How a Ballpoint Pen Is Assembled by Machine
How a ballpoint pen goes from loose parts to a tested pen on assembly machines: the refill, the clip and small parts, the finished pen and the writing test, with the pen machines we supply.
What is ballpoint pen assembly? Ballpoint pen assembly is the process of putting a pen together from its loose parts and testing it. A four-colour click pen, for example, is made of a barrel, four refills, a spring for each refill, a clip and a push button for each colour. On a machine line, each job, such as filling the refill, fitting the clip or testing the writing, is done by its own machine or station.
Key takeaways
- A pen is made in five jobs: make the refill, finish the refill, fit the small parts, assemble the finished pen and test the writing. Refills can also be tested before they go into the pen, and the order changes with the pen design.
- Gel and ballpoint refills are made at 100–220 per minute on the standard machines, the higher figure being for gel.
- A four-colour click pen line makes 15–20 pens per minute, while a finished-pen assembly machine typically makes 3,200–4,000 pens per hour, depending on the model. The line figure is for the four-colour version, which has far more parts.
- The writing test draws a test line with each refill or pen, up to twenty refills at a time.
- We have supplied pen machines to pen makers in Pakistan, Russia and Bangladesh. Every machine is set up for your own pen parts.
Video 1: a ballpoint pen assembly line. What you will see: grippers lift finished black-and-white click pens from a long row of stations and set them down on a green conveyor, as the camera pulls back along the line.
The parts of a click ballpoint pen
The four-colour click pen on the assembly line we supply is made of a barrel, four refills, a spring for each refill, a clip and a push button for each colour. Smaller parts, such as tip sleeves, grip sleeves, end plugs, refill float plugs (also called ink followers) and seal rings, have machines of their own, and the refill is usually built and finished on separate refill machines before it goes into the pen.
A ballpoint pen in five jobs
1. Make the refill. One machine feeds the refill tube, fits the tip and fills the ink. Two machines cover this job. The pen refill machine for ink filling and tip assembly handles the tip and the ink of the refill tube, at typical figures of 180–220 gel refills per minute and 100–120 ballpoint (oil-based ink) refills per minute. The pen refill assembly machine assembles the refill itself, in versions for metal-tube, needle-tip, bullet-tip and high-capacity gel, ballpoint and marker refills, and we have supplied it to pen makers in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
2. Finish the refill. Wax tipping seals the tip of each refill with wax, and cap removing takes the small cap off each refill. The standard wax tipping machine tips 120–160 refills per minute, ten at a time, and comes in vertical and horizontal versions. The standard cap removing machine handles 200–220 refills per minute, four at a time, instead of by hand.
3. Fit the small parts. Depending on the pen, the clip, the sleeves and plugs, the seal ring and the pen cap each have a machine. The clip machine fits metal click pen clips at 40–60 pens per minute, two at a time. The tip sleeve and end plug machine fits tip sleeves, grip sleeves, end plugs and refill float plugs (ink followers); a non-slip grip sleeve machine runs 50–60 pieces per minute on a rotary table. The seal ring machine fits a clear O-ring onto a marker pen part, about 45–60 parts per minute (typical). The pen cap machine runs 40–60 caps per minute on the standard model and can fit the inner plug into the cap and check it.
4. Assemble the finished pen. A finished-pen machine, or a complete line, puts the parts of the pen together, click pens included. The ballpoint pen assembly machine assembles click (retractable) pens as well as standard ballpoint pens. The complete ballpoint pen assembly line combines a rotary table with a chain conveyor and, on the four-colour click pen version, takes the barrel, refills, spring, clip and button through every assembly step.
5. Test the writing. The writing test machine draws a test line with each refill or finished pen. Refills can be tested on their own before they go into the pen, and finished pens can be tested too. The test can be combined with tip cleaning or wax tipping on one machine. Tell us what each pen needs to be checked for.
Which machine for which job
| Job | Machine | Speed (standard model unless marked) | Pieces at a time | Supplied to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Refill tube, ink and tip | Pen Refill Machine for Ink Filling and Tip Assembly | Gel 180–220 per minute; ballpoint (oil-based ink) 100–120 per minute (typical) | – | – |
| Build the refill | Pen Refill Assembly Machine | Gel 180–220; high-capacity gel 120–160; ballpoint 100–120; marker 40–60 per minute | 4 (marker refills: 2) | Pakistan, Bangladesh |
| Seal the refill tip | Pen Refill Wax Tipping Machine | 120–160 refills per minute | 10 | Pakistan, Bangladesh |
| Take the cap off the refill | Pen Refill Cap Removing Machine | 200–220 refills per minute | 4 | Bangladesh |
| Fit the clip | Pen Clip Assembly Machine | 40–60 pens per minute (metal click pen clips) | 2 | Russia, Pakistan |
| Fit sleeves and plugs | Pen Tip Sleeve & End Plug Assembly Machine | 50–60 per minute (non-slip grip sleeves) | 2 | Pakistan, Russia |
| Fit a seal ring | Seal Ring Assembly Machine | About 45–60 parts per minute (typical) | 2 | – |
| Assemble the pen cap | Pen Cap Assembly Machine | 40–60 caps per minute (liquid-ink pen caps) | – | Russia |
| Assemble the finished pen | Ballpoint Pen Assembly Machine | 3,200–4,000 per hour, depending on the model | – | Pakistan, Russia |
| Complete line for click pens | Ballpoint Pen Assembly Line | 15–20 pens per minute (four-colour click pen version) | 1 | – |
| Test the writing | Pen Writing Test Machine | Refills 260–320 per minute; finished pens 150–180 per minute | 20 refills; 10 pens | Bangladesh, Pakistan |
The machines at work
Video 2: a finished-pen assembly machine. What you will see: rows of grippers lift blue pen barrels out of the stations and lay them in the output tray.
Video 3: pen refill ink filling and tip assembly. What you will see: pen refill tubes move along the chain past the tip and ink-filling stations.
Video 4: a pen clip assembly machine. What you will see: grippers work along a row of stations on silver metal pens, and the finished pens drop into the output tray.
Video 5: a refill wax tipping machine. What you will see: rows of blue refills move along the chain and pass under the wax tipping head.
Video 6: a pen writing test machine. What you will see: under red light, a row of pressing heads holds the pens in place as they move through the test stations.