The pen head is divided into a ball on the pen tip and a ball base body. At present, our country can not only meet domestic production needs of tungsten carbide balls with a diameter of 0.5-1.0 mm, but also export them in large quantities. However, the ball seat body with a diameter of only 2.3 mm has long been in the hands of Switzerland, Japan and other countries, both in terms of production equipment and raw materials. To produce 38 billion pens every year, China needs to import more than 1,000 tons of steel for pen tips at a price of 120,000 yuan per ton, and pays 15 million U.S. dollars in foreign exchange. For a manufacturing country like China, we can build high-speed trains and large airplanes, but why can’t we create a small steel pen tip?

The integrated pen tip production equipment from a Swiss company requires more than 20 processes to produce a small ballpoint pen tip. There are steps of different heights and five grooves to guide ink inside the pen tip, and the processing accuracy must be on the order of one thousandth of a millimeter.

The key parts of the pen tip, such as the mouth of the bowl, have a dimensional accuracy of two microns and a surface roughness of 0.4 microns, which is a technical requirement. At the top of the pen tip, the thickness is only 0.3-0.4 mm. Extremely high processing precision puts forward extremely high performance requirements for stainless steel raw materials. It must be easy to cut and must not crack during processing. The small "pen tip" tests China's manufacturing and also tests China's largest stainless steel production base - Taipei. steel.

To make steel pen tips, many special trace elements must be used to adjust the steel to optimal performance. Subtle changes in the ratio of trace elements will affect the quality of the steel. This ratio cannot be found in China. The pen industry will always need imported pen nib steel.

In September 2016, Taiyuan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. successfully developed pen tip steel.