How It's Made

i saw that there was a thread about the tv show "time warp". a also noticed that the people from "How It's Made" have a website where you can make suggestions for that show. wouldn't it be cool to see some discs being made on this show?

[mothergoose]

Pure Disc Golf dot Com said:

Most of the methods are trade secrets that would remain highly guarded. They could document the process, but probably not the actual actions taking place. Anything to get more exposure would be awesome though. I can hear that narrator now in his monotone voice....

i cant see how the actual molding would be a trade secret. maybe the design of the molds and the composition of the material, but not the molding process

[Mike]

Exactly, I do injection molding and can tell you it is all very much the same. However someone who runs those processes can pick out equiptment, read settings temps, pressures...etc on machines, see bulk material and identify it. We tried to plan a field trip to a tooth brush factory with our plastics program, and the company said they could not allow us in because one of us could end up working for their competition. There were other plants we went to where we had to check our cell phones, and cameras as they didn't want us taking any pictures of their process. You wouldn't believe some of the small things that can be big secrets.

My_Hero said:

There may be a few secrets in this factory or that factory but the bottom line is it's plastic injection molding. Lots of examples on YouTube.

[Pure Disc Golf dot Com]

One of the first times I was in the factory I was naive and asked if I could take a picture. They pretty much laughed at me like I must be joking. I just wanted to take a picture of the boxes and stacks of plastic as far as the eye could see. No way Jose. They explained why everything is such a trade secret. I see why there is such a policy in place. I wouldn't doubt if their molding employees had to agree to non-disclosure agreements or something. Disc Golf is still a very infant game. You never know what kind of business investors are looking for. A business could hypothetically steal trade secrets and start there own Disc Manufacturing Company. With enough financial backing anything is possible. Just think if a Chinese company were busting out discs that felt like old CE plastic. I'm just saying you never know.......

[Disc Golf Live]

Somewhere on the web there's the Ripley's segment which shows some molding within the Discraft plant. Ed's ashes were added to the mix and molded...wacky enough to get on TV. I think there's a youtube posting of this piece, perhaps its elsewhere. As others have pointed out, its just injection molding. I know the production folks are sensitive to the fancier stamping/printing technology. No secret on that, either. Its all on the web if you google the right terms.

[My_Hero]

Disc Golf Live said:

Somewhere on the web there's the Ripley's segment which shows some molding within the Discraft plant. Ed's ashes were added to the mix and molded...wacky enough to get on TV. I think there's a youtube posting of this piece, perhaps its elsewhere. As others have pointed out, its just injection molding. I know the production folks are sensitive to the fancier stamping/printing technology. No secret on that, either. Its all on the web if you google the right terms.

The very link you speak of has been posted twice in this thread alone. Here's # 3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jid3-XOLRo

.

[Yeddie VanHalen]

There are ways to film that don't reveal secrets. You wouldn't have a show in the first place without being able to shoot footage.