How It's Made - LAMY Fountain Pens

Lommy is a designer and manufacturer of writing instruments nestled in the hills of Heidelberg Germany the company began when see Joseph Lommy started designing pens in the 1930s and they moved into this facility in 1957 Lommy really began to make a name for itself when his son dr. Manfred Lonnie began designing pens and the Bauhaus philosophy in 1966 Bauhaus embodies function over form and you can see this influence in their products as well as their architecture their headquarters is around 170,000 square feet where they have more than 350 employees working 24 hours a day six days a week they've maximized their efficiency of both their time and their space and the scale at which they're operating is beyond what we anticipated pride and Lommy brand can be felt throughout the entire company and unique elements like the la materia company lunch room the Galleria and the sculpture garden define their culture in a physical setting when Lommy begins conceiving the pen idea it starts with collaboration and design depending on the pen design it can take three to eight years to design a single pen la me not only designs the writing instruments themselves but also the equipment that they use to manufacture them the engineering building itself no internal posts and it was designed so that the ceiling would be held up by structure from the outside so that the engineers can work with no impeded floor plan one of the unique things about la me is they manufacture all of their nibs in-house let's take a look at how they do it the process begins for the 3 foot spool of 1 inch wide stainless steel it's loaded onto a machine that has a continuous feed and punches out the steel into the form of the nib what you see here is a strip that shows all of the different steps that are involved in forming a stainless steel nib the machine operates continuously until the entire roll is complete and is fully automated the process is identical for both stainless steel and gold nibs but because it runs continuously they have to stop and clean the entire machine when they change materials tiny balls of precious metal will make up the actual writing surface of the nib and their laser welded onto the nib at this stage once the nibs are formed they're then loaded into a hopper and ready to have the slit cut for the times this cutting wheel is about the thickness of a single human hair the wheel spins at about 7,000 rpm which creates an incredible amount of cutting force to cut through the hardened metal and this coolant is used in order to keep it from overheating next the rough cut nibs go into a polishing drum to get them nice and shiny the polished nibs are then loaded into this mechanical hopper where they're rotated and vibrated into place this allows them to go into the next stage which takes and punches the nibs down to properly align the tines this will ensure proper capillary action to the ink will flow to the tip with the gold nibs requires a little more handwork but the process is fairly similar they digitally inspect every single nib that they manufacture for proper alignment and to make sure that there are no burrs or anything that would impede ink flow the final step is to get the branding on the nibs so each nib is loaded into the machine one at a time and is actually laser etched with a lobby logo and nib size some of the finer details that Lama does on their premium products such as their 14 karat gold nibs as a final polishing and inspecting to make sure that everything looks really good now let's move on over to some pen assembly we had a chance to see the at the time yet to be released Lommy all-star vibrant pink let's take a deeper look into how this particular pen is assembled as a part of every fountain pen there needs to be an ink delivery system and that's what these are right here these are the components of the Lamia feeds which are in a large buckets that get loaded into this machine the feeds are properly arranged into an assembly line so that they can be ready to receive the stainless steel lid to ensure that it's been installed properly a laser inspects proper alignment of the nib and feet assembly it's then rotated 90 degrees so that it can be inspected from a different angle and be prepared for installation into the ribbon but the grip of the pen has to be rotated in the proper position for installation of the feed once it's in the proper rotation the Nibin feet assembly can be inserted into the grip each unit is then removed and flipped over so that it can be prepared to be inked and right tested [Music] [Music] every pen that's manufactured is inked up and tested to ensure that it's writing properly next the assemblies are placed back into their tray for they move to the next station there then spot checks by a Lommy professional all of the Pens are tested with Lommy blue ink and they include a cartridge the ink cartridges are loaded into a hopper where they're then transported to be loaded into each pattern separate machine is simultaneously manufacturing all of the caps the plastic insert goes inside the cap this is what will help keep the nib dry when the pen is sealed the clips are then installed by hand and placed onto this assembly line where it can then go into the Machine and have the finial installed to hold the whole cap assembly together [Music] now we're getting into the final steps of the assembly each pen has a cartridge that's placed with a cardboard ring as a spacer so it won't get punctured as it's assembly and bodies that have been assembled previously are then placed onto the grips even though they're being placed on randomly the Machine assesses where they are and screws them on to the exact correct place at this point we have completed 10 bodies where they're visually inspected by Alami Pro and ready for assembly with their cap they're then put into trays where they can be shipped to distributors all over the world plumbing makes a variety of different pen models not just fountain pens but also pencils ball points and roller balls though the majority of what they make about 75% is fountains next we're gonna get to see one of the most highly automated processes and long as entire factory which is manufacturing their safari it's one of the most popular pens and so they need a high volume of these plastic pellets which they keep in tubs sorted by different color they're sucked up into a vacuum and then put into this injection molding machine which operates 24/7 [Music] some of Lonnie's other models require more personal attention they're not as highly automated in their assembly as the all-star in Safari this pen in particular is the Awami ion the ion is a relatively new pen that la me spent three years in development with designer jasper morrison because of the more intricate parts inside the pen this requires a little more attention to detail with Senate and Assembly also because these pens are not sold and quite as high of a volume that makes more sense to dupe and assembly than to build automated equipment to make these Lommy designs special machines to assist in the assembly so that they can have some consistency especially when inserting certain parts of the cavity and every piece is inspected by hand to make sure that's being assembled properly even though machines are sometimes used in the assembly process every 10 in every step is visually inspected by a long a professional pens are individually cleaned and inspected before they're prepared for packaging the more highly automated pens like the Safari and all-star tend to be in more the sub $50 range but the higher-end pens above $50 are usually the ones that require hand assembly the long studio here is one of those pens and you can see that there are certain pieces that are designed specifically for the assembly the studio even though there are hand assembly aspects required to some of these pens it's evident that efficiency and consistency are still critical factor as you'd expect with the German brand the lobby 2000 is kind of the flagship pen for the brand and has a number of special steps that were developed specifically for this product the pen is made out of stainless steel and macro lawn which is a special material that long is developed and it is sanded in exactly three and a half rotations to give it a textured finish they've been manufacturing the Pens way since 1966 Lommy produces tens of millions of ink cartridges for their pens every year these are proprietary cartridges that are designed just to fit mommy bags this machine you're seeing here is showing how cartridges fill from start to finish they begin with empty cartridges that are put into place to be prepared for filling they're filled to a precise amount once the cap is in place it's plugged and sealed certain regions of the world primarily use cartridges this is especially true in Germany once they're sealed they're thrown down a chute to be sent to packaging once the cartridges are prepared they're ready for packaging the machine separates them into groups of five and then inserts them into pre folded boxes this process is completely automated once the box is a fiber complete they're packaged up into a carton of twenty because this is how they're sold to retailers there's a final weight check on the carton before chips out in other regions of the world bottled ink is much more popular this is especially true in the u.s. the step you're seeing here is some bottles that are being prepared for filling Mommy has six regularly available bottled ink colors and sometimes have an extra special edition color this specially designed machine fills each bottle to exactly 50 milliliters there's a special tray that keeps the drips from going back onto the bottle after it's been filled [Music] each bottle receives a cap that is screwed on to an exact amount of pressure so that it's not over tightened but also won't eat if you're using bottled ink with a Lommy pen you're gonna need a converter and that's what this machine is assembling the z28 there are a number of different parts and pieces in this converter and this machine is fully automated to put them all together into a single working converter the process begins with the assembly of the filler knob this is the red piece that you turn when you're screwing on is an assembly these are the piston rods that will actually move up and down to draw hang instability they're placed into the piston mechanism [Music] next comes the ink chamber which is where the ink will actually be housed inside the converter this is pressed into place over top of the piston mechanism this step twists the converter to ensure that the piston mechanism is functioning properly there's a metal shroud that's pressed into place to ensure that the ink chamber stays put the final step is the plug that goes in the end of the ink chamber this is what will friction fit onto the back of your pendant after this the assembly is complete and it's ready for packaging [Music] once final assembly and packaging is complete Lama moves the final products to their multi-story warehouse Lommy distributes their products to more than 70 countries worldwide home to more than 10,000 retailers it's evident looking at their entire process just how thoughtful they are about everything from their engineering and design all the way through their final packaging it was an absolute honor to be able to get to see the process they gave us more access than I think they've ever given anyone with a video camera and it was a true pleasure to get to do it thank you to everybody at Lommy for allowing us to be here you

Channel: The Goulet Pen Company

Views: 1,135,317

Rating: 4.8958898 out of 5

Keywords: Goulet Pens, fountain pens, writing, how it's made, production, fountain pen, LAMY, nibs, ink cartridges, fountain pen ink, bottled ink, behind the scenes, inside look, LAMY Germany, LAMY how it's made, LAMY factory, LAMY fountain pens, LAMY nibs, LAMY 2000, lamy safari, lamy al-star, lamy pen, factory tour, fountain pen manufacturing, fountain pen manufacturers, LAMY factory tour, how a fountain pen is made, fountain pen manufacturing process, LAMY aion, lamy fountain pen

Id: 2jf3lbhQR6I

Length: 15min 18sec (918 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 05 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/scaramanga5]

As a lover of both fountain pens and process porn, this is right in my wheel house.

[u/kevinkace]

And now I know how to pronounce their name.

[u/DQuartermane]

Very cool! Thanks!

[u/iphr]

Good video.

[u/jimmyrpm]

This is amazing!!!

[u/bassukulele]

Thanks for posting! As good as How It's Made.