Frisbees have been around for less than a century, and they have infected the world by their simplicity and sheer fun-factor that comes with tossing one. Over 15 million people enjoy throwing frisbees on an annual basis. Even sports events, such as Ultimate Frisbee, freestyle, and disc golf have gathered around the frisbee. There is no doubt that frisbees are incredibly popular that you might have a question of how are frisbees made in your mind.
What makes frisbees so aerodynamic and fun? Well, we will try to answer this question with as much simplicity as possible. Read on below to learn how are frisbees made!
How Are Frisbees Manufactured?
The process of creating a frisbee is called injection molding. This method involves the injection of melted plastic into a closed mold.
Before the injection itself, the plastic material is placed into a molding machine that is equipped with a hopper, heated barrel, joint screw, nozzle, and a mold clamp. The molding machine heats the plastic material until it is able to flow, then the mass is pressurized and injected into a closed mold. The plastic is then cooled down in a frisbee shape that is carved in a mold.
The frisbee manufacturing process can be divided into five steps:
Step #1: Material Preparation
Before we commence with the frisbee creation process, we need the select material:
- Polyethylene plastic pellets
- The pigment of a select color/colors
- The oil that will stick the pigment to the plastic pellets
Step #2: Placing The Material In A Drum & Excessive Material Removal
All the above materials are placed in a drum. After the materials are in place, the drum is shaken to fuse all the materials together. Then, the right amount of weight-enhancing additive is added to the mix. It is important to put the right amount of this additive so the frisbee can fly.
Afterward, the pellets get dried in a hopper that will put the material into the barrel. Before that, all the metal pieces that may be present in the pellets are removed by a magnet. Also, any extra moisture is removed by a drying system.
Step #3: Melting The Material
After the second step, the pellets are placed in a special barrel. There, they are gradually melted. The melted plastic material is transported to the front of the barrel and compressed with a joint screw.
Step #4: The Injection & Cooling
When there is enough melted plastic to fill the mold, it gets injected by high pressure in the closed, frisbee-shaped molds. Then, the melted plastic inside the mold is flushed with a cooling fluid that cools down the plastic. After the melted plastic is cooled down, a frisbee shape will be inside a mold. Afterward, the frisbee is removed, and ready for the next step.
Keep in mind that injection molding is a mass production machine, so when a frisbee is removed from the mold, the previous steps are repeated to create another frisbee.
Step #5: Printing & Packaging
In the usual frisbee creation process, a print or decoration (such as company name and logo) is applied to the frisbee. There are three methods of applying graphics on a frisbee:
- Hot stamping
- Screen printing
- Letterpress machine
After the graphics are applied to the frisbee, they are packaged in a desirable way.
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Now that you know how are frisbees made, you will be delighted to find out that our team at Disrupt Sports can design a custom frisbee for you.
Any questions? Feel free to hit us up via email or live chat, and we will figure the rest out.