By the way, in the production of a pencil, it goes through 83 technological operations, 107 types of raw materials and materials are used in its manufacture, and the production cycle is 11 days. If you still look at all this from the side of the whole product line, then a complex well-established production with careful planning and control is drawn.
Go...
In order to see with our own eyes the production process of pencils, we go to the Moscow factory named after Krasin. This is the oldest pencil production in Russia. The factory was founded in 1926 with the support of the government.
The main task of the government was to eliminate illiteracy in the country, and for this it was necessary to make stationery available. After the collapse Soviet Union The Krasin factory has remained the only pencil manufacturer in the CIS since full cycle production. This means that everything is produced at the factory - from the stylus to the final product - pencils. Let's take a closer look at the pencil manufacturing process.
For the production of pencils, the factory receives specially processed and stacked linden boards. But before they are used, it is necessary to make writing rods.
2. Let's go to the workshop for the manufacture of pencil rods. Writing rods are made from a mixture of clay and graphite. The preparation of the necessary mixture begins with such technological installations, where clay is crushed. The crushed clay is sent by conveyor to the next production site.
3. In the next section, special mills are installed, where the clay is more finely ground and mixed with water.
4. Installations for the preparation of a mixture of clay with graphite. Here, the mixture for future rods gets rid of impurities and is prepared for further processing.
5. It should be noted that only natural substances are used in the production of leads, which allows us to consider the production environmentally friendly. Installation for pressing the mixture. Rods are obtained from the semi-finished products obtained. There is practically no waste from production, since they reuse it.
6. At this production site, the rods themselves are already obtained, but in order for them to get into the pencil, a number of technological operations will be carried out on them.
7. The very technology of obtaining rods is reminiscent of extrusion. Carefully prepared and mixed mass is squeezed out through a special stamp with holes.
8. After that, blanks for writing rods are placed in a special container.
9. And dried in a closet for 16 hours.
10. After that, the rods are carefully sorted by hand.
11. This is how it looks workplace for sorting rods. This is a very difficult and painstaking work. Cats sleep behind a table lamp.
12. After sorting, the rods are calcined in a special cabinet. The annealing temperature ranges from 800 to 1200 degrees Celsius and directly affects the final properties of the rod. The hardness of the pencil depends on the temperature, which has 17 gradations - from 7H to 8B.
13. After annealing, the rods are filled with fat under special pressure and temperature. This is necessary to give them the necessary writing properties: the intensity of the line, the ease of sliding, the quality of sharpening, the ease of erasing with an eraser. Depending on the required core hardness value, lard, confectionery fat or even beeswax and carnauba wax can be used. Output product of the rod production area.
14. After that, the rods fall on the assembly. Here on such machines, planks for pencils are prepared. Grooves are cut into them for the installation of writing rods.
15. The cutting part of the machine grinds grooves in planks.
16. The boards automatically enter such a clip.
17. After that, on another machine, the rods are placed in pre-prepared boards.
18. After laying, the halves of the boards are glued together with PVA glue, and they are left to dry under pressure. The essence of this operation is that the rod itself is not glued to the planks. Its diameter is larger than the diameter of the groove, and in order for the structure to close, a press is needed. The rod, on the other hand, will be held in the wood not due to glue, but due to the tension of the wooden shell (prestressing specially created in this way in the design of the pencil).
19. After drying, the workpiece is sawn with special cutters into individual pencils.
20. Pencils are gradually sawn over several processing cycles.
21. The output is ready-made, but not colored pencils.
22. Already at this stage, the shape of the pencil is laid due to the type of profile of the cutting cutter.
23. Next, on special lines, the surface of the pencil is primed. When painting pencils, enamels made at the factory are used. These enamels are made from components that are safe for humans.
24. Line for painting pencils.
25. I think that in stores we have seen gift pencils painted with colorful stains many times. It turns out that in order to color them like that, a whole specially developed technology is used. Here is a small snippet of the painting process.
26. When visiting the paint shop, I happened to see a batch of pencils for delivery to the government of the Russian Federation of a new sample. The tip of the pencil symbolizes our national flag. Pencils dry in a special technological framework. The regularity of the rows looks very unusual and attracts.
27. After painting, the pencils are stacked in batches for shipment to the next sections of the factory.
28. It is a great pleasure to look at thousands of pencils painted according to the factory's proprietary technology. This is a very unusual sight.
30. Technological line for surface finishing.
32. Locker for storing stamps. It stores stamps for the entire range of products.
33. If necessary, before packing, pencils are sharpened on a special machine. The photo shows the intermediate stage of sharpening. I was amazed by the speed of the machine. Pencils fell into the tray in a continuous stream. I immediately remembered all the personal unsuccessful attempts sharpen pencils. From these memories, this machine began to inspire even more respect.
34. The factory produces and these are interesting pencils oval shape, used in construction and repair.
35. Arrays of stored pencils look very unusual and attractive. You won't see this anywhere else.
The pencil has become an absolutely indispensable thing in human life. Starting from kindergarten, he accompanies a person at school, university, at home and in the office. Finally, it is simply necessary when solving crossword puzzles.
The total cost of the complete set necessary equipment, which is required in order to organize the average production of pencils, starts at two million rubles.
How much does a used line in a complete set cost? To this must be added the cost of renting a production facility, which for a small workshop should have an area of at least fifty square meters as well as for the purchase of raw materials, wages employees and utility costs.
It is rather difficult to name the exact payback periods for such a business as the production of pencils. First of all, they depend on the volume of products produced and on the starting (initial) capital.
In addition, during the initial time, all profits are most often invested in promotion on the market, since competition among companies that produce not only simple, but also colored pencils is quite high, especially among Western factories, with which domestic ones compete little due to High Quality the products they produce. However, many experts say that the minimum payback period for small businesses is two or three years.
Technology
The production of pencils is carried out according to the following technologies. Previously, the wooden blank is carefully sanded, then the body is primed four times, since a decrease in the number of passes leads to insufficient surface smoothness. The primer, filling all the irregularities in the tree, provides it with strength for subsequent painting. Then the hull is painted.
Savings at each stage of the technological process, although it reduces the cost of produced pencils, however, leads to a deterioration in their quality. In addition, the environmental friendliness of the final product is also important, depending on the composition of the varnish covering the body of the product. It is known that children, and sometimes adults, are very fond of chewing writing instruments. Therefore, the varnish must be water-based and not contain harmful chemical solvents.
What materials are needed
For the manufacture of simple pencils, not only the composition of the lead - clay and graphite - is of no small importance. It also affects the quality of the wood. How the pencil is made depends on how it will look later. ready product and how easy it will sharpen. The cheapest goods, intended for undemanding buyers, are made from alder. The wood of such pencils is both unsightly in appearance and has grey colour, and does not hold the lead very firmly.
Wood
The most common type of wood, which fully satisfies all the requirements for raw materials when the production of pencils is organized, is linden.
In addition, it grows almost everywhere and is a sufficiently viscous material to hold the rod tightly.
A higher quality and, accordingly, more expensive pencil is a product made from pine, cedar, and also a tropical jelutong tree, production characteristics which are very high. But the most valuable is the raw material from California cedar. Stationery made from this tree is very expensive and is considered prestigious.
stylus
First, a pencil core is made from clay with graphite. It is the proportions of these components that determine the hardness of the lead. Moreover, the more graphite, the softer the structure will be. And vice versa, if there is a lot of kaolin in the lead, the composition of simple pencils will turn out to be more solid.
It is very important how the stationery is sharpened. A neat and even chip is ensured by the quality of the wood. At the same time, it is very important that the core is located in the center of the body, because if this technology for the production of pencils is violated, the lead is cut off unevenly during sharpening.
In addition, to prevent the stem from breaking if pencils are dropped, many office supply manufacturers use what is known as SV lead sizing. In this case, it breaks only at the sharpened tip, and not inside the case.
Paint stage
This third and also very important element in production does not allow less than seven layers of pencil coloring, otherwise the wood will become covered with burrs. Well-known companies that are serious about the quality of their products usually start with twelve layers. Whereas the production of pencils having high price, involves staining up to eighteen, sometimes up to twenty times. Then this stationery will have a high gloss and literally a mirror surface.
Equipment
Equipment for the production of pencils is diverse. Clay cleaning requires a crusher and special mills. Clay diluted in water is poured with liquid glass to rid it of impurities, including sand. Then, according to the recipe, graphite and a binder, which is made from starch, are added to it. The core mass must have a certain temperature and humidity. The slightest deviation leads to deterioration of raw materials.
The carefully beaten “dough”, kneaded with graphite and clay, is sent to a screw press, where it is formed using rollers with three different gaps. As a result, the mass is crushed, becoming homogeneous. Air bubbles with excess moisture are removed from it. The thickness of the dough after re-processing is gradually reduced from one to 0.25 millimeters.
Then the mass is passed through a die with holes, where it turns into a kind of "noodles" - into cylinders, from which the press already squeezes out a rod with the required length and diameter. The rods are thoroughly dried in drying cabinets, where continuous rotation takes place for fifteen or sixteen hours. The humidity of the finished element should not be more than half a percent. After drying, they are calcined already in the oven in special crucibles.
Colour pencils
Colored pencil leads are made somewhat differently. They contain pigments, as well as fillers with binders and fattening agents. Clay or kaolin is the main raw material.
Each more or less large manufacturer has its own recipe for making leads, which is kept a great secret. 
Many additive factories use dyes and waxes, as well as natural cellulose-based fillers and binders.
The cores of colored pencils do not undergo heat treatment, since color pigments can be destroyed under the influence of high temperatures.
At the stage when fat is added, which gives a color mark and keeps it on paper, two different technologies are used: the so-called hot or cold “preparation”.
In the first case, it is carried out immediately after drying, while the leads are moistened in hot fat. Most often, this technology is used in the production of high-quality watercolor pencils.
With cold preparation, fat is added to the mixture. As a rule, this method is used when the production of medium quality pencils with lead from organic pigments is established.
Each of us with early years doing creative work, or school lessons faced with such an object as a pencil. Most often, people treat it as something ordinary, as a simple and useful thing. But few people thought about how complicated the technological process of its production is.
By the way, in the production of a pencil, it goes through 83 technological operations, 107 types of raw materials and materials are used in its manufacture, and the production cycle is 11 days. If you still look at all this from the side of the whole product line, then a complex well-established production with careful planning and control is drawn.
In order to see with our own eyes the production process of pencils, we go to the Moscow factory named after Krasin. This is the oldest pencil production in Russia. The factory was founded in 1926 with the support of the government.
The main task of the government was to eliminate illiteracy in the country, and for this it was necessary to make stationery available. After the collapse of the Soviet Union factory named after Krasin remained the only manufacturer of pencils in the CIS with a full production cycle. This means that everything is produced at the factory - from the stylus to the final product - pencils. Let's take a closer look at the pencil manufacturing process.
(Total 44 photos)
1. For the production of pencils, the factory receives specially processed and stacked linden boards. But before they are used, it is necessary to make writing rods.
2. Let's go to the workshop for the manufacture of pencil rods. Writing rods are made from a mixture of clay and graphite. The preparation of the necessary mixture begins with such technological installations, where clay is crushed. The crushed clay is sent by conveyor to the next production site.
3. In the next section, special mills are installed, where the clay is more finely ground and mixed with water.
5. It should be noted that only natural substances are used in the production of leads, which allows us to consider the production environmentally friendly. Installation for pressing the mixture. Rods are obtained from the semi-finished products obtained. There is practically no waste from production, since they reuse it.
6. At this production site, the rods themselves are already obtained, but in order for them to get into the pencil, a number of technological operations will be carried out on them.
7. The very technology of obtaining rods is reminiscent of extrusion. Carefully prepared and mixed mass is squeezed out through a special stamp with holes.
8. After that, blanks for writing rods are placed in a special container.
9. And dried in a closet for 16 hours.
10. After that, the rods are carefully sorted by hand.
11. This is how the workplace for sorting rods looks like. This is a very difficult and painstaking work. Cats sleep behind a table lamp.
12. After sorting, the rods are calcined in a special cabinet. The annealing temperature ranges from 800 to 1200 degrees Celsius and directly affects the final properties of the rod. The hardness of the pencil depends on the temperature, which has 17 gradations - from 7H to 8B.
13. After annealing, the rods are filled with fat under special pressure and temperature. This is necessary to give them the necessary writing properties: the intensity of the line, the ease of sliding, the quality of sharpening, the ease of erasing with an eraser. Depending on the required core hardness value, lard, confectionery fat or even beeswax and carnauba wax can be used. Output product of the rod production area.
14. After that, the rods fall on the assembly. Here on such machines, planks for pencils are prepared. Grooves are cut into them for the installation of writing rods.
15. The cutting part of the machine grinds grooves in planks.
16. The boards automatically enter such a clip.
17. After that, on another machine, the rods are placed in pre-prepared boards.
18. After laying, the halves of the boards are glued together with PVA glue, and they are left to dry under pressure. The essence of this operation is that the rod itself is not glued to the planks. Its diameter is larger than the diameter of the groove, and in order for the structure to close, a press is needed. The rod, on the other hand, will be held in the wood not due to glue, but due to the tension of the wooden shell (prestressing specially created in this way in the design of the pencil).
19. After drying, the workpiece is sawn with special cutters into individual pencils.
20. Pencils are gradually sawn over several processing cycles.
21. The output is ready-made, but not colored pencils.
22. Already at this stage, the shape of the pencil is laid due to the type of profile of the cutting cutter.
23. Next, on special lines, the surface of the pencil is primed. When painting pencils, enamels made at the factory are used. These enamels are made from components that are safe for humans.
24. Line for painting pencils.
25. I think that in stores we have seen gift pencils painted with colorful stains many times. It turns out that in order to color them like that, a whole specially developed technology is used. Here is a small snippet of the painting process.
26. When visiting the paint shop, I happened to see a batch of pencils for delivery to the government of the Russian Federation of a new sample. The tip of the pencil symbolizes our national flag. Pencils dry in a special technological framework. The regularity of the rows looks very unusual and attracts.
27. After painting, the pencils are stacked in batches for shipment to the next sections of the factory.
28. It is a great pleasure to look at thousands of pencils painted according to the factory's proprietary technology. This is a very unusual sight.
30. Technological line for surface finishing.
33. If necessary, before packing, pencils are sharpened on a special machine. The photo shows the intermediate stage of sharpening. I was amazed by the speed of the machine. Pencils fell into the tray in a continuous stream. I immediately remembered all my personal unsuccessful attempts to sharpen pencils. From these memories, this machine began to inspire even more respect.38. The factory has its own equipped laboratory, in which products are tested throughout the whole production cycle and developing new production technologies. The picture shows the Amsler device for determining the resistance to breakage of writing rods.
39. Before leaving, I went into a room with demonstration stands for factory products. The emblem of the factory causes some kind of nostalgia. After all, these pencils are familiar to each of us since childhood. The factory produces several product lines. Professional Series pencils for artists, decorators and designers.
40. Samples of pencils supplied to the government of the Russian Federation. For the design of the pencils, a drawing was chosen to match the color of standard malachite tableware for employees of the government of the Russian Federation. But besides this, they have other differences from ordinary pencils: firstly, their shape is made with maximum regard for the ergonomics of an adult’s hand, and besides, they use a special “lumograph” type rod for making notes in the margins and in the diary, it does not smear by hand, but it is well erased with an eraser without damaging the paper.
44. I want to express my deep gratitude to the chief production technologist Marina for her help and clarification technological processes in production. At the end of the visit to the factory, its management presented Reedus' editorial office with their branded pencils, including those supplied to the government. Russian Federation.
By the way, in the production of a pencil, it goes through 83 technological operations, 107 types of raw materials and materials are used in its manufacture, and the production cycle is 11 days.
If you still look at all this from the side of the whole product line, then a complex well-established production with careful planning and control is drawn.In order to see with our own eyes the production process of pencils, we go to the Moscow factory named after Krasin. This is the oldest pencil production in Russia. The factory was founded in 1926 with the support of the government.
The main task of the government was to eliminate illiteracy in the country, and for this it was necessary to make stationery available. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Krasin factory remained the only pencil manufacturer in the CIS with a full production cycle. This means that everything is produced at the factory - from the stylus to the final product - pencils. Let's take a closer look at the pencil manufacturing process.
For the production of pencils, the factory receives specially processed and stacked linden boards. But before they are used, it is necessary to make writing rods.
2. Let's go to the workshop for the manufacture of pencil rods. Writing rods are made from a mixture of clay and graphite. The preparation of the necessary mixture begins with such technological installations, where clay is crushed. The crushed clay is sent by conveyor to the next production site.
3. In the next section, special mills are installed, where the clay is more finely ground and mixed with water.
4. Installations for the preparation of a mixture of clay with graphite. Here, the mixture for future rods gets rid of impurities and is prepared for further processing.
5. It should be noted that only natural substances are used in the production of leads, which allows us to consider the production environmentally friendly. Installation for pressing the mixture. Rods are obtained from the semi-finished products obtained. There is practically no waste from production, since they reuse it.
6. At this production site, the rods themselves are already obtained, but in order for them to get into the pencil, a number of technological operations will be carried out on them.
7. The very technology of obtaining rods is reminiscent of extrusion. Carefully prepared and mixed mass is squeezed out through a special stamp with holes.
8. After that, blanks for writing rods are placed in a special container.
9. And dried in a closet for 16 hours.
10. After that, the rods are carefully sorted by hand.
11. This is how the workplace for sorting rods looks like. This is a very difficult and painstaking work. Cats sleep behind a table lamp.
12. After sorting, the rods are calcined in a special cabinet. The annealing temperature ranges from 800 to 1200 degrees Celsius and directly affects the final properties of the rod. The hardness of the pencil depends on the temperature, which has 17 gradations - from 7H to 8B.
13. After annealing, the rods are filled with fat under special pressure and temperature. This is necessary to give them the necessary writing properties: the intensity of the line, the ease of sliding, the quality of sharpening, the ease of erasing with an eraser. Depending on the required core hardness value, lard, confectionery fat or even beeswax and carnauba wax can be used. Output product of the rod production area.
14. After that, the rods fall on the assembly. Here on such machines, planks for pencils are prepared. Grooves are cut into them for the installation of writing rods.
15. The cutting part of the machine grinds grooves in planks.
16. The boards automatically enter such a clip.
17. After that, on another machine, the rods are placed in pre-prepared boards.
18. After laying, the halves of the boards are glued together with PVA glue, and they are left to dry under pressure. The essence of this operation is that the rod itself is not glued to the planks. Its diameter is larger than the diameter of the groove, and in order for the structure to close, a press is needed. The rod, on the other hand, will be held in the wood not due to glue, but due to the tension of the wooden shell (prestressing specially created in this way in the design of the pencil).
19. After drying, the workpiece is sawn with special cutters into individual pencils.
20. Pencils are gradually sawn over several processing cycles.
21. The output is ready-made, but not colored pencils.
22. Already at this stage, the shape of the pencil is laid due to the type of profile of the cutting cutter.
23. Next, on special lines, the surface of the pencil is primed. When painting pencils, enamels made at the factory are used. These enamels are made from components that are safe for humans.
24. Line for painting pencils.
25. I think that in stores we have seen gift pencils painted with colorful stains many times. It turns out that in order to color them like that, a whole specially developed technology is used. Here is a small snippet of the painting process.
26. When visiting the paint shop, I happened to see a batch of pencils for delivery to the government of the Russian Federation of a new sample. The tip of the pencil symbolizes our national flag. Pencils dry in a special technological framework. The regularity of the rows looks very unusual and attracts.
27. After painting, the pencils are stacked in batches for shipment to the next sections of the factory.
28. It is a great pleasure to look at thousands of pencils painted according to the factory's proprietary technology. This is a very unusual sight.
30. Technological line for surface finishing.
32. Locker for storing stamps. It stores stamps for the entire range of products.
33. If necessary, before packing, pencils are sharpened on a special machine. The photo shows the intermediate stage of sharpening. I was amazed by the speed of the machine. Pencils fell into the tray in a continuous stream. I immediately remembered all my personal unsuccessful attempts to sharpen pencils. From these memories, this machine began to inspire even more respect.
34. The factory also produces such interesting oval-shaped pencils used in construction and repair.
We have been using pencils since kindergarten. But few of us know how pencils are made, what kind of wood is used for this purpose. It is noteworthy that the creation of these stationery is carried out in each factory in its own way. But at the same time there are common points that are fundamental to the production process.
What tree?
Classical wooden pencil It has important component- wood, the quality of which depends on the operation of this accessory. It is clear that not every tree is suitable for these purposes. In the past, the industry used the wood of the Virginian or red cedar, which belongs to the juniper genus. Long fibers, lack of knots, ease of processing - that's what attracted attention in this material. But due to the high cost, European and American brands that produce pencils began to use California cedar wood. Moreover, high-quality products are created on its basis, which are used in graphic and artistic purposes.
In most cases, pencils are made from alder, linden, pine, California and Siberian cedar, as well as such a rare tree as jelutong. What kind of wood are pencils made in our country? In most cases, from alder and linden, of which there are a huge number on the territory of Russia.
Alder is not the most durable material, but it has a uniform structure, which makes easier process processing and retains the natural natural color. As for linden, it meets all operational requirements, and therefore is used in the production of both cheap and expensive pencils. Due to its good viscosity, the material holds the lead firmly.
A unique material for creating pencils is cedar, which is widely used in factories in Russia. It is noteworthy that not healthy wood is used, but specimens that no longer give a nut.
Stem: what is the base?
The production of pencils is carried out using a special core. consists of three components - graphite, soot and silt, to which organic binders are often added. Moreover, graphite is a constant component, including color, since it is the stylus that leaves a trace on paper.
The rods are created from a carefully prepared mass, which has a certain temperature and humidity. It is important that the mixture does not dry out, as this will affect the wear of the equipment. The kneaded dough is formed by a special press, then passed through equipment with holes, which makes the mass look like noodles. These noodles are formed into cylinders from which rods are extruded. It remains only to ignite them in special crucibles. Then the rods are fired, and after it, fat is performed: the formed pores are filled with fat, stearin or wax under pressure and at a specific temperature.
How are colored pencils made? Here, again, the core has a fundamental difference, which is made from pigments, fillers, fattening components and binder. Here the rod production process is as follows:
- the manufactured rods are placed in special grooves on the plank and covered with a second plank;
- both boards are glued with PVA glue, while the rod should not stick;
- the ends of the glued boards are aligned;
- preparation is performed, that is, the addition of fat to an already existing mixture.
It is noteworthy that the production of pencils is carried out taking into account the consumer properties of products. So, cheap ones are made from wood of not the highest quality, exactly the same - not the highest quality - and the shell. But the pencils that are used for artistic purposes are made from high-quality wood, which has a double sizing.
Wood preparation stage
The production of pencils is carried out from well-selected wood, which is processed to obtain bars. Be sure to trim the bars along the length of the pencil, and allowances must be taken into account, since the material will shrink. On a special multi-saw machine, the bars are cut into planks, which are impregnated with paraffin in special autoclaves. This procedure improves mechanical properties future product.
Depending on what the pencil is made of, its sharpening will also be performed. It is believed that neat chips are obtained if the products are made of pine, linden or cedar wood. In addition, it is important that the lead is glued with high quality - such a pencil will not break even if it falls.
What shell?
The simplicity and beauty of the pencil depends on the shell. Since pencils are made of wood, it must meet the following requirements:
- Softness, strength and lightness: during operation, the shell should not break or crumble, like the entire body.
- Do not exfoliate under the influence of natural factors.
- Have a beautiful cut - smooth and shiny, while the chips themselves should not break.
- Wood must be resistant to moisture.
What equipment?
The production of pencils is carried out using a variety of equipment. For example, the purification of clay, from which a graphite rod will subsequently be created, requires special mills and crushers. Processing of the mixed dough is carried out on a screw press, where the rod itself is formed from the dough by rollers with three different gaps. For the same purpose, a die with holes is used. Drying of wooden blanks is carried out in where the products are subjected to rotation for 16 hours. With good drying, the wood acquires a moisture level of a maximum of 0.5%. As for colored pencils, they are not subjected to heat treatment due to the presence of fillers, dyes and fattening components in them. On a special machine, pencils are trimmed in length.
Drying
How are pencils made? Drying plays an important role in the production process. It is carried out in special wells using machines, and the boards are stacked so that drying is as efficient as possible. In these wells, drying is carried out for about 72 hours, then the boards are sorted: all cracked or ugly products are rejected. The selected blanks are ennobled with paraffin, calibrated, that is, special grooves are cut on them, where the rods will be located.
How are pencils made in production next? Now a milling line is used, on which the blocks are divided into pencils. Depending on the shape of the knives used at this stage, the pencils are either round, or faceted, or oval. Important role plays the fastening of the lead in a wooden case: this must be done firmly and securely, which reduces the risk of the lead elements falling out. The elastic adhesive used for bonding makes the lead stronger.
Coating features
Modern pencils and colored pencils come in a huge variety of designs and colors. Since pencils are made in the factory, they pay close attention to each stage of production. Coloring is one of milestones because it must meet a number of requirements. Extrusion is used to finish the surface, and the end face is finished by dipping. In the first case, the pencil passes through the primer, where at the end of the conveyor it is turned over to apply the next layer. This results in an even coverage.
Color quality: what does it depend on?
The quality of painting depends on how the paintwork materials themselves meet the established requirements, whether the priming machine is set up correctly, whether the deadlines for drying pencils on the tape are observed. Any pencil factory uses quick-drying compounds that form a hard, durable and elastic film on the surface that adheres well to the surface of the wood.
Coloring is carried out with special priming paints, which have a certain viscosity and contain pigments. If the pigment part is large, this will reduce the gloss of the film and require further application of nitro varnish on the surface. Even simple pencils varnished with nitrocellulose gloss varnish.
If the pencil dark shades, then it is painted with at least 5 layers and 4 layers of varnish. To achieve light shades, a combination of 7 layers of paint with 4 layers of varnish is used. At the same time, for a uniform and accurate coating, it is important that the surface has a maximum of 18 layers. The coloring of the end parts of the pencils is carried out in a dipping machine, into which a frame with pencils located on it is lowered.
pencil frame
Depending on how pencils are made and from what materials, their frame can also vary. In the traditional version, the stylus has a wooden frame, but the modern market offers wide choose products in plastic, lacquered and even paper cases. On the one hand, this adds beauty and unusualness to them, on the other hand, when falling from such pencils, little will remain.
After painting, the pencils are finished. For this, various stamps and foil of different colors are used. This process is called thermostating.
What hardness?
All colored and pencils are distinguished by the hardness of the lead, which is reflected in their marking. You need to choose them like this: the denser and harder the paper, the harder the graphite rod should be. But too hard graphite can damage the paper. In Russia, you can buy pencils of the following markings:
- M - soft.
- T - solid.
- TM - hard-soft.
You should be aware of marking when choosing pencils for creating drawings or drawing in the appropriate technique.
Features of colored pencils
What simple pencils are made of, we have already figured out. Now you need to understand when and how they appeared. It is known that the first products with colored stylus appeared in 1820, however, who invented them remained a mystery. The color lead is based on a combination of binder, color pigments and filler. Kaolin glue acts as a connecting substance, due to which the shape of the stylus is also formed. As color pigments, well-ground high-quality color materials are used, and the pigment can be an organic or inorganic base. The color pigments themselves are created on the basis of materials that are resistant to fading under the influence of sunlight and environmentally friendly. To date, pencils are available in 36 color shades according to the international Pantone shade scale. As for fillers, kaolin and chalk are used in this capacity, which are subjected to thorough grinding.
