Quality control of bowling balls

[NewToBowling]

Just wondering the quality control tolerance in the manufacture of bowling balls. Sure they're not making cars or precise equipment here. Just a core, some middle filler and coverstock.

But if someone were to take a batch of 5 exact bowling balls what variances would one find? Out of round? Core's being offset just by millimeters?

And how much effect this really has to the overall performance of ball.

[bowl1820]

Just wondering the quality control tolerance in the manufacture of bowling balls. Sure they're not making cars or precise equipment here. Just a core, some middle filler and coverstock.

But if someone were to take a batch of 5 exact bowling balls what variances would one find? Out of round? Core's being offset just by millimeters?

And how much effect this really has to the overall performance of ball.


All balls have to meet USBC Specifications and tolerances, you can see what they are here:

http://usbcongress.http.internapcdn.net/usbcongress/bowl/equipandspecs/pdfs/2014ESManual.pdf

Example:
Roundness the maximum a ball can be out of round is 0.010” total run out.

Circumference min.26.704” max.27.002”


Here's also a video of the approval process:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2wKCSRw3WA


You might want to read bowling this months article:
Bowling Balls: An In-Depth Overview
A Guide to Bowling’s Most Important Piece of Equipment

http://www.bowlingthismonth.com/bowling-balls/

[NewToBowling]

All balls have to meet USBC Specifications and tolerances, you can see what they are here:

http://usbcongress.http.internapcdn.net/usbcongress/bowl/equipandspecs/pdfs/2014ESManual.pdf

Example:
Roundness the maximum a ball can be out of round is 0.010” total run out.

Circumference min.26.704” max.27.002”


Here's also a video of the approval process:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2wKCSRw3WA


You might want to read bowling this months article:
Bowling Balls: An In-Depth Overview
A Guide to Bowling’s Most Important Piece of Equipment

http://www.bowlingthismonth.com/bowling-balls/

Yeah I saw that video which brought me to this question. I'm wondering how many they reject.

[bowl1820]

Yeah I saw that video which brought me to this question. I'm wondering how many they reject.

Not sure how many the USBC rejects off hand, but they do reject some. There's a story showing pics of some they did that had voids in them and other problems.
http://bowl.com/news/newsdetails.aspx?id=12884905597

One thing to note, I'm sure someone will chime in and say how the USBC doesn't test every single ball that comes off the line at every plant or how at their shop they got some widely out of whack balls etc etc.

Sure it can it happen, things slip by. but for the most part the majority of balls are with in USBC spec. when you get them, even the blems.

Blems are the factory seconds that didn't pass quality control for some reason.

You can read about some of storms Quality Control here:
https://www.stormbowling.com/pdf/SPI_Manufacturing_Definitions_3.19.pdf

[Mike White]

Not sure how many the USBC rejects off hand, but they do reject some. There's a story showing pics of some they did that had voids in them and other problems.
http://bowl.com/news/newsdetails.aspx?id=12884905597

One thing to note, I'm sure someone will chime in and say how the USBC doesn't test every single ball that comes off the line at every plant or how at their shop they got some widely out of whack balls etc etc.

Sure it can it happen, things slip by. but for the most part the majority of balls are with in USBC spec. when you get them, even the blems.

Blems are the factory seconds that didn't pass quality control for some reason.

You can read about some of storms Quality Control here:
https://www.stormbowling.com/pdf/SPI_Manufacturing_Definitions_3.19.pdf


The USBC story is propaganda.

The reason for the story was people wanted to know what they were getting for their money paid to USBC.

The problem is, ball manufactures fund the ball testing, not the bowlers.

Also, they test prototypes, not balls manufactured for sale.

[dnhoffman]

The USBC story is propaganda.

The reason for the story was people wanted to know what they were getting for their money paid to USBC.

The problem is, ball manufactures fund the ball testing, not the bowlers.

Also, they test prototypes, not balls manufactured for sale.

This sounds more likely

[NewToBowling]

Ball mfgs produce millions of balls a year. Not sure the USBC is able to check each and every one of them. Probably only the ones entered into competition.

[Mike White]

Ball mfgs produce millions of balls a year. Not sure the USBC is able to check each and every one of them. Probably only the ones entered into competition.

Ok, they produce a lot, but millions.... not gonna happen.

At the Nationals, they check for hardness, weight, static weights, and potentially balance hole sizes.

They aren't going to find the kind of defects the story talked about.

[NewToBowling]

On an episode of How It's Made they visited an Ebonite or Storm facility and stated that they produced millions of these balls a year. Could have just been marketing hype but I don't think it's too far fetched to say one mfg (Ebonite, Brunswick, Storm) manufactures over a million balls a year. Or am I totally off base here.

[Mike White]

On an episode of How It's Made they visited an Ebonite or Storm facility and stated that they produced millions of these balls a year. Could have just been marketing hype but I don't think it's too far fetched to say one mfg (Ebonite, Brunswick, Storm) manufactures over a million balls a year. Or am I totally off base here.

It's possible if you consider world wide, but sanctioned bowling in the US is in too much of a down hill slide to require that many balls.

The majority of bowlers are older, not improving, and not buying new balls.

[bowl1820]

On an episode of How It's Made they visited an Ebonite or Storm facility and stated that they produced millions of these balls a year. Could have just been marketing hype but I don't think it's too far fetched to say one mfg (Ebonite, Brunswick, Storm) manufactures over a million balls a year. Or am I totally off base here.

According to this video at the Ebonite factory, they can produce "Up To" 5,000 balls a day. But that's not actual production numbers, just what they could do if needed.j


http://youtu.be/Tq9iW_Pdbvs

[NewToBowling]

According to this video at the Ebonite factory, they can produce "Up To" 5,000 balls a day. But that's not actual production numbers, just what they could do if needed.j


http://youtu.be/Tq9iW_Pdbvs

Yes, that was the video.

[vdubtx]

Ok, they produce a lot, but millions.... not gonna happen.

At the Nationals, they check for hardness, weight, static weights, and potentially balance hole sizes.

They aren't going to find the kind of defects the story talked about.
At Nationals they only check weight and static weights. They don't check hardness or balance holes.

[vdubtx]

It's possible if you consider world wide, but sanctioned bowling in the US is in too much of a down hill slide to require that many balls.

The majority of bowlers are older, not improving, and not buying new balls.
Maybe in your retirement community.

Over here, plenty of young bowlers buying the latest equipment at each release.

[NewToBowling]

I wonder how many bowling balls does a PSO sell/drill in a day?

2-3 on regular days, 5-6 on league nights?

Seeing as most of the revenue comes from the drilling and not the ball (I'm guessing a 10% markup on balls?)

I know a local shop here had a good sale last month. I saw Storm Rocket for $90 and Optimus for $110 or so. Online they are $30-40 more. And only $40 for drilling so those were great prices. Unfortunately didn't buy any of them

[Mike White]

At Nationals they only check weight and static weights. They don't check hardness or balance holes.

Many years ago in Reno (pre stadium) I had a ball that was just a hair over the 1 1/4 balance hole size.

When working with an onsite pro shop to deal with the issue, the result was a ball that had a huge flare (long before dynamic cores)

For me it was unusable because it hooked too much, but it was a learning experience.