Scientia — So as I am writing this the date is 30 October 2015 and like me you might be getting ready for Halloween. I was making a drawing with my nephew and using coloured crayons to colour it in, when I woundered how they make crayons. I vaguly remember watching a video on it years ago but decided to make a post on it, because come on…..who doesn’t want to know how crayons are made…right 
How Crayons are Made
Step One: The Melting
Twice a week, railcars full of uncolored paraffin wax pull up to the factory. An oil-filled boiler heats the cars with steam, and workers pump the now-molten glop into a silo. Each silo holds up to 100,000 pounds of wax, and the plant empties a silo nearly every day.
Step Two: The Mixing
From the silos, the wax moves through pipes to the mix kettles. Operators add a strengthening additive and dump in a bag of powdered pigment. The amount varies by the saturation and opacity of the color—yellow requires only a few pounds per 250-pound batch; black requires a lot more.
Once all the ingredients are placed into the ‘kettle’ (mixing drum) this is stirred to ensure that all the components are fully mixed together.
Step Three: Casting
The liquid solution is poured into set crayon shaped casts via an injection machine. This is left to harden. A rotary blade then scrapes off the excess wax and this is remelted to be reused again.
Now the excess has been taken away you are left with nice shiny crayons which are pushed from the metal cast and onto a moving belt to be taken to the next stage of the process.
Step Four: Labels
Each single crayon is wrapped with a label with adhesive. Crayola state that they use two wraps to aid strength.
Step Five: Sorting and Packing
The crayons are sorted into their respective colours and placed into small filter drums. These drums drop in one of each colour into the crayons pack.
Step Six: Scanning and Box Packing
The filled boxes of crayons are run on a belt. A laser etches a date code on the cardboard, and a metal detector makes sure nothing but crayon is inside. Then, robotic packing machines bundle the boxes onto pallets ready for shipping.
Crayon Facts
- The favorite color crayon for most people in the US is blue.
- The 100 billionth crayon was made in 1996 and was made by Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. The color was blue ribbon.
- The largest crayon in the world, Big Blue, weighs 1500 pounds, is 15 feet long and 16 inches in diameter. It was made from 123,000 old blue crayons that were gathered from kids around the country. It would color an entire football field.
- Crayola’s Easton manufacturing plant produces 650 crayons per minute.
- Crayons are made from paraffin, a waxy substance derived from wood, coal, or petroleum
- Paraffin was produced commercially by 1867, and crayons appeared around the turn of the century. The early crayons were black and sold mainly to factories and plants, where they were used as waterproof markers. Colored crayons for artistic purposes were introduced in Europe around the same time, but like the black crayons, they contained materials that were toxic (usually charcoal and wax) and thus were not appropriate for children. The Binney & Smith Company, who still make crayons, had a canny grasp of the American educational market, having previously marketed dustless chalk for chalkboards. This company sold its first package of eight colored crayons, suitable for use in schools by children, in 1903.
How Crayons are Made Video
How Crayons are Made
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