Uniball Grip Pen Grip

We compared the surfaces of the grips on two of our favorite pens: the “Uniball Grip” that we use with our logo, and the Pilot G-7 that we use for the Notepad Series. Both are relatively inexpensive, but they both write very well, and both feel great to hold.

 

We put both surfaces under the Gelsight Mobile Series 1 to see what they looked like. This is a “tactile 3D” system so may be a better representation of the “feel” of a surface.

 

When we look at the data, we find that the two pens have almost identical Sa (average roughness) values: 37.133 µm for the Uniball and 37.140 µm for the Pilot—technically indistinguishable. Yet, looking at the surfaces in 3D, we can see that these are very different surfaces! These very different geometries cannot be distinguished by measuring Sa alone. 

 

 

Pilot G-7 Pen Grip