compare Tampico Fiber with Compare with horsehair for softer dry contact, sisal for firmer plant-fiber scrubbing and nylon for more uniform recovery. Change material when wet stiffness, temperature, chemical resistance, conductivity, particle shedding, or surface marking becomes the limiting factor.

Tampico Fiber is soft to medium plant fiber with absorbent, moderately resilient contact; processed grade and blend alter stiffness. Use finer filament and longer trim for conformable contact; use coarser filament, shorter trim, or higher density for stronger displacement or cutting.

The part people get wrong: stiffness is not a property of the material on its own. A 0.50 mm filament on a 15 mm trim is stiffer than a 0.30 mm filament on a 25 mm trim in the same grade. Fix diameter and trim first, then confirm the material.

Tampico holds roughly 10–18% moisture at equilibrium — that is the property it is chosen for: it carries water and stays pliable while it works.

Absorbent fiber that carries liquid and softens slightly when wet.

What this means for your application: the filament grows and softens as it takes on water, and tip pressure goes with it. The reach you measured dry is not the reach you get wet.

A practical check: run one wet cycle and compare tip contact against the dry state. If the wet brush leaves residue behind or no longer reaches the bottom of the bore, change the material rather than the geometry.

Tampico tolerates more heat than many animal hairs, but the usable brush temperature still depends on the natural-fiber grade, moisture, holder, and process. Confirm the actual fill supplier when sustained heat matters.

The filament tables quote 70–90°C continuous and 110–130°C peak. The tighter number above is the one to build to, because a brush is loaded while it is hot.

Where it stops working: A permanent bend under load means the answer is a higher-temperature filament family, not a heavier trim.

Diameter, trim length and applied load all shift the real limit, so a thin filament touching lightly survives conditions that would flatten a thick one under pressure.

Compatible with water and mild detergent; strong alkali, bleach and prolonged soaking shorten fiber life.

Compatibility is a function of concentration, temperature and contact time together. A short rinse in a dilute solution is a different exposure from an overnight soak in a concentrated one, even with the same chemical on the label.

Before you commit to a quantity: Specify the exact Tampico Fiber grade or alloy, filament or profile size, color, straight or crimped form, working temperature, wet or dry use, chemical exposure, surface finish, and any required material documentation.

The floor is roughly 0.10 mm; finer than that and the filament snaps rather than flexes. In practice you are choosing inside 0.10–0.35 mm.

Free trim runs 10–180 mm, and the two interact: a finer filament needs a shorter trim to keep useful stiffness, while a thicker one carries a longer trim and still lands pressure on the tip.

Split the range by duty: roughly 0.10–0.16 mm for light wiping, dusting and surfaces that mark easily, and 0.16–0.35 mm where residue is packed on and point pressure matters more than surface risk.

Tip treatments available on this filament: cleaning, carding, bleaching, dyeing, oiling and abrasive impregnation.

In practical brush terms: reaching deep into a bore or crevice is a diameter problem before it is a length problem. A thicker filament on a moderate trim pushes further in before the tips fold over.

Wet scrubbing, polishing-compound application, dusting and floor or deck cleaning with an absorbent plant fiber.

The applications that keep coming back to this grade:

• Industrial Machine Cleaning
• Conveyor Belt Cleaning
• Screen & Sieve Cleaning
• Brick, Tile & Building Material Machine Brush Use
• Glass Surface Cleaning
• Solar Panel Cleaning

The constructions that usually carry it:

• Custom Handheld Detail Brushes
• Custom Roller and Conveyor Brushes

The trade-off: Natural variation, moisture retention and lower cutting action make it unsuitable for precision abrasive finishing or hygienic storage without drying.

Send the brush type, filament diameter, free trim length, density, contact setting, wet or dry duty, working temperature and the actual cleaning chemistry together. Any one of them on its own leaves the stiffness undefined.

What usually goes wrong at this step:

• Selecting Tampico Fiber from the material name alone without setting filament diameter, trim length, and density
• Using dry stiffness to predict wet behavior without checking moisture absorption or liquid exposure
• Ignoring trapped abrasive particles, chemical concentration, temperature, or contact motion when assessing surface risk

Reference standards behind the figures on this page: ISO 527-1:2019; ASTM D638; ISO 62:2008; ASTM D570-22; ISO 868:2003; ASTM D2240-15(2021); ISO 4892-3:2024; ASTM G154-23; UL 94; ISO 139; ISO 5079; ISO 20743.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — Hard fibres — agave and related plant fibres. Tampico is cut from an agave leaf, so it carries water well and keeps working when wet. That absorbency is what makes it a scrubbing and polishing fibre rather than a dry-sweeping one.