Seek and Geek 12: Pencils and Pens

This week I’m looking at the stiffnesses/forces involved in mechanical pencils and pen. I
assumed the springs were made of steel.

The spring constant of a spring is

𝐺𝑑 4
𝑘=
8𝐷3 𝑛𝑎
Where G is the shear modulus, d is the diameter springs
(estimated by measuring the thickness of the compressed
spring and counting the number of coils), D is the diameter
of the coil, and 𝑛𝑎 is the number of active springs. For the
mechanical pencil and pilot G-2 pen, the force is

𝐹 = 𝑘𝑥

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The displacement was measured using a ruler to calculate the force. According to Mathiowetz
et al., “Grip and Pinch Strength: Normative Data for Adults,” is ~ 100 N. The calculated
operating force for the classic mechanical pencil and the pilot G2 pen is ~20 N. This value seems
reasonable since it’s well below the average strength of an average adult and most people
should be able to operate the pencil/pen. In addition, it also feels like it takes more force to
click a pen than to click a pencil, so this estimation seems to be on the right order.

Now, I don’t own a side push mechanical pencil – so I can’t test the deflection/forces. However,
I can make estimations based on the dimensions of the classical mechanical pencil and images
online. The forces aren’t the same F=kx as shown above. Instead

𝐹𝑠 = 𝐹𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝜃) = 𝑘𝑥
If we assume the deflection, x, is the same as the classic mechanical pencil and the angle is 30°
based off of having previously used a side push mechanical pencils and estimation off of the
images found online.

According to the same source, the force to press the side button is ~80N - this force is called tip
pinch – pushing the thumb tip to the fingertip. This isn’t exactly the force for operating the
pencil. The actual human force for this configuration is probably higher.

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The calculated force is less than the press force for the classic mechanical pencil. While the
actuation force is lower than average force to press, it’s a higher ratio between the average
human force and the required force. The higher force may be due to geometric values that I
can’t get from looking at an image.

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