How a Ball point pen works

Doing the Hard Stuff

As discovery exists, development follows. And as development follows, a new discovery exists. There’s no way out to control everything that happens to exist as human mind continually explores. Thus, it’s not quite- surprising why everything we simply sense leads to a new invention. The ballpoint pen is just one of human being’s products of invention. Yet, as history divulges its trace, a pen or a ball pen still came from simple existence that becomes an improvised writing instrument. From its simple figure and parts, conceals a complex task of mechanism.

A ballpoint pen (modern writing instrument) is a pen with a small rotating ball made of metal to disperse ink as we write. This consists of ink, socket, reservoir or the tube and the ball. The ink is placed inside a plastic tube- looks like a stick; at the single top bottom connects the socket; and at the end part is tightened the small ball (not totally end, but between the ink reservoir and socket).

Now, the goal of this pen is to create a device that can distribute a fast-drying thick ink, without having the ink dry out of the pen itself. So the key is the ball. The ball acts as a continuous cap that keeps the ink from drying and it’s a mechanism for getting the ink into the paper. A hard task –one, to keep the ink dry, second, to get the ink out. Additionally, the ball is made of metal to compensate with solid and gas when used and unused. That’s why it’s not made of cartoon or foam. However, it’s not that of a ball’s responsibility where we could rely on. The socket holds the ball in tight as at the same time doing its task to help the ball roll around as we write. The socket seems unimportant, yet, its function is the same as the ball. It’s just that it is hard to visualize how it works with the ball. The half portion of the ball is held by the socket, and the back is exposed so it can pick up the ink reservoir.  That’s why the ball fits into the socket with just enough space to move freely. That’s the role of the socket. It’s somewhat a half-orbital little figure around the ball which we might say we cannot locate it inside. Also, through the socket relies the effectiveness of the pen’s ink which it doesn’t easily losses from the tube. That’s why there are pen that losses the balance of the ink when scratched on the paper. Some easily dries out; some easily flows without control. Lastly, the ink itself. We might say that the ink can actually be put into whatever pen we may prefer to choose. However, it plays much subtle when used on a ball point pen where it really works effectively and no-sweat. The ink finds its place where it can keep the balance of viscosity. That’s why a fountain pen ink is ineffective for easy writing for the viscosity of its ink is low. To make it clear, the ink has to live in a house where it apt to survive.

In using, it is the simplest conclusion as it facilitates its routine through the principle of physics:

As the pen moves across the paper, the ball turns and gravity forces the ink down the reservoir and onto the ball where it is transferred into the paper. It’s the rolling mechanism that allows the ink to flow onto the top of the ball and roll onto the paper we’re writing on while at the same time sealing the ink from the air so it does not dry in the reservoir. The ink, the socket and the ball are the main characters behind this. Developing a simple device into an invented complex machine. Doing the hard staff.