A ballpoint pen is a pen that uses tiny rotating beads, which are made of brass, steel or tungsten carbide and can release ink to paper when writing. Ballpoint pen is very different from its predecessors-reed pen, feather pen, metal nib pen and fountain pen.
Basic introduction Chinese name: ballpoint pen alias: ballpoint pen, BIC Advantages: simple structure, easy to carry, writing lubrication components: brass, steel, tungsten carbide alias: ballpoint pen, development history, structural principle, common sense of use, classification, water-based ballpoint pen, oily ballpoint pen, neutral ballpoint pen, color, structure, precautions for use, too small angle, correct angle, too thick pad paper, dye, etc. Other information, buying points, related news, earliest time, development history An American journalist named John Lauder once designed a pen with a ball as the nib. 1895, commercial non-writing ballpoint pens were also sold in the British market, but they failed to catch on because of their narrow use. 19 16, Germany designed and manufactured a new ballpoint pen. Its structure is close to today's ballpoint pen, but its performance is poor, which has not attracted widespread attention. Hungarian journalist László Bíró is very aware of the problems with ordinary pens. Biro believes that he came up with the idea of replacing the traditional ink pen with a pen with quick-drying ink while visiting a newspaper. The ink used in newspapers dries almost instantly, leaving no stains. Biro vowed to apply similar ink to a new writing tool. In order to prevent sticky ink from blocking his pen, he proposed to install a rotatable small metal ball on the top of the tube containing this quick-drying ink. The metal ball has two functions: as a pen cap, it prevents the ink from drying. Let the ink flow out of the pen at a controlled speed. 1June, 943, Biro and his brother George (chemist) applied to the European Patent Office for a new patent and produced the first commercial ballpoint pen-Biro ballpoint pen. Later, Britain bought the right to use this patented ballpoint pen, so that these ballpoint pens could be used by the crew of the Royal Air Force. In addition to being stronger than traditional pens, ballpoint pens can also be used in low-pressure and high-altitude areas (in high-altitude areas, the ink of traditional fountain pens will overflow). This has achieved good results in the Royal Air Force, making the Biro ballpoint pen highly praised. In World War II, this kind of ballpoint pen was widely used in the army because of its firmness and ability to adapt to the battlefield environment. In the United States, Milton Reynolds introduced a new ballpoint pen in 1945 and successfully put it into commercial production for the first time, replacing the fountain pen that was still very popular at that time. Ballpoint pens use small beads to release high-concentration gelatin ink onto paper. Renault ballpoint pen is a simple writing tool, which is advertised as "the first pen that can write underwater". When Renault first introduced the new ballpoint pen, its sales volume was 65,438+00,000. These ballpoint pens sold for the first time are very expensive ($65,438+00 each), mainly because they adopt new technology. 1945, the first cheap ballpoint pen was produced. At that time, Marcel Bisch, a Frenchman, developed an industrialized process for manufacturing ballpoint pens, which greatly reduced the unit cost. 1949, Bishop launched his ballpoint pen in Europe. He named these ballpoint pens "BIC", which is a simplified version of his name and easy to remember. Ten years later, BIC Company sold its ballpoint pen to the American market for the first time. At first, consumers were reluctant to buy BIC ballpoint pens, because other manufacturers had introduced many ballpoint pens in the American market. In order to dispel consumers' hesitation, BIC launched an exciting national TV publicity campaign to sell this ballpoint pen to consumers "once use, want to use it every time!" " "And sell this ballpoint pen for only 29 cents. BIC also released TV advertisements depicting their pens being shot by rifles, tied to skates and even mounted on jackhammers. Within a year, competition forced the price of each pen to fall below 10 cent. BIC will produce millions of ballpoint pens every day! Ballpoint pen is a writing tool that uses the rotation of steel balls to write ink on paper. After World War II, ballpoint pens were introduced into China. Smart businessmen promote "ballpoint pens" and use the afterglow of nuclear bullets exploded in Japan to open up sales. In fact, "ballpoint pen" has nothing to do with atoms, but its pronunciation is similar. Ballpoint pens quickly became popular in the world. Japan alone consumes 400 million ballpoint pens every year. Ballpoint pen can write because the ball in the pen tip can take out the quick-drying ink and transfer it to paper when rolling. It is said that the dry ink in the Japanese atomic refill is enough to write 20 thousand words. However, if you write more words, the gap between the steel ball and the steel tube will gradually become larger, so that the ink will leak out from the gap, which will often stain the clothes and make you uncomfortable. Lao Wang's ballpoint pen in Japan, a small business owner came up with a trick: less dry ink, so that the ink in the refill can be used up after writing 10000 words, thus solving the problem of oil leakage in the atomic refill. So, he applied for a patent, specializing in the production of a short atomic refill and pen, which was welcomed by our customers. This method of solving problems seems to be a kind of cutting corners, but in essence it is an innovation, an innovation of ideas and methods to solve problems that people could not solve at that time. Ballpoint pens were more expensive than pens in the 1950 s, and they were reluctant to throw them away after use. You can continue to use it after adding pen oil in a special pen shop. It is said that Biro is Hungarian and a proofreader of a printing factory. Because the printed proof contains a lot of water, it is easy to be blurred when it is corrected with a pen, so he writes in ball retainer and lives in Mo Dou, which is not easy to cause the previous problems. Later, Biro provided his invention to the Royal Air Force, and the first ballpoint pens were produced by an airplane factory in Britain. Until World War II, Americans adopted Bello's invention. 19 16, the new ballpoint pen designed by Lisboa, Germany has not been popularized. It was not until the outbreak of World War II that the U.S. military department proposed to make a pen suitable for writing at high altitude, which is watertight, unaffected by cold and heat, and can store a large amount of ink without frequent irrigation, and rewarded it. 1944 Chicago businessman Renault saw that this was an excellent opportunity to make a fortune. Because of his active thinking, he asked someone to improve the Portuguese-Beijing pen and achieved success in a year or so. Just then, the United States dropped a nuclear bullet in Japan. He advertised his pen and named it ballpoint pen, which quickly became popular all over the world. From 65438 to 0948, the first domestic ballpoint pen in China was born in Shanghai Fenghua Ballpoint Pen Factory. After the reform and opening up, driven by the huge export demand, pen factories have sprung up. In 20 1 1 year, the relevant departments of our country started the project "R&D and industrialization of key materials and preparation technology in pen-making industry", and the state allocated nearly 60 million yuan to support relevant scientific research institutions and enterprises to carry out scientific and technological research on neutral ink manufacturing, stainless steel wire rod for nib and processing equipment. Through unremitting efforts, the project passed the acceptance of the "Twelfth Five-Year" National Science and Technology Support Plan on 20 15, and achieved a series of technological breakthroughs. For a long time, the dilemma of "import dependence" that has plagued China's pen-making industry has gradually been reversed. In order to equip tens of billions of ballpoint pens with "China pens", China started tackling this key project as early as 20 1 1. Wang Huimian, a senior engineer in the Technical Center of Taigang Group, believes that in order to make the pen tip, many special trace elements must be used to adjust the steel to the best performance, and small changes in the proportion of trace elements will affect the quality of steel. If this ratio cannot be found, the pen-making industry in China will always need to import pen tip steel. In order to refine the materials, Wang Huimian, a senior engineer at the Technical Center of Taigang Group, said that because there is no reference data for the development of this product, it is extracted from the proportion of several tens of kilograms of one ingredient, and it is impossible to count how many ingredients have been added. The production process of written products is the core secret of foreign enterprises. Wang Huimian and others must independently develop an unprecedented steelmaking process. Without any reference, we can only accumulate data, adjust parameters and design process methods. The inspiration for the breakthrough comes from the daily "dough mixing". If the dough is to live moderately hard and soft, it is necessary to add new "materials" and industrial "additives" to the corresponding molten steel. Ordinary additives are all lumps. If the block can be thinned, molten steel and additives will be mixed more evenly, thus improving machinability. After five years of countless failures, TISCO finally saw the nib steel with uniform additives under the electron microscope, and the experiment was successful in September 2006. After more than ten large-scale steelmaking, the first batch of steel with good cutting performance was finally produced. This batch of stainless steel wires with a diameter of 2.3mm can proudly write down the sign of "Made in China". Structure Principle The writing principle of ballpoint pen mainly uses the direct contact between the ball and the paper surface to generate friction when writing, so that the ball rolls in the ball seat and takes out the ink or ink in the refill to achieve the purpose of writing. A ballpoint pen is a pen that writes with ink and different pigments. The pen tip is a small steel ball embedded in a small cylindrical copper bowl, and then connected to a plastic pipe filled with ink. The ink flows around with the rotation of the steel ball. The pigment of ballpoint pen ink is dye. There are three main colors of ink: blue, red and black, among which blue ink is the most used. In the past, the pigment components in blue ink were basic blue and basic purple, and the solvents were oxidized castor oil and ricinoleic acid. Basic dyes have been eliminated because of their poor light resistance (light resistance is only 1 -2), heat resistance, acid and alkali resistance and poor durability. The "424" blue ballpoint pen and "322" black ballpoint pen sold in the market have good durability. It is not uncommon to see reports that structured scented ballpoint pens are toxic, and volatile organic compounds contained in inferior scented stationery are toxic and harmful to human body. However, we have not heard of poisoning caused by normal use of oily ballpoint pens without adding volatile organic compounds. Using common sense 1, this pen is more durable than ordinary pen, but if it is not used properly, it often cannot write words, mainly because dry ink sticks around the steel ball to prevent ink from flowing out. Ink is a kind of viscous oil, which is made of linseed oil, synthetic pine nut oil (mainly containing terpineol), mineral oil (oil obtained by fractionation of petroleum and other minerals), hard rubber, lampblack and so on. 2. When using a ballpoint pen, don't write on paper with oil and wax, otherwise the oil and wax will be embedded in the copper bowl along the edge of the steel ball, which will affect the ink output and make the pen unable to write. Also, to avoid the impact and exposure of the pen, wear a pen cap with gloves when not in use, so as not to damage the pen tip, pen holder and refill and pollute the objects by oil leakage. If it is cold or not used for a long time. When the pen runs out of oil, you can put the nib in warm water for a while, and then use the nib to stroke on the paper to write. 3. The ballpoint pen has a big disadvantage: the handwriting it writes is very clear at first; But it can't stand the test of time. After a long time, the handwriting will gradually blur. This is because the ink of ballpoint pen is made of dye and castor oil. Unlike water, oil does not dry easily. After a long time, the oil will slowly soak in the paper and the handwriting will become blurred. Therefore, the ballpoint pen can only be used as an ordinary writing pen. If you want to keep your handwriting for a long time, you need to use a pen. When the ballpoint pen hits the ground at 90 degrees, the tip of the ballpoint pen will not be damaged. However, if it is injured in the closed position, it will cause "oil leakage" in this gap. In severe cases, the ball will drop and writing difficulties will occur. There are many kinds and styles of classified ballpoint pens, including high, medium and low grade in quality, but they can be divided into oily ballpoint pens, water-based ballpoint pens and neutral ballpoint pens in category. Water-based ballpoint pen is also called ballpoint pen or ballpoint pen. The pen holder and pen body of ballpoint pen are made of plastic injection molding, which is called all-plastic ballpoint pen; The pen is made of stainless steel by stamping and polishing, and is called semi-steel pearl pen; Both the pen holder and the pen cover are made of stainless steel and are called all-steel ballpoint pens. All plastics are basically disposable, that is, they are discarded when the ink is used up; Semi-steel type and all-steel type mostly adopt replaceable packing structure. Ballpoint pens are divided into cannonball type and needle tube type, which are made of copper alloy, stainless steel or engineering plastics respectively. Most balls are made of stainless steel, cemented carbide or alumina. The diameter of the ball written in Chinese is 0.7 mm, and the diameter of the ball written in fine print is 0.5 mm. There are two forms of water storage: fiber bundle water storage and fiber bundle water storage. The colors of ink are red, blue, black and green. Ballpoint pen has the characteristics of both pen and oily ballpoint pen, and it is an ideal writing tool with smooth writing lubrication and even lines. In addition to the above classification, ballpoint pens are generally classified according to ink color and pen structure. Oily ballpoint pen can be referred to as ballpoint pen for short, without misunderstanding and confusion. Most ball heads used are made of stainless steel or cemented carbide. The diameter of the ball determines the thickness of the writing line. There are three common ball diameters: 1mm, 0.7mm and 0.5mm (often indicated on the pen body or atomic refill of the product). The ink of ballpoint pen is specially made, which is mainly composed of pigment, solvent and viscosity regulator. Common colors are blue, black and red. Ordinary ink is mostly used for general writing and special ink is mostly used for document writing. The ink used for document writing is generally marked on the refill, for example, the domestic refill has the word DA. Ballpoint pen oil ballpoint pen is the first generation of ballpoint pen series products, which have been put on the market in batches for more than 60 years. After long-term improvement and perfection, the production technology of oily ballpoint pen is mature, the product performance is stable, the storage period is long and the writing performance is stable. Now it has become a traditional product variety in ballpoint pen products. The ink used in oily ballpoint pen has high viscosity, so the writing feel is relatively heavy. Neutral ballpoint pen, the abbreviation of neutral ink ballpoint pen, originated in Japan and is a novel writing tool popular all over the world. According to the type of pen, ink color, structure, etc., it can be divided into different types of gel pens, and everyone can choose according to their own needs. Gel pen has the advantages of fountain pen and oily ballpoint pen, with comfortable writing feel, low ink viscosity and easy-to-lubricate substances added. The viscosity of writing medium is between water-based and oily, so it is smoother than ordinary oily ballpoint pen, and it is an upgraded product of oily ballpoint pen. The pen tip size of gel pen can be roughly divided into 1.0mm and 0.5mm Monochrome ballpoint pen by color (1): this is the most common ballpoint pen, and the common ones are blue, black and red. ⑵ Bicolor ballpoint pen: generally red and blue. (3) Three-color ballpoint pen: red, blue and black. (4) Four-color ballpoint pen: red, blue, black and green. In addition to these four kinds, there are six-color, eight-color and even twelve-color ballpoint pens. According to the structure (1), the pen holder is the refill, so you can neither add ink nor change the refill. The ink is used up and can only be discarded. ⑵ The ball-point pen with replaceable refill has the functions of button, spring, lock and reset. (3) The pen holder can be rotated to extend or retract the pen core. (4) New ballpoint pens, such as combination of ballpoint pen and pen, combination of ballpoint pen and pencil, combination of ballpoint pen and measuring pen, combination of ballpoint pen and miniature light bulb, etc. If the use angle is too small, it is easy to wear the closed part of the ball seat (the ball seat is made of nickel, platinum, copper or stainless steel, which is much easier to wear than the ball). If the tee is in contact with the writing object for a long time, even if the writing object is paper, it will not stand the wear and tear, which will cause the ball to fall off. When writing with a ballpoint pen with the correct angle, the angle should be controlled between 55 and 70. At this time, only the ball is in contact with the paper (the ball is hard, tungsten carbide or ceramic, which is not easy to wear), and the closed part is not in contact with writing, thus ensuring that the service life of the ballpoint pen can be prolonged in a good writing state. When the pad paper is too thick to write, the pad paper is too thick, and the pen tip touches the paper, which is easy to wear off the beads. Suggestion: 0.4 ball cannot be copied; At most, 1 ball with the size of 0.5 should be copied, but not more; 0.7 ball at most 3 to 4, not more, when copying, it is best to write 75. The role of dyes is to give ink enough color depth. The dyes used in ballpoint pen ink can be divided into oil-soluble dyes and alcohol-soluble dyes. The dye used in this experiment is phthalocyanine dye, which is insoluble in solvent, has good dispersibility in ink and strong adhesion to film forming agent, so it will not penetrate into paper, with bright color and good weather resistance. Dispersant A proper amount of dispersant can reduce the adhesion between ink and paper surface, so that ink can be erased in a certain period of time when writing on paper surface, and the writing fluency and long-term stability of ink can be maintained. The material used in this experiment is a mixture of phthalate esters and ethylene glycol esters in a certain proportion. Film former Film former is an important part of erasable ballpoint pen ink, and its main function is to form a uniform film on the paper surface as a carrier of dyes. It is required to have a certain adhesion to the paper, which is not easy to peel off, but it can be wiped off gently with an eraser. It has strong adhesion to colorants, good solubility in solvents, stability with other components and long-term storage. Rubber film-forming agent was used in this experiment. Solvent in erasable pen ink, the role of solvent is to dissolve dyes and film-forming agents and dissolve them with various additives, providing a certain fluidity, and at the same time having just the right volatility, which can effectively control the drying speed when writing. Experiments show that the effect of * * solvent is better than that of single solvent. In this experiment, the solvent system of solvent A: solvent B = 1: 1.5 ~ 2.5 was adopted, and the effect was the best. Other additives (1), lubricants and corrosion inhibitors usually use fatty acids as lubricants in ink components, and lubricants are also cosolvents. The functions of lubricants include: a, lubricating balls to provide smooth writing; B, prevent the ink from drying, so that the ballpoint pen has stable and good initial performance; C, increase the dye dissolution depth and improve the dye color. The introduction of fatty acids is corrosive to some nib metals (such as copper alloy), which makes a heterogeneous crystalline substance in ink block the channel, thus shortening the service life of ballpoint pens. The use of fatty acids and corrosion inhibitors can solve the corrosion problem and meet the lubrication requirements. The corrosion inhibitor used in the experiment is saturated and dissolved in fatty acids, which can achieve the purpose of anticorrosion. (2) Another reason for blocking and crystal crown formation in antioxidant and desiccant-resistant ballpoint pen ink is the oxidation of brass and interface, which generates copper and zinc compounds in solution. Antioxidants contain substances that can adsorb and absorb ambient oxygen, so they can effectively prevent oxidation. The combination of antioxidant and corrosion inhibitor can effectively prevent or inhibit the corrosion of copper alloy. Experiments show that the antioxidants we use have good effects. In the experiment, we also use an anti-drying agent, which is mainly used to prevent the ink surface or ink from oxidative drying, so that ink and ink have better visual effects, and at the same time, it can prolong its service life and storage life, and can also improve the performance of ballpoint pens when applied. Anti-desiccant is also an antioxidant. Remove method 1. Immerse the stain in warm water (40℃), rub it with benzene or cotton ball, then wash it with detergent, and then rinse it with clear water (warm water). Ballpoint pen 2. Wet the stain with cold water, gently wipe it with carbon tetrachloride or acetone, then wash it with detergent and rinse it with warm water. 3. When the stain is deep, you can wipe it with gasoline first, and then scrub it with 95% alcohol. If there are traces, they need to be cleaned with bleach. Finally, gently rub with toothpaste and soap, and then rinse with clear water. But boiling water is strictly forbidden. 4. If it is dyed on paper, it is most appropriate to treat it with correction fluid or correction tape. There are some more interesting developments in other information ballpoint pens, two of which are space pens and erasable ballpoint pens. 1, space pen Space pen, that is, pressurized ballpoint pen, is a novel technology. Take Fisher Space Pen as an example. The refill of the space pen is pressurized (~0.28MPa), and its ink is a special viscous ink (like sticky rubber glue). In order to turn viscous ink into liquid, the ball must rotate, so that the ballpoint pen can write smoothly on the surface of most objects or even underwater. Ordinary ballpoint pens rely on gravity to supply ink, and there is an opening above the refill to let air replace used ink. The space pen has no small holes, which avoids the evaporation waste of ink and the leakage of ink from the back of the refill. In addition, the service life of space pens can be as long as 100 years, while the average shelf life of ordinary ballpoint pens is only two years. Since the beginning of the "space race" in the 1960s, American astronauts have used space pens in all manned space flights, including the moon landing project. In addition, they are also used by many Russian astronauts in Soyuz space flight and Mir space station. Atomic strokes ii. Erasable ballpoint pen Erasable ballpoint pen came out in the early 1980s, and it was all the rage at first. They combine the readability of bright or black ink with the erasable function of pencils. Although these ballpoint pens are still produced under the banner of brands such as Gillette eraser Mate, they are not as popular as before. Patent documents such as US29664 18 and US4097290 describe these ballpoint pens in detail. Erasable ballpoint pen is unique in its "ink"-it is made of liquid rubber glue instead of oil and dye. When you write, the beads roll and release the rubber glue ink on the paper (the resulting traces are called tracks). Modern erasable ballpoint pens will leave clear and thick black or color marks on paper. These marks look similar to ordinary ink, but they can be easily erased soon after writing (usually as long as 10 hour). After this time, the marks will harden and become indelible. The ink of erasable ballpoint pen generally contains 15% ~ 45% by weight of natural rubber, which is dissolved in a series of volatile organic solvents with different boiling points. Main points of purchase: 1. The advanced ballpoint pen has obvious brand name and model mark on the pen cover, and also has obvious brand name, production date and "DA" mark at the end of the refill (the "DA" mark is the combination of Chinese phonetic initials in word file). 2. Metal tube refills must be used, and cemented carbide-tungsten carbide balls must be used as the ball point, which has better writing performance than ordinary ballpoint pens. The ink poured into the refill must be 424 pure blue ink and 322 black ink produced at a fixed point. These two inks have the advantages of sun resistance, water resistance and water tightness. Atomic refills filled with these two inks can be used to write files (including plastic tube refills, but the color of the tube must be light yellow). 3. There are marks and signs such as trademark number, model, manufacturer's name, place of origin and quality inspection certificate on the commodity package. Fake and shoddy goods, the ink filled in the refill is not the archival ink approved by the National Archives Bureau, and there is no "DA" mark on the refill, and there is no trademark number, model, factory name and place of origin. Some are unlicensed refills smuggled in from abroad, which are assembled to pretend to be imported advanced ballpoint pens. Related news 20 16 1.4 * * Premier hosted a symposium in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province to resolve excess capacity and realize the leapfrog development of the steel and coal industry. He revealed a "secret": "Last year, despite the serious surplus of steel production, we imported some special types of high-quality steel. We don't have the ability to produce die steel, including the ball on the ball-point pen head, and we still need to import it at present. This requires structural adjustment. "If it weren't for the prime minister of * * *, it is estimated that many people don't know. There are more than 3,000 pen-making enterprises with more than 200,000 employees and an annual output of more than 40 billion ballpoint pens ... China has become a well-deserved pen-making country, but behind a series of proud figures, it is an embarrassing situation that core technologies and materials are highly dependent on imports and inferior counterfeit products, while ballpoint pens need to be imported in large quantities.