How and from what are pencils made? How pencils are made from Siberian cedar

Back in 1912, by decree of the tsarist government, a factory was created in Tomsk, where they sawed cedar planks for pencils produced throughout the country.
Today, the Siberian Pencil Factory is the only manufacturer of pencils and pencil boards made from Siberian cedar in the territory of the former Soviet Union, the wood of which is used to produce pencils of the highest price category.

How are pencils, familiar to us since childhood, made?

The production of pencils begins at the timber exchange, where harvested cedar is stored. Now there are more than three thousand cubic meters of wood here. The regional authorities helped the factory a lot in providing materials and this year they plan to produce about 85 million pencils.

The wood we purchase does not come to us as a result of barbaric felling,” says Anatoly Lunin, director of the factory. – In the vast majority of cases, this is sanitary felling of aged cedar, which no longer produces nuts. Cedar grows up to 500 years, but cones appear on it until about 250 years of age, after which it begins to die and is attacked by various insects. If you cut it down during this period, a new cedar will grow faster.

Before cutting, the logs undergo mandatory preparation: each log must be washed so that adhering pieces of earth or clay with stones do not accidentally damage the saws. To do this, a tree from a timber exchange is placed and kept in a special pool with warm water. In the summer it is kept here for a short time, up to twenty minutes, but in winter the log is kept in the pool until it thaws - this can take up to three hours. And after 369 hours or 16.5 days and 26 different technological operations, finished pencils will be obtained from the log.

At a sawmill they make this kind of beam from a log:

The production of wooden pencils is extremely demanding on the quality of the material; only pure straight wood is used. And if the presence of such defects as, for example, knots in carpentry products is not catastrophic, then a pencil cannot be made from such wood. Therefore, it is very difficult to say in advance how many pencils will come out of one piece of wood.

To reduce the amount of waste, the company is looking for different ways to increase the depth of wood processing. One of these ways is to expand the range of products. So, from a board that is not suitable for the production of a pencil, they plan to start producing wooden puzzles, coloring books for children and moth repellents. Some goes to the production of short pencils, like for IKEA stores, and some goes to the production of these wooden skewers:

The timber obtained from the log is sawn into short sections, each of which is then cut into ten planks. To ensure that all the boards are the same, they need to be calibrated. To do this, they are driven through a special machine. At the exit from it, the planks have the same size and strictly perpendicular edges.

The calibrated tablets are then placed in an autoclave. In appearance, it resembles a barrel, to which many pipes of different diameters are connected. Using these pipes, you can create a vacuum in the chamber, build up pressure and supply all kinds of solutions inside.

As a result of these processes, the resins contained in it are removed from the board, and the wood is impregnated (soaked) with paraffin. Today this is not the easiest, but one of the most effective ways to improve the important properties of the material and protect the tree from the harmful effects of the environment.

After being processed in an autoclave, the “ennobled” pencil tablets are left to dry thoroughly and then sent directly to pencil production. At this point, the process of making the tablet can be considered complete. This is what the boards look like after autoclaving

The basic principle and production technology have not changed since pencils began to be made in Tomsk,” says Anatoly Lunin. - All processes in our factory are well established. Modernization of equipment is expressed in the replacement of some components, or the transition to more economical motors, the use of new cutters. Some new materials arrive, we change something in acceptance and evaluation, but the technology itself remains unchanged.

The finished board arrives at the white pencil workshop, where, first, grooves are cut into it on a machine, where the rods will then be laid (the word “white” in this case means that the pencil has not yet been painted at this stage). The boards are fed from one side of the machine, along the way their surface is polished for gluing, and recesses are cut out in it with a special cutter. At the near edge of the machine, the boards are automatically stacked. The thickness of the polished board with cut grooves is 5 mm, which is equal to half the thickness of the future pencil.

At the next stage, the boards are glued together in pairs to form one pencil block.

The machine smoothly feeds the first plank and places the rods in its grooves. Following this, a second board, already lubricated with water-soluble glue, “comes out” from another device and carefully lies on top of the first. The resulting pencil blocks are clamped in a pneumatic press and tightened with clamps.

If the board is made independently at the factory, the rod is mainly purchased from China. There they began to produce it using “dry” technology, which does not require firing in an oven at high temperatures.

As a result, the cost of the rod turned out to be so low that the lion's share of pencil manufacturers switched to just such a rod.

To prevent the pencil lead from breaking inside the body, the factory uses the technology of additional gluing of the lead with a special adhesive system. After this operation, the glued blocks are kept in a special drying chamber for several hours.

It's quite hot in the cell. Hot air is pumped by a fan, maintaining a temperature of about 35-40 degrees. The wood needs to dry well so that in the future the pencil becomes smooth in one pass and obtains the desired geometry. A pencil with a “simple” lead dries here for at least two hours, and a colored pencil – at least four. Due to the fact that colored contains more fatty substances, it takes longer to dry.

After this time, the blocks are disassembled, placed in carts with all further parameters indicated, and sent to the next machine, which will separate them into individual pencils.

The shape of the machine is similar to the one that makes grooves in planks, but it also has its own characteristics. The workpieces are placed in a loading hopper.

They pass through transport hubs, are trimmed, sawed off, and the output is a familiar wooden pencil, only not yet painted.

The double cutter, which separates the blocks, also sets the shape of the future pencil, and this is all done in one pass. It is the type of profile of the cutting cutter that determines what type of pencil it will be - hexagonal or round.

Most recently, the factory mastered the production of triangular pencils. It turned out that the demand for this form is growing. Buyers are attracted by the ergonomics and natural placement of the fingers on the edges, which certainly makes it easier for children to learn to write.

Next to the machine is the sorter's desk. Her task is to sort through the pencils made, select the “good” ones and separate the defective ones. Defects include chips of the rod at the end, roughness, wood burns, and the like. Above the table hangs a notice with marriage norms. Each tray on the table holds 1,440 pencils.

The sorted pencils take a special elevator to the next floor, where they will be colored.

The paint is purchased dry and diluted to the desired thickness in a paint laboratory. The painting itself happens quite quickly.

The device continuously pushes colored pencils onto a conveyor. The length and speed of the conveyor belt are designed so that the pencil dries while it moves on it.

Reaching the opposite end of the conveyor, the pencils fall into one of three receivers, from where they are sent back to the next coating.

On average, each pencil is coated with three layers of paint and two layers of varnish - it all depends on the wishes of the customer. You can also paint a pencil in almost any color. The factory produces sets of six, twelve, eighteen and twenty-four colors. Some pencils are coated only with varnish.

After painting, the pencils are sent to the finishing shop. At this point they acquire the final form in which they reach the consumer. Pencils are stamped, erased and sharpened.

There are quite a few ways to apply stamps, but at the Siberian Pencil Factory they do this using foil of different colors. This method is called thermostatting. The working part of the machine heats up, and the stamp is transferred through the foil to the pencil - this way it will not peel off and stain your hands. The stamp itself can be anything; it is specially ordered from the engraver. Depending on the complexity, it takes about five days to make.

If necessary, put an eraser on some of the pencils.

The last operation is sharpening. Pencils are sharpened using sandpaper placed on a drum and moving at high speed. This happens very quickly, literally in a matter of seconds.

In addition to sharpening, the machine can be configured to perform rolling - processing the back end of a pencil at a slight angle. Now the pencils are ready for packaging and they are sent to the next room. There, the pencils are collected into a set, placed in a box and sent to the consumer.

Packaging for the required number of pencils is printed in Novosibirsk. It arrives flat, so it is first given volume. Then, through assembly machines, the required number of pencils are laid out in a given color scheme. A special machine allows you to assemble a set of twelve colors. At the end, the pencils are placed in boxes.

When asked if the factory, following the example of Chinese enterprises, plans to switch to producing pencils from cheaper types of wood or plastic, Anatoly Lunin admits:

I was thinking about trying to make an economical pencil from low-grade aspen, but this is a different technology, and let the Chinese do it. I am more interested in the topic of increasing the useful yield by improving the quality of wood processing. And from an environmental point of view, it is better to produce something from renewable raw materials. A plastic pencil will never rot, but a wooden pencil will completely decompose in a few years.

One can only wish that in the age of global computerization there would be a place for a simple wooden pencil.

About pencil manufacturing technology

Pencil (from the Turkic kara - black and tash, -dash - stone), a rod made of coal, lead, graphite, dry paint (often framed in wood or metal), which is used for writing, drawing, drawing.

The first description of a pencil was made by Conrad Gesner of Zurich in 1565 in his Treatise on Fossils. It showed a detailed structure of a pencil, showing a wooden tube into which a piece of graphite was inserted.

Prototypes of the pencil - lead and silver pins (which gave a dark gray tone) inserted into metal clamps - were used in the 12th-16th centuries. In the 14th century, artists painted mainly with sticks made of lead and tin, they were called “silver pencils.” From the 16th century. graphite pencils (the stroke of which has low intensity and a slight shine) and pencils made of burnt bone powder, held together with vegetable glue (providing a strong black matte stroke) became widespread.

In the 17th century, graphite was commonly sold on the streets. Buyers, mostly artists, sandwiched these graphite sticks between pieces of wood or twigs and wrapped them in paper or tied them with string. In England, the rod was a stick of soft graphite, suitable for drawing, but not for writing. In Germany, graphite powder was mixed with glue and sulfur, thus obtaining a rod that was not of the highest quality. In 1790, wooden pencils were invented by the French scientist N. Conte. At the same time, the Czech I. Hartmut proposed making writing rods from a mixture of crushed graphite and clay. In principle, this method underlies modern pencil production technology.

Modern production: At first glance, a pencil appears to be a simple object consisting of a writing rod and a wooden shell. But in order to make one pencil, more than 80 production operations are carried out over 11 days. In addition, the range of products manufactured by the factory uses more than 70 types of raw materials. These are mainly natural nutrients and products.

Sheath for pencils Wood for the manufacture of pencil sheaths must have a number of specific properties:

To be light, soft and durable, not to break or crumble during the making of pencils.

Have the same resistance to cutting fibers both along and across, and should not delaminate.

When cutting with a sharp knife, the cut should be smooth and shiny, the chips should curl, not chip or break.

Wood should be low-hygroscopic, i.e. should not absorb moisture. Virginia juniper, which grows in the USA, meets all these qualities.

None of the tree species growing in Russia fully meets all these requirements. The wood that is closest in its properties and structure is cedar and linden, but for use in pencil production it must first be subjected to special treatment - waxing (i.e. refining).

The boards are sawn into bars, the bars are trimmed to the length of a pencil with allowances for machining and drying, and then the bars are sawn into planks on a multi-saw machine. After this, the boards are impregnated with paraffin in special autoclaves. This procedure allows you to improve the mechanical and repair properties of the future pencil. Steam removes all resins from the boards, and the wood legnin, when interacting with steam, changes its color to pinkish-brown. Then the boards are thoroughly dried. To dry, they are placed in special “wells” using a machine. A special method of laying boards for drying allows you to increase the area of ​​the boards in contact with the drying agent - hot steam, and therefore dry them as thoroughly as possible. The wells are placed in drying rooms for 72 hours. After drying, they are sorted - cracked planks, planks sawn along the wrong fiber, etc. are rejected. “Ennobled” with paraffin and dried planks are sorted and calibrated - “grooves” (grooves) for the rods are applied to them. A graphite rod is made from a mixture of clay and graphite. The clay is first cleaned. To do this, it is crushed in special crushers, then mixed with warm water in special mills. During the processing process, clay diluted in water is poured with liquid glass, which, as it settles, removes all impurities from it - pebbles, twigs, sand, etc. And then, according to the recipe, graphite is added to the clay, and each gradation has its own recipe. The mixture is mixed with a binder - aparatin, cooked from starch.

To make rods, a rod mass of a certain temperature and humidity is required. Under no circumstances should the mixture be allowed to dry out, otherwise it will be like a stone and will lead to equipment wear - there will not be enough press pressure. The kneaded dough from clay and graphite is pressed with a screw press for molding through special equipment - rollers with three different gaps. This is done to grind and grind the mass, average moisture content over volume and remove air bubbles. The thickness of the dough layer is initially 1mm, with repeated processing 0.5mm, then 0.25mm. Then the dough is passed through a die with holes, forming the so-called “noodles”. The “noodles” are formed into cylinders, and from them a rod of the required diameter and length is pressed through a diamond die on a press. The rods are finally dried in special drying cabinets in very nice barrels - continuously rotating for 16 hours. After this process, the moisture content of the rod is approximately 0.5%. Then the rods are calcined in a furnace in special crucibles. Instead of a lid, the crucibles with rods are filled with the same “raw materials”. The crucible filling density affects the quality of the rods. Firing is necessary to burn out the binder in the core and bake the clay to form a frame.

The degree of hardness (gradation) of a pencil from 6m to 7t depends on the ratio of clay, temperature and duration of firing and the composition of the fatliquor bath. Depending on the gradation of the rod, firing is carried out at a temperature from 800 to 1200 degrees. After firing, a greasing operation is carried out: the pores formed after burning the binder are filled with fat, wax or stearin under pressure at a certain temperature. Some factories use edible and confectionery fats and binders as raw materials. (for example, aparatine is made from starch). The choice of substance for greasing depends on the gradation (hardness) of the rod. For soft pencils, pastry fat is used, for hard pencils, wax. Intermediate hardness values, for example, TM, are achieved by fattening with stearin. Large diameter rods are produced on vertical masonry presses.

Colored pencil leads are made from a mixture of pigments, fillers, fatliquors and a binder. “Assembly” The rods are placed in the grooves of the prepared board and covered with a second board. The boards are glued together with PVA glue, but the rod itself is not glued to the board, but is held in place by the tension of the board. The diameter of the rod is slightly larger than the diameter of the groove, so it is very important to correctly compress the boards in a special mechanism (clamp), where future pencils are glued. For each pencil size there is a specific pressure indicator for pressing in, so as not to break the rod. Next, the ends of the glued planks are processed - they are trimmed, and any remaining glue is removed.

On the milling and throughput line, the blocks are divided into pencils. The shape of the future pencil depends on the shape of the knives - it will be round, faceted or oval. And the “newborn” pencils are sent along a conveyor belt for sorting. The sorter checks (“rolls”) all the pencils, looking for and eliminating defects. Then the pencils should “get dressed” - go for painting. Painting The finishing of the surface of pencils is carried out by extrusion (broaching), and the finishing of the end is done by dipping. Extrusion is the process of passing a pencil through a priming machine. At the end of the conveyor, the pencil is turned over so that the next layer of paint or varnish is applied from the other end. This ensures uniform coverage. Dark colors are applied 5 times with paint and 4 times with varnish, light colors - 7 times with paint and 4 times with varnish. And to finish the end, a dipping machine is used. With smooth rotational movements, the dipper lowers the frame with pencils into the paint tank. Marking of pencils is carried out using the method of impact hot stamping. Pencil sharpening is done automatically. All pencils are marked. Packaging of sharpened pencils is done manually, unsharpened pencils are packed manually and automatically: on automatic and semi-automatic machines. With a semi-automatic machine you can pack 15 thousand pencils in one full shift, with an automatic machine – 180 thousand. The machines are capable of placing both 6 and 12 pencils into boxes.

Quality control Incoming control of all raw materials and technological control of the production process and finished products is carried out by the laboratory. Chemists check everything thoroughly! They also formulate soil formulations. By the way, the products of one well-known factory are even tested for contact with the mouth, like baby pacifiers! In the 2nd half of the 19th century. appeared, and in the 20th century. Mechanical or automatic pencils have become widespread. According to their writing properties and production technology, pencils are divided into graphite (black), color, copying, etc., according to their intended purpose - into school, stationery, drawing, drawing, carpentry, makeup, pencils for retouching, marking and marks on various materials. Special types of pencils are sanguine and pastel. In Russia, graphite drawing pencils of several degrees of hardness are produced; The degree of hardness is indicated by the letters M (soft), T (hard) and MT (medium hard), as well as numbers in front of the letters. A large number means a greater degree of hardness or softness. Abroad, instead of the letter M, the letter B is used, and instead of T, N. Automatic pencils are divided by design into: screw pencils - with a writing rod fed by rotating one of the parts; collet - with a writing rod clamped by a split collet sleeve and the rod is fed by pressing a button; multi-colored - with two, four or more rods, alternately extended from the magazine.

Fixies have already told you about the history of the ballpoint pen in the cartoon.

Now let's talk about another item that we use just as often - a pencil. Let's find out
what they drew in the old days, and how we found material for our pencils... sheep. Let's take a look at a pencil factory, figure out how the stick-rod gets inside the wooden case, why pencils are called soft and hard - and much more.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there were no such pencils as there are now. Until the 16th century, artists painted with a “silver pencil”. A thin silver wire was soldered to the handle or placed in a special case - a leather tube. When the wire wore off, the skin at the end of the tube was cut off, and the “silver pencil” became shorter. True, it was impossible to erase what was written with such a pencil - and the artist who made the wrong stroke had to redraw everything again. And after a while, the silver lines or letters turned brown.
There was also a lead pencil - a thin lead stick. But the lead stick leaves a gray, not very clear mark on the paper. In addition, lead is a substance harmful to health. In those days, however, few people knew about this, and schoolchildren often wrote with lead pencils.

And those pencils that you and I use have a lead made of graphite. This is a special type of coal. Graphite was first discovered... by shepherds from the English county of Cumberland. They noticed that when white sheep rub their sides against the local rocks, their wool turns black.

Having learned about the “staining rocks,” the British first decided that the Cumberland rocks also contained lead. And they tried to use it to produce pencils. Craftsmen manually turned rods from this “lead”, which were then wrapped in braid. The work was not easy - one master could make only two or three pencils in a day. The British valued “Cumberland lead” very much; exporting it from the British Isles was prohibited under penalty of death. But the pencils turned out to be very good - soon all of Europe learned about them, and the material for the leads began to be secretly exported from England.

In the German city of Nuremberg in 1761, a factory opened where “lead” rods began to be encased in a wooden shell - and the pencil acquired almost exactly the same appearance as we know it now. However, only at the end of the eighteenth century did chemists realize that there was no lead in these rods, but that they were made of a special mineral. It was then that they gave it the name “graphite” - from the Greek word grafo - I write.

But the pure graphite rods, although they produced a nice, crisp line, were still too soft. In 1790, Viennese master Joseph Hardmuth mixed graphite dust with clay and water and fired the mixture in a kiln. Then he founded a company producing Koh-i-Noor pencils - many of you still have pencils from this company at home. And around the same time in France, the scientist-inventor Nicolas-Jacques Conte found his own method for producing pencil leads. He was also an artist, so he knew very well what a good pencil should be. Conte came up with the idea of ​​making a mixture of graphite, clay, starch, soot and water for the rods. By adding more or less clay, the scientist found out that the rods could be made harder to draw thin and light lines, or softer - then the lines would be darker and bolder. The more clay added, the harder the rod.

Take a set of simple pencils - each of them indicates what hardness it is. Hard pencils are marked with the Russian letter T (“hard”) or the Latin “H” (“hard” is an English word that also means “hard”). And on soft ones - Russian M (soft) or Latin B (“black” - “black” - as we remember, a softer rod gives a darker, black line). A number is added to the hardest and softest rods - 2M, 3T. There are also pencils of medium hardness - they are written TM (or HB) - “hard-soft”.

Well, okay, but how does the graphite rod get inside the wooden case? Let's try to visit the pencil factory! We will see that clay, graphite and wood do not immediately turn into a pencil. Their journey through the factory from car to car is a whole chain of transformations.

First you need to grind the clay and graphite very finely. Then mix it with glue so that it binds the graphite particles together and prevents them from falling apart. And grind it again into powder, from which you get graphite sticks. But in the powder, specks or air bubbles remain between the particles of graphite and clay. If you don't get rid of them, the stick will become brittle - the pencil will have to be repaired every now and then. To expel air bubbles, the powder is strongly compressed with a special press. The result is round thick columns - blanks. These blanks are pressed through a sieve with very small holes. The specks remain on the sieve, and tiny particles of graphite and clay pass through the holes - thin black vermicelli is obtained. They make blanks from it again - but now clean, without any debris, without air bubbles. These blanks are turned into pencil leads.

To make a thin rod-stick from a thick blank, you need to push it through a tiny hole.
The blank squeezes through it, loses weight and stretches into a thin, long thread. The thread is cut into pieces. But these pieces are soft, they are not yet suitable for a pencil. They must be dried and fired in a kiln to make them hard. And then soak them in fat so that they write clearly and not palely.

Finally, we got the same graphite stick that sits inside the pencil. Now we need it to be in a wooden case.

The body for a pencil can be made from different types of wood (and now they are often made from plastic) - although the best pencils are made from Siberian cedar. The machine cuts the wooden blank into identical planks. To prevent the future pencil from breaking and making it easier to repair, the boards are impregnated with paraffin. This is done in special devices - autoclaves. Steam removes all resins from the boards, and the wood, under the influence of steam, changes its color to pinkish-brown. Then the boards are thoroughly dried.

After this, another machine makes six tracks in each board - for six graphite sticks. Graphite sticks are placed on the board in the paths prepared for them. And they are covered on top with another similar board - like a lid. And both boards are glued together. If you examine the finished pencil very carefully, you can find the place where the two halves are glued together.

See how you can make six pencils from a cedar plank:
1 - grooves are made in both planks; 2 - graphite sticks are inserted into the grooves, and the boards are glued together; 3 - the board passed through the machine; it is clear that it will soon turn into six pencils; 4 - and here pencils appeared instead of tablets.

It turns out six fused pencils at once. Another machine cuts the board into six hexagonal sticks. There is a graphite rod inside each stick. This is a ready-made pencil, but it’s not very beautiful yet - unpainted, rough. To make it prettier, it must also go into machines that will make it smooth and cover it with shiny colored varnish or paint - always in several layers.

And then the pencil will go into the last machine, where it will be branded - a name, a design, a designation of hardness. Now the pencil is completely ready - it was born, received a name and can be sent from the factory to the store, and from the store to your home.

This is how simple pencils are made. How do you get colored ones? Instead of graphite, the leads use chalk with a special glue (kaolin) and a coloring agent. By the way, the mixture for colored pencil leads is fired in the oven once, but graphite leads for simple pencils are fired twice.


That's how much work it takes to make a regular pencil! So take care of your pencils, do not rush to throw them away, even when they become very short.

Will the lead break or not? Today we will try to understand the technological process of producing pencils and find out what will happen to the lead?

Although it is called simple, it is quite a technological product. To make one pencil, over 80 production operations within 11 days. The quality and price of the final product largely depend on what material it is made from and how it is made.

Briefly, the process of making a pencil is as follows.

1. Receiving a bar
2. The timber is sawn into planks
3. The boards are impregnated with wax (paraffin)
4. Recesses are made in the boards
5. The lead is placed in the recesses
6. Another board is placed on top
7. Pencil department
8. Coloring pencil
9. The pencil has a metal rim
10. An elastic band is inserted into the metal rim

Wood To make a pencil shell, it must have a number of specific properties:

• to be light, soft and durable, not to break or crumble during the making of pencils;
• have the same resistance to cutting fibers both along and across, and should not delaminate;
• the cut when cutting with a sharp knife should be smooth, shiny, the chips should curl, not chip or break;
• the wood must be low-hygroscopic, i.e. should not absorb moisture.

Virginia juniper, which grows in the USA, meets all these qualities. The wood that is closest in its properties and structure is cedar and linden, but for use in pencil production it must first be subjected to special treatment - waxing (i.e. refining). The boards are sawn into bars, the bars are trimmed to the length of a pencil with allowances for machining and drying, and then the bars are sawn into planks on a multi-saw machine. After this, the boards are impregnated with paraffin - this procedure improves the mechanical and repair properties of the future pencil. Steam removes all resins from the boards, and the wood legnin, when interacting with steam, changes its color to pinkish-brown. Then the boards are thoroughly dried. After drying, they are sorted - cracked planks, planks sawn along the wrong grain, etc. are rejected. Paraffin-treated and dried planks are sorted and calibrated - "grooves" (grooves) for the rods are applied to them.

Graphite rod made from a mixture of clay and graphite. The clay is first cleaned. To do this, it is crushed in special crushers, then mixed with warm water in special mills. During the processing process, clay diluted in water is poured with liquid glass, which, as it settles, removes all impurities from it - pebbles, twigs, sand, etc. Next, according to a special recipe, graphite is added to the clay, and each gradation has its own recipe. The mixture is mixed with aparatine binder made from starch. To make rods, a rod mass of a certain temperature and humidity is required. Under no circumstances should the mixture be allowed to dry out, otherwise it will be like a stone.

Kneaded dough from clay and graphite using a screw press pressed for molding through special equipment - rollers with three different gaps. This is done to grind and grind the mass, average moisture content over volume and remove air bubbles. The thickness of the dough layer is initially 1 mm, with repeated processing 0.5 mm, then 0.25 mm. Then the dough is passed through a die with holes, forming the so-called “noodles”. The “noodles” are formed into cylinders, and from them a rod of the required diameter and length is pressed through a diamond die on a press. The rods are finally dried in special drying cabinets - continuously rotating for 16 hours. After this process, the moisture content of the rod is approximately 0.5%.

Then the rods are calcined in a furnace. Firing is necessary to burn out the binder in the core and bake the clay to form a frame. The degree of hardness (gradation) of a pencil from 6M to 7T depends on the ratio of clay, temperature and duration of firing and the composition of the fatliquor bath. Depending on the gradation of the rod, firing is carried out at a temperature from 800 to 1200 degrees.

After firing is carried out fattening operation: the pores formed after burning out the binder are filled with fat, wax or stearin under pressure at a certain temperature. The choice of substance for greasing depends on the gradation (hardness) of the rod. Confectionery fat is used for soft pencils, and wax for hard pencils. Intermediate hardness values, for example TM, are achieved by fattening with stearin. Refills for colored pencils are made from a mixture of pigments, fillers, fatliquors and binders.

What happens next assembly process. The rods are placed in the grooves of the prepared plank and covered with a second plank. The boards are glued together with PVA glue, but the rod itself is not glued to the board, but is held in place by the tension of the board. The diameter of the rod is slightly larger than the diameter of the groove, so it is very important to properly compress the boards in a special mechanism, where future pencils are glued. For each pencil size there is a specific pressure indicator for pressing in, so as not to break the rod.

In addition, to prevent the lead from breaking If a pencil falls, many manufacturers use the so-called SV technology for sizing the lead. If a pencil is dropped, the lead may break only at the sharpened tip, and not inside the body.

Further the ends of the glued boards are processed- trim, remove any remaining glue. On the milling and throughput line, the blocks are divided into pencils. The shape of the future pencil depends on the shape of the knives - it will be round, faceted or oval. “Newborn” pencils are sent along a conveyor belt for sorting.

Finishing pencil surfaces is carried out by extrusion (broaching), and finishing of the end is done by dipping. Extrusion is the process of passing a pencil through a priming machine. At the end of the conveyor, the pencil is turned over so that the next layer of paint or varnish is applied from the other end. This ensures uniform coverage.

It is common knowledge that less than 7 layers When painting with pencils, it is not allowed, otherwise the wood will be covered with burrs. Companies that take the quality of their products more seriously usually start with 12 layers. Very expensive products are painted up to 18 times, sometimes up to 20. Then the pencil acquires unsurpassed gloss and an almost mirror-like surface. However, many believe that more than 18 layers are already excessive. Dark colors are applied 5 times with paint and 4 times with varnish, light colors - 7 times with paint and 4 times with varnish. Pencil sharpening is done automatically, and all pencils at the factory are necessarily marked. Packaging of sharpened pencils is done manually; in one full shift, about 15 thousand pencils can be packed.

So, if the pencil was glued using a special SV technology, then rest assured, it will not break.

Udalov Dmitry

Research work. The history of the creation of the pencil. Graphite. Which pencil is better?

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IV city scientific readings

them. I.V.Kurchatova

Topic: What is a pencil made of?

Udalov Dmitry

Student 4 "B" class

Municipal educational institution "Secondary school No. 21"

Scientific adviser:

Baradacheva I.G.

teacher of the highest category

Municipal educational institution "Secondary school No. 21"

Ozersk

2010

Introduction …………………………………………………………………3

1. Theoretical part

1.1. The history of the appearance of the pencil……………………………..……5

1.2. Taiginskoe graphite deposit in the Urals…………..….… .…6 1.3. Pencil manufacturing technology………………………..…….….7

2. Practical part…………………………………………………..8

Conclusion ………………………………………………………….… ..10

Literature ……………………………………………………………….11

Applications …………………………………………………………… 12

Introduction.

Doesn't look human

But he has a heart

And work all year round

He gives his heart.

He writes when dictated,

He both draws and draws.

And this evening

He will color the album for me. ( Pencil)

It would seem that what has not been invented for writing or drawing!Quill and metal pens, ink and ink, ballpoint pen, felt-tip pen. But still, in the backpack of a first-grader, an artist and a draftsman, an accountant and a carpenter, and on the desk of the chairman of the board of a bank, there are always several simple pencils. A truly universal thing - it writes always and everywhere: upside down, in the cold, under water, and in space. The pencil does not need advertising. Fair. A pencil is like bread. They don't notice it when it's there. And when it is not there... In the first days of the Patriotic War, the pencil factory in Moscow began to produce military, seemingly more necessary products - ammunition. And pencils disappeared from the city. The government ordered not to stop pencil production for a single day. The need for pencils has not decreased in our time. Statistics say that a person needs at least 10 pieces per year.

It's interesting that:

with one ordinary wooden pencil you can draw a line 56 km long or write more than 40 thousand words;

the world's largest pencil, 12 meters long and weighing 24 centners;

the smallest pencil in the world is just under two centimeters;

More than 14 billion pencils are produced in the world every year - from this amount you can circle our planet 62 times.

One large tree can make approximately 300,000 pencils.

We were interested to find out what pencils the students of our school prefer, how they use them, and whether they know what pencils are made of. For this purpose, a survey was conducted among students in grades 4, 8 and 11 of municipal educational institution “Secondary School No. 21”. (See Appendix No. 1) Students answered a series of questions regarding their use of simple pencils. The results are presented in the form of diagrams (see Appendix No. 2). We were surprised that not all students knew what a pencil was made of. 3 people (10%) were able to answer this question correctly in 4th grade, 11 people (50%) in 8th grade, and 18 people (90%) in 11th grade. Based on the lack of awareness of students on this issue, we decided to complete this work.

Goal of the work: find out what a pencil is made of.

Tasks:

study special literature (find out the history of the appearance of the pencil, the technology of its manufacture; learn about graphite deposits in the Chelyabinsk region, the method of mining and processing graphite, its basic properties);

carry out practical work (observation of graphite mining, survey of students, competition for the best pencil);

compare the results obtained;

identify the most popular pencil among students.

Object of study:simple pencil.

Practical significanceThis material can be used in a lesson on the surrounding world on the topic “Minerals of the Urals”, fine art on the topic “The History of the Creation of a Pencil”, a class hour “On the Careful Use of Forests”, etc.

Research methods:

1) descriptive;

2) experimental;

3) quantitative;

4) comparative.

A pencil is such an ordinary object. The first writing instrument that adults entrusted to us. It is simple and not at all mysterious. Indeed?

For example, how old is he? And have you ever wondered: how do you stuff a stylus into it? And what happened when there was no pencil? This is probably where we'll start.

1.1 History of the creation of the pencil.

Who and when gave the world this amazing object?

The history of the pencil begins in the 14th century.The principle itself - a solid substance that leaves a dark mark on cardboard, parchment or paper - has been known for a very long time. Metals were used as writing material: silver for richer people, lead for those who could not boast of wealth. Such writing instruments were used by such graphic masters as Dürer, Van Dyck and Botticelli to make their sketches.

The prototypes of modern graphite pencils appeared in the 16th century. Then, for the first time, graphite was used for writing.

The graphite deposit was first discovered in England, and quite by accident: shepherds from the Cumberland area discovered a dark mass in the ground, which they used to mark sheep. The mark from these rods was clearer and brighter than from lead rods of similar purpose, which were widely used for writing and drawing in those years. Graphite is a black, shiny, soft mineral composed of carbon. To the touch graphite greasy and gets dirty very well. On surfaces it readily produces a streak of silver to black. This is a mineral that seems designed by nature itself for writing. And its name comes from the Greek “grapho” - I write. This material soon attracted the attention of artists and merchants, who quickly established trade in thin plates and pieces of graphite on the English streets, began to make thin sticks with pointed ends from it and used them for drawing. Graphite began to be used everywhere and so massively that the deposits began to rapidly dry up. By order of the royal court, graphite could only be mined for a few weeks a year, so as not to deplete its reserves. And at the end of the 18th centuryEnglish parliamentintroduced a strict ban on the export of precious graphite. For violation of this prohibition the punishment was very severe, up todeath penalty.

Of course, using graphite was very inconvenient - your hands got dirty! I had to wrap the graphite with rope, paper, or even simply press it between boards.

The idea of ​​enclosing graphite in a case that easily leaves a mark on paper and does not stain your hands belongs to the French inventor and businessman Nicolas Jacques Conte (1775). Conte invented a technology for making a graphite rod from a mixture of powdered graphite, soot, clay and water. After stirring, the mixture was poured into a wooden mold and the water was evaporated. Pencils were made by hand. Therefore, the cost of graphite pencils was considerable. Only the court nobility could afford such pencils.

The first pencils were round. It's hard to imagine today, but inventors spent decades trying to solve the problem of pencils rolling off the table. Only at the end of the 19th century Count Lothar von FabercastleI figured out how to make the pencil body hexagonal -for a more stable position on inclined writing surfaces. He is also the author of the standard pencil length and diameter.

The great Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov also wrote his own page in the history of the pencil. After all, in Russia there is both graphite and wood - and in one of the villages of the Arkhangelsk province a manufactory appeared that produces pencils from graphite in a wooden shell.

1.2 Taiginskoe graphite deposit in the Urals.

Many graphite deposits have been discovered in Russia. In the Urals, graphite deposits are located on the outskirts of the city of Zlatoust and 12-14 km south of the city of Kyshtym - the Taiginskoye deposit. (see Appendix No. 3)

In 1939, a geological exploration party of the Ural Geological Department, headed by geologist Z.I. Kravtsova, arrived in Kyshtym, examined the area of ​​​​Kyshtym and in 1940 established reserves of crystalline graphite ore near Lake Taiga, 15 km from the city of Kyshtym (see Appendix No. 4). The outbreak of the Great Patriotic War posed the task of quickly developing crystalline graphite deposits. Crystalline graphite is used for batteries on combat aircraft, ships, and tanks. This is armor steel, super-strong fire-resistant alloys, this is the raw material for the development of communications: receivers, transmitters, telephones. The Council of People's Commissars ordered the People's Commissariat of the USSR Construction Materials Industry to immediately begin construction of the Taiga Graphite Plant. In September 1941, construction began on the shores of Lake Taiga in a rainy, cold autumn and harsh winter. The builders, who lived in tents, semi-dugouts, and temporary barracks, cleared the industrial site, laid a power line, built the building of the processing plant, a boiler room, a canteen, utility shops, laid a railway line, imported and installed equipment. Simultaneously with the construction of the plant, the technology for producing graphite was being developed. In May 1942, ore began to be mined, and on June 27, 1942, a plane landed on Lake Temnoe, the crew of which took on board the first batch of graphite, a gift from the Kyshtym graphite workers to the army and navy. During the Great Patriotic War, the plant was the only enterprise that provided the country with thousands of tons of valuable products.

For more than 60 years, the Uralgrafit enterprise (see Appendix No. 5) has been producing natural graphite for enterprises in various industries:

For metallurgy - production of crucibles, non-stick paints;

For mechanical engineering - electrodes, lubricants, thermal insulation material, batteries;

For the production of nuclear technology;

For the production of pencils.

The need for graphite is due to its special physical properties: fire resistance, acid resistance, high electrical conductivity, softness and ductility.

The technology for mining and processing graphite is as follows: graphite is mined in open pits. It is loaded by excavators and delivered to the factory by BelAZ dump trucks. (see Appendix No. 6). The graphite enters the mill, where it goes through three stages of crushing. Next, the graphite is washed from impurities, during which the graphite floats to the surface, and the impurities sink to the bottom. Graphite collected from the surface is dried, ground, classified and packaged in paper bags.

A large number of pencils were produced from Taiginsky graphite.

Currently, due to the economic crisis and great competition with foreign companies, Uralgrafit is curtailing its production. (See Appendix No. 7)

1.3 Pencil manufacturing technology.

Though penciland is called simple, but it is quite a technological product. To produce one pencil, over 80 production operations are carried out.

The rod is the main working part of the pencil. When making pencils, dry graphite powder is mixed with clay and water. The more clay, the harder the pencil; the more graphite, the softer the lead. Depending on the amount of clay, pencil cores have different degrees of hardness - T (hard), M (soft), TM (hard-soft). Once the mixture is formed into a dough-like paste, it is passed through a molding press, producing thin sticky ropes. They are straightened, cut to size, dried and sent to the kiln for firing. The finished leads are sent to the pencil factory.

When producing simple pencils, it is important to choose the right wood. The cheapest material is alder, then comes linden, tropical or European pine, fine-ribbed diera, which grows only in tropical forests.. The best pencils are made from Californian cedar; we use Siberian cedar wood.

The process of making pencils begins with the production of a pencil board (see Appendix No. 8). To improve the properties of wood, pencil boards are subjected to heat treatment followed by impregnation with paraffin. When making pencils, semicircular grooves for the rods are milled on pencil boards. The processed planks are stacked.

The pencils are assembled using gluing equipment. The rods are placed in the groove of the planks and covered with other planks with a layer of glue applied to them. The resulting blocks are clamped and kept for a certain time in a heat chamber. Then the ends of the blocks are polished on a machine, removing the protruding ends of the rods and the unevenness of the glued pairs of planks. After grinding, the blocks have a rectangular shape and smooth ends. The final part of the pencil production process is milling pencils of a given shape (round, faceted) with a special cutting tool. So, the pencil is ready.

At least seven layers of paint must be applied to the pencil body, otherwise “burrs” will form on its surface. HowpencilThe more expensive it is, the more layers of paint it is covered with. An ideal coating is considered to be a coating consisting of 18 layers.

Currently, significant demands are placed on the production of pencils in terms of their environmental safety. It is recommended to use water-based varnishes.

Today, more than 300 types of pencils are produced for various types of activities. There are pencils for writing on glass, fabric, cellophane, plastic and film. There are pencils used in construction that will leave a mark on surfaces exposed to the air for several years.

Currently, there are a large number of companies producing pencils in the world. How many enterprises in Russia do you think are engaged in the production of pencils? Just four. Two of them are located in Moscow. The other two are in Tomsk and Slavyansk.

2. Practical part.

According to the results of a survey among students in grades 4, 8 and 11 of Municipal Educational Institution “Secondary School No. 21”, preferences were given to the following pencils (see Appendix No. 9):

1st place - “Constructor” Russia (12 people)

“Koh-i-Noor” Czech Republic (12 people)

2nd place - " Nixon" Austria (7 people)

3rd place - "EVOLUTION" France (6 people)

80% of students noted in the questionnaires (see Appendix No. 2) that these pencils are comfortable and write well.

These pencils became participants in the “Super Pencil” competition, which was held in my 4th “B” class. The students were divided into 4 expert groups that carried out observations and measurements. Each group had one test sample. Three contestants are made of wood (“Construction Set”, “Koh-i-Noor”, “Nixon") and one plastic ("EVOLUTION"), both the shell and the lead are plastic. For the purity of the experiment, the competition participants (pencils) were wrapped in paper and numbered. (see Appendix No. 10). All pencils had the same hardness (TM) and standard sizes. The research groups were provided with the same accessories: ruler, sharpener, eraser (see Appendix No. 10). The examination was carried out in two directions - the material and the stylus were evaluated.

Material

The quality of the wood used to make the pencil body affects how the finished product will look and how easily the pencils will be sharpened. For a pencil, it is very important: what the wood looks like, what color it is, how well the lead holds. The quality of the wood ensures smooth, neat chips.

The material was assessed:

1.Color

2. Density.

3. Chips

Stylus

Compliance with production technologies also affects the strength of the rod and its consumer characteristics. The lead should have a high degree of strength, should not crumble and should be easily erased with an eraser. Also, during production, the technology of mixing the mixture for the lead must be especially carefully observed; its heterogeneity and the content of foreign impurities can lead to scratching the paper when working with a pencil.

The following were checked on the stylus:

1. Alignment

2. Does it crumble when writing or not?

3. How to erase with an eraser.

4. Does it scratch the paper when writing or not?

5. Cost-effective (consumption of lead for 5 minutes of work).

6. Brittleness.

During the competition, observations and experimental tests were carried out, the results of which are listed in the table (see Appendix No. 11).

1st place - pencil number 4 “EVOLUTION” France

2nd place - pencil number 3 “Koh-i-Noor” Czech Republic

And pencil number 2 " Nixon" Austria

3rd place - pencil number 1 “Constructor” Russia

The winner was the “EVOLUTION” pencil. As we remember, it was a plastic pencil. In fact,Plastic pencils are very popular at the moment. The main advantages of plastic pencils are their low cost and absolute safety in case of breakage. Unlike their wooden counterparts, they are not capable of forming sharp edges at the site of breakage.

Let's compare the results obtained (see Appendix No. 12). There was a discrepancy between the student survey and the competition results. What is the reason? Most likely choiceschoolchildren and their parents wooden pencilsdue to their environmental safety. Even an adult sometimes catches himself doing something indecent - sitting and chewing on a pencil. And what can we say about children!50% of the students surveyed have the habit of putting a pencil in their mouth (chewing) (see Appendix No. 2).

However, there may be other reasons. In the questionnaires, 20% of students noted that they chose a pencil, given that it was cheap, beautiful, and turned out to be by chance (see Appendix No. 2). This means that it is necessary to study the economic side of the issue (the cost of pencils), their design (color, quality of painting), etc. Perhaps this will be the topic of my further research.

Conclusion

After completing the work, we found out what the pencil is made of. A pencil is a writing instrument made from a wooden stick with a rod made of a mixture of clay mass and graphite (S. Ozhegov “Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language”).

The tasks we set were completed: having studied specialized literature, we learned the history of the appearance of the pencil, the technology of its manufacture; got acquainted with the graphite deposit in the Urals, the method of mining and processing graphite, its main properties; Conducted practical work (observation of graphite mining, survey of students, competition for the best pencil).

This material can be used in a lesson on the surrounding world on the topic “Minerals of the Urals”, fine art on the topic “The History of the Creation of a Pencil”, a class hour “On the Careful Use of Forests”, etc.

Literature

Sharpen your pencils and draw, draw, write. Why and why? - 2005, No. 12

Kulikova R. Ivashka in a wooden shirt. Reader - 2008, No. 9

How old is the pencil? And why? 2004, no. 7

Ilyin M., Segal E. Stories about what surrounds you. book 2 Where things come from. M., 1985

Dietrich A. Pochemuchka. M., 1993

Kukushkin Yu.N. Chemistry around us M., 1992.

Sources

en.wikipedia.org- free encyclopedia, article "Pencil"

evolutsia.com- "The History of the Pencil"

shkolazhizni.ru- article “What did our ancestors write, draw, draw?

Appendix No. 1

Questionnaire of the student…..class.

You have a simple pencil in your pencil case. He:

1.- normal

Auto

Round

Hexagonal

With elastic band

Without elastic

2. Why did you choose this particular pencil?

Beautiful

Comfortable

Writes well

Cheap

Turned out to be by chance

3. What brand is your pencil? (Name)

4. What do you most often use a pencil for?

I'm drawing

I emphasize

Church

5. Do you put a pencil in your mouth? Are you chewing on it?

Yes

No

6. Do you fill your pencil completely?

Yes

No

7. Why yes?

Comfortable

Writes well

I'm getting used to it

Why not"?

It is not convenient to write with a small pencil

I'm losing

I'm throwing it away, it's cheap, I don't mind

8. Do you know what a pencil is made of?

No

Yes

9. If you know, name what is used in its production.

Appendix No. 2

Appendix No. 3

Appendix No. 4

Appendix No. 5

Appendix No. 6