How are Crayons and markers made?

Practically all of us at one time have used a crayon or a marker pen. In this article we'll go on
a tour of the Crayola Factory in Easton, Penn.

Binney & Smith, the maker of Crayola products, started out in the late 1800s making the
color pigment for the paint used on the common red barns in rural America. Binney &
Smith's carbon black was used by the Goodrich tire company to make automobile tires black
and more durable. Originally, tires were white, the natural color of rubber.

Crayons got their name from Edwin Binney's wife, Alice. She combined the words craie
(French for chalk) with the first part of the word oleaginous (the oily paraffin wax) to make
the word "crayola."

The two basic ingredients for a crayon are:

 Pigment
 Paraffin wax, stored in heated 17,000 gallon tanks

The mixture is heated until it melts into a liquid. Crayons melt at 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40
degrees Celsius). The mixture is heated to 190 F (82 C). The liquid is poured into a preheated
mold full of hundreds of crayon-shaped holes. Cool water (55 F, 13 C) is used to cool the
mold, allowing the crayon to be made in 3 to 9 minutes. A single mold makes 1,200 crayons
at a time, weighing a total of about 40 pounds. The operator uses hydraulic pressure to eject
the crayons from the mold. Earlier mold designs used a hand crank to push up the crayons.
The just-molded crayons are then manually quality checked for imperfections and inspected
for broken tips. The excess wax from the mold and any rejected crayons are recycled to be re-
melted. More than 120 crayon colors are possible.

Binney & Smith also uses injection molding that allows them to make 2.4 to 6.4 million
crayons in a day.

Liquid paraffin in a mold.Click picture for a 5-second movie clip.

Since younger users of crayons may have a tendency to peel off a crayon label and ingest it,
Binney & Smith uses a non-toxic cornstarch and water mixture for the glue that holds the
label on the Crayola crayon. The label machine wraps the crayon twice to give it strength.
The Binney & Smith label machine design has stayed essentially the same since 1943! Bare
crayons are fed from one hopper while labels are fed from a separate hopper. Glue is added to
the glue pot and the label machine is started. The glue transfers to a slot in a drum that a
crayon goes into. The label is then fed onto the drum where a roller presses the label against
the glue, where the label is then tucked and wrapped around the crayon twice. Before 1943,
crayons were hand-wrapped by farmers in the winter months to supplement their income.

The labels are in 11 languages and 18 different color labels are used for all the crayons.

Crayon awaiting label.

Crayon label being applied. The white roller at the right spreads the cornstarch glue. Click picture for a
5-second movie clip.

Crayons are packed in boxes of various sizes from 2 - 96 crayons per box. Small packages of
2, 3 or 4 crayons are purchased for party packs and restaurants.
 Labeled Crayons in packing machine. Click picture for a 5-second movie clip.

Marker Manufacturing

The steps:

1. The barrel is molded from plastic resin.

2. The barrel is screen printed.
3. A cotton-like filament that holds the ink is inserted into the end barrel.
4. Plastic plug is inserted at one end of the barrel.
5. Ink is injected at the other end of the barrel using a hypodermic-like needle.
6. The tip (writing nib) is inserted in this same end.
7. Plastic cap is placed on the marker.

Parts of a marker pen. Click picture for a 5-second movie clip showing a new pen getting capped.

8. The ink slowly transfers to the new writing tip:

 Ink flowing into the tip of a new marker pen.

Interesting Facts About Crayola Crayons

 A national poll in 1993 revealed blue and red are the most popular crayon colors.
 After coffee and peanut butter, the scent of a crayon is the third most recognizable
scent.
 On average, a child uses 730 crayons by their 10th birthday!

Crayons, no doubt, play a major role in developing a child's creativity. Regarding the market standard of
crayons, there are many brands that release specific types of crayons. For example, scented crayons,
crayons that glow in dark, sparkling crayons and water soluble crayons. The base component for making
all these types of crayon are same; the additional color and scent are incorporated by supplementing
specific ingredients during the crayon making process.

The basic ingredients in crayons are paraffin wax and pigments that impart specific color to the crayons.
In commercial crayon making, the paraffin wax is heated first until it melts. Following this, specific
amounts of crayon coloring agent and hardening powder are added to the hot liquid wax. After testing
the density and viscosity of the liquid mixture, it is poured into a mold that consists of hundreds of
crayon-shaped holes.

Once the liquid mixture cools down, it solidifies and forms crayons. Hardened crayons are removed from
the mold by applying hydraulic pressure or other removal methods. Prior to packaging the crayons, the
crayon sticks are manually checked for any defects. Well-solidified and uniform crayons are labeled and
packed for release in the market. The wax leftovers or any rejected crayons are melted and recycled for
further production of crayons. This is how crayons are made commercially on a large scale.

While speaking about homemade crayons, they can be made by using the following ingredients - ½ cup
soap flakes, food coloring (color as per your choice) and 1 tablespoon hot water. First of all, combine the
soap flakes and hot water in a small mixing bowl. Stir well the mixture to form a fine paste. Add food
coloring slowly pinch by pinch and stir each time, so that the food coloring is dissolved completely. Stop
adding the color when you achieve the desired crayon color.

Add the paste into the candy molds carefully by using a small spoon. Make sure that there are no air
bubbles within the molds. Leave aside the crayons and allow them to cool down completely. Then
remove the crayons from the mold and leave them for a day. Follow the same procedure for making
different colored crayons. If you wrap these homemade crayons in an attractive packing, then it makes a
perfect personalized gift. You can also melt broken and unused crayons for making crayon chunks. One
of the most interesting facts about crayons is that a child generally uses more than 700 crayon sticks
before their 10th birthday.