Feb. 14, 1967 R. C.

SHUMAN ETAL 3,303,825

BALL POINT WRITING INSTRUMENTS
Original Filled April 29, 1957

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- INVENTORS

ROBERT COWAN SHUNNAN

RANCS JOHNNNENHARDT
Fo.2 by Ware 4 24 a

United States Patent Office
3,303,825
BALL POINT WRITING INSTRUMENTS
Robert Cowan Shuman, Jamesville, and Francis John
Meinhardt, Edgerton, Wis., assignors to The Parker
Pen Company, Janesville, Wis., a corporation of Wis
consin
Continuation of application Ser. No. 655,623, Apr. 29,
1957. This application Sept. 21, 1961, Ser. No. 40,973
12 Claims. (C. 120-42.4)
The present invention generally relates to writing balls
of the type used in ball point writing instruments and it
more particularly relates to writing balls of the type hav
ing a roughened or non-smooth surface. This application
is a continuation of application Serial No. 655,623 filed
April 29, 1957, now abandoned.
In the past, the balls used in ball point pens and the
like have had a substantially smooth surface, such balls
usually being made of steel, sapphire or ruby. Smooth
surfaced balls have always been used, since it is most
important that the ball rotate freely in its socket, and for
that reason every effort has been made to make the balls
extremely smooth. On the other hand it has been known
for many years that smooth writing balls do not write
well over slick or greasy surfaces because the friction be
tween the ball and Such surfaces is less than the friction
between the ball and its socket. This failure of a ball
point writing instrument to write over such surfaces is
usually referred to as "skipping" or "sliding.” The term
"skipping" being used because the ink line skips over the
greasy spots on the writing surface, and the term "sliding"
being used since the ball slides rather than rolls over
the greasy spots.
There are many suggestions in the prior art that the
problem of "skipping" can be overcome by increasing the
friction between the ball and the writing surface by
roughening the surface of the ball. No solution is offered,
however, to the new problems which the suggested rough
ening of the ball surface would create. A rough surface
is more abrasive than a smooth surface so that if a ball
is simply roughened as suggested by the prior art, the
ball-seat wear is increased thereby reducing the useful
lift of the ball-seat assembly. Moreover, by merely
roughening the surface of the ball the wear of the ball
itself as it rolls over the writing surface would be in
creased. Accordingly, the mere provision of a ball av
ing a roughened surface is not a satisfactory solution to
the problem of ball pen "skip." Nevertheless, a solution
to this problem is desirable and, undoubtedly, would
quickly be adopted by the ball pen industry if a feasible
solution could be determined.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to pro
vide a new and improved writing ball for use in a ball
point writing instrument.
Another object of the present invention is to provide
a new and improved writing ball which has the ability to
write over slick or greasy surfaces.
Still another object of the present invention is to pro
vide a new and improved writing ball and socket com
bination wherein the friction between the ball and a slick
or greasy writing surface is greater than the friction be
tween the ball and its seat.
A further object of the present invention is to provide
a new and improved writing ball and seat combination
wherein the ball composition and surface configuration of
the ball provides improved writing surface gripping quali
ties while not appreciably increasing the wear of the ball
seat combination.
A still further object of the present invention is to pro
vide a new and improved method of making a writing
ball for use in a ball point writing instrument.
3,303,825
Patented Feb. 14, 1967
2
Briefly, the above and further objects of the present
invention may be realized by providing a cemented car
bide ball preferably formed of a plurality of carbide par
ticles cemented into a unitary mass in a sintering opera
5 tion and which is then suitably ground to provide a
homogeneous texture throughout the surface area of the
ball. The texture is formed by randomly distributed land
areas and pits which are controllably related to one an
other statistically. The land areas are formed by the
10 carbide particles and the pits are disposed between Such
ands. The sphericity of the ball must also be accurately
controlled as more fully described hereinafter or excessive
seat wear or other performance malfunctions will result.
Further objects and advantages and a better under
standing of the present invention will be had from a read
ing of the following detailed description taken in connec
tion with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is an elevational view, partly in section, of a ball
and a ball housing portion of a ball point writing instru
ment, the ball housing being shown in Section, the ball
being stippled to schematically show that the surface
thereof is textured;
FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of a greatly en
larged view of a portion of the spherical surface of the
ball shown in FIG. 1; the stippled portion representing the
pits and the portions shown as smooth surfaces represent
ing the lands;
FIG. 3 is a graph in which the curve represents the rela
tionship between the surface texture of the ball, ex
30 pressed as the percentage of the entire land area surface
of the ball, and the ability of the ball to write over greasy
Surfaces, and
FIG. 4 represents the relationship between this same
surface texture factor and the wearing of the ball seat by
the ball.
Referring now to the drawings and particularly to FIG.
1 thereof, there is shown the writing tip for a ball point
pen comprising a tip housing 6 having a centrally arranged
feed duct 7 extending therethrough for feeding ink from
a rearwardly disposed reservoir, not shown, into a for
wardly disposed socket having a base or rear Seat por
tion 8 having seating sections generally conforming to the
spherical surface of a writing ball 10. A plurality of feed
grooves or channels 8 branch outwardly from the feed
duct 7 and divide the seat portion 8 into the plurality
of separate seating surfaces. Ink is thus fed from the bore
7 through the grooves 8 to the generally annular space
which is disposed around the ball forwardly of the seat
portion 8 and rearwardly of the lip portion 9 which en
gages the ball 10 forwardly of its equator and holds it in
place within the socket. The lip portion 9 additionally
provides a metering area which controls the transfer of
ink from the socket to the ball during rotation of the ball
10 during writing.
The housing 6 may be formed of any suitable material
Such, for example, as brass, bronze or steel to permit its
formation by the usual drilling and spinning operations
although other materials may also be used,
O In accordance with an important feature of this inven
tion, the surface of the writing ball 10 is very finely and
uniformly textured throughout, being formed by a plu
rality of land areas between which are located pits or
channels. The ball 10 thus has a roughened surface and
means must be provided to minimize ball wear caused by
friction between the ball and the writing surface as well
as to minimize wear of the ball seat.
The most common writing surface is paper and the siz
ing normally used therein is silicon dioxide which is an
O eXtremely hard substance, having a hardness of about
MHO-8. Consequently, if a writing ball is not to be
worn away by the abrading action of the sizing, it should
 3,303,825
3 4
have great hardness. It is known that the carbides, such faces, the cumulative land area percentage being approx
as tungsten carbide and titanium carbide have a hardness imately 50 percent.
comparable to and greater than that of silicon dioxide and Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown a curve illus
it has been found that balls made from these are adequate trating the relationship between thc percentage cumulative
to withstand this abrasion. There are, of course, other s land area and the ability of the ball to write over slick or
materials having substantially this same degree of hard greasy surfaces.
ness, such, for example, as other carbides, borides, nitrides, It will be understood that the ability to write over a
silicides and oxides such as sapphire and ruby. slick or greasy surface depends upon many factors, and
However, the sphericity of a ball is extremcly critical although therefore, the curve shown in FiG. 3 will be
in order to minimize ball-seat wear and friction and to in somewhat displaced, depending upon these other factors,
sure acceptable performance otherwise, and, therefore, the its general shape is substantially the same for all mate
composition and structure of the ball must be compatible rials and shows the critical nature of the percentage land
with present day techniques for grinding or finishing balls. area on the surface of the ball. The curve in FIG. 3
It has been found that with these presently well-known represents the ability of a ball to write over typical greasy
techniques the necessary degree of sphericity cannot be Surfaces, as are encountered during the normal use of
obtained practicably with single crystalline structures, such a ball point pen.
as Sapphire or ruby, for the reason that these structures In accordance with an important feature of the pres
have crystallographic planes along which they preferen ent invention, it has been determined to be extremely in
tially grind or finish. In accordance with the present portant that the percentage of the cumulative land area
invention, the ball 10 is made from a multiplicity of sep 20 of the apparent total surface area of the ball be main
arate, randomly oriented, crystalline particles of tungsten tained within predetermined limits in order to provide a
carbide or the like which, after grinding, form the lands ball having acceptable writing characteristics which does
at the surface of the ball. Preferential grinding is thus not unduly wear away the seat.
avoided, since each carbide particle is extremely small and Referring to FG, 4, there is shown a curve illustrat
because of the random orientation of such particles, no 2. ing the relationship between the percentage cumulative
alignment of the crystallographic planes of the separate land area and the wear of a bronze seat resulting from
particles occurs. Consequently, a ball having the neces the relative rotation between a cenlented tungsten car
sary degree of sphericity can be ground. bide bail and the seat. A study of the curves of FIGS.
Another important feature of the present invention is 3 and 4 shows that there is a range of percentage land
that the ball 10 has a textured surface formed of land () areas which gives satisfactory writeability over greasy
areas and pits. The land areas obviously may not appear Surfaces, without causing excessive seat wear. The write
to be completely smooth, at high magnification as on the ability curve of FIG, 3 shows that when the percentage
order of 4000X, but they are, nevertheless, not sharp of cumulative land area of over-all surface area is 50
peaked surface protuberances, such as commonly charac percent or less, the ability of the ball to write over a
terize "roughened surfaces' and such as are, for example, : s greasy surface does not vary with variation in the per
typical of pitted Sapphire or ruby ball surfaces. While centage land area. Above 60 percent, the ability of the
these latter types of balls may write over slick or greasy ball to Write over a greasy surface decreases rapidly.
surfaces, the ball-seat wear is so great as to preclude their At about 80 percent land area, the curve has a very sharp
use with practical ball seat materials, knee and beyond about 85 percent land area, the ability
The ball 10 is thus a cemented carbide or similar ball 4) to write over slick surfaces is at its poorest and essentially
which is made by powder metallurgy methods. Fine no better than prior art steel or other smooth balls, and
particles of the tungsten or titanium carbide are com does not vary with variation in the percentage land area.
pacted together with cobalt or nickel or some other metal The degree of writeability of a ball which is acceptable
lic binder and are then sintered to provide an integral in any particular instance necessarily varies, but to pro
structure composed of tungsten or titanium carbide, the 45 vide a general purpose ball point pen which can be used
binder metal itself, and intermediates of the carbide and for most purposes without undue sliding or skipping, it
the binder metal. This resulting unit is finished by grind has been found, as shown in FIG. 3, that land area per
ing, to obtain a ball of the desired size, sphericity and centages exceeding 85 percent are no more satisfactory
surface character to provide sufficient sphericity to per than steel or other smooth balls of the prior art. More
form well, a land surface configuration which does not 50 Over, it will be readily understood by those skilled in
cause undue seat wear, and a cuimulative percentage land the art that on a quantity production basis each and
area which is homogeneously and randomly distributed every ball will not have exactly the same percentage land
throughout the ball surface for proper cooperation with area and, therefore, in order to minimize the number
the writing surface. Moreover, the percentage land area of balls which are manufactured with a surface area
is within the range of land areas which results in satisfac greater than 85 percent, it is preferable to employ a
tory writeability without providing undue seat wear. manufacturing process wherein the average ball has a
Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown in greatly magnified percentage land area well below 85 percent, the value
form, a portion of the surface of the ball 10. As there is at the knee of the curve, and, therefore, it is preferable
shown, the land areas 11 are formed by the carbide par to adjust the parameters of the manufacturing process
ticles 11a and the pits 12 are formed by the spaces between 60 so that most of the balls made will have a percentage
the land areas. land area well below 85 percent and preferably around
As more fully described hereafter, the ball is formed or below 70 percent.
from carbide particles, precoated with a binder metal, and Reference to FIG. 4 shows that the combination of
in the final ball each carbide particle is surrounded be a cemented tungsten carbide ball and a bronze seat re
neath the surface with a portion b' constituting an inter sults in a seat wear curve which has a knee when the
face of carbide and the binder metal and an outer portion total land area measures about 40 percent of the total
comprising substantially the pure binder metal itself. apparent surface area of the ball. When the cumula
During grinding, the major portion of the interface and tive land area exceeds 40 percent, there is acceptably
low wear, such low seat wear decreasing slowly as the
the binder metal is removed from the surface of the ball, O percentage land area is increased above 40 percent, How
whereby the land surfaces 11 are mainly carbide and the ever, with cumulative land areas less than 40 percent,
surface of the pits 12 include a greater amount of the the wear increases rapidly with decreases in the percent
binder metal. In the particular ball which is shown in age land areas. It will be apparent to those skilled in
FIG. 2, the pits 12 are substantially all interconnected to the art that the position of this knee along the abscissa
provide channels which generally surround the land sur 75 of FIG. 4 is dependent upon the hardness of the seat
 3,303,825
5 6
material, and that as the hardness of the seat material
is increased, the corresponding minimum acceptable per
centage land area decreases. It is clear that the per
centage land area has an important bearing on the seat
wear and must be maintained above some predetermined
limit which depends upon the particular material from
which the seat is made. Where a bronze seat is used,
a percentage land area below 30 percent is objection
able for a marketable ball point pen, since the ball seat
assembly will wear out before a reasonable quantity of
ink will have been written out. Where quantity produc
tion techniques are to be employed in manufacturing the
ball, it is preferable that the percentage land area be
maintained above the knee of the curve and, therefore,
above 40 percent.
Referring to the curves shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, it
will, therefore, be apparent that if the percentage land
area of the ball is maintained within the range of 30
percent to 85 percent there will be produced balls which
will write over greasy surfaces and which will not unduly
wear the ball seat,
In order to minimize seat wear and to provide satis
factory writeability of the ball over slick or greasy sur
faces, the entire surface of the ball should preferably be
textured to the same degree, that is, the surface texture
should be homogeneous throughout and to this end the
sizes of the individual land areas should be controlled.
The sizes of the land areas depend upon the size of
the carbide particles which are used in making the ball,
although the particular grinding techniques which are
used and the sintering techniques which are followed,
will have some bearing upon these values. Consequent
ly, it has been found advantageous to sinter the ball from
carbide particles having a diameter of 5 microns or less
on the average.
In order to prevent a prohibitive "flatting" effect,
which would decrease the effective sphericity of the ball
and deleteriously affect writing, the individual pit sizes
must not exceed a particular limit. For best results the
average chordal distance across pits should not exceed
32 microns for the usual 1 mm. diameter ball, or a pro
portional distance, for other sizes. An occasional "acci
dental' pit may have a distance across equal to about A0
the ball radius.
In order to form a ball having the characteristics set
forth hereinbefore, a powder metallurgy process can
readily be employed. In one such process, cobalt coated
tungsten carbide particles having a diameter of the aver
age of less than 5 microns are compacted with a suit
able binder metal, such as cobalt or nickel into a mass
which is then sintered to cement or otherwise join to
gether the carbide particles. If tungsten carbide par
ticles of sufficiently large size are used, the result is a
porous mass of particles of tungsten carbide joined to
gether by cobalt and compositions of tungsten carbide and
cobalt. However, if tungsten carbide particles having an
average size of the order of 5 microns or less in diam
eter are used, then the resulting ball is substantially solid
throughout. The sintered compact is thereafter finished
by surface grinding to an adequate sphericity. The grind
ing operation provides relatively smooth land surfaces
substantially free of the binder metal or interfaces there
of, which gives to the ball of required hardness, a Sur
face of the required spherical shape and percentage land
aa.
The percentage land areas may be observed and meas
ured in any suitable way, such as visually by means of
a light microscope, as a reference to FIG. 2 will indicate.
Such measurement may, however, be facilitated by attach
ing a cross-hatched Whipple eyepiece to the microscope
through which the ball surface is observed, thus simplify
ing the measurement of the land and pit areas.
While the present invention has been described in con
nection with a particular embodiment thereof, it will be
understood that those skilled in the art may make many
changes and modifications without departing from the
true spirit and scope of the invention and, therefore, it
is intended by the appended claims to cover all such
changes and modifications which fall within the true
spirit and scope of the invention.
We claim:
1. In a ball point writing instrument, a writing ball
comprising a plurality of carbide particles sintered to
gether to form a cemented carbide compact, said ball
O having a substantially true spherical surface except for
pits which interrupt land areas on the ball surface, said
surface having a substantially homogeneous texture
formed by randomly distributed lands and pits, said lands
being formed by carbide particles and said pits being the
5 spaces between said lands.
2. The writing ball set forth in claim 1 wherein said
ball is formed by a sintering process followed by a grind
ing operation.
3. The writing ball set forth in claim 1 wherein said
20 particles are tungsten carbide and are cemented together
by a binder metal selected from the group of cobalt and
nickel.
4. The writing ball set forth in claim 1 wherein said
carbide is tungsten carbide and the particles of tungsten
25 carbide from which the ball is made are about 5 microns
or less in diameter on the average.
5. For a ball point writing instrument, a writing ball
formed of a plurality of randomly oriented tungsten car
bide particles cemented together in a compact mass, the
30 surface of said ball being composed of land areas and pits
homogeneously and randomly distributed throughout said
surface, said land areas being formed of tungsten carbide
particles and cumulatively occupying between 30 and 85
percent of the apparent surface area of the ball.
35 6. A tip for a ball point writing instrument compris
ing a socket formed of a metal having about the same
degree of hardness as bronze, and the writing ball set
forth in claim 5.
7. A ball for a writing instrument comprising a ce
40 mented carbide compact having a homogeneously and ran
domly distributed texture formed by lands and pits,
wherein the average distance across pits does not exceed
32 microns, and the land areas cumulatively occupy be
tween 30 and 85 percent of the apparent surface area of
45 the ball.
8. The method of making a writing ball for a ball point
writing instrument, comprising forming a sintered compact
of randomly oriented carbide particles and a binder metal,
said particles having an average diameter of 5 microns or
50 less, and thereafter grinding said compact into a sphere
wherein the land areas cumulatively occupy between 30
and 85 percent of the apparent surface area of the ball.
9. The method of making a writing ball for a ball
point writing instrument, comprising forming a sintered
55 compact of randomly oriented carbide particles and a
binder metal, said particles having an average diameter
of 5 microns or less, and thereafter grinding said compact
into a sphere wherein the average distance across pits is
no greater than 32 microns, and the cumulative land area
60 occupies between 30 and 85 percent of the total apparent
surface of the ball.
10. A writing ball for a ball point writing instrument
comprising a spherical compact of carbide particles and
a cobalt binder, said compact having a homogeneously
65 textured surface formed of land areas and intermediate
pits, said land areas being formed of carbide and being
substantially free of cobalt, said pits having a surface
which is substantially cobalt, and said land areas cumu
latively occupying between 30 and 85 percent of the total
70
apparent surface of the ball.
11. A writing ball for a ball point writing instrument
comprising a spherical compact of carbide particles and
a nickel binder, said compact having a homogeneously
75 textured surface formed of land areas and intermediate
 3,303,825
7 8
pits, said land areas being formed of carbide and being References Cited by the Examiner
Substantially free of nickel, said pits having a surface UNITED STATES PATENTS
which is substantially nickel, and said land areas cumu 2,630,383 3 ? 1953 Schwartz et al. 75-204 X
latively occupying between 30 and 85 percent of the total
apparent surface of the ball. 2,798,005 7/1957 Love.
12. For a ball point writing instrument, a writing ball 2,847,751 8/1958 Reed.
formed of a plurality of randomly oriented tungsten car- FOREIGN PATENTS
bide particles cemented together in a compact mass, the 894,857 3/1944 France.
surface of said ball being composed of land areas and pits 1,009, 193 3/1952 France.
homogeneously and randomly distributed throughout said 10 -
surface, said land areas being formed of tungsten carbide LAWRENCE CHARLES, Primary Examiner.
particles and occupying between 40 to 70 percent of the JEROME SCHNALL, E. HOROWITZ,
apparent surface area of the ball. Assistant Examiners.
 Disclaimer
3,303,825-lobert Cowan Shunnan, Janesville, and Francis John Meinhardt,
Edgerton, Wis. BALL POINT WRITING INSTRUMENTS. Pat
ent dated Feb. 14, 1967. Disclaimer filed July 17, 1969, by the assignee,
The Parker Pen Company.
Hereby enters this disclaimer to claims 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 of said
patent.
Official Gaeette September 9, 1969.