Profitable business: pencil production. How pencils are made What are pencil blanks made of

Hello everybody brainworms! In today's project, we will make a simple pencil with our own hands using a cutting machine and a router. In this way, you will get rid of unnecessary wooden blanks and feel like a real master.

Step 1: cutting out pencil blanks

Cut two thin strips of wood from your favorite wood. Size doesn't matter as we will find the exact size in the final steps of the project.

Step 2: groove cutting

Using a V-shaped router bit, cut a small groove in each workpiece. It is needed to hold the pencil lead.

Step 3: Selecting Leads

Drawing leads can be purchased online, such as Amazon.

Step 4: gluing

Add a large amount of wood glue to each half of the piece and insert the lead into the groove.

Step 5: Clamping

Pull the resulting workpiece with a clamp and let dry for at least one hour.

Step 6: trim to size

Now cut your pencil to the size you want. I took the finished pencil and made the necessary measurements on all sides.

Step 7: cut to length

Cut your pencil to length. See the attached photo of this process.

Step 8: sanding

Using a block with glued sandpaper and two pieces of wood connected at a 120 ° angle, I sanded my pencil at the angles required to create a hexagonal shape.

Step 9: Finish processing

Optionally add a protective PU layer to give your pencil an unbeatable look.

Step 10: coloring

Optionally dip the tip of the pencil into white paint to create a decorative finish.

Step 11: sharpening your pencil

Now you can sharpen the finished simple pencil.

Please note that different types of wood require a different approach to making and processing a pencil.

It will be impossible to dispense with. All sketches are carried out with this stationery, traces of which can always be erased with an eraser. This product is quite simple, but it is very difficult to produce, in several stages.

During the manufacture of a pencil, more than a hundred materials are used and several dozen different actions are carried out using specialized equipment, as well as in manual mode. Who would have thought that this small piece meant to be painted takes about 11 days to produce.

To understand how complex and at the same time consistent the production process is, you need to look at it from the outside. To do this, you can visit the most famous enterprise in Russia specializing in the production of pencils - the Krasin plant. This factory started its work 90 years ago. By the way, this year she celebrated her anniversary. The enterprise owes its existence to one degree or another to the support provided by the government.

The main task of the representatives of the authorities of that time was the fight against illiteracy. Therefore, it was important to start producing stationery in sufficient quantities and make them available to the entire population, without exception. With the collapse of the USSR, she was engaged in the production of pencils exclusively at this enterprise. This plant produces all the necessary raw materials, without which it is impossible to make finished products. So what are the main steps in pencil production?

The main stages of production

Special linden wood planks are delivered to the factory, which will not even be useful at the beginning of production. First, you should make writing rods, without which it is impossible to imagine more than one pencil. This is done in a special workshop. Graphite and clay are used as raw materials for the manufacture of rods. The first step in the preparation of the mixture is the process of grinding the clay, after which it is transferred to the grinding equipment.

Further, in a special installation, the mixture is cleaned of various impurities, pebbles, dirt particles and other foreign elements, and then undergoes several more types of processing in order to obtain a quality product. For the manufacture of slates, only natural ingredients are used, so you definitely won't have to worry about safety.

The next step is pressing. There is no waste in this production, because they are reused. At this site, ready-made rods are made, but they are not yet placed in pencils, they must first be subjected to a number of different manipulations.

The process for making rods can be compared to extruding animal feed. The prepared mixture is squeezed out of the hole of a special hose. Then it is placed in a container specially prepared for this purpose, and dried for more than 15 hours. And that is not all. The sorting process of quality rods is carried out manually. This is a long and difficult process that requires special care and perseverance.

After the rods are sorted out, they are pierced in a special device. Annealing takes place at a temperature of the order of 1200 degrees Celsius. The quality of the rod and the hardness of the pencil will depend on this. After the end of the annealing procedure, the rods are filled with fat. This is done so that the rod begins to slide easily, appears well on paper and can be erased with an eraser without much effort. It should be noted that all produced pencils may differ from each other in the degree of hardness and softness. For this, various components are used: confectionery fat, salomas, wax, etc. After completing all the necessary procedures, the rods are sent to the assembly, where, using special machines and boards, a groove is made in a pencil through which the rod is inserted.

With the help of the cutting part of the machine, grooves are turned in the plank. The planks are automatically sent to the cage, and on another machine the rods are placed in the planks, then glued together, and then they are left to dry under the press. In this case, the rod does not stick to the boards. The rod is inside the wood and does not go anywhere thanks to the tension of the wood sheath.

When the workpiece is dry, it is sawn with a cutter for several pencils. After the completion of all the main processes, the output is finished stationery, which, however, is not yet ready for sale, since they are not painted.

On special equipment, pencils are primed. For painting these stationery, special enamels are used, which are also produced at the factory.

Special painting and original shape of pencils

On sale you can see pencils, which are very original colored, as if with stains. For this, they resort to a special technology. Stationery is left to dry after painting. In order for everything to work out as smoothly as possible, the procedure for machining the edges is carried out. The product is marked. At the same time, the equipment works at a tremendous speed. Finished products are continuously fed into the pallet.

The enterprise produces these products of unusual colors, as well as original shapes, for example, oval, it would seem that this is completely impossible, but it was not. Such products are widely used during repair and construction work. Before packing the pencils, they are manually sorted out, checked for intactness, their quality characteristics are assessed, etc. Employees of the plant are engaged in this, some of whom have specialized in this all their lives.

After the release of pencils, they are necessarily tested for quality in a special laboratory, new production technologies are mastered in order to reduce time and money. The factory produces pencils for professionals and amateurs for various needs.

The Forum of Designers is an annual event held by the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of the Moscow Region with the participation of representatives of government authorities, leading design organizations, architects and urban planners. This year at the Forum will be presented pilot concepts of five cities near Moscow, developed by a consortium led by the Higher School of Economics. As part of the case ...

CLAAS demonstrates resilience in a volatile market

Concern CLAAS, one of the world's leading manufacturers of agricultural machinery, in the financial year notes a slight increase in the company's turnover to 3,898 million euros, compared with 3,889 million euros a year earlier. Profit before tax fell to 136 million euros (226 million euros last year). "CLAAS demonstrates stable development in the face of negative market conditions. Despite ...

Tomorrow, 1,120 people will take part in the "Production personnel 4.0" online forum

The I All-Russian Online Forum "Production Personnel 4.0" starts tomorrow, December 19, 2019 at 10.00 Moscow time. For this hour, 1,120 managers, specialists of companies solving problems of increasing labor productivity, quality, operational efficiency, personnel development, as well as experts and representatives of authorities and universities have registered to participate in it. On the forum,...

Sveza intends to increase the supply of products to North Africa. The company is widely represented in the Egyptian market, but in the near future it will increase its presence in the entire region. In the first decade of December, the company presented its products at the largest continental exhibition - Cairo WoodShow-2019. The exhibition in Cairo is held annually and offers a unique platform for the exchange of information ...

Yakutia will reach the production volume of 25 billion cubic meters of gas within three years

The authorities of Yakutia expect that a subsidiary of Gazprom for the Yakutsk gas production center will be created in the region. The oil and gas industries in the region are showing stable growth. In the near future, their aggregate contribution to the gross regional product will significantly exceed the diamond mining indicators. This was stated by the head of the republic Aisen Nikolaev during a press conference in Moscow. He stressed that ...

Dmitry Medvedev approved the plan for the implementation of the Concept for the development of Russky Island

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev approved the plan for the implementation of the Concept for the development of the Russky Island. The advisory order has been published on the official document portal. “The plan, in particular, provides for the creation of conditions for attracting private investment, the infrastructural development of the Russky Island, the development of a scientific and educational cluster, the development of a tourist and recreational ...

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.

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.