Life Cycle Of a Pencil

Step 5: Packaging

• After the pencils are created, workers will check them and throw away the disfunctional ones.
• The good ones are put into small cardboard boxes that have the company's name other designs.

Step 6: Distribution

• The smaller cardboard cases are packed together into larger cardboard boxes, where they are shipped to retailers/stores.
• Mostly transported by trucks.

Life Cycle Of a Pencil

Step 4: Manufacturing

• A pencil starts as a block of wood several pencil widths long.
• The wood is trimmed down to the right size and the thin layer of graphite is inserted.
• After the pencil's main shape is created, the wood is treated with wax and stain to treat the color and sharpening characteristics.
• When the pencils are cut, they put a layer of lacquer to finish the color and finish.
• A ferrule is added along with the eraser to finish the pencil!

Conclusion Questions

1. A product's life cycle is how a certain product is designed, made, used, and possibly reused.

2. When an engineer is making a product, they should consider its possible life cycle because they can visualise the materials needed and how it will affect the environment creating it.

3. To make the pencil more environmentally-friendly, they can make the pencil out of a recyclable material so it can be reused. Also, the trucks transporting it to stores could use natural gas or another renewable fuel.

4. At the end of a product's life cycle, typically one of two things will happen. It will either be thrown away, where it is sent to a landfill, or it will be recycled to have its materials be turned into something else.

Step 1: Design

Step 8: Reuse/Recycle or Disposal

Step 3: Materials Processing

• Since a pencil is made of wood, it can't be recycled. However, at some places, you can use the pencil shavings for compost piles. Also, some say that old pencils make good kindling.
• The ends of pencils should just be thrown away when finished.

At first, writing with lead/graphite was done by holding soft chunks of it that were wrapped in string. However, better, more easy-to-handle versions of the pencil were created with wood casings around the lead. Eventually, they added an aluminum ferrule to connect a rubber eraser to the end of the pencil.

• Graphite and clay are mixed to create the right density of "lead", measured from 1-4 (#2 pencils)
• The eraser's material is created by blending synthetic rubber and pumice.
• The trees are cut down and cut again into wooden boards that are the right size for making the pencils.

Step 7: Use

• The pencil is soon bought and taken home, where they can sharpen the pencil and use it to write.
• When it breaks, they can just sharpen the pencil again and keep writing.
• They can continue doing this until they reach the ferrule/eraser, which they can just throw away.
• A wooden pencil is mainly single-use.
• Pencils can last for a long time and still work, but they eraser may become less effective over time.

Step 2: Materials Acquisition

• The "lead" center of a pencil is made by with graphite and clay.
• The ferrule, or metal part of a pencil is made of copper or aluminum.
• The eraser is made of pumice, a type of volcanic rock, and rubber, which could be synthetic (latex), or natural (from trees).
• The wood is made from cedar trees.