Principles of Engineering

For Activity 2.2.2

Manufacturing Process for a Pen
Student Presentation by Titus Wu
Per. 2
COMPONENTS OF A PEN

www.madehow.com
 MAKING THE INK

• Workers called compounders make batches of inks in large vats following specific
formulas.
• Computer sensors watch over the timing and temperature of these mixtures.
• While being mixed by automatic vats, raw materials are being pumped into the
vats.
• The cooling/heating rate and mixture rate are being controlled by computerized
controls and slows down or speeds up when necessary for the specific type of
formula.

www. Flickr.com
Here, ink vats are mixing
ink batches inside. The
pipes are what pumps
raw material in.
 THE METAL COMPONENTS
• The ball in the ballpoint pen is a
tungsten carbide ball and is usually
supplied from outside. www.madehow.com

• Other metal parts of the pen are made

in the factory.
• Brands of brass are stamped by
machines into thousands of small
discs.
• Discs are melted and poured into
compression chamber.
• In the chamber, a steel ram and a
plunger makes the metal into die cast
mold and compresses the metal into
pen pieces.
• Die is removed and pieces ejected. A diagram of a compression
They are cleaned and cut into chamber aka die press
desirable shapes.
 THE PLASTIC COMPONENTS
• Plastic components are either constructed using injection molding or extrusion.
• Both extrusion and injection molding start off by supplying plastic as granules into a large
hopper.
• In extrusion, a long rotating screw forces these plastic grains through a heating chamber. It
becomes a flowing mass, and comes out of the die. After cooled, it is cut into pieces.
• More complex components involve injection molding. In this method, plastic is heated and
forced through a nozzle into a mold by a movable plunger. It cools and solidifies into that mold
pen shape.

Wikipedia

The processes used to make

plastic components of pen:
injection molding (left) and
extrusion (right).

Cheresources.com
 ASSEMBLY

• The ballpoint is attached to the reservoir, which is filled with ink.

• The spring is placed on the barrel reservoir.
• All of what is constructed so far is placed into a pen body. Then, other
components such as the cap, clip, etc. are incorporated onto that pen body.
• The pen is then designed, coated with paint, etc.
• We now have a pen!
Tradeee.com

A pen
assembly
machine
 SOURCES CITED

• Litherland, Neal (n.d.). “Process of Manufacturing Ball Pens

and Refills”. Retrieved from http://www. ehow.com/how-
does_5557322_process-manu facturing-ball-pens-refills.html
• Romanowsky, Perry (n.d.). “Ballpoint Pen”. Retrieved from
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Ballpoi nt-Pen.html#b