Principles of Engineering

For Activity 2.2.2

Manufacturing Process for a Pen
Student Presentation by Titus Wu
Per. 2

COMPONENTS OF A PEN

www.madehow.com

MAKING THE INK

Workers called compounders make batches of inks in large vats
following specific formulas.
Computer sensors watch over the timing and temperature of these
mixtures.
While being mixed by automatic vats, raw materials are being
pumped into the vats.
The cooling/heating rate and mixture rate are being controlled by
computerized controls and slows down or speeds up when
necessary for the specific type of formula.
www. Flickr.com

Here, ink vats are

mixing ink batches
inside. The pipes are
what pumps raw
material in.

THE METAL COMPONENTS

The ball in the ballpoint pen is
a tungsten carbide ball and is
usually supplied from outside.
Other metal parts of the pen
are made in the factory.
Brands of brass are stamped
by machines into thousands of
small discs.
Discs are melted and poured
into compression chamber.
In the chamber, a steel ram
and a plunger makes the
metal into die cast mold and
compresses the metal into pen
pieces.
Die is removed and pieces
ejected. They are cleaned and
cut into desirable shapes.

www.madehow.com

A diagram of a
compression chamber aka
die press

THE PLASTIC COMPONENTS

Plastic components are either constructed using injection molding or extrusion.
Both extrusion and injection molding start off by supplying plastic as granules
into a large hopper.
In extrusion, a long rotating screw forces these plastic grains through a heating
chamber. It becomes a flowing mass, and comes out of the die. After cooled, it
is cut into pieces.
More complex components involve injection molding. In this method, plastic is
heated and forced through a nozzle into a mold by a movable plunger. It cools
and solidifies into that mold pen shape.
Wikipedia

The processes used to

make plastic components
of pen: injection molding
(left) and extrusion (right).

Cheresources.com

ASSEMBLY

Tradeee.com

The ballpoint is attached to the reservoir, which is filled

with ink.
The spring is placed on the barrel reservoir.
All of what is constructed so far is placed into a pen body.
Then, other components such as the cap, clip, etc. are
incorporated onto that pen body.
The pen is then designed, coated with paint, etc.
We now have a pen!

A pen
assembly
machine

SOURCES CITED

Litherland, Neal (n.d.). Process of Manufacturing

Ball Pens and Refills. Retrieved from http://www.
ehow.com/how-does_5557322_process-manu
facturing-ball-pens-refills.html
Romanowsky, Perry (n.d.). Ballpoint Pen.
Retrieved from http://www.madehow.com/Volume3/Ballpoi nt-Pen.html#b