GI Sports Paintball Mnaufacturing

[vijil]

I can't see it being very easy to encapsulate round objects from a flat sheet without large amounts of waste... Unless it were possible to melt down the waste and add it back into the mix. Seems unlikely - probably for the same reason milling AL waste isn't melted down and made into another gun.

[Fred]

Chips get recycled... the process is messy, and from what I understand too much of a hassle to do on a small scale.

[PBSteve]

Maybe I'm giving too much credit, but it seems pretty unlikely they haven't looked into fully automating encapsulation in a facility that has that much equipment.

[Ydna]

There used to be a few "recycled" paint brands. You could always tell them because they were brown/mud/purple colored. But of course that was back in the glory days when sales were higher...

[skibbo]

There used to be a few "recycled" paint brands. You could always tell them because they were brown/mud/purple colored. But of course that was back in the glory days when sales were higher...

There would be plenty of logistical and possibly material issues, but it would be interesting to see paint companies recycle old paint, especially from indoor fields, so much just laying around. No idea if the process would even be possible though.

[PBSteve]

I believe they recycled scraps from the production process.

[Unfated33]

Maybe I'm giving too much credit, but it seems pretty unlikely they haven't looked into fully automating encapsulation in a facility that has that much equipment.

I walk into a lot of automated plants because, well - it's my job. There's no doubt you can see certain elements have basic instrumentation in the process shots they show (look at that giant ball float switch in the mixing tank!), but nothing resembling remote controls or much less full automation. I imagine this comes down to a cost and quality issue. If they have an automated system, they probably would have to pay the cost associated with a documented, validated system. That's probably a prohibitive cut to the thin margins you'd expect in paintball.

EDIT: I suspect the telling point is that there's a concession in the video that they're making paintballs by a trial and error process. Since they may not actually understand the chemistry behind what's happening, having operators stand around that can determine quality and accuracy to spec by "feel" is a cheaper alternative than automating to unknown standards.

EDIT 2: Missed this the first time, but they specifically say they are food grade. Not probably, they absolutely must have a validated system if they want automation. The margins are there in pharmaceuticals, but not so much in paintball.

[skibbo]

I believe they recycled scraps from the production process.

Figured that's what they do now, but it would be interesting to see if a used paint recycling program is feasible.

[Ydna]

EDIT: I suspect the telling point is that there's a concession in the video that they're making paintballs by a trial and error process. Since they may not actually understand the chemistry behind what's happening, having operators stand around that can determine quality and accuracy to spec by "feel" is a cheaper alternative than automating to unknown standards.

ahhh no doubt about it, that's absolutely the reason. Automation is one thing, but automation of lab equipment, liquids, and weighted objects is a big hassle. It would cost a lot of cash to implement a monitoring system in the first place, let alone a system that would actually take actions as a result of the monitoring.

I could reference some prices from contracts I've done in the past, if people really care, but I don't want to babble on.

Of course they would pay back the upfront cost eventually, but there's always a loss of versatility with any type of automation, which is prohibitive to potential changes that have to take place in the future. Sometimes it just doesn't make sense.

[cockerpunk]

arg, i hate when folks excuse not fundamentally understanding there own process because it would be expensive to figure it out.

i understand the engineering reasons for it, but being in a labratory, when production comes back to us and says "shit don't work" and we say "well the fuck are you doing?" and they says "yeah, we tried to make a product on our own and it worked a few times so we started selling it without understanding what it actually is and why it doesn't work anymore" not a good idea .... hahah

the old joke with the man searching for the wallet in the dark is probably the best example of this problem. "why are you looking here, if you lost it over there" "oh, cause this is where the light is"