Have you ever wondered how those incredibly detailed Japanese Iwako erasers are made? We have and therefore were very pleased to find out that Iwako released a little factory tour, in which the company explains how they make those little rubber items which made them so successful. So on their website you can have a very detailed look at all the steps of manufacturing. We will break it down in a more general way for you:
1. If a new eraser is to be produced, a model maker makes a model by hand. After that molds are made from metal, so that the huge molding machines can produce the different parts of the new erasers. For every new eraser part the molds in the machines have to be changed.
2. The eraser material, which is PVC-free and environmental friendly is coloured with pigment powders and injected into the machines, where it is melded and pressed into the molds.
3. After all the different parts for each eraser are ready, they are assembled and packed by hand. Of course each eraser is checked before being packed to ensure that the quality is good.
A look behind the scenes: Here you can see what big machines are used to make the cute erasers
This is the rubber material which will later be transformed into the cute erasers
Most of the erasers consist of different parts which later assembled
Here the erasers are checked and packed