Drop Test Analysis of a Lamy Pencil

Consumer products like cell phones, personal digital assistants, dish washers or cookers, to name just a view of them, are often exposed to drop during transportation to the customer and during usage in life time. Pre-damage, failure or malfunction due to drop is typically not acceptable and will lead to refusal through the costumer in addition with a correspondingly amount of financial and prestige loss. The present work deals with the numerical simulation of a drop test of a LAMY pencil. Special emphasis is put on the drop onto the apex of the pencil, which is most harmful to the lead mechanics. In experiments, failure of the lead mechanics was observed for this drop position, which was a result of localized high stresses in combination with plastification in those regions. It was the goal of the simulations to investigate whether an exchange of the used material for the lead mechanics would meet the requirements. Special emphasis was hereby placed on the reproduction of the overall lead kinematics translational and rotational wise as well as to account for the behavior of the floor material.