Let’s take a look at a previous report first. (German media: Chinese machinery has quite high precision.) According to the "Deutsche Welle" report, China has completed the localization of ballpoint pen tips for the first time. The article stated that "this news should not be underestimated". Deutsche Welle believes that the localization of ballpoint pen refills is indeed a breakthrough in China's precision manufacturing. The article stated that China has transformed from a developing country into a high-tech country in the past 20 years, but its ballpoint pens have always relied on Japan and Germany. This further demonstrates that China can achieve technological progress without foreign help. So why does such a seemingly trivial incident attract the attention of the German media or other countries? In other words, only China’s technological progress can produce domestically produced ballpoint pens? China produces nearly 40 billion ballpoint pens annually, but the pen tips are dependent on imports?
Let’s take a look at the technology required for the ballpoint pen tip and ink. The pen tip is divided into a ball on the tip and a ball base body. Are these two things that have troubled us for a long time? Actually no, we can handle the ball part. China produces 0.5-1.0 mm tungsten carbide balls entirely by itself, and the technology is not difficult, because it is a type of ball commonly used at home and abroad, so besides production we can also sold to other countries. The key is the ball seat body with a diameter of only 2.3 mm. Whether it is production equipment or raw materials, we have gained nothing for a long time and can only rely on imports from Switzerland, Japan and other countries. The precision of domestic stainless steel wire rods is too low to be used. Only Japan's easy-cut stainless steel wire rods are technologically advanced and popular. Naturally, the ink that can be used with this kind of steel has to be imported from other countries.
Don’t look at a ballpoint pen, it requires more than 20 processes. Only Germany and Japan that can develop high-density instruments can handle it, because there are steps of different heights and five grooves to guide the ink inside the pen head. The processing accuracy must be at least one thousandth of a millimeter to accurately produce. Not only that, but another area that requires high technology is the front of the pen tip, which is only 0.3-0.4 mm thick. The performance requirements for stainless steel raw materials are extremely precise. On the one hand, it must be easy to cut and must not crack during processing. It also requires extremely high processing accuracy.
The amount of steel produced by each steel factory in one day is enough to make pens for a year. For steel mills, how can they have the motivation to engage in pen ball research and development without profits? What China needs is economic development. Investing money in developing this technology is not a very cost-effective deal.
Making ballpoint pen tips requires sophisticated instruments and equipment. These domestic equipment cannot meet the requirements. In addition, the profit margin of ballpoint pen tips is small. Few domestic companies are willing to invest in research and development, and most of them rely on imports. However, our country's Taiyuan Iron and Steel Group can already produce ballpoint pen tips, breaking the foreign monopoly. It is not surprising to say that Japan was able to develop them in the past. Japan and Germany have been studying sophisticated technology a long time ago, and there is another It's Switzerland, and the next one is China, and the United States is not good either.