Ballpoint pens and pens can be made in China, but the ball materials on the pens need to be imported. At present, the core of this technology is in the hands of Switzerland, and even the United States, Japan, Germany and other industrial powers are using Swiss equipment.
The nib is divided into a ball and a ball seat on the nib. At present, the diameter of tungsten carbide ball is .5 ~1 Mm can not only meet the domestic production demand, but also be exported in large quantities. The tee with a diameter of only 2.3 mm, whether it is production equipment or raw materials, has long been in the hands of Switzerland, Japan and other countries. China produces 3.8 billion ballpoint pens every year, so it needs to import more than 1 ton of steel for nib production at a price of RMB 0.20 million per ton, and pay10.50 million dollars in foreign exchange.
"The key parts of the pen, such as the bowl mouth, require a dimensional accuracy of two microns and a surface roughness of 0.4 microns." Xu Jun Dao, manager of quality department of Ningbo Beifa Group, said.
A Swiss company's integrated pen production equipment requires more than 20 processes to produce a small ballpoint pen. There are different steps and five ink guide grooves in the pen head, and the machining accuracy should reach the order of one thousandth of a millimeter.
The thickness of the pen tip is only 0. 3 ~ 0. 4mm, and the extremely high machining accuracy requires high performance of stainless steel raw materials, which should be easy to cut and not crack during machining. The small "pen tip" is a test of being made in China.