How pencils are made: from clay to paper. Making a wooden pencil with your own hands Factory technology equipment for the production of medical pencils

About the technology of making pencils

A pencil (from Türkic kara - black and tash, -dash - stone), a rod of coal, lead, graphite, dry paint (often framed in wood or metal), which is used for writing, drawing, sketching.

The first description of a pencil was made by Konrad Gesner of Zurich in 1565 in his Treatise on Fossils. It contained a detailed construction of a pencil, showing a wooden tube into which a piece of graphite was inserted.

Pencil prototypes - lead and silver (giving a dark gray tone) pins inserted into metal clamps - were used in the 12-16 centuries. In the 14th century, artists painted mainly with sticks made of lead and tin, they were called "silver pencils". graphite pencils (the stroke of which has a low intensity and a slight shine) and pencils made of burnt bone powder, held together with vegetable glue (gives a strong black matte stroke) have become widespread.

In the 17th century, graphite was commonly sold on the streets. Buyers, mostly artists, clamped these graphite sticks between pieces of wood or twigs, wrapped them in paper or tied them with string. In England, the rod was a stick of soft graphite, suitable for drawing but not writing. In Germany, graphite powder was mixed with glue and sulfur, thus obtaining a rod of not the highest quality. In 1790, wooden pencils were invented by the French scientist N. Conte. At the same time, the Czech I. Hartmut proposed to make writing rods from a mixture of crushed graphite and clay. In principle, this method also forms the basis of modern pencil production technology.

Modern production: At first glance, a pencil appears to be a simple object, consisting of a writing rod and a wooden shell. But in order to make one pencil, more than 80 production operations are carried out within 11 days. In addition, more than 70 types of raw materials and materials are used for the range of products manufactured by the factory. These are mainly natural food substances and products.

Pencil sheath The wood used to make the pencil sheath must have a number of specific properties:

Be light, soft and durable, not break or crumble during the process of making pencils.

Have the same resistance to cutting the fibers both along and across, should not delaminate.

When cutting with a sharp knife, the cut should be smooth, shiny, the chips should curl, not chip or break.

The wood must be low hygroscopic, i.e. should not absorb moisture. All these qualities correspond to the Virginia juniper, which grows in the United States.

None of the tree species growing in Russia fully meets all these requirements. The closest in its properties and structure is cedar and linden wood, but to be used in pencil production, it must first be subjected to a special treatment - waxing (i.e. refining).

The boards are sawn into bars, the bars are trimmed to the length of a pencil with allowances for machining and shrinkage, and then the bars are sawn into planks on a multi-saw machine. After that, the boards are impregnated with paraffin in special autoclaves. This procedure improves the mechanical and chino properties of the future pencil. All resins are removed from the planks with a couple, and the legnin of the wood, when interacting with the steam, changes its color to pinkish-brownish. Then the boards are thoroughly dried. For drying, they are put into special "wells" using a machine. A special way of laying the boards for drying allows you to increase the area of ​​the board in contact with the drying agent - hot steam, and, therefore, dry them as thoroughly as possible. Wells are placed in drying rooms for 72 hours. After drying, they are sorted - cracked planks, planks sawn by the wrong fiber, etc. are rejected. Paraffin-ennobled and dried planks are sorted and calibrated - “grooves” (grooves) for the rods are applied to them. A graphite rod is made from a mixture of clay and graphite. Clay is pre-cleaned. To do this, it is crushed in special crushers, then mixed with warm water in special mills. During processing, the clay diluted in water is poured with liquid glass, which, settling, takes out all impurities from it - pebbles, twigs, sand, etc. And then, according to the recipe, graphite is added to the clay, with its own recipe for each gradation. The mixture is mixed with a binder - aparatin, cooked from starch.

For the manufacture of rods, a rod mass of a certain temperature and humidity is required. In no case should the mixture be allowed to dry out, otherwise it will be like a stone and will lead to equipment wear - there will not be enough press pressure. The kneaded dough of clay and graphite with a screw press is squeezed for molding through special equipment - rollers with three different gaps. This is done to crush and grind the mass, averaging the moisture content over the volume and remove air bubbles. The thickness of the dough layer is at first 1mm, with repeated processing 0.5mm, then 0.25mm. Then the dough is passed through a die with holes, forming the so-called "noodles". "Noodles" are formed into cylinders, and from them a rod of the required diameter and length is pressed through a diamond die on the press. The rods are finally dried in special drying ovens in very nice barrels - rotating continuously for 16 hours. After this process, the moisture content of the rod is approximately 0.5%. Then the rods are calcined in a furnace in special crucibles. Instead of a lid, crucibles with rods are filled with the same "raw material". The density of the crucible filling affects the quality of the cores. Firing is necessary in order to burn off the binder in the rod and sinter the clay to form the framework.

The degree of hardness (gradation) of a pencil from 6m to 7t depends on the ratio of clay, temperature and duration of firing and the composition of the fatliquoring bath. Depending on the gradation of the rod, firing is carried out at a temperature of 800 to 1200 degrees. After firing, the fattening operation is carried out: the pores formed after the binder has been fired are filled with fat, wax or stearin under pressure at a certain temperature. Some factories use edible and confectionery fats and binders as raw materials. (for example, aparatin is made from starch). The choice of substance for fatliquoring depends on the gradation (hardness) of the rod. For soft pencils, confectionery fat is used, for hard pencils - wax. Intermediate values ​​of hardness, for example, TM, are achieved by fatty stearin. Large diameter rods are produced on vertical masonry presses.

Colored pencils are made from a mixture of pigments, fillers, fatty agents and binder. "Assembly" The rods are placed in the grooves of the prepared board and covered with the second board. The boards are glued together with PVA glue, but the rod itself is not glued to the board, but is held by the tension of the board. The diameter of the rod is slightly larger than the diameter of the groove, therefore it is very important to correctly squeeze the boards in a special mechanism (clamp), where the future pencils are glued together. For each standard size of the pencil, its own pressure indicator for pressing in is determined so as not to break the rod. Next, the ends of the glued boards are processed - they are trimmed, the remnants of glue are removed.

On the milling line, the blocks are divided into pencils. The shape of the future pencil depends on the shape of the knives - it will turn out round, faceted or oval. And the "newborn" pencils are sent along a conveyor belt for sorting. The sorter checks ("rolls") all the pencils, looking for and eliminating the marriage. Then the pencils should "get dressed" - go to the painting. Painting The surface of the pencils is finished by extrusion (broaching), and the end is finished by dipping. Extrusion is the process of passing a pencil through a priming machine. At the end of the conveyor, the pencil is turned over so that the next coat of paint or varnish is applied from the other end. This ensures an even coverage. Dark colors are applied 5 times with paint and 4 times with varnish, light colors - 7 times with paint and 4 times with varnish. And for finishing the end face, a dipping machine is used. With smooth rotational movements, the dipper lowers the frame with pencils into the paint tank. Pencils are marked by hot impact stamping. Sharpening of pencils is done automatically. All pencils are labeled. Packing of sharpened pencils is done manually, non-sharpened - manually and automatically: on automatic and semi-automatic machines. On a semi-automatic machine, in one full shift, you can pack 15 thousand pencils, on an automatic machine - 180 thousand. The machines are capable of placing both 6 and 12 pencils in boxes.

Quality control Incoming control of all raw materials and materials and technological control of the production process and finished products are carried out by the laboratory. Chemists check everything thoroughly! They also make up the soil formulations. By the way, the products of one well-known factory are even tested for contact with the mouth, like baby pacifiers! In the second half of the 19th century. appeared, and in the 20th century. mechanical, or automatic pencils became widespread. According to their writing properties and production technology, pencils are divided into graphite (black), colored, copying, etc., according to their purpose - into school, stationery, drawing, drawing, carpentry, make-up room, pencils for retouching, marking and marks on various materials. Special types of pencils are sanguine and pastel. In Russia, graphite drawing pencils of several degrees of hardness are produced; the degree of hardness is indicated by the letters M (soft), T (hard) and MT (medium hard), as well as numbers in front of the letters. A large number means a higher degree of hardness or softness. Abroad, instead of the letter M, they use the letter B, and instead of T - N. Automatic pencils are divided by design into: screw - with the supply of a writing rod by rotating one of the parts; collet - with a clamping of the writing rod by a split sleeve-collet and feeding the rod by pressing a button; multicolored - with two, four or more rods, one by one, pulled out from the store.

We have been using pencils since kindergarten. 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 at each factory in its own way. But at the same time, there are common points that are fundamental to the production process.

Which tree?

A classic wooden pencil has an important component - wood, on the quality of which the operation of this accessory depends. It is clear that not every tree is suitable for this purpose. In the past, the industry used the wood of the Viridian or red cedar, which belongs to the genus of junipers. Long fibers, no knots, ease of processing - that's what attracted attention in this material. But due to the high cost, European and American brands that produce pencils began to use California cedar wood. Moreover, on its basis, high-quality products are created that are used for graphic and artistic purposes.

In most cases, pencils are made from alder, linden, pine, Californian and Siberian cedar, as well as such rare wood as jelutong. What wood are pencils made of in our country? 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 makes processing easier 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 viscosity, 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 give a nut.

Rod: what is the base?

The production of pencils is carried out using a special rod. consists of three components - graphite, soot and silt, to which organic binders are often added. Moreover, graphite is a permanent component, including a colored one, 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. It is important that the mixture does not dry out, as this will affect the wear of the equipment. 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 specific 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. Here, the rod manufacturing 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 together with PVA glue, while the rod should not stick;
• the ends of the glued boards are leveled;
• preparation is performed, that is, the addition of fat to an existing mixture.

It is noteworthy that the production of pencils is carried out taking into account the consumer properties of the products. So, cheap ones are made from wood of not the highest quality, the same - not the best quality - and the shell. But pencils, which are used for artistic purposes, are made of high-quality wood, which has double gluing.

Wood preparation stage

The production of pencils is carried out from well-selected wood, which is processed to obtain sticks. Be sure to trim the bars along the length of the pencil, and allowances must be taken into account, since the material will shrink. On a special multi-saw machine, the bars are cut into planks, which are impregnated with paraffin in special autoclaves. This procedure improves the mechanical properties of the future product.

Depending on what the pencil is made of, it will be sharpened as well. 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 kind of shell?

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

1. Softness, strength and lightness: during operation, the casing should not break or crumble, like the entire casing.
2. Do not exfoliate under the influence of natural factors.
3. Have a beautiful cut - smooth and shiny, while the chips themselves should not break.
4. The wood must be moisture resistant.

What kind of equipment?

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 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.

Drying

How are pencils made? Drying plays an important role in the production process. It is carried out in special wells using machines, and the boards 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 blanks are refined with paraffin, calibrated, that is, special grooves are cut on them, where the rods will be located.

How are pencils made in production next? 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.

Coating features

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.

Color quality: what does it depend on?

The quality of painting depends on how well the paints and varnishes themselves meet the established requirements, whether the priming machine is correctly adjusted, whether the crayons on the tape have been dried on time. Any pencil factory uses quick-drying compounds that form a hard, durable and elastic film on the surface that adheres well to the surface of the wood.

Painting is carried out with special primer paints, which have a certain viscosity and contain pigments. If the pigment part is large, it will reduce the gloss of the film and will require further application of nitro varnish to the surface. Even simple pencils are varnished with nitrocellulose gloss varnish.

If the pencil is of dark shades, then it is painted in at least 5 layers and 4 layers of varnish. To achieve light shades, a combination of 7 paint coats with 4 varnish coats is used. At the same time, for an even and accurate coating, it is important that the surface has a maximum of 18 layers. The coloring of the end parts of the pencils is carried out in a dipping machine, into which the frame with the pencils located on it is lowered.

Pencil frame

Depending on how pencils are made and from what materials, their frame may vary. In the traditional version, the lead has a wooden frame, but the modern market offers a wide range of products in plastic, lacquered and even paper cases. On the one hand, this adds beauty and strangeness to them, on the other hand, when such pencils fall, little will remain.

After painting, the pencils are finished. For this, various stamps and foils of different colors are used. This process is called thermostatting.

What hardness?

All crayons and pencils differ in the hardness of the lead, which is reflected in their marking. You need to choose them like this: the denser and harder the paper, the harder the graphite rod should be. But too hard graphite can damage the paper. In Russia, you can buy pencils with the following markings:

1. M - soft.
2. T is solid.
3. TM - hard-soft.

You should be aware of the marking when choosing pencils for creating drawings or drawing in the appropriate technique.

Features of colored pencils

What simple pencils are made of, we have already figured out. Now you need to understand when and how they appeared. It is known that the first products with colored slate appeared in 1820, however, who invented them remained a mystery. The color lead is based on a combination of binder, color pigments and filler. Kaolin glue acts as a connecting substance, due to which the lead shape is also formed. Finely ground, high quality colored materials are used as color pigments, and the pigment can be organic or inorganic. The color pigments themselves are created on the basis of materials that are resistant to fading under the influence of sunlight and are environmentally friendly. Today pencils are available in 36 shades according to the international Pantone shade scale. As for fillers, kaolin and chalk are used in this capacity, which are thoroughly ground.

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

Much time has passed since then. There have been ups and downs in this story. In 1999 the factory was declared bankrupt, and in 2004 the well-known Czech company KOH-I-NOOR Hardtmuth a.s. became part of its owners. Today "Siberian Pencil Factory" is the only producer of pencils and pencil boards from Siberian cedar on the territory of the former Soviet Union, the wood of which is used for the production of pencils of the highest price category. In the fall of 2012, the products of the Siberian Pencil Factory, having passed the examination of the commission, became a laureate of the competition "Best goods and services of the Tomsk region", and then a diploma winner of the all-Russian competition "100 best goods of Russia".

How are pencils that have received such consumer acceptance produced?

PREPARATION

The production of a pencil begins at the timber exchange, where the harvested cedar is stored. Now there are more than three thousand cubes of wood here. Last year, the authorities of the Tomsk region greatly helped the factory in providing material. 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 the stagnant cedar, which no longer gives a nut. Cedar grows up to 500 years, but cones appear on it somewhere up to 250, after which it begins to die and be affected by various insects. If you cut it down during this period, a new cedar will grow faster.

Each log from the timber exchange first undergoes mandatory training. Before sawing it, the tree is placed and kept in a special pool of warm water. This is done so that pieces of earth or clay with stones do not accidentally damage the saws. In the summer, it is kept here for a short time, up to twenty minutes, but in the winter, the log is kept in the pool until it thaws. This takes up to three hours.

In the upper right part of the photo, a tree trunk is just visible, prepared for immersion in the pool. After 369 hours or 16.5 days, after going through 26 different technological operations, you will get ready-made pencils from it.

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 the presence of such defects as, for example, knots is not catastrophic for joinery, 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 the board, which is not suitable for the production of a pencil, by the summer they plan to launch the production of wooden puzzles-coloring books for children and moth repellent. Some of them go to the production of short pencils, like for IKEA stores, and some go to the production of such 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 built up and all kinds of solutions can be supplied inside. As a result of these processes, the resins contained in it are 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.

This is how "refined" pencil boards look after autoclaving.

It remains to dry them properly and send them to the pencil production. On this, the process of making the board can be considered complete.

PRODUCTION

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 laid. The word "white" in this case means that the pencil here has not yet been colored.

The plank is served at the far end on the right side of the photo. On the way, its surface is sanded for gluing, and recesses are cut into it with a special cutter. At the near edge of the machine, the planks are automatically stacked.

This is what a sanded plank with cut grooves looks like.

Now its thickness is 5 millimeters, 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. This is what it looks like.

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 using 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 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 in the region 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 made grooves in the planks, but it also has its own characteristics. The workpieces are placed in a hopper. They pass through transport hubs, trimmed, sawed and at the exit you get the usual wooden pencil, only 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 ergonomics and naturalness of the location of the fingers on the edges, which, of course, makes it easier for the child to learn to write.

Next to the machine is the sorter's work table.

Her task is to sort out the pencils made, select the "good" ones and separate the defective ones. Defects include chips of the rod at the end, roughness, wood burns, etc. 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.

PAINTING AND PACKAGING

The paint is purchased dry and diluted to the desired thickness in the paint laboratory.

Painting 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 fall into one of three receptacles.

From there, they are sent back to the next coating.

On average, each pencil is covered with three coats of paint and two coats 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.

This machine applies the stamp.

There are quite a few ways to apply it, but at the enterprise it is done 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 he will not climb and get his hands dirty.

The stamp itself can be anything, it is specially ordered from the engraver. Depending on the complexity, it takes about five days to make.

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

The last operation is sharpening.

Pencils are sharpened on a sandpaper 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 the back end of the pencil at a slight slope.

The pencils are now ready to be packed, and in order to do this, they are sent to the next room.

There they are assembled into a set, put in a box and sent to the consumer.

Packaging for the required number of pencils is printed in Novosibirsk. It comes in a flat form, and first it is given volume.

Then, through the picking machines, the required number of pencils is laid out in a given color scheme.

This machine allows you to assemble a set of twelve colors.

At the end, the pencils are laid out in boxes.

Samples of the products manufactured by the factory are presented here at the stand.

During the tour, we asked about the equipment modernization. “There are twelve factories in the world now,” Anatoly Lunin said. - And all similar equipment. They have been making pencils in Tomsk since the 1930s. Since then, the basic principle and production technology has not changed. All processes are well debugged. 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. "

When asked whether the factory, following the example of Chinese enterprises, plans to switch to the production of a pencil from cheaper wood or plastic, Anatoly Lunin admitted: “I was thinking of trying to make an economical pencil from low-grade aspen, but this is a different technology, and even if the Chinese are doing this. ... 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. "

It remains only to wish that in the world of global computerization, there is a place for a simple wooden pencil.

Text, photo: Evgeniy Mytsik

A pencil has become an absolutely irreplaceable thing in a person's life. Starting from kindergarten, he accompanies a person at school, university, at home and in the office. Finally, it is a must when doing crossword puzzles.

The total cost of a complete set of necessary equipment, which is required in order to organize the production of pencils of average power, starts at two million rubles.

This is how much it costs a fully-loaded used line. To this must be added the cost of renting a production facility, which for a small workshop should have an area of ​​at least fifty square meters, as well as the purchase of raw materials, workers' wages and utility costs.

The exact payback period for such a business as the production of pencils is difficult to name. First of all, they depend on the volume of output and on the starting (initial) capital.

In addition, during the initial time, all the profit received is most often invested in promoting the market, since the competition among companies producing not only simple, but also colored pencils is quite high, especially among Western factories, with which domestic ones have little competition due to the high quality. the products they produce. However, many experts say that the minimum payback period for small businesses is two or three years.

Technology

The production of pencils is carried out using the following technologies. Beforehand, the wooden workpiece is carefully sanded, then the body is primed four times, since a decrease in the number of passes leads to insufficient surface smoothness. The primer, filling all the irregularities in the wood, provides it with strength for subsequent painting. Then the body is painted.

Saving at each stage of the technological process, although it reduces the cost of the produced pencils, however, leads to a deterioration in their quality. In addition, the environmental friendliness of the final product is also important, depending on the composition of the varnish covering the body of the product. It is known that children, and sometimes adults, are very fond of nibbling on writing utensils. Therefore, the varnish must be water-based and not contain harmful chemical solvents.

What materials are needed

For the manufacture of simple pencils, not only the composition of the lead - clay and graphite - is of no small importance. It is also influenced by the quality of the wood. How the pencil is made determines how the finished product will subsequently look, and how easy it will be to sharpen. The cheapest goods for non-demanding buyers are made from alder. The wood of such pencils is both unsightly in appearance, and has a gray color, and does not hold the lead very tightly.

Wood

The most common wood species that fully satisfies all the requirements for raw materials when the production of pencils is organized is linden.

In addition, it grows almost everywhere and is viscous enough to hold the rod tightly.

A better quality and, accordingly, more expensive pencil is a product made from pine, cedar, and tropical jelutong tree, the production characteristics of which are very high. But the most valuable is the raw material from California cedar. Stationery made from this wood is very expensive and considered prestigious.

Slate

First, a pencil rod is made from clay with graphite. It is the proportions of these components that determine the hardness of the lead. Moreover, the more graphite, the softer the structure will be. Conversely, if there is a lot of kaolin in the lead, the composition of simple pencils will turn out to be harder.

It is very important how the stationery is sharpened. The quality of the wood ensures neat and even shavings. At the same time, it is very important that the rod is located in the center of the body, because if this pencil production technology is violated, the lead is cut unevenly during sharpening.

In addition, to prevent the refill from breaking in the event of a drop of pencils, many stationery manufacturers use the so-called SV lead sizing. In this case, it only breaks at the sharpened tip, and not inside the case.

Painting stage

This third and also very important element in production does not allow less than seven layers of pencil painting, otherwise the wood will become covered with burrs. Renowned companies that take the quality of their products seriously usually start with twelve layers. Whereas the production of pencils with a high price involves staining up to eighteen, sometimes up to twenty times. Then this stationery will have a high gloss and a literally mirror-like surface.

Equipment

The equipment for the production of pencils is diverse. Clay cleaning requires a crusher and special mills. Clay, diluted in water, is poured with liquid glass to rid it of impurities, including sand. Then, according to the recipe, graphite and a binder made of starch are added to it. The core mass must have a certain temperature and humidity. The slightest deviation leads to spoilage of raw materials.

The carefully beaten "dough", mixed with graphite and clay, is sent to a screw press, where it is formed using rollers with three different gaps. As a result, the mass is crushed, becoming homogeneous. Air bubbles with excess moisture are removed from it. The thickness of the dough after repeated processing is gradually reduced from one to 0.25 millimeters.

Then the mass is passed through a die with holes, where it turns into a kind of "noodles" - into cylinders, from which the press squeezes out a rod with the required length and diameter. The rods are thoroughly dried in drying ovens, where they rotate continuously for fifteen or sixteen hours. The moisture content of the finished element should not be more than half a percent. After drying, they are calcined in a furnace in special crucibles.

Colour pencils

Rods for colored pencils are made in a slightly different way. They contain pigments, as well as fillers with binders and fatty substances. Clay or kaolin is the main raw material.

Each more or less large manufacturer has its own recipe for the manufacture of slates, which is kept under great secret. Many factories use dyes and waxes to make additives, as well as natural cellulose-based fillers and binders.

Colored pencils do not undergo heat treatment, since the color pigments can be destroyed under the influence of high temperatures.

At the stage when fat is added, which gives a color trail and holds it on the paper, two different technologies are used: the so-called hot or cold "preparation".

In the first case, it is carried out immediately after drying, while the slates are moistened in hot fat. Most often, this technology is used in the production of quality watercolor pencils.

For cold preparation, fat is added to the mixture. As a rule, this method is used when the production of medium-quality pencils with a lead made from organic pigments is established.

Back in 1912, by decree 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 that 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 yields a 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 remedies for moths. 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 it 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, the 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 laid (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 the 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 this 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. Above the table hangs a memo with the rules of marriage. 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 a sandpaper 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 the back end of the pencil at a slight slope. 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.

When asked if the factory plans, following the example of Chinese enterprises, to switch to the production of a pencil from cheaper types of wood or plastic, 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.

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