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You missed some key details in the article - China does make 38 billion ball-point pens per year, but doesn't make any of the balls in those pens. This is a co
by brandmeyer 11y ago
You missed some key details in the article - China does make 38 billion ball-point pens per year, but doesn't make any of the balls in those pens. This is a commentary on their ability to make the single precision element within the pen.
- iSnow 11y agoWhy would the socket require less precision than the ball that goes into that socket?
- orf 11y agoClearly it is otherwise they wouldn't import them.
- EliRivers 11y agoWithout getting into whether or not China does or doesn't have this level of manufacturing capability, I would suggest that it's not a case that the socket requires less precision; it's that making a socket to the tolerance required is significantly easier than making the sphere of metal to the tolerance required. They both have to be precise; the ball is harder to make to that precision.
- moron4hire 11y agoI also don't buy the story on just how much precision is required, considering the ballpoint pen is a 128-year-old invention. > it requires state-of-the-art machinery and cutting-edge computerized measurement equipment with pinpoint precision to produce, not to mention the ability to produce the high-quality steel material of which it is made. Nobody had this in 1950, say nothing about 1888.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- clort 11y agoI don't know but I'm guessing you just crimp it on. The ball has to be perfectly spherical though or else it will jam.
- mc32 11y agoMy impression, and it could be wrong, is that China does make the stainless steel spheres for most cheap pens, they just don't make the "high quality" high precision spherules made out of other more expensive alloys. Evenso, I think this is like someone bashing Specialized, Bianchi, Gary Fisher, etc., for using Shimano derailleurs.