A high-volume ballpoint pen and writing instrument manufacturer in Southeast Asia, supplying OEM clients across Europe and North America, was hitting a hard production ceiling. Its refill finishing line depended on two disconnected stations: a semi-automatic line drawing (scribing) tester that checked ink flow, write-out length and line consistency, and a separate wax dotting unit that sealed the open ink-fill end of each refill with a wax plug to stop leakage and dry-out.
Every refill therefore had to be loaded, unloaded and manually transferred between two machines. The result was double handling, uneven cycle times, and — most costly of all — sealing defects that were only discovered downstream, after the refills had already been assembled into finished pens.
- Combine pen scribing test and wax dotting into one continuous inline process
- Eliminate manual transfer between stations and reduce operator headcount per line
- Hold wax plug depth and weight within tight tolerance at high speed
- Reject defective refills automatically instead of passing them downstream
- Keep changeover simple enough to handle multiple refill sizes in one shift
Guangdong Gereke Stationery Machinery Automation engineered a single integrated platform that performs line-drawing verification and wax dotting in one pass. Refills travel a single transfer path: each unit is scribed and optically evaluated for line continuity and ink flow, then immediately indexed to the wax dotting head where a metered wax plug is injected and cooled before discharge. A servo-driven indexing system keeps both operations synchronised, so throughput is governed by one cycle instead of two.
| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| Process | Ballpoint pen refill line drawing (scribing test) + wax dotting, inline |
| Output | Up to 220 pcs/min (single lane configuration) |
| Wax plug tolerance | ±0.02 g weight, ±0.1 mm depth |
| Scribing detection | Optical line continuity and write-out length monitoring |
| Reject system | Automatic air-blow rejection with defect logging |
| Changeover time | Under 15 minutes between refill sizes |
| Operators required | 1 per line (previously 3) |
- Refills are bulk-fed into the hopper and oriented automatically by a vibratory feeding track.
- Each refill is clamped and indexed to the line-drawing station, where a continuous scribing test verifies ink flow and line quality.
- An optical sensor evaluates line continuity and write-out length, flagging blocked, starved or skipping refills.
- Refills passing inspection advance directly to the wax dotting head, which injects a metered wax plug into the open ink-fill end.
- The wax plug is cooled and stabilised, then the refill is verified and discharged.
- Rejected units are blown off into a separate bin while defect data is logged for traceability.
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Output per line | 110 pcs/min | 220 pcs/min |
| Operators per line | 3 | 1 |
| Sealing defect rate | 1.35% | 0.50% |
| Manual handling steps | 4 | 1 |
| Downtime per shift | 52 min | 14 min |
Combined with automatic rejection, overall refill defect rate fell by 63%, and the line now runs a single operator per shift while doubling throughput on the same footprint.
- One cycle, one rhythm: the scribing test and wax dot no longer compete for buffer stock, so cycle time is predictable.
- No blind spots: every refill is tested and sealed in the same pass, so a sealed refill is always a verified refill.
- Lower labour cost: two manual transfers disappear, releasing two operators per line to other stations.
- Better consistency: servo metering keeps wax plug weight and depth stable through a full shift, regardless of operator.
By treating scribing verification and wax sealing as one process rather than two, Guangdong Grick turned a bottleneck into a single inline operation. The machine is now available with optional dual-lane configurations, ink colour changeover kits and data export for MES integration, and suits ballpoint, gel and hybrid refill formats.
"We stopped treating testing and sealing as separate steps. Once they ran as one machine, our defect data finally reflected what the line was really doing." — Production Manager, writing instrument manufacturer (Southeast Asia)