How marker pens are made

The tip of a marker pen is a plug of fibers that soaks up ink like a wick.

stations: 5
things upstream: 45
raw sources: 16
steps from the ground: 8

The short version

A marker's barrel, cap and plugs are injection-molded plastic. A polyester reservoir is dropped into the barrel and filled with ink, and a porous nib is pressed in at the writing end. Ink travels from reservoir to tip by capillary action, the same way a wick draws oil up to a flame.

Mold the barrel and cap

Plastic resin is injected into precision molds and cooled to set. Caps and plugs come from the same process.

Goes in
Plastic
Form the nib

Old felt tips were made from a powder mixed with water, molded and baked. Today most nibs are acrylic or polyester fiber, cut or ground to a point or a chisel edge.

Goes in
Polyester
Prepare the ink

Ink is a coloring agent, either dye or pigment, in a liquid carrier. Permanent markers use solvents, and washable markers use water.

Goes in
Ink
Insert the reservoir

A polyester cylinder, a thick tube of bonded fibers, slides into the barrel. It will hold the ink the way a sponge holds water.

Goes in
Polyester
Fill and fit the nib

Ink is metered in until it saturates the reservoir. The nib goes in, touching the reservoir so ink can reach it, and the cap closes the pen.

Goes in
Ink

End of the lineMarker pen

Worth repeating

Lee Newman patented a felt-tipped marking pen in 1910, decades before Sidney Rosenthal's Magic Marker of 1953 made the idea popular.
Rosenthal's Magic Marker Corporation went bankrupt in 1980, after rivals made markers that worked on ordinary paper.