The ballpoint pen you use every day actually has so much knowledge

Many people don’t know that ordinary-looking stationery actually uses unusual technology, such as ballpoint pens.

Although the ballpoint pen tip may seem insignificant, it is actually small but has all the necessary functions.

To make the ballpoint pen tip smooth and easy to use, you must master exquisite craftsmanship, such as the key to the ballpoint pen tip - the five grooves. These five grooves are thinner than a hair, so you can imagine how difficult it is to make!

Do you really understand the ballpoint pen in your hand?

01

What is a ballpoint pen?

A ballpoint pen is a pen that uses a ball at the front end of the pen or refill to roll out the writing medium.

A ballpoint pen is a pen that uses a tiny rotating ball made of brass, steel, or tungsten carbide that releases ink onto paper as you write.

The ballpoint pen is very different from its predecessors - the reed pen, the quill pen, the metal-nib pen, and the fountain pen.

02

How difficult is it to make a ballpoint pen?

The reason why ballpoint pens can dispense ink smoothly is that during the writing process, the small ball at the tip of the ballpoint pen rolls under the friction generated when it comes into contact with the paper, thereby bringing out the ink in the pen core to form handwriting.

Simply put, the structure of a ballpoint pen tip is to embed a ball in the top of the ball seat so that the ball can rotate smoothly and is not easy to fall off the ball seat.

However, such a simple design places great demands on the balls.

There are three main technical difficulties in manufacturing ballpoint pen tips. First, in order to ensure a smooth writing experience, the fit between the ball and the ball seat is crucial. The gap between the ball and the ball seat is about 5 microns. If the gap is too small, the ink will not flow out smoothly; if the gap is too large, it will cause ink leakage and even cause the ball to fall off the pen tip.

Secondly, during the writing process, due to the constant friction between the ball of the pen tip and the paper, the gap between the ball and the ball seat will gradually increase. Over time, ink will easily leak out of the gap, affecting writing.

In addition, the ballpoint pen tip has extremely high processing and assembly accuracy . There are uneven steps and oil guide grooves inside the pen tip to guide the ink, and the processing accuracy of each oil guide groove is required to be 1 micron.

All of the above factors place higher demands on the material performance of ballpoint pen balls.

In summary, there are more than 20 production processes for a ballpoint pen tip. The materials required for each process are very fine and complex, and these materials require extremely high precision. For example, the thickness of the pen tip is less than 0.1 mm, but the error must not exceed 0.003 mm! The construction difficulty is comparable to that of an aircraft carrier.

03

"made in China"

For a long time, the chemical composition and technical parameters of nib steel have been controlled by companies in Japan, Switzerland and other countries.

Although China was able to produce ballpoint pens before, the core technology and core materials of ballpoint pens are still in the hands of Japan and other countries. China needs to pay 15 million US dollars in foreign exchange every year for ballpoint pens.

However, even without technical support and despite the difficulty of the project, TISCO's R&D team eventually overcame difficulties such as the stability and corrosion resistance of the materials used in ballpoint pen tips after nearly a hundred tests. In the process, TISCO mastered many key technologies and achieved domestic mass production of pen tip steel in 2017.

Up to now, the only countries that can produce ballpoint pen tips are China, Switzerland and Japan. From then on, Chinese people have their own pen refills, and China's manufacturing industry has made great progress.

But the most important point is that China no longer has to rely on others in many aspects from now on. The motivation and determination of the Chinese people have once again impressed the world!

Source: Science Popularization China