How A Ballpoint Pen Works(bhargo Camp)

How a Ballpoint Pen Works In this electronic age of voice mail, e-mail and cell phones there is still no substitute for pen and paper.

Pen is a tool used for writing or drawing with a colored fluid, such as ink. A ballpoint pen is a pen that uses a small rotating ball made of brass, steel or tungsten carbide to disperse ink as you write. It is very different than its pen predecessors -- the reed pen, quill pen, metal nib pen, & fountain pen. All of the pens that preceded the ballpoint used a watery, dark India ink that fed through the pen using capillary action which leads to uneven flow of ink, slow to dry & jams the pen when got dry. The key to a ballpoint pen is, of course, the ball. This ball acts as a buffer between the material you're writing on and the quick-drying ink inside the pen. The ball rotates freely and rolls out the ink as it is continuously fed from the ink reservoir (usually a narrow plastic tube filled with ink). The ball is located in between the ink reservoir and the paper by a socket, and while it's in tight, it has enough room to roll around as you write. 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 onto the paper. It's this rolling mechanism that allows the ink to flow onto the top of the ball and roll onto the paper you're writing on, while at the same time sealing the ink from the air so it does not dry in the reservoir.