Factory technology equipment for the production of medical pencils. How pencils are made: from clay to paper. Special coloring and original shape of pencils

By the way, in 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 the whole product line, then a complex well-established production with careful planning and control is drawn.
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In order to see with our own eyes the production process of pencils, we go to the Moscow factory named after Krasin. 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 stationery available. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Krasin factory remained the only pencil manufacturer in the CIS with a full production cycle. This means that everything is produced at the factory - from the stylus to the final product - pencils. Let's take a closer look at the pencil manufacturing process.

For the production of pencils, the factory receives specially processed and stacked linden boards. But before they are used, it is necessary to make writing rods.

2. Let's go to the workshop for the manufacture of pencil rods. Writing rods are made from a mixture of clay and graphite. The preparation of the necessary mixture begins with such technological installations, where clay is crushed. The crushed clay is sent by conveyor to the next production site.

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

4. Installations for the preparation of a mixture of clay with graphite. Here, the mixture for future rods gets rid of impurities and is prepared for further processing.

5. It should be noted that only natural substances are used in the production of leads, which allows us to consider the production environmentally friendly. Installation for pressing the mixture. Rods are obtained from the semi-finished products obtained. There is practically no waste in production, as they reuse it.

6. At this production site, the rods themselves are already obtained, but in order for them to get into the pencil, a number of technological operations will be carried out on them.

7. The very technology of obtaining rods is reminiscent of extrusion. Carefully prepared and mixed mass is squeezed out through a special stamp with holes.

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

9. And dried in a closet for 16 hours.

10. After that, the rods are carefully sorted by hand.

11. This is how the workplace for sorting rods looks like. This is a very difficult and painstaking work. Cats sleep behind a table lamp.

12. 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 8B.

13. After annealing, the rods are filled with fat under special pressure and temperature. This is necessary to give them the necessary writing properties: the intensity of the line, the ease of sliding, the quality of sharpening, the ease of erasing with an eraser. Depending on the required core hardness value, lard, confectionery fat or even beeswax and carnauba wax can be used. Output product of the rod production area.

14. After that, the rods fall on the assembly. Here on such machines, planks for pencils are prepared. Grooves are cut into them for the installation of writing rods.

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

16. The boards automatically enter such a clip.

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

18. After laying, the halves of the boards are glued together with PVA glue, and they are left to dry under pressure. The essence of this operation is that the rod itself is not glued to the planks. Its diameter is larger than the diameter of the groove, and in order for the structure to close, 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 (prestressing specially created in this way in the design of the pencil).

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

20. Pencils are gradually sawn over several processing cycles.

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

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

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

24. Line for painting pencils.

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

26. 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 a special technological framework. The regularity of the rows looks very unusual and attracts.

27. After painting, the pencils are stacked in batches for shipment to the next sections of the factory.

28. It is a great pleasure to look at thousands of pencils painted according to the factory's proprietary technology. This is a very unusual sight.

30. Technological line for surface finishing.

32. Locker for storing stamps. Here are stored stamps for the entire range of products.

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

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

35. Arrays of stored pencils look very unusual and attractive. You won't see this anywhere else.

The pencil has become an absolutely indispensable thing in human life. Starting from kindergarten, he accompanies a person at school, university, at home and in the office. Finally, it is simply necessary when solving crossword puzzles.

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

How much does a used line in a complete set cost? 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, wages of workers and utility costs.

It is rather difficult to name the exact payback periods for such a business as the production of pencils. First of all, they depend on the volume of products produced and on the starting (initial) capital.

In addition, during the initial time, all profits are most often invested in promotion on the market, since competition among companies that produce not only simple, but also colored pencils is quite high, especially among Western factories, with which domestic ones compete little due to 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 according to the following technologies. Previously, the wooden blank 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 tree, provides it with strength for subsequent painting. Then the hull is painted.

Savings at each stage of the technological process, although it reduces the cost of 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 chewing writing instruments. 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 also affects the quality of the wood. How the pencil is made depends on how the finished product will subsequently look, and how easy it will be sharpened. The cheapest goods, intended for undemanding 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 firmly.

Wood

The most common type of wood, which 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 a sufficiently viscous material to hold the rod tightly.

A higher quality and, accordingly, more expensive pencil is a product made from pine, cedar, and also a 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 tree is very expensive and is considered prestigious.

stylus

First, a pencil core 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. And vice versa, if there is a lot of kaolin in the lead, the composition of simple pencils will turn out to be more solid.

It is very important how the stationery is sharpened. A neat and even chip is ensured by the quality of the wood. At the same time, it is very important that the core is located in the center of the body, because if this technology for the production of pencils is violated, the lead is cut off unevenly during sharpening.

In addition, to prevent the stem from breaking if pencils are dropped, many office supply manufacturers use what is known as SV lead sizing. In this case, it breaks only at the sharpened tip, and not inside the case.

Paint stage

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

Equipment

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, which is made from starch, are added to it. The core mass must have a certain temperature and humidity. The slightest deviation leads to deterioration of raw materials.

The carefully beaten “dough”, kneaded 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 re-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 already squeezes out a rod with the required length and diameter. The rods are thoroughly dried in drying ovens, where continuous rotation takes place for fifteen or sixteen hours. The humidity of the finished element should not be more than half a percent. After drying, they are calcined already in the oven in special crucibles.

Colour pencils

Colored pencil leads are made somewhat differently. They contain pigments, as well as fillers with binders and fattening agents. Clay or kaolin is the main raw material.

Each more or less large manufacturer has its own recipe for making leads, which is kept a great secret. Many additive factories use dyes and waxes, as well as natural cellulose-based fillers and binders.

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

At the stage when fat is added, which gives a color mark and keeps it on 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 leads are moistened in hot fat. Most often, this technology is used in the production of high-quality watercolor pencils.

A pencil is such a common thing that it seems like an unremarkable and simple drawing tool. However, in order to make it, a rather complicated production technology is used. I want to talk about this little-known process.

The stages of pencil production can be divided into two parts: the manufacture of the lead and the manufacture of the wooden shell into which it is inserted.

The pencil lead is made from a mixture of graphite powders and special clay. Graphite powder itself is made from slate. A mixture of graphite and clay is thoroughly mixed with water, then dried, then again ground into powder, and at the end a small amount of water is added again until a thick paste is formed. The ratio of graphite and clay in this paste will determine the hardness of the pencil. The more clay, the harder the pencil will be. But the degree of hardness will still depend on another process, which I will describe below.

Then, this paste goes to special equipment, similar to an extruder. Graphite paste is pressed through the shaping holes of the stamp and at the exit you can see the familiar pencil core. However, he is still far from the finished rod.

The resulting lead blank is dried. Then they are fired at high temperatures in a special furnace. During firing, graphite and clay are combined, and the core hardens. As I wrote above, the hardness of the pencil will largely depend on this process. The higher the firing temperature, the harder the pencil will be. The less clay in the lead and the lower the firing temperature, the softer the pencil will be. As you know, hardness is indicated on pencils either in English letters or in Russian. The English "H" means "hard" and the English "B" means "soft". Accordingly, the Russian letter "T" means hard, and the Russian letter "M" means "soft". There is also a different degree of hardness of the pencil. For example, 2B or 2M is double soft, and 2H or 2T is double hard. In total, there are about 17 degrees of pencil hardness: from 8M to 8T.

After firing, graphite rods are placed in special wooden blanks for future pencils. These blanks are wooden plates, half a pencil thick. They are usually made from cedar or linden. This wood is soft and has fibers well suited for making pencils. From each such blank board, either 6 or 8 pencils are obtained, depending on the production standard. Accordingly, 6 - 8 grooves are sawn in these planks, for graphite pencil rods.

Next, the rods are placed in the sawn grooves. Then, a wooden plate with rods is covered with exactly the same plate from above. The graphite rods are placed between two wooden plates. The rods are securely fixed in a wooden shell in two ways: either by means of glue or by squeezing the wooden halves of the future pencil. The halves themselves in both cases are connected by means of glue and a press.

At the next stage of production, these blanks are fed to a special machine, the cutters of which have teeth in the form of halves of a hexagon, or halves of a circle. With such cutters, a wooden blank with rods is sawn, and at the same time a hexagonal or round shape is given to the resulting pencils.

Well, now the pencil is almost ready! But it hasn't been painted yet. Painting is done with special enamels. And when the pencil is already colored, a marking is made on it indicating the manufacturer, the degree of softness of the pencil, etc. Such embossing is done using paint or foil.

This is how it is - the difficult process of making a seemingly simple pencil.

A pencil in a person's life is a truly irreplaceable thing. Acquaintance with him occurs at a very early age.

Accompanies a person's pencil in school and university years. He is always in the office and at home. In addition, this writing affiliation is also necessary when solving crossword puzzles.

Some plywood production wastes are pencils. These are the remains of churak, which are obtained after peeling. Despite the same name, such pencils have nothing to do with stationery.

Start-up capital

To organize a medium-sized production, you will need to purchase a set of necessary equipment. The cost of such starts from 2 million rubles. And this is the price of a used line. In addition, you will need to pay for the rent of the premises where the cars will be placed.

A small workshop should be located on an area of ​​\u200b\u200bat least fifty square meters. Money will be needed to purchase the necessary raw materials, pay wages to employees, and also reimburse utility bills. It is difficult to name a specific payback period for such a project.

This period is directly dependent on the number of products produced, as well as on the initial investment. In addition, in the initial period, the profit received is necessarily invested in increasing sales volumes. However, many experts say that the minimum payback period for small enterprises is two to three years.

Technology

For the production of pencils, the wooden blank must be carefully sanded. After that, the body of the semi-finished product is primed four times. This stage of the technological process allows you to ensure the strength of the tree before subsequent painting.

It is not recommended to save at any stage of the technological process. Although this will affect the reduction in the cost of production, it will lead to a deterioration in its quality. An important factor for a successful business is the environmental friendliness of the produced pencils, which depends on the composition of the varnish applied to the body of the product.

After all, children, and sometimes adults, love to gnaw on writing supplies. That is why the varnish used must be water-based and not include chemical solvents that are harmful to health.

Necessary materials

In order to make simple pencils, you will need a lead made of clay and graphite, as well as wood. For buyers who do not pay attention to quality, cheap alder goods are produced. Such wood, in addition to its nondescript appearance, does not hold the stylus tightly inside.

More expensive products are made from pine, as well as cedar and jelutong - a tropical tree. Their performance characteristics are quite high. However, the best wood for pencils is California cedar. Stationery made of this material is considered prestigious and has a high cost.

Technical equipment of production

Equipment for the production of pencils is diverse. For the process during which the clay is cleaned, special mills will be required. Crushers will also be needed. Clay diluted in water is poured with liquid glass.

At the same time, it is freed from unnecessary impurities, which include sand. After that, according to the technology, a binder from starch and graphite is added to the clay. The resulting core mass must have a certain humidity and temperature. If this condition is not observed, the raw material is subject to deterioration.

Equipment for the production of pencils includes a screw press. A carefully mixed "dough" of clay and graphite is sent to it. In a screw press, the incoming mass is molded. This happens with the help of rollers having three different gaps.

After passing through this stage, the mass is crushed and becomes homogeneous, without air bubbles with excessive moisture. The thickness of the resulting layer gradually decreases from 1 to 0.25 mm. This happens after the mass has been re-treated.

Equipment for the production of pencils includes a die with holes. A mass of graphite and clay is passed through it, taking the form of "noodles". The resulting blanks pass through special cylinders, from which a rod of the required diameter and length is squeezed out by a press.

The equipment for the production of pencils must necessarily include drying cabinets with a continuous rotation process for 15-16 hours. In these devices, the rods should dry thoroughly, reaching a moisture content of 0.5%. The next step is the calcination of the material. It is carried out in special crucibles.

The technology for the production of cores for colored pencils has some differences. Their recipe, in addition to clay, includes fillers, dyes, fattening and binding components. Such rods are not subjected to heat treatment. This is important for the preservation of color pigments.

In parallel with the rods, the product cases are manufactured. In this case, a machine for the production of pencils is used. With its help, future products are trimmed to the required length, taking into account further machining and shrinkage. On a multi-saw machine, wood blanks are sawn into planks. After that, they are impregnated with paraffin in special autoclaves.

This improves the mechanical characteristics of the finished pencil. With the help of a special machine, the prepared boards, the thickness of which is equal to half the thickness of the future product, are folded into “wells”, where the drying process takes place. On the blanks, grooves are made from the stylus. After that, the boards are covered with a layer of PVA glue.

The next stage of the technological process is the assembly of the product. The lead is inserted into the groove of one workpiece and covered with another. The planks are compressed in a special device called a clamp. After that, the resulting blocks pass through the milling line, where they are separated into pencils with the help of knives. At the next stage of the technological process, the workpieces are leveled, polished, primed and coated with varnish and paint.

Souvenir products

Currently, pencils with a logo are very popular. The production of such products is carried out for offices and for promotions.

A branded pencil is a great souvenir or corporate gift. In this case, the image on the original product can be applied by one of two methods - hot stamping or pad printing.

The pencil has become an absolutely indispensable thing in human life. Starting from kindergarten, he accompanies a person at school, university, at home and in the office. Finally, it is simply necessary when solving crossword puzzles.

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

How much does a used line in a complete set cost? 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, wages of workers and utility costs.

It is rather difficult to name the exact payback periods for such a business as the production of pencils. First of all, they depend on the volume of products produced and on the starting (initial) capital.

In addition, during the initial time, all profits are most often invested in promotion on the market, since competition among companies that produce not only simple, but also colored pencils is quite high, especially among Western factories, with which domestic ones compete little due to 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 according to the following technologies. Previously, the wooden blank 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 tree, provides it with strength for subsequent painting. Then the hull is painted.

Savings at each stage of the technological process, although it reduces the cost of 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 chewing writing instruments. 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 also affects the quality of the wood. How the pencil is made depends on how the finished product will subsequently look, and how easy it will be sharpened. The cheapest goods, intended for undemanding 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 firmly.

Wood

The most common type of wood, which 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 a sufficiently viscous material to hold the rod tightly.

A higher quality and, accordingly, more expensive pencil is a product made from pine, cedar, and also a 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 tree is very expensive and is considered prestigious.

stylus

First, a pencil core 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. And vice versa, if there is a lot of kaolin in the lead, the composition of simple pencils will turn out to be more solid.

It is very important how the stationery is sharpened. A neat and even chip is ensured by the quality of the wood. At the same time, it is very important that the core is located in the center of the body, because if this technology for the production of pencils is violated, the lead is cut off unevenly during sharpening.

In addition, to prevent the stem from breaking if pencils are dropped, many office supply manufacturers use what is known as SV lead sizing. In this case, it breaks only at the sharpened tip, and not inside the case.

Paint stage

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

Equipment

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, which is made from starch, are added to it. The core mass must have a certain temperature and humidity. The slightest deviation leads to deterioration of raw materials.

The carefully beaten “dough”, kneaded 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 re-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 already squeezes out a rod with the required length and diameter. The rods are thoroughly dried in drying ovens, where continuous rotation takes place for fifteen or sixteen hours. The humidity of the finished element should not be more than half a percent. After drying, they are calcined already in the oven in special crucibles.

Colour pencils

Colored pencil leads are made somewhat differently. They contain pigments, as well as fillers with binders and fattening agents. Clay or kaolin is the main raw material.

Each more or less large manufacturer has its own recipe for making leads, which is kept a great secret. Many additive factories use dyes and waxes, as well as natural cellulose-based fillers and binders.

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

At the stage when fat is added, which gives a color mark and keeps it on 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 leads are moistened in hot fat. Most often, this technology is used in the production of high-quality watercolor pencils.

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