How a pencil is made. How wooden pencils are made

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Research work. The history of the creation of a pencil. Graphite. Which pencil is better?

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IV city scientific readings

them. I. V. Kurchatova

Subject: What is the pencil made of?

Dmitry Udalov

Pupil 4 "B" grade

MOU "Secondary School No. 21"

Scientific adviser:

Baradacheva I.G.

teacher of the highest category

MOU "Secondary School No. 21"

Ozersk

2010 r.

Introduction …………………………………………………………………3

1. Theoretical part

1.1. The history of the appearance of the pencil ………………………………… .. …… 5

1.2. Taiginskoye graphite deposit in the Urals ………… ..….….… 6 1.3. Pencil manufacturing technology …………………… .. …….… .7

2. Practical part…………………………………………………..8

Conclusion ………………………………………………………….… ..10

Literature ……………………………………………………………….11

Applications …………………………………………………………… 12

Introduction.

Doesn't look like a man

But he has a heart

And work all year round

He gives a heart.

He writes when they dictate

He draws and paints.

And tonight

He will color the album for me. ( Pencil)

It would seem that what has not been invented for writing or drawing!Quill and metal pens, ink and ink, ballpoint pen, felt-tip pen. But all the same, in the backpack of a first-grader, an artist and a draftsman, an accountant and a carpenter, and on the table of the chairman of the bank's board, there are always a few simple pencils. A truly universal thing - he writes always and everywhere: upside down, in the cold, and under water, and in space. The pencil does not need advertising. Fair enough. A pencil is like bread. He is not noticed when he is. And when he is not ... In the first days of World War II, the pencil factory in Moscow began to produce military, seemingly more necessary products - ammunition. And the pencils disappeared in the city. The government was instructed not to stop pencil production for a single day. The need for pencils has not diminished in our time. Statistics say that a person needs at least 10 pieces a year.

Interesting that:

one ordinary wooden pencil can draw a line 56 km long or write more than 40 thousand words;

the world's largest pencil, 12 meters long, weighing 24 centners;

the smallest pencil in the world just under two centimeters;

more than 14 billion pencils are produced in the world every year - of this amount, you can circumnavigate our planet 62 times.

one large tree can make approximately 300,000 pencils.

We were interested to know which pencils are preferred by the students of our school, how they are used, whether they know what the pencils are made of. For this purpose, a survey was conducted among students of grades 4, 8 and 11 of the secondary school № 21. (see Appendix # 1) Students answered a series of questions regarding their use of pencils. The results are presented in the form of diagrams (see Appendix No. 2). We were surprised that not all students know what a pencil is made of. They were able to answer this question correctly in the 4th grade - 3 people (10%), in the 8th grade - 11 people (50%), in the 11th grade - 18 people (90%). Based on the lack of awareness of students in this matter, we decided to do this work.

Purpose of work: find out what the pencil is made of.

Tasks:

study special literature (find out the history of the appearance of a pencil, the technology of its manufacture; learn about the deposits of graphite in the Chelyabinsk region, the method of extraction and processing of graphite, its main properties);

to carry out practical work (observation of the extraction of graphite, questionnaires of students, competition for the best pencil);

compare the results obtained;

identify the most popular pencil among students.

Object of study:simple pencil.

Practical significancethis material can be used in the lesson of the surrounding world on the topic "Mineral resources of the Urals", fine arts on the topic "The history of the creation of a pencil", a class hour "On the careful use of the forest", etc.

Research methods:

1) descriptive;

2) experimental;

3) quantitative;

4) comparative.

A pencil is such an everyday object. The first writing instrument that adults have entrusted to us. It is simple and not at all mysterious. Indeed?

How old, for example, is he? And have you ever wondered how the lead is stuffed into it? And what happened when the pencil was not there? Let's start with this.

1.1 History of the creation of a pencil.

Who and when gave the world this amazing item?

The history of the pencil begins in the 14th century.The principle itself - a solid that leaves a dark mark on cardboard, parchment or paper - has been known for a very long time. Metals were used as a writing material: silver - for richer people, lead - for those who could not boast of wealth. It was with such writing devices that such graphic masters as Durer, Van Dyck and Botticelli made their sketches.

The prototypes of modern graphite pencils date back to the 16th century. Then for the first time graphite was used for writing.

The graphite deposit was first discovered in England, and quite by accident: shepherds from the Cumberland area discovered a dark mass in the ground, which they used to mark sheep. The trace of these rods was sharper and brighter than those of the lead rods of a similar purpose, which were widely used for writing and drawing in those years. Graphite is a black, shiny, soft mineral composed of carbon. To the touch graphite greasy and very dirty. On surfaces, it easily gives a dash of silver to black. This is a mineral, as if by nature itself intended for writing. And its name comes from the Greek "grapho" - I am writing. Artists and merchants soon drew attention to this material, who quickly set up a trade in thin plates and pieces of graphite on the English streets, began to make thin sticks pointed at the end from it and use them for drawing. Graphite began to be used everywhere and so massively that the deposits began to rapidly dry up. By order of the royal court, graphite could only be mined for a few weeks a year, so as not to deplete its reserves. And at the end of the 18th centuryEnglish parliamentintroduced the strictest ban on the export of precious graphite. For violation of this prohibition, the punishment was very severe, up todeath penalty.

Of course, using graphite was very inconvenient - your hands got dirty! I had to wrap the graphite with rope, paper, or even just clamp it between the planks.

The idea to put graphite into a case that easily leaves a mark on paper, does not get your hands dirty, belongs to the French inventor and businessman Nicolas Jacques Conte (1775). Conte invented the technology of making a graphite rod from a mixture of powdered graphite, soot, clay and water. After stirring, the mixture was poured into a wooden mold and the water was evaporated. Pencils were made by hand. Therefore, the cost of graphite pencils was considerable. Such pencils could be afforded only by the court nobility.

The first pencils were round. Today it is difficult to imagine, but inventors have spent decades to solve the problem of pencil rolling off the table. Only at the end of the 19th century, Count Lothar von Fabercastleguessed to make the body of the pencil hexagonal -for a more stable position on inclined writing surfaces. He is also the author of the standard pencil length and diameter.

The great Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov also wrote his page in the history of the pencil. Indeed, in Russia there is both graphite and wood - and now in one of the villages of the Arkhangelsk province a manufactory appeared, producing pencils from graphite in a wooden shell.

1.2 Taiginskoye graphite deposit in the Urals.

Many graphite deposits have been discovered in Russia. In the Urals, graphite deposits are located on the outskirts of the city of Zlatoust and 12-14 km south of the city of Kyshtym - the Taiginskoye deposit. (see Appendix No. 3)

In 1939, a geological exploration party of the Ural Geological Administration headed by geologist Z.I. Kravtsova arrived in Kyshtym, which surveyed the area of the city of Kyshtym and in 1940 established reserves of crystalline graphite ore near Lake Taiga, 15 km from the city of Kyshtym (see . Appendix No. 4). The outbreak of the Great Patriotic War set the task of the fastest development of crystalline graphite deposits. Crystalline graphite is a battery on combat aircraft, ships, and tanks. This is armor steel, super-strong refractory alloys, this is the raw material for the development of communication means: receivers, transmitters, telephones. The Council of People's Commissars ordered the USSR People's Commissariat of Construction Materials Industry to immediately begin the construction of the Taiginsky graphite plant. In September 1941, on the shores of Lake Taiga, in the conditions of a rainy, cold autumn and a harsh winter, construction began. The builders, who lived in tents, semi-dugouts, temporary barracks, cleared the industrial site, built a power line, built a processing plant, a boiler room, a canteen, ancillary workshops, laid a railway line, imported and installed equipment. Simultaneously with the construction of the plant, the technology for producing graphite was being developed. In May 1942, ore mining began, and on June 27, 1942, an aircraft landed on Lake Dark, the crew of which took on board the first batch of graphite, a gift from the Kyshtym graphite workers to the army and navy. During the Great Patriotic War, the plant was the only enterprise that provided the country with thousands of tons of valuable products.

For more than 60 years the Uralgrafit enterprise (see Appendix No. 5) has been producing natural graphite for enterprises of various industries:

For metallurgy - production of crucibles, non-stick paints;

For mechanical engineering - electrodes, lubricants, heat-insulating material, batteries;

For the production of nuclear technology;

For the production of pencils.

The need for graphite is due to its special physical properties: fire resistance, acid resistance, high electrical conductivity, softness and ductility.

The technology of extraction and processing of graphite is as follows: graphite is mined in open pit mines. Loaded by excavators and delivered to the factory by Belaz dump trucks. (see Appendix No. 6). The graphite goes to the mill, where it goes through three stages of crushing. Further, the graphite is washed from impurities, in which graphite floats to the surface, and the impurities sink to the bottom. The graphite collected from the surface is dried, ground, classified and packed in paper bags.

A large number of pencils have been produced from Taiga graphite.

Currently, due to the economic crisis and strong competition with foreign companies, Uralgrafite is curtailing its production. (See Appendix No. 7)

1.3 Technology of making pencils.

Though penciland is called simple, but it is quite a technological product. For the manufacture of one pencil, over 80 manufacturing operations are carried out.

The rod is the main working part of the pencil. In the production of pencils, dry graphite powder is mixed with clay and water. The more clay, the harder the pencil, the more graphite the softer the lead. Depending on the amount of clay, pencil rods have different degrees of hardness - T (hard), M (soft), TM (hard-soft). After forming a doughy paste from the mixture, it is passed through a molding press, receiving thin sticky ropes. They are straightened, cut to size, dried and sent to a kiln for firing. The finished rods are sent to the pencil factory.

When making pencils, it is important to choose the right wood. The cheapest material is alder, followed by linden, tropical or European pine, thin-ribbed diera that grows only in tropical forests .. The best pencils are made from California cedar, we use Siberian cedar wood.

The process of making pencils begins with the production of a pencil board (see Appendix # 8). To improve the properties of wood, pencil boards are subjected to thermal treatment followed by impregnation with paraffin. When making pencils, semicircular grooves for rods are milled on pencil tablets. The processed boards are stacked.

The pencils are assembled using glue equipment. The rods are placed in the groove of the planks, they are closed with other planks, with a layer of glue applied to them. The resulting blocks are clamped and kept for a certain time in a heat chamber. Then the ends of the blocks are ground on the machine, removing the protruding ends of the rods and the unevenness of the glued pairs of boards. After grinding, the blocks have a rectangular shape and smooth ends. The final part of the pencil production process is milling pencils of a given shape (round, faceted) with a special cutting tool. So, the pencil is ready.

At least seven layers of paint must be applied to the body of the pencil, otherwise "burrs" will form on its surface. Thanpencilthe more expensive it is, the more layers of paint it is covered with. The ideal coating is considered to be 18 layers.

At the moment, significant requirements are imposed on the production of pencils in terms of their environmental safety. It is recommended to use water-based varnishes.

Today, more than 300 types of pencils are produced for various activities. Pencils are available for writing on glass, fabric, cellophane, plastic and film. There are pencils used in construction that leave marks on surfaces that have been outdoors for several years.

Currently, there are a large number of pencil companies in the world. How many enterprises in Russia do you think are engaged in the production of pencils? Only four. Two of them are located in Moscow. The other two are in Tomsk and Slavyansk.

2. The practical part.

According to the results of the questionnaire survey among students of grades 4, 8 and 11 of the MOU "Secondary School No. 21", preferences were given to the following pencils (see Appendix No. 9):

1st place - "Constructor" Russia (12 people)

"Koh-i-Noor" Czech Republic (12 people)

2nd place - " Nixon »Austria (7 pers.)

3rd place - "EVOLUTION" France (6 persons)

80% of students noted in the questionnaires (see Appendix No. 2) that these pencils are comfortable and write well.

These pencils became participants in the "Super - pencil" competition, which took place in my 4th "B" class. The students were divided into 4 expert groups that carried out observations and measurements. Each group had one test sample. Three contestants are made of wood ("Constructor", "Koh-i-Noor", "Nixon ") and one plastic ("EVOLUTION "), with a plastic shell and a lead .. For the purity of the experiment, the participants of the competition (pencils) were wrapped in paper and numbered. (see Appendix # 10). All pencils were of the same hardness (TM), standard sizes. The research groups were provided with the same accessories: a ruler, a sharpener, an eraser (see Appendix # 10) The examination was carried out in two directions - the material and the lead were evaluated.

Material

The quality of the wood from which the pencil body is made affects how the finished product will look and how easily the pencils will sharpen. It is very important for a pencil: what the wood looks like, what color, how well the lead holds. The quality of the wood ensures even, neat chips.

The material was assessed:

1.Color

2. Density.

3. Chips

Slate

Compliance with production technologies also affects the strength of the rod and its consumer characteristics. The lead should have a high degree of strength, should not crumble and should be easily erased with an eraser. Also, during production, the technology of mixing the mixture for the lead must be especially carefully observed, its heterogeneity and the content of impurities can lead to scratching the paper when working with a pencil.

At the lead the following were checked:

1.Centering

2. Crumbles when writing or not.

3. How it is erased with an eraser.

4. Scratches the paper when writing or not.

5. Profitability (lead consumption for 5 minutes of work).

6. Brittleness.

During the competition, observations and experimental tests were carried out, the results of which are entered in the table (see Appendix No. 11).

1st place - pencil number 4 "EVOLUTION" France

2nd place - pencil number 3 "Koh-i-Noor" Czech Republic

And a pencil at number 2 " Nixon »Austria

3rd place - pencil number 1 "Constructor" Russia

The winner was the EVOLUTION pencil. As we remember, it was a plastic pencil. Actually,nowadays plastic pencils are very popular. The main advantages of plastic pencils are their low cost and absolute safety in case of breakage. Unlike wooden counterparts, they are not able to form sharp edges at the fracture site.

Let's compare the results obtained (see Appendix 12). There was a discrepancy between the survey of students and the results of the competition. What is the reason? Most likely choiceschoolchildren and their parents wooden pencilsdue to their environmental safety. Even an adult sometimes catches himself in an indecent occupation - sitting and gnawing a pencil. And what about children!50% of the students surveyed have a habit of taking (gnawing) a pencil in their mouths (see Appendix No. 2).

However, there may be other reasons as well. In the questionnaires, 20% of the students noted that they had chosen a pencil, given that it was cheap, beautiful, and turned out to be by accident (see Appendix No. 2). This means that it is necessary to study the economic side of the issue (the cost of pencils), their design (color, quality of painting), etc. Perhaps this will be the topic of my further research.

Conclusion

After completing the work, we learned what the pencil is made of. A pencil is a writing instrument made from a wooden stick with a rod made of a mixture of clay mass with graphite (S. Ozhegov “Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language”).

The tasks set by us have been completed: having studied the special literature, we learned the history of the appearance of the pencil, the technology of its manufacture; got acquainted with the graphite deposit in the Urals, the method of extraction and processing of graphite, its main properties; carried out practical work (observation of the extraction of graphite, questionnaires of students, competition for the best pencil).

This material can be used in the lesson of the surrounding world on the topic "Minerals of the Urals", fine arts on the topic "The history of the creation of a pencil", a class hour "On the careful use of the forest", etc.

Literature

Sharpen your pencils and draw, devils, write. Why and why? - 2005, No. 12

Kulikova R. Ivashka in a wooden shirt. Chitayka - 2008, No. 9

How old is a pencil? And why? 2004, no. 7

Ilyin M., Segal E. Stories about what surrounds you. book 2 Where things come from. M., 1985

Dietrich A. Why Much. M., 1993

Kukushkin Yu.N. Chemistry around us M., 1992.

Sources of

ru.wikipedia.org- free encyclopedia, article "Pencil"

evolutsia.com- "The history of the pencil"

shkolazhizni.ru- article "What did our ancestors write-draw-draw with?

Appendix # 1

Student's questionnaire ... ..class.

You have a simple pencil in your pencil case. It:

1.- normal

Auto

Round

Hexagon

With elastic

Without elastic

2. Why did you choose this particular pencil?

Beautiful

Comfortable

Writes well

Cheap

Turned out by accident

3. What brand is your pencil? (name)

4. What do you most often use a pencil for?

Draw

I emphasize

Church

5. Do you put a pencil in your mouth? Are you chewing on it?

Yes

Not

6. Do you write to the end of the pencil?

Yes

Not

7. Why yes?

Comfortable

Writes well

Getting used to

Why not"?

It is not convenient to write with a small pencil

I am losing

I throw it away, cheap, no pity

8. Do you know what the pencil is made of?

Not

Yes

9. If you know, name what is used in its production.

Appendix No. 2

Appendix No. 3

Appendix No. 4

Appendix No. 5

Appendix No. 6

Few have thought about the pencil production process.
It's time to find out how this happens.
The pencil goes through 83 technological operations, 107 types of raw materials and materials are used in its manufacture, and the production cycle is 11 days.

If you still look at all this from the side of a whole product line, then a complex, well-established production with careful planning and control is drawn.
In order to see with our own eyes the process of making pencils, we go to the Moscow Krasin Factory. This is the oldest pencil production in Russia. The factory was founded in 1926 with the support of the government.
The main task of the government was to eliminate illiteracy in the country, and for this it was necessary to make office supplies available. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Krasin's factory remained the only pencil manufacturer in the CIS with a full production cycle. This means that the factory produces everything from lead to the final product - pencils. Let's take a closer look at the pencil production process.
For the production of pencils, specially processed and stacked linden planks are sent to the factory. But before they can be used, writing rods must be made.

Let's move on to the workshop for making pencil rods. Writing rods are made from a mixture of clay and graphite. The preparation of the required mixture begins with such technological units, where clay is ground. The crushed clay is transported along a conveyor to the next production site.

In the next section, special mills are installed, where the clay is ground more finely and mixed with water.

Plants for preparing a mixture of clay and graphite. Here the mixture for future rods gets rid of impurities and prepares for further processing.

It should be noted that only natural substances are used in the production of slates, which makes the production environmentally friendly. Installation for pressing the mixture. From the obtained semi-finished products, rods are obtained. There is practically no waste from production, since they use it again.

In this production area, the rods themselves are already received, but in order for them to fall into the pencil, a number of technological operations will be carried out over them.

The very technology of obtaining the rods resembles extrusion. A carefully prepared and mixed mass is squeezed out through a special stamp with holes.

After that, the blanks for the writing rods are placed in a special container.

And dried in a closet for 16 hours.

The rods are then carefully sorted by hand.

This is what the bar sorting workstation looks like. This is a very difficult and painstaking job. Cats sleep behind a table lamp.

After sorting, the rods are calcined in a special cabinet. The annealing temperature ranges from 800 to 1200 degrees Celsius and directly affects the final properties of the rod. The hardness of the pencil depends on the temperature, which has 17 gradations - from 7H to 8V.

After annealing, the rods are filled with fat under special pressure and temperature. This is necessary to give them the necessary writing properties: intensity of a line, ease of sliding, quality of sharpening, ease of erasing with an eraser. Depending on the required value of the hardness of the rod, you can use: salomas, confectionery fat or even beeswax and carnauba wax.

Output products from the bar production area.

After that, the rods go to the assembly. On these machines, pencil boards are prepared. Grooves are cut into them for the installation of writing rods.

The cutting part of the machine grinds grooves in the planks.

Planks automatically go into such a clip.

After that, on another machine, the rods are placed in pre-prepared planks.

After laying, the halves of the boards are glued together with PVA glue, and they are left to dry under a press. The essence of this operation is that the rod itself does not stick to the planks. Its diameter is larger than the diameter of the groove, and in order for the structure to be closed, a press is needed. The rod, on the other hand, will be held in the wood not due to glue, but due to the tension of the wooden shell (specially created in this way in the construction of the pencil).

After drying, the workpiece is sawn with special cutters into separate pencils.

The pencils are gradually sawn through several processing cycles.

The output is ready-made, but not colored pencils.

Already at this stage, the shape of the pencil is laid due to the type of profile of the cutting cutter.

Further, on special lines, the surface of the pencil is primed. When painting pencils, enamels made at the factory itself are used. These enamels are made from components that are safe for humans.

Line for painting pencils.

I think we have seen gift pencils painted with colorful streaks many times in stores. It turns out that in order to color them like this, a whole specially developed technology is used. Here is a small snippet of the painting process.

When visiting the paint shop, I happened to see a batch of pencils for delivery to the government of the Russian Federation of a new sample. The tip of the pencil symbolizes our national flag. Pencils dry in special technological frames. The regularity of the rows looks very unusual and attractive.

After painting, the pencils are stacked in batches for shipment to the following areas of the factory.

It is a great pleasure to look at thousands of pencils colored according to the proprietary technology of the plant. This is a very unusual sight.

Technological line for surface finishing.

Locker for storing stamps. Stamps for the entire range of products are stored here.

If necessary, pencils are sharpened on a special machine before packing. The photo shows an intermediate stage of sharpening. I was amazed at the speed of the machine. The pencils fell into the tray in a continuous stream. All personal unsuccessful attempts to sharpen pencils immediately came to mind. From these memories, this machine began to inspire even more respect.

The factory also produces such interesting oval-shaped pencils used in construction and repair.

Arrays of stacked pencils look very unusual and attractive. You will not see this anywhere else.

Drawing is an enjoyable and rewarding activity for all ages. And one of the most artistic materials for any child is pencils. But few of us know how pencils are made, what kind of wood is used for these purposes. It is noteworthy that the creation of these stationery products is carried out in each factory in its own way. The editors of the site conducted their own investigation and will tell the history of the appearance of the pencil and the technology of its manufacture.

History of the pencil began about 300 years ago, when a new mineral, graphite, was used instead of lead. But it is very soft, and therefore clay was added to the graphite mass. From this, the graphite rod became harder and stronger. The more clay, the harder the pencil. Therefore, there are different types of pencils: hard, medium and soft.

But graphite also gets very dirty, so it has "clothes". It has become wooden. It turns out that not every tree is suitable for making a pencil body. You need a tree that is easy to plan and cut, but at the same time it should not be shaggy. The Siberian cedar turned out to be ideal for this purpose.

Fat and glue are added to the graphite mass. This is so that the graphite slides more easily on the paper and leaves a rich trail. So, about two hundred years ago, the pencil began to look like the one that we are used to seeing.

How pencils were made

Pencils were then made by hand. A mixture of graphite, clay, fat, soot, and glue diluted with water was poured into a hole in a wooden stick and evaporated in a special way. One pencil took about five days to make, and it was very expensive. In Russia, the production of a pencil was organized by Mikhail Lomonosov in the Arkhangelsk province.

The pencil was constantly being improved. A round pencil rolls off the table, so they decided to make it hexagonal. Then, for convenience, an eraser was placed on the top of the pencil. Colored pencils appeared, in which, instead of graphite, chalk with a special glue (kaolin) and a coloring agent was used in slates.

People continued to look for material to replace wood. This is how plastic-framed pencils appeared. A mechanical pencil in a metal case was invented. Wax pencils are also produced now.

From the beginning of creation to the finished product, a pencil goes through 83 technological operations, 107 types of raw materials and materials are used in its manufacture, and the production cycle is 11 days.

What wood are pencils made of today?

In most cases - from alder and linden, which are huge in Russia. Alder is not the most durable material, but it has a uniform structure, which simplifies the processing process and retains its natural natural color. As for linden, it meets all operational requirements, and therefore is used in the production of both cheap and expensive pencils. Due to its good toughness, the material firmly holds the lead. A unique material for creating pencils is cedar, which is widely used in factories in Russia. It is noteworthy that not healthy wood is used, but specimens that no longer produce nuts.

Rod: what is the base

The production of pencils is carried out using a special rod. A graphite lead is made up of three components - graphite, soot and silt, to which organic binders are often added. Moreover, graphite, including colored graphite, is a permanent component, since it is the lead that leaves a mark on the paper. The rods are created from a carefully prepared mass that has a certain temperature and humidity. The kneaded dough is molded in a special press, then passed through the equipment with holes, which makes the mass look like noodles. These noodles are formed into cylinders from which rods are extruded. It remains only to calcine them in special crucibles. Then the rods are subjected to firing, and after it fatty is performed: the pores formed under pressure and at a certain temperature are filled with fat, stearin or wax.

How are colored pencils made?

Here, the fundamental difference is, again, the core, which is made from pigments, fillers, fatty components and a binder. The rod production process is as follows:

The rods made are placed in special grooves on the board and covered with the second board;

Both boards are glued with PVA glue, while the rod should not stick;

The ends of the glued boards are leveled;

Preparation is carried out, that is, the addition of fat to the existing mixture.

It is noteworthy that the production of pencils is carried out taking into account the consumer properties of the products. So, cheap pencils are made of wood that is not of the highest quality, and the shell is exactly the same - not of the highest quality. But pencils, which are used for artistic purposes, are made of high-quality wood, which has double gluing. Depending on what the pencil is made of, sharpening will also be performed. It is believed that neat shavings are obtained if the products are made from pine, linden or cedar wood. In addition, it is important that the lead is glued with high quality - such a pencil will not break even if dropped.

What should be the shell?

The simplicity and beauty of the pencil depends on the shell. Since pencils are made of wood, it must meet the following requirements: softness, strength and lightness.

During operation, the casing must

Do not break or crumble, like the entire body;

Do not exfoliate under the influence of natural factors;

Have a beautiful cut - smooth and shiny;

Be resistant to moisture.

What equipment is used?

The production of pencils is carried out using a variety of equipment. For example, the refining of clay, from which a graphite rod will subsequently be created, requires special mills and crushers. The processing of the mixed dough is carried out on a screw press, where the core itself is formed from the dough using rollers with three different gaps. A die with holes is used for the same purposes. Drying of wooden blanks is carried out in drying ovens, where the products are rotated for 16 hours. With good drying, the wood acquires a moisture level of maximum 0.5%. As for colored pencils, they are not subjected to heat treatment due to the presence of fillers, dyes and fatty components in them. On a special machine, pencils are cut in length.

How pencils are made

Drying plays an important role in the production process . It is carried out in special wells using machines, and the planks are stacked so that drying is as efficient as possible. In these wells, drying takes about 72 hours, then the boards are sorted: all cracked or ugly products are rejected. The selected workpieces are refined with paraffin, calibrated, that is, special grooves are cut on them, where the rods will be located.

The milling cut-off line is now used, on which the blocks are divided into pencils. Depending on what shape the knives are used at this stage, the pencils are either round, or faceted, or oval. An important role is played by the fastening of the lead in the wooden case: this must be done firmly and reliably, which reduces the risk of the lead elements falling out. The elastic glue used for the bond makes the lead stronger.

Modern pencils and crayons come in a huge variety of designs and colors. Since pencils are made in the factory, they pay close attention to each stage of production.

Coloring is one of the important stages, since it must meet a number of requirements. For surface finishing, the extrusion method is used, and the end is finished by dipping. In the first case, the pencil passes through a primer, where at the end of the conveyor it is turned over to apply the next layer. Thus, a uniform coverage is obtained.

There are two large pencil factories in Russia. Pencil factory them. Krasin in Moscow- the first state-owned enterprise in Russia to produce wood-coated pencils. The factory was founded in 1926. For over 72 years, it has been the largest stationery manufacturer.

Siberian pencil factory in Tomsk... In 1912, the tsarist government organized a factory in Tomsk that sawed a cedar board for the production of all pencils produced in Russia. In 2003, the factory significantly increased the range of products and introduced new brands of pencils known for their quality to the market. "Siberian cedar" and "Russian pencil»With good consumer characteristics. Pencils of new brands have taken a worthy place among inexpensive Russian-made pencils made from Russian environmentally friendly materials.

In 2004, the pencil factory was sold to a Czech company KOH-I-NOOR. The factory received investments, and new opportunities appeared for the distribution of products not only in the domestic, but also in the world market for office supplies.

Each of us from an early age, engaging in creativity, or in school lessons, came across such a subject as a pencil. More often than not, people treat it as something ordinary, as a simple and useful thing. But few people thought about how complicated the technological process of its production is.

By the way, during the production of a pencil, it goes through 83 technological operations, 107 types of raw materials and materials are used in its manufacture, and the production cycle is 11 days. If you still look at all this from the side of a whole product line, then a complex, well-established production with careful planning and control is drawn.

In order to see with our own eyes the process of making pencils, we go to the Moscow Krasin Factory. This is the oldest pencil production in Russia. The factory was founded in 1926 with the support of the government.

The main task of the government was to eliminate illiteracy in the country, and for this it was necessary to make office supplies available. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Krasin's factory remained the only pencil manufacturer in the CIS with a full production cycle. This means that the factory produces everything from lead to the final product - pencils. Let's take a closer look at the pencil production process.

For the production of pencils, specially processed and stacked linden planks are sent to the factory. But before they can be used, writing rods must be made.

In the next section, special mills are installed, where the clay is ground more finely and mixed with water.

Plants for preparing a mixture of clay and graphite. Here the mixture for future rods gets rid of impurities and prepares for further processing.

In this production area, the rods themselves are already received, but in order for them to fall into the pencil, a number of technological operations will be carried out over them.

The very technology of obtaining the rods resembles extrusion. A carefully prepared and mixed mass is squeezed out through a special stamp with holes.

After that, the blanks for the writing rods are placed in a special container.

And dried in a closet for 16 hours.

The rods are then carefully sorted by hand.

This is what the bar sorting workstation looks like. This is a very difficult and painstaking job. Cats sleep behind a table lamp.

After that, the rods go to the assembly. On these machines, pencil boards are prepared. Grooves are cut into them for the installation of writing rods.

The cutting part of the machine grinds grooves in the planks.

Planks automatically go into such a clip.

After that, on another machine, the rods are placed in pre-prepared planks.

After drying, the workpiece is sawn with special cutters into separate pencils.

The pencils are gradually sawn through several processing cycles.

The output is ready-made, but not colored pencils.

Already at this stage, the shape of the pencil is laid due to the type of profile of the cutting cutter.

Further, on special lines, the surface of the pencil is primed. When painting pencils, enamels made at the factory itself are used. These enamels are made from components that are safe for humans.

Line for painting pencils.

After painting, the pencils are stacked in batches for shipment to the following areas of the factory.

It is a great pleasure to look at thousands of pencils colored according to the proprietary technology of the plant. This is a very unusual sight.

Technological line for surface finishing.

Locker for storing stamps. Stamps for the entire range of products are stored here.

If necessary, pencils are sharpened on a special machine before packing. The photo shows an intermediate stage of sharpening.
I was amazed at the speed of the machine. The pencils fell into the tray in a continuous stream. All personal unsuccessful attempts to sharpen pencils immediately came to mind. From these memories, this machine began to inspire even more respect.

The factory also produces such interesting oval-shaped pencils used in construction and repair.

Arrays of stacked pencils look very unusual and attractive. You will not see this anywhere else.

In the packaging area, pencils are sorted and packaged by hand. There is a special atmosphere here. People work quietly and silently. Many employees have more than 40 years of continuous work experience in the factory.

The factory has its own equipped laboratory in which products are tested throughout the entire production cycle and new production technologies are tested. The picture shows Amsler's device for determining the resistance at the fracture of the writing rods.

Before leaving, I went into a room with display stands of the factory's products. The factory emblem evokes some nostalgia. After all, these pencils are familiar to each of us from childhood.
The factory produces several lines of products. Professional pencil series for painters, decorators and designers.

Samples of pencils supplied to the government of the Russian Federation. For the design of the pencils, a drawing was chosen to match the color of standard malachite desktop instruments of employees of the government of the Russian Federation. But besides this, they have other differences from ordinary pencils: firstly, their shape is made with maximum consideration for the ergonomics of an adult's hand, and besides, they use a special rod of the "lumograph" type for notes in the margins and in the diary, it is not smeared by hand , but erases well with an eraser without damaging the paper.

Engineering pencils:

Original souvenir products of the factory.

The visit to the factory was very exciting and informative. It was very interesting for me to see how much original technology and labor is invested in the manufacture of a seemingly such a simple object as a pencil.

I want to express my deep gratitude to the chief production technologist Marina for her help and explanation of technological processes in production. At the end of the visit to the factory, its management donated their branded pencils to the Reedus editorial staff, including those supplied to the government of the Russian Federation.

Back in 1912, by order of the tsarist government, a factory was created in Tomsk, where they sawed a cedar board for pencils produced throughout the country.

Today "Siberian Pencil Factory" is the only producer of pencils and pencil boards made of Siberian cedar in the territory of the former Soviet Union, the wood of which is used for the production of pencils of the highest price category.

How are pencils, familiar to us from childhood, produced?

The production of pencils begins at the timber exchange, where the harvested cedar is stored. Now there are more than three thousand cubes of wood here. The regional authorities were very helpful in providing the factory with material and this year they plan to produce about 85 million pencils.

The wood we buy does not come to us as a result of barbaric felling, says Anatoly Lunin, director of the factory. - In the overwhelming majority, this is sanitary felling of stagnant cedar, which no longer gives nut. The cedar grows up to 500 years, but cones appear on it somewhere until the age of 250, after which it begins to die, various insects strike it. If you cut it down during this period, a new cedar will grow faster.

Until the time of cutting, the logs undergo compulsory training: each log must be washed so that the adhering pieces of earth or clay with stones do not accidentally damage the saw. For this, a tree from the forest exchange is placed and kept in a special pool with warm water. In summer, it is kept here for a short time, up to twenty minutes, but in winter, the log is in the pool until it thaws - it can take up to three hours. And after 369 hours or 16.5 days and 26 different technological operations, ready-made pencils will be obtained from the log.

At the sawmill, such a beam is made from a log:

The production of a wooden pencil is extremely demanding on the quality of the material; only pure straight wood is used. And if for joinery the presence of such defects as, for example, knots is not catastrophic, then a pencil from such a tree can no longer be made. Therefore, it is very difficult to say in advance how many pencils will be obtained from one bar.

To reduce the amount of waste, the company is looking for different ways to increase the depth of wood processing. One of these ways is to expand the range of products. So, from a plank, which is not suitable for the production of a pencil, they plan to organize the production of wooden puzzles-coloring books for children and moth repellent. Something goes to the production of short pencils, like for IKEA stores, and some go to the production of these wooden skewers:

The timber obtained from the log is sawn into short pieces, each of which is then dissolved into ten planks. In order for all the boards to be the same, they need to be calibrated. To do this, they are driven through a special machine. At the exit from it, the planks have the same size and strictly perpendicular edges.

Then the calibrated plates are placed in an autoclave. In appearance, it resembles a barrel, to which many pipes of different diameters are connected. With the help of these pipes, a vacuum can be created in the chamber, pressure can be generated and all kinds of solutions can be supplied inside.

As a result of these processes, the resin contained in it is removed from the board, and the wood is impregnated (impregnated) with paraffin. Today this is not the easiest, but one of the most effective ways to improve the important properties of the material and protect wood from the harmful effects of the environment.

The "refined" after processing in an autoclave, pencil boards are left to dry properly, and then sent directly to the pencil production. On this, the process of making the board can be considered complete. This is how the planks look after autoclaving.

The basic principle and production technology have not changed since Tomsk began to make pencils, - says Anatoly Lunin. - All processes in our factory are well-established. The modernization of equipment is expressed in the replacement of some units, or the transition to more economical motors, the use of new cutters. Some new materials come, we change something in acceptance and evaluation, but the technology itself remains unchanged.

The finished board goes to the white pencil workshop, where, for a start, grooves are cut in it on the machine, where the rods will then be placed (the word "white" in this case means that the pencil has not yet been painted at this stage). Planks are fed from one side of the machine, on the way their surface is ground for gluing, recesses are cut into it with a special cutter. At the near edge of the machine, the planks are automatically stacked. The thickness of the sanded board with cut grooves is 5 mm, which is equal to half the thickness of the future pencil.

At the next stage, the boards are glued together in pairs to form one pencil block.

The machine smoothly feeds the first plank and places the rods in its grooves. Following this, a second plank, already greased with water-soluble glue, "leaves" from another device, and gently lays down on the first. The resulting pencil blocks are clamped in a pneumatic press and tightened with clamps.

If the board is made at the factory independently, then the core is mainly purchased in China. There it began to be produced according to the "dry" technology, which does not require firing in a furnace at a high temperature.

As a result, the prime cost of the rod turned out to be so low that the lion's share of pencil manufacturers switched to just such a rod.

To prevent the pencil lead from breaking inside the body, the factory uses the technology of additional gluing of the rod with a special glue system. After this operation, the glued blocks are kept in a special drying chamber for several hours.

It's pretty hot in the cell. Hot air is blown in by a fan, maintaining the temperature of the order of 35-40 degrees. The wood needs to dry well so that in the future the pencil becomes smooth in one pass and gets the desired geometry. A pencil with a "simple" lead dries here for at least two hours, and a colored pencil - at least four. Due to the fact that the color contains more fatty substances, it takes longer for it to dry.

After this time, the blocks are disassembled, placed in trolleys indicating all further parameters and sent to the next machine, which will divide them into separate pencils.

In its shape, the machine is similar to the one that makes grooves in planks, but it also has its own characteristics. The workpieces are placed in a hopper.

They pass through transport hubs, trimmed, sawed off, and at the exit you get the usual wooden pencil, just not yet painted.

The double cutter, which separates the blocks, also sets the shape of the future pencil, and this is all done in one pass. It depends on the type of profile of the cutting cutter whether the pencil will be hexagonal or round.

More recently, the factory has mastered the production of a triangular pencil. It turned out that the demand for such a form is growing. Buyers are attracted by the ergonomic and natural position of the fingers on the edges, which, of course, makes it easier to teach children to write.

Next to the machine is the sorter's work table. Her task is to sort through the made pencils, select the "good" ones and separate the defective ones. Defects include chips of the rod at the end, roughness, wood burns, and the like. There is a memo over the table with marriage rules. Each tray on the table holds 1,440 pencils.

The sorted pencils are taken on a special lift to the next floor, where they will be painted.

The paint is purchased dry and diluted to the desired thickness in the paint laboratory. The painting itself is fast enough.

The device continuously pushes the colored pencils onto the conveyor. The length and speed of the conveyor belt are calculated so that the pencil dries while it is moving on it.

On reaching the opposite end of the conveyor, the pencils enter one of three receptacles, from where they are sent back to the next coating.

On average, each pencil is covered with three layers of paint and two layers of varnish - it all depends on the wishes of the customer. You can also paint a pencil in almost any color. The factory produces sets of six, twelve, eighteen and twenty-four colors. Some pencils are coated with varnish only.

After painting, the pencils are sent to the finishing workshop. At this point, they acquire the final form in which they reach the consumer. A stamp is applied to the pencils, an eraser is put on and sharpened.

There are quite a few ways to apply stamps, but at the Siberian Pencil Factory they do it using foil of different colors. This method is called incubation. The working part of the machine heats up, and the stamp is transferred through the foil to the pencil - so it will not peel off and stain your hands. The stamp itself can be anything, it is specially ordered from the engraver. Depending on the complexity, it takes about five days to make it.

On some of the pencils, if necessary, put on an eraser.

The last operation is sharpening. Pencils are sharpened on an abrasive cloth put on a drum and moving at high speed. This happens very quickly, literally in a matter of seconds.

In addition to sharpening, the machine can be configured to perform rolling - processing of the back end of the pencil at a slight angle. Now the pencils are ready to be packed, they are sent to the next room. There the pencils are assembled into a set, folded into a box and sent to the consumer.

Packaging for the required number of pencils is printed in Novosibirsk. It comes in a flat form, so first it is given volume. Then, through the picking machines, the required number of pencils is laid out in a given color scheme. A special machine allows you to collect a set of twelve colors. At the end, the pencils are laid out in boxes.

Asked whether the factory plans to switch to the production of a pencil from cheaper wood or plastic, following the example of Chinese enterprises, Anatoly Lunin admits:

I was thinking about trying to make an economical pencil from low-grade aspen, but this is a different technology, and let the Chinese do it. I am more interested in the topic of increasing the useful yield by improving the quality of wood processing. And from an environmental point of view, to produce something better from renewable raw materials. A plastic pencil will never rot, and a wooden one will completely decompose in a few years.

Here's a little more from a series of how it's done: here, here. How it is done in GIFs, and The original article is on the site InfoGlaz.rf The link to the article this copy was made from is

How a pencil is made. How wooden pencils are made

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