Wooden Pencil

What it is  A pencil is a writing utensil.  They are used for writing, because they can easily be erased, unlike pens.  They are usually yellow, with a pink eraser  #2 is the most common.

Raise and Extract  Graphite: Chemicals are mined / found in the environment  Wood: Cut down from Californian Cedar Trees.  Eraser: Chemicals are found in nature, put together in a Lab to make rubber  Metal: Mined / found in environment and combined in a lab to make aluminum.

Process  Graphite: made in lab  Metal: Aluminum made in lab from natural chemicals  Wood: Cedar trees are cut down and mined, into smaller blocks that are sold to pencil factory.  Rubber: Pumice and other chemicals are combined in lab

Manufacture  Sandwich method. A flat piece of wood has 10 holes cut in it using a mold, graphite is injected into the holes.  A second machine extracts the graphite, with a small housing of wood around it.  Other robots force the aluminum housing onto the top of the pencil, and a rubber eraser is forced into the other side of the aluminum housing.  Glue is used to hold eraser to metal to wood

Use and Repair  Pencils are used by kids and adults for:  Drawing  Notes  Writing  Test Taking  And many other things  They are sharpened to get a finer pint.  After the pencil has been sharpened too many times it becomes un-useable  Eraser is also used up over time

Dispose  Some pencils don’t make it out of the factory, because workers are trained to find imperfections in pencils on assembly line.  Most pencils are thrown away after they have been sharpened too many times or have broken.  The only part that stays in the land fill is the metal around the eraser.

Timeline  1 st Chemicals and wood are extracted from environment.  2 nd wood and chemicals are formed to make a pencil  3 rd pencils are sent to stores and sold to consumers  4 th Consumer writes with the pencil until the pencil and sharpens the pencil.  5 th Pencil becomes old and is recycled or thrown away.  6 th Wood and Chemicals break down in land fill, and metal stays in the land fill.

Bibliography  Jim Acton, 2007, Review: How Pencils are Made, 1/Pencil.html 1/Pencil.htmlhttp:// 1/Pencil.html  Doug Martin, 1996, Pencil Info,  2000, Pencil History, m m m

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