How to make simple pencils. How pencils are made from Siberian cedar

The pencil is such a common thing that it seems like an unremarkable and simple drawing tool. However, to make it, a rather complex production technology is used. I would like to talk about this little-known process.

The stages of pencil production can be divided into two parts: making the lead and making the wooden shell into which it is inserted.

Pencil lead is made from a mixture of graphite powders and special clay. The graphite powder itself is made from slate slate. The mixture of graphite and clay is thoroughly mixed with water, then dried, then ground again into powder, and at the end a small amount of water is added again until a thick paste is formed. The hardness of the pencil will depend on the ratio of graphite and clay in this paste. The more clay, the harder the pencil will be. But the degree of hardness will still depend on another process, which I will describe below.

Then, this paste is fed to special equipment similar to an extruder. Graphite paste is pressed through the forming holes of the stamp and at the exit you can see the familiar pencil lead. However, he is still far from a finished rod.

The resulting lead blank is dried. Then they are fired at high temperatures in a special oven. During firing, the graphite and clay combine and the core hardens. As I wrote above, the hardness of the pencil will largely depend on this process. The higher the firing temperature, the harder the pencil will be. The less clay there is in the lead and the lower the firing temperature, the softer the pencil will be. As you know, hardness is indicated on pencils either in English or Russian letters. The English "H" means "hard" and the English "B" means "soft". Accordingly, the Russian letter “T” means hard, and the Russian letter “M” means “soft.” There are also different degrees of pencil hardness. For example, 2B or 2M is double soft, and 2H or 2T is double hard. In total, there are about 17 degrees of pencil hardness: from 8M to 8T.

After firing, the graphite rods are placed into special wooden blanks for future pencils. These blanks are wooden plates, half the thickness of a pencil. They are usually made from cedar or linden. This wood is soft and has fibers that are well suited for making pencils. Each such blank board produces either 6 or 8 pencils, depending on the production standard. Accordingly, 6 - 8 grooves are sawn into these boards for graphite pencil leads.

Next, the rods are placed into the sawn grooves. Then, a wooden plate with rods is covered with exactly the same plate on top. Graphite rods are placed between two wooden plates. The rods are securely fixed in the wooden shell in two ways: either by means of glue, or by squeezing the wooden halves of the future pencil. The halves themselves in both cases are connected using glue and a press.

At the next stage of production, these blanks are fed to a special machine, the cutters of which have teeth in the form of half a hexagon or half a circle. These cutters are used to saw a wooden blank with rods, and at the same time give the resulting pencils a hexagonal or round shape.

Well, now the pencil is almost ready! But it hasn't been painted yet. Painting is done with special enamels. And when the pencil is already painted, a marking is made on it indicating the manufacturer, the degree of softness of the pencil, etc. This embossing is done using paint or foil.

This is how it is - the difficult process of making a seemingly simple pencil.

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, produced?

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 cutting of over-aged cedar, which no longer produces nuts. Cedar grows up to 500 years, but cones appear on it somewhere up to 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 boards can be dried 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 at 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.

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.

A lot of time has passed since then. This story had its ups and downs. In 1999, the factory was declared bankrupt, and already in 2004, the well-known Czech company KOH-I-NOOR Hardtmuth a.s. became one of its owners. Today, the Siberian Pencil Factory is the only manufacturer in the former Soviet Union of pencils and pencil boards made from Siberian cedar, the wood of which is used to produce pencils of the highest price category. In the fall of 2012, the products of the Siberian Pencil Factory, having passed the examination of the commission, became a laureate of the competition “Best Goods and Services of the Tomsk Region”, and then a diploma winner of the All-Russian competition “100 Best Products of Russia”.

How are pencils produced that have received such consumer recognition?

PREPARATION

Pencil production begins at the timber exchange, where harvested cedar is stored. Now there are more than three thousand cubic meters of wood here. Last year, the authorities of the Tomsk region greatly helped the factory in providing materials. 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 overwhelming majority, this is sanitary cutting of aged cedar, which no longer produces nuts. Cedar grows up to 500 years, but cones appear on it until about 250, after which it begins to die and is affected by various insects. If you cut it down during this period, a new cedar will grow faster.

Each log from the timber exchange first undergoes mandatory preparation. Before being cut, the wood is placed and kept in a special pool of warm water. This is done so that frozen pieces of earth or clay with stones do not accidentally damage the saws. In the summer it is kept here for a short time, up to twenty minutes, but in the winter the log is kept in the pool until it thaws. This takes up to three hours.

In the upper right part of the photo you can see a tree trunk prepared for immersion in the pool. After 369 hours or 16.5 days, having gone through 26 different technological operations, it will produce finished pencils.

At the sawmill, logs are made from logs like this.

The production of a wooden pencil is extremely demanding on the quality of the material. Only clean straight wood is used, and if the presence of such defects as, for example, knots is not catastrophic for joinery products, then a pencil cannot be made from such wood, so it is very difficult to say in advance how many pencils will be made from 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 piece of wood that is not suitable for producing a pencil, by the summer 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. In order for all the boards to be 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.

This is what “ennobled” pencil boards look like after processing in an autoclave.

All that remains is to dry them properly and send them to pencil production. At this point, the process of making the tablet can be considered complete.

PRODUCTION

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 here is not yet colored.

The board is fed at the far end on the right side of the photo. Along the way, its surface is ground for gluing, and recesses are cut out in it with a special milling cutter. At the near edge of the machine, the boards are automatically stacked.

This is what a polished board with cut grooves looks like.

Now its thickness is 5 millimeters, 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. This is what it looks like.

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 a kiln 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 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 the temperature around 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 made 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, 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.

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, etc. Above the table hangs a notice with marriage norms.

Each tray on the table holds 1440 pencils.

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

PAINTING AND PACKAGING

The paint is purchased dry and diluted to the desired thickness in a paint laboratory.

Painting 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 there they are sent back to the next cover.

On average, each pencil is covered with three layers of paint and two layers of varnish. Here everything 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 will reach the consumer. Pencils are stamped, erased and sharpened.

This machine applies a stamp.

There are quite a few ways to apply it, but at the enterprise this is done 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 he won’t get around and get his hands dirty.

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 to be packaged and in order to do this they are sent to the next room.

There they are collected into a set, put in a box and sent to the consumer.

Packaging for the required number of pencils is printed in Novosibirsk. It arrives flat and is first given volume.

Then, through assembly machines, the required number of pencils are laid out in a given color scheme.

This machine allows you to assemble a set of twelve colors.

At the end, the pencils are placed in boxes.

Here at the stand are presented samples of the products produced by the factory.

During the tour, we asked about equipment modernization. “There are currently twelve factories in the world,” said Anatoly Lunin. – And everyone has similar equipment. Pencils have been made in Tomsk since the 30s. Since then, the basic principle and production technology have not changed. All processes 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.”

When asked if the factory, following the example of Chinese enterprises, plans to switch to the production of pencils from cheaper types of wood or plastic, Anatoly Lunin admitted: “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 world of global computerization, there would be a place for a simple wooden pencil.

Text, photo: Evgeny Mytsik

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Udalov Dmitry

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

Download:

Preview:

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. Taiginskoye 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 him when he is 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

6. Do you fill your pencil completely?

Yes

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?

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