like, it is not only about ball of the Pen, but also about many things, like how small springs are made, and etc.
In: 8
you basically just use a press to squeeze a bit of wire, which increases its diameter by compressing its length. Done right and you end up with a ball. You can also force it through a tiny hole to make it change shape to get things like screws.
Whats more impressive is the billions of transistors on your computer’s central processing unit.
A ball bearing is produced in steps. First, the rough shape is formed by squishing into a mold. This makes an approximate ball shape. Then they are put between two plates, which are rotated against eachother as the balls run between them. This smooths out the surface of the balls and makes them spherical. Then, if better precision is needed, the balls are put through similar plates again but this time the plates are designed to grind the balls. Lastly the balls are heat treated to make them stronger.
Similar ideas come into play with other items. The real trick usually isn’t how to make things super precisely, but in avoiding the need to make things precisely. Making things with precision is easy but often expensive and time consuming. Instead, engineers try to work around imprecise parts.
Ballpoint balls are actually considered high precision engineering and up until very recently, nearly all of them came from Switzerland and Japan. China, despite producing billions of pens each year, only recently became able to produce good quality ballpoint balls.
I don’t think the issue is so much how they can be made with such precision, but how they can be made so cheaply still with adequate precision. See also: run-of-the-mill semiconductor chips which sell for a few cents.
Are links to YouTube allowed? If not, search YouTube for “how it’s made ball bearings”. I don’t know how to get any more ELI5 than that.
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