Pencil production process. How are pencils made? Production of pencils. Special coloring and original shape of pencils

Secrets of complex production of simple objects.

While technological progress is changing the world at breakneck speed, expanding its boundaries and our ideas about it, we sometimes stop noticing the ordinary things that surround us every day.

Despite the simplicity of its design, which has hardly changed for several centuries, the pencil is not at all easy to manufacture. One of the last pencil factories in America, General Pencil, since 1889, has been creating objects from graphite, wood, wax and paint that can be found in all art and stationery stores across the country: pencils and watercolors, charcoal, pastel crayons and others.

Pencil leads are made from a mixture of graphite powder and clay mixed with water and stirred for several hours. The finished mass is passed through a hydraulic press and cut into pieces of equal length. It's all a bit like making noodles. Different thicknesses of leads are achieved by using different diameters of dies.

The blanks are still soft and flexible because there is water left in them. They are heated in an oven to harden them. The longer the heating time, the higher the hardness of the future pencil.

By the way, in Russia there are three types of hardness (soft, hard and hard-soft), in Europe there are four (an intermediate option between hard and hard-soft appears), and in the USA there are already five (another version of a super-hard pencil is added).

The firing of the lead, depending on the desired gradation, is carried out at a temperature from 800 to 1200 °C. Graphite sand is used to distribute heat evenly when heating leads in a kiln. The sand is then poured out for further processing.

After heating, the rods are placed in these perforated jars and dipped in a container with hot wax for 12 hours. Wax particles fill all the pores in the rod and contribute to a smoother sliding of the lead on the paper. By the way, the product used for the so-called fatliquor bath also affects the hardness of the pencil. For the hardest leads, wax is used, for semi-soft ones - stearin, and for soft ones - confectionery fat.

Cooled rods. A little later they will be placed in wooden blanks, glued and formed into a pencil. You can see how this looks in the example of pastels below.

The basement where workers process graphite is a gray universe: men in gray shirts with gray hands feed gray ingredients to gray machines. The man pictured below has been working at the factory for 47 years. The machine behind him processes graphite and charcoal.

Other rooms of the factory delight with brighter colors. Colored (pastel) rods are made in the same way as graphite rods, using white clay (kaolin), and pigments are added instead of graphite.

The machine, which turns pastels into soft, spaghetti-like tubes, typically takes a week to process one color. It is then thoroughly cleaned to prepare for another color. White crayons, one of the company's signature products, are made in a special machine separately from the other colors.

In the photo, fragile handmade colored rods are carefully placed into cedar planks.

Graphite rods are stronger than pastel ones, so they are placed into blanks by a special machine.

The second layer of wood completely covers the pencil lead. The resulting “sandwich” is held together with glue, pressed in a press and dried.

After the paint is applied, the pencils are returned by conveyor to be covered with the next layer (usually four in total).

Editorial pencils are usually sharpened on both sides: one leaves red marks, the other leaves blue marks. The leads inside are of two different colors, and there are also two paints. The pencil holders you see will soon be turned over and dipped in blue paint.

Ordinary pencils, sharpened on one side, can be equipped with erasers or simply plug tips.

The metal rings that attach erasers to pencils are called ferrules.

On this conveyor, ferrules and erasers are connected to pencils.

Some pencils come with smooth metal caps—no ferrule or eraser.

Finished pencils are sharpened using a high-speed sanding belt.

Finally, the pencils are cleaned, filled and packaged. Finished products are sent to the store to become useful and reliable assistants to their owners.

You can only learn about how pencils are created in each specific factory from the manufacturers themselves. However, they all have common points that usually do not change for decades.

For a classic wooden pencil, an important component is the wood from which it is made. Not every tree can be cut down and made into a pack of pencils. It is not easy to find out what type of wood a particular pencil is made of: the seller in the store does not know about this, and there is no identification mark on the pencil itself, so you need to pay attention to the cost of the pencil and the authority of the manufacturer.

Wood used to make pencils:

1. Alder

Rice.

Alder is common in the temperate climate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. The wood is not durable, but has a fairly uniform structure. This makes it easier to process and gives it a beautiful reddish color. Smoother and thicker trunks are therefore used for crafts, carpentry and turning.

It is not used actively in the production of pencils due to the fact that the lead does not hold well. More used for making souvenirs, including souvenir pencils.

2. Linden

Rice.

Linden is perhaps the most common tree, which fully satisfies all the requirements for raw materials for inexpensive pencils.

Linden grows almost everywhere; it is a material familiar to everyone, viscous enough to hold the lead tightly.

Linden wood, depending on the type of processing, is divided into several types: linden (from English - “linden”; halves of a pencil made from such wood may differ slightly in color), white linden (more carefully selected material, white wood, pencil color smooth), rose wood (linden tinted pink to make it more noble) and chemical wood (linden also tinted pink, but of higher quality, the wood looks uniform). Depending on the quality of wood processing, the price also varies.

A fairly fast-growing deciduous tree, most widely distributed in European Russia. The lifespan of linden trees is much shorter than that of oak, and only rare individuals live to be 150 years old.

3. Cedar

Rice.

Cedar wood is light, strong and easy to cut in all directions, making it a valuable raw material for pencil production.

4. Jelutong

Rice.

Jelutong belongs to the kutra family (lat. Apocynaceae). It is a tree species in Malaysia. Also found in Borneo, Sumatra and Thailand.

An adult jelutong usually grows up to 60 meters in height, and the diameter of the tree trunk reaches 2 meters. In rare cases, up to 80 meters, with a diameter of up to 3 meters.

Jelutong wood is usually white or straw-colored and straight-grained. Dries easily without splintering, easy to process and finish.

Jelutong is especially suitable for creating artistic products. Excellent for modeling and pencil production.

Each of us, from an early age, while engaged in creativity, or in school lessons, came across such an object as a pencil. Most often, people treat it as something ordinary, as a simple and useful thing. But few people thought about how complex the technological process of its production is.

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

In order to see with our own eyes the process of producing 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 accessible. 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 lead to the final product - pencils. Let's take a closer look at the pencil production process.
To produce pencils, the factory receives specially processed and laid linden boards. But before they are used, writing rods must be made.

Let's move on to the pencil lead manufacturing workshop. 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 along a conveyor to the next production site.

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

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

It is worth noting 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 resulting semi-finished products. There is virtually no waste from production, since they reuse it.

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

The technology for producing rods itself is reminiscent of extrusion. The carefully prepared and mixed mass is squeezed out through a special stamp with holes.

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

And dry in the closet for 16 hours.

After this, the rods are carefully sorted by hand.

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

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

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

After this, the rods go to the assembly. Pencil boards are prepared on such machines. Grooves are cut into them for installing writing rods.

The cutting part of the machine makes grooves in the boards.

The boards automatically go into such a clip.

After this, on another machine, the rods are laid into pre-prepared planks.

After laying, the halves of the planks are glued together with PVA glue and left to dry under pressure. The essence of this operation is that the rod itself is not glued to the boards. Its diameter is larger than the diameter of the groove, and in order for the structure to close, a press is needed. The rod will be held in the wood not by glue, but by the tension of the wooden shell (prestress specially created in this way in the design of the pencil).

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

The pencils are gradually sawn through several processing cycles.

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

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

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

Pencil painting line.

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

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

After painting, the pencils are put into batches to be sent to the next sections of the factory.

It is a great pleasure to look at thousands of pencils colored using the factory’s proprietary technology. This is a very unusual sight.

Surface finishing technological line.

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

If necessary, pencils are sharpened on a special machine before packaging. 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.

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

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

At the packaging area, pencils are sorted and packed by hand. There is a special atmosphere here. People work quietly and silently. Many employees have continuous work experience at the factory for more than 40 years.

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

Before leaving, I went into a room with demonstration stands for the factory's products. The factory logo evokes some kind of nostalgia. After all, these pencils are familiar to each of us since childhood.
The factory produces several product lines. Professional series of pencils for artists, decorators and designers.

Samples of pencils supplied to the government of the Russian Federation. For the design of the pencils, a design was chosen to match the color of the standard malachite desktop instruments of Russian government workers. But besides this, they have other differences from ordinary pencils: firstly, their shape is made with maximum consideration for the ergonomics of an adult’s hand, and in addition, they use a special “lumograph” type rod for making notes in the margins and in a diary; it does not smear with the hand , but can be easily erased with an eraser without damaging the paper.

Pencils for engineering drawing:

Original factory souvenir products.

The visit to the factory was very exciting and educational. It was very interesting for me to see how much original technology and labor goes into making such a seemingly simple object as a pencil.

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

A short video about how pencils are made.

There are two main types of pencils - plain and colored. A simple pencil has a graphite lead and writes, depending on the hardness of the graphite, in a gray color - from light to almost black. Simple pencils differ in the hardness of the lead, which is designated by the letters M (or B in the English version) - soft and T (or H) - hard. An ordinary - hard-soft pencil is marked with the letters TM or NI (sometimes it is also designated with the letter F). This marking is applied to the body of the pencil. If the pencil is not marked in any way, this means that it is hard-soft. Colored pencils also come in several types: classic colored (single-sided and double-sided), wax, pastel, watercolor, etc.

Despite the fact that a graphite pencil is popularly called “simple”, the technology for its production turns out to be much more complex than the technology for producing colored pencils, since, unlike the latter, it requires additional firing.

The lead of simple pencils is made from white clay - kaolin and graphite, and the core of colored pencils consists of kaolin with colored pigments. Moreover, the pigments themselves can be either synthetic or natural. The lead, which contains natural ingredients, is more convenient to use, provides a soft application, and produces bright, saturated colors that do not fade even under direct exposure to sunlight. Special emulsions are added to the lead of watercolor pencils, which dissolve upon contact with water, creating a uniform layer of paint on paper - the so-called watercolor effect.

Pastel pencil leads are produced by pressing natural pigments and linseed oil. And the lead of wax pencils contains wax as a binder, as the name implies. It creates a strong grip on the lead, leaves a wide oily mark and provides better glide on the paper.

The production process of wood-cased pencils is fully automated and consists of several stages: production of lead, tablets, connection of components and processing of blanks. First of all, the lead of future pencils is made from a mixture of clay and graphite. The proportions of the components at the stage of mixing graphite and clay determine the hardness of the future lead. The more graphite added to the lead, the softer its structure will be. If kaolin predominates in the lead, the pencil will be harder.

The clay undergoes preliminary cleaning. To do this, the raw materials are first crushed in crushers, then mixed with warm water in special mills. Clay diluted in water is poured with liquid glass to get rid of foreign impurities - sand, etc. Then graphite is added to the clay, according to the recipe, and a binder, which is cooked from starch.

The core mass must be of a certain temperature and humidity. The slightest deviation from the norm will lead to damage to the raw materials. For example, if the mixture dries out, it will become too hard, which can cause equipment failure. The thoroughly kneaded “dough” of graphite and clay goes into a screw press. There it is formed through rollers with three different gaps. As a result of this procedure, the mass is crushed, becomes homogeneous, and air bubbles and excess moisture are removed from it. The thickness of the dough gradually decreases with each repeated processing - from 1 mm to 0.25 mm.

Then the mass is passed through a die with holes, after which it turns into the so-called “noodles”. It is formed into cylinders, from which a rod of the required length and diameter is extruded using a press. The rods need to be dried. This is carried out in drying cabinets with continuous rotation for 15-16 hours. The moisture content of the finished rod should not exceed 0.5%. After drying, the rods are calcined in special crucibles in an oven. During the firing process, the binder is burned out in the core, and the sintered clay forms the frame of the lead.

In addition to the clay ratio, the degree of hardness of the finished pencil is also affected by the temperature and duration of firing, as well as the components that are part of the so-called fatliquor bath. The firing of the lead, depending on the desired gradation, is carried out at a temperature of 800 to 1200 degrees Celsius. After firing, the rods are placed in a special greasing bath. As a result of this operation, the pores that formed in the graphite after burning out the binder are filled with fat, stearin or wax under pressure at a certain temperature.

Sometimes edible and confectionery fats, as well as additional binders (for example, based on starch), can be used as raw materials. The choice of substance used for greasing depends on the hardness of the rod. For example, for pencils with a soft lead, confectionery fat is used, and for hard ones, wax is used. Fat stearin is used to make leads of intermediate hardness (for example, hard-soft). Large diameter rods are produced on vertical masonry presses.

Cores for colored pencils are made somewhat differently. They contain pigments, fillers, binders and fatliquoring substances. Clay (kaolin) is the main raw material. Pigments, binders and, in some cases, fatty additives are added to it. Each manufacturer has its own recipe for making leads, which is kept a big secret. Many factories also use other additional additives, including dyes, natural fillers, waxes, and cellulose-based binders.

After mixing all the components, the mixture is extruded using a press, and the output is rods of the desired diameter. They are cut into pieces of a given length and then dried at room temperature. As we mentioned above, only graphite rods are subject to hardening. Cores for colored pencils do not undergo heat treatment, since under the influence of high temperatures, color pigments are destroyed (if we are talking about components of natural origin) or significantly change color (this applies, first of all, to inorganic components).

At the stage of adding fat, which gives a color mark and holds the colored particles on the paper, two different technologies can be used: the so-called cold or hot “preparation”. In cold preparation, fat is added to the mixture while mixing the components. As a rule, this technology is used in the production of inexpensive pencils of average quality, the lead of which consists of organic pigments, which, in turn, are contraindicated at high temperatures.

Hot preparation is carried out immediately after drying the rods. As a result of this procedure, the leads are soaked in hot fat. This method is used in the production of quality art (especially watercolor) pencils. The composition of such a bath is one of the main trade secrets of the factory, but, in any case, it contains high-quality organic fats (for example, coconut or sunflower oil).

All colored pencils are conventionally divided into school (high-quality, inexpensive and cheap) and art. The latter are distinguished by the highest quality and good coloring properties. But, in any case, regardless of the price category, the leads of both pencils and colored pencils must undergo several stages of quality control, if, of course, the manufacturing company cares about its reputation.

Simultaneously with the production of rods, pencil cases are manufactured. The pencil body is made from various types of wood, which determines the quality of the finished product. For example, alder and poplar wood is considered low quality. In order to achieve satisfactory cabinet quality, this material requires expensive processing, which cannot be afforded by the small manufacturers who choose this wood. Linden wood is considered to be of satisfactory quality. It is most often used to produce inexpensive school pencils. The wood of pine, jelutong and cedar (Siberian and Californian) is considered high quality, expensive and is used for the production of special artistic pencils.

The process of making a wooden pencil case consists of several operations. First of all, you will need ready-made blocks of wood. They are cut along the length of future pencils with allowances for machining and drying. Wooden blanks are sawn into individual planks on a multi-rip machine and impregnated with paraffin in autoclaves to improve the mechanical properties of the finished product. The thickness of each plank is half the thickness of the finished product. When steamed, the resins are removed from the boards, and the wood becomes light brown with a pink tint.

After which the boards are dried in “wells”, where they are folded using a machine. The installation method used allows you to increase the area of ​​the board that comes into contact with hot steam. On the one hand, this optimizes the production process, and on the other, it allows maximum removal of moisture from the raw materials. The “wells” are moved to drying rooms, where they remain for 72 hours. Then the planks are removed and sorted. During sorting, defects are removed (split workpieces, incorrectly sawn boards, etc.). The boards, impregnated with various compounds and dried, are sorted and calibrated by size.

Grooves or grooves for the stylus are made on each board, and then PVA glue is applied to it in an even layer. After which the pencil is assembled: a lead is inserted into one of the two boards, and then it is covered with the second board. In this case, the rod itself is not glued to the board, but is held in place by the tension of the “shell.”

Since the diameter of the rod is slightly larger than the diameter of the groove, proper compression of the board in a special device - a clamp, where pencils are glued - is of great importance. According to production technology, pencils of a certain size and type use their own pressing pressure. Deviation from the recommended indicators leads to a large number of defects: pencils simply break under pressure.

The resulting blocks enter the milling and throughput line, where they are separated into pencils using knives. The type of knife determines the shape of the future pencil - faceted, oval or round. Then the almost finished pencils are sent for sorting on a conveyor belt. Sorters check each pencil, identifying and removing defective products.

The blanks obtained as a result of crimping are sawn along the length of the pencil, leveled, sanded, primed and coated with paint and varnish. The surface of the pencil is opened with paint and varnish using the drawing (extrusion) method, and its ends - by dipping. In the first case, the pencil is passed through a priming apparatus. First, it moves in one direction while simultaneously applying varnish or paint, and then at the other end of the conveyor it turns over and returns back. This helps create an even and uniform coating.

Pencils of dark colors are covered with at least five layers of paint, and four layers of varnish. In light colors, the pencil is painted with at least seven layers of paint and four varnishes. But ideally, in order for the surface of the pencil to be smooth, without smudges and “burrs,” the total number of layers of varnish should be at least seven to eight (the more layers, the more expensive the finished product). The maximum number of layers is 18.

A so-called dipping machine is used to color the ends of pencils. With its help, the frame with pencils is carefully lowered into the paint tank. But in some cases, paint and varnish are not required. For example, pencils with cedar bodies go on sale without additional wood processing. It is believed that the texture of the wood itself is quite beautiful and does not require painting or varnishing. The indication of lead hardness is applied to the pencil by impact hot stamping using colored foil tape.

Pencils go on sale in two forms - sharpened and unsharpened. Products of the first type are packed into boxes exclusively by hand, while the second type is packed manually and using special automatic and semi-automatic equipment. A semi-automatic machine can pack about 15 thousand pencils per shift; an automatic machine can pack more than ten times that amount. The machines pack boxes of six or twelve pencils each. The productivity of pencil packaging equipment is, on average, 350-550 packages per hour.

So, the quality and, therefore, the cost of the finished product is influenced by strict adherence to the technological process during the production of the lead and body and during assembly. The pencil core should be located strictly in the center of the body. If the centering of the lead is not correct, then when sharpening it will be cut unevenly and it will be impossible to draw with such a pencil.

When sharpening a pencil, the type of wood you use is also important. Poor quality material crumbles, but linden, pine or cedar wood produces smooth, neat chips when sharpening the product. High-quality double sizing of the lead is of great importance. It protects the rod from deformation inside the housing. This pencil is not afraid of falling even from a great height. The “rule of eight layers” ensures not only the aesthetic appearance of a product made of alder, linden or poplar, but also protects against splinters. And, of course, the safety of the materials used in production – from wood to paint and varnish – is of particular importance. In particular, only safe water-based varnish is used to produce pencils.

The total cost of the necessary equipment for the production of pencils and colored pencils starts from 2.5 million rubles. This is how much the cheapest used line (most likely incomplete) will cost. Add to this the cost of renting production premises (minimum 50 square meters for small production), payment of utility costs, and wages to employees.

To work in the production of pencils, the following specialists will be needed: a board calibrator, a sharpener of pencils, rods and sticks, a pencil and rod assembler, a pencil inker, a printing machine operator, an operator of an automatic white pencil production line, a graphite rod burner, an operator of automatic pencil assembly machines, a rolling line operator , operator of dispersion mixers for the preparation of core mass, automatic pencil finisher, pencil block presser, rod presser, pencil board impregnator, rod impregnator, pencil mass grinder, rod roller, rod thread cutter, mixer, sorter in pencil production, rod dryer, batcher , lead grinder, pencil stamper. Of course, the exact number and types of specialists that will be required to work in a factory depend on the size of production, product range, technology used and budget.

Finished products are sold, as a rule, through wholesale companies. The produced batches of pencils are too large, so it is not practical for manufacturers to work directly with retail chains.

It is difficult to name the exact payback period for a pencil production business. First of all, they depend on the volume of production and the initial starting capital. In addition, during the first time, all profits will most likely be invested in promoting their products on the market, since competition among manufacturers of simple and colored pencils is very high (especially among Western manufacturers, with whom domestic factories cannot yet compete in the quality of their products). their products). The minimum payback period, according to some sources, ranges from 2-3 years (for a small enterprise).

Liliya Sysoeva
- portal of business plans and manuals

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 differently in each factory. But there are also general points that are fundamental to the production process.

What tree?

A classic wooden pencil has an important component - wood, the quality of which determines the use of this accessory. It is clear that not every tree is suitable for these purposes. In the past, wood from Virginia or red cedar, which belongs to the juniper genus, was used in industry. Long fibers, absence of knots, ease of processing - this is what attracted attention in this material. But due to the high cost, European and American brands producing pencils began to use California cedar wood. Moreover, high-quality products are created on its basis, which 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 from in our country? In most cases, from alder and linden, of which there are a huge number in Russia.

Alder is not the most durable material, but it has a uniform structure, which makes the processing process easier and preserves its 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 holds the lead firmly.

A unique material for creating pencils is cedar, which is widely used in factories in Russia. It is noteworthy that it is not healthy wood that is used, but specimens that no longer produce nuts.

Core: what is the basis?

Pencils are produced using a special core. 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, which 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 shaped using a special press and then passed through equipment with holes, which makes the mass look like noodles. These noodles are formed into cylinders from which rods are extruded. All that remains is to heat them in special crucibles. Then the rods are fired, and then fattening is performed: the formed pores are filled with fat, stearin or wax under pressure and at a specific temperature.

How are colored pencils made? Here, the fundamental difference is, again, the rod, which is made from pigments, fillers, fatliquoring components and a binder. Here the rod production process is as follows:

• the manufactured rods are placed in special grooves on the board and covered with a second board;
• both boards are glued together with PVA glue, but the rod should not stick;
• the ends of the glued planks are aligned;
• preparation is performed, that is, adding fat to the existing mixture.

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

Wood preparation stage

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

Depending on what the pencil is made of, it will be sharpened. 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 properly glued - such a pencil will not break even if dropped.

What 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 shell should not break or crumble, like the entire body.
2. Do not delaminate 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 resistant to moisture.

What equipment?

Pencil production is carried out using a variety of equipment. For example, cleaning clay from which a graphite rod will subsequently be created requires special mills and crushers. 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. For the same purposes, a die with holes is used. Drying of wooden blanks is carried out in a place where the products are subjected to rotation for 16 hours. When properly dried, the wood acquires a moisture level of a maximum of 0.5%. As for colored pencils, they are not subject to heat treatment due to the presence of fillers, dyes and fattening components. Pencils are trimmed lengthwise on a special machine.

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 laid so that drying is as efficient as possible. In these wells, drying is carried out for approximately 72 hours, then the boards are sorted: all cracked or unsightly products are rejected. Selected blanks are refined with paraffin and calibrated, that is, special grooves are cut out on them where the rods will be located.

How are pencils made in production? Now a milling-through line is 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 fastening the stylus in a wooden case: this should be done firmly and reliably, which reduces the risk of the stylus elements falling out. The elastic glue used for binding makes the lead stronger.

Coating features

Modern pencils and colored pencils come in a huge variety of designs and colors. Since pencils are made in a factory, close attention is paid to each stage of production. Painting is one of the important stages, as it must meet a number of requirements. The extrusion method is used to finish the surface, and the end is finished by dipping. In the first case, the pencil passes through a priming machine, where at the end of the conveyor it is turned over to apply the next layer. This way you get an even coating.

Paint quality: what does it depend on?

The quality of painting depends on how well the paint materials themselves meet the established requirements, whether the priming machine is set up correctly, and whether the drying times for pencils on the tape are met. 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 done with special primer paints that have a certain viscosity and contain pigments. If the pigment part is large, this will reduce the shine of the film and require further application of nitro varnish to the surface. Even simple pencils are varnished using nitrocellulose gloss varnish.

If the pencil is dark in color, it must be painted with at least 5 layers and 4 layers of varnish. To achieve light shades, a combination of 7 layers of paint with 4 layers of varnish is used. At the same time, for a uniform and accurate coating, it is important that the surface has a maximum of 18 layers. Coloring the end parts of pencils is done in a dipping machine, into which a frame with pencils placed 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 selection of products in plastic, varnished and even paper casings. On the one hand, this adds beauty and unusualness to them, on the other hand, if they fall, there will be little left of such pencils.

After painting, the pencils undergo finishing. For this, various stamps and foil of different colors are used. This processing process is called thermostatting.

What is the hardness?

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

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

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

Features of colored pencils

We have already figured out what simple pencils are made of. Now we need to understand when and how they appeared. It is known that the first products with colored lead appeared back in 1820, although who invented them remained a mystery. The basis of colored lead is a combination of a connecting substance, colored pigments and filler. Kaolin glue acts as a connecting substance, due to which the lead form is formed. Well-ground, high-quality colored materials are used as color pigments, and the pigment can be of an organic or inorganic base. The color pigments themselves are created on the basis of materials that are resistant to fading under the influence of sunlight and are environmentally safe. Today pencils are produced in 36 color shades according to the international Pantone shade scale. As for fillers, kaolin and chalk are used, which are thoroughly crushed.