“How It’s Made”: Crayons

1. “How It’s Made”:Crayons Crayons are writing utensils used mostly by children. Crayons are wax sticks with pigment used to color on paper. The wax sticks come in many different colors, each having its own label.

2. Binney & Smith • The makers of Crayola products, Binney and Smith, started in the late 1800’s. • They made the color pigment for the paint used on common red barns in America. • The Goodrich tire company used Binney and Smith’s carbon black to make automobiles tires black and more durable. -Originally, the natural color of rubber is white, so the tires were white.

3. How Crayons Got Their Name • Edwin Binney’s wife, Alice, came up with the name for crayons. -She combined the words “craie”, which means French for chalk with the first part of the word “oleaginous”, which mean the oily paraffin wax, to make the word “Crayola”. • Crayons have two basic ingredients: • Pigment • Paraffin wax (C20H42) -The wax is stored in heated 17,000 gallon tanks Chemical Properties: organic compound, doesn’t mix with water, flamable Physical Properties: 0.002 pounds, 3.5 inches in length

4. The “Secret” Mixture • Crayola doesn’t tell anyone about the exact mixture of the ingredients they use. -They say its “secret” • The “secret” mixture is heated until it is melted into a liquid. -Crayons melt at 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) -The mixture is heated to 190 F (82 C) • The liquid is poured into a preheated mold full of hundreds of crayon-shaped holes. - Cool water (55 F, 13 C) is used to cool the mold, allowing the crayon to be made in 3 to 9 minutes. • Paraffin will not mix with water or any other liquid, so the chemical pigment is in the form of powder.

5. This is the liquid paraffin being put into molds. Crayon label being applied. The white roller at the right spreads the cornstarch glue.

6. Ejecting The Crayons • A single mold makes 1,200 crayons at a time, weighing a total of about 40 pounds. • The operator uses hydraulic pressure to eject the crayons from the mold. • Earlier mold designs used a hand crank to push up the crayons. The just-molded crayons are then manually quality checked for imperfections and inspected for broken tips. • The excess wax from the mold and any rejected crayons are recycled to be re-melted. More than 120 crayon colors are possible. • Binney & Smith uses injection molding that allows them to make 2.4 to 6.4 million crayons in a day.

7. Making Crayon Labels • Binney and Smith know that younger children tend to peel off the crayon wrapper and eat it, not knowing any better. So, they use a non-toxic cornstarch and water mixture for the glue that holds on the label of the Crayola crayon. • The Binney and Smith label machine design hasn’t had any essential changes since 1943. • The bare crayons go into a machine while another machine releases the labels.

8. Glue Used For Labels • Glue is then added to the glue pot and the label machine starts. • The glue is then transferred to a slot in the same place that the crayon goes into. • Then, the label goes into a machine that presses the label against the glue. • The label is then tucked and wrapped around the crayon twice. -The label machine wraps the crayon twice to give it strength.

9. Labeled Crayons in packing machine. • Crayons are packed in boxes of various sizes from 2 - 96 crayons per box. Small packages of 2, 3 or 4 crayons are purchased for party packs and restaurants.

10. Advantage: They aren’t very messy. • Disadvantage: They can only right on certain • fabric. • Interesting Facts About Crayola Crayons: • A national poll in 1993 revealed blue and red • are the most popular crayon colors. • After coffee and peanut butter, the scent of a • crayon is the third most recognizable scent. • On average, a child uses 730 crayons by their • 10th birthday! • Pluckrose, Henry. Crayons. Franklin Watts, 1987.