How Its Made S25 Special Home Run Edition

today on how it's made home run edition with baseball's artificial turf and carbon-fibre bats when they make baseballs for the pros they're not playing around baseballs are manufactured precisely to league standards and those standards date back to 1872 each ball is exactly the same circumference and weight so the game is always a fair contest crowds will go wild for these professional baseballs and at the heart of each one is something called the pill the pill is smaller than a golf ball it's about four and a quarter inches in circumference inside the pills rubber casing is a sphere of cork they for latex adhesive over hundreds of pills loaded into a drum roller spend the drum to evenly coat the pills with the adhesive this adhesive never dries out completely and the pills remain sticky to the touch next they loop four ply wool around the pill this machine spins the pill to wind the yarn around it this winding substantially fattens the bill it's the first time a camera has ever been allowed to record this proprietary machine so we can't show you all of it they wind a second layer of wool around the pills this yarn is three ply and it thickens the ball a little more for a third winding they use another three ply yarn but it's a bit lighter the various layers of yarn are what give the baseball resilience so it springs back into shape despite being hit repeatedly for the final winding they use a much thinner poly wool blend because its surface is smoother this wound pill is called the sinner they weigh it and measure its circumference which should be about nine inches they add adhesive to a spinning drum then load the Centers into it as the Centers tumble they absorb the glue and the wound fibers adhere to each other the center's air drive for 48 hours but remain sticky using this hydraulic press they punch out figure eight shapes from leather complete with holes around the periphery allowing them to be stitched into baseball covers but first they stamp the date and lot number on to them then they wrap them in wet towels the moisture will make the leather pliable enough to so they roll the water-based adhesive onto one side of the cutouts which sticks to the moist leather they press two cutouts to the center sticky surface it's an exact fit they clamp the leather clad ball in a vise and it's time to sew working with two needles the sower pulls thread through the ball Center and up through the holes in the leather pieces to cross stitch them together he rubs wax on the thread to stiffen it because if it's slackens it's more likely to tangle when it comes to cross stitching these workers are in a league of their own they make quick work of the 108 stitches in each ball there are 350 sewers in this Factory and they produce eight to ten thousand balls per day that's a lot of homeruns the final stitch goes through the center of the baseball and out the other side the sewer then pulls stitches into a V configuration to give the ball a consistent look and feel the balls now roll into a press that smooths down the seams smoother balls are harder to grip and they make pitching a bit tougher for the pros finally a three-headed Stamper gives it the trademark League logo and the commissioner's signature with drying cycles it takes a week to make a professional baseball it will be whacked and slammed out of the playing field but that's life in the big leagues the invention of artificial turf in the 1960s led to a whole new field for baseball one that doesn't need mowing watering or weeding faux grass was developed by the carpet industry and the concept has really taken root synthetic turf has changed the landscape of professional sports you see it in stadiums arenas and training fields around the world it all starts with bags of white plastic pellets this is the base material for the turf they add green pellets for color along with chemical stabilizers and additives equipment mounts and extrudes the plastic through a steel plate with holes in it this creates strands of green the strands exit through a trough of water which cools and solidifies them Machinery pulls the strands through an enormous comb to keep them separated as they head to the next station here rollers stretched the strands until they become as thin as real grass the stretching also strengthens them spools now roll up the synthetic strands once a spool is full they remove it next they unwind several spools at a time the strands come together to form a multi ply synthetic yarn the urine travels over guides this keeps it from slackening as a big spool winds it up further down the production line mesh fabric merges with synthetic sheeting while the multi ply synthetic yarn travels through tubing to a tufting machine the tufting machine is a giant sewing machine it has up to 250 needles these needles hook the yarn through the mesh synthetic sheeting they make hundreds of rows of stitches per minute underneath small knives cut the loop yarn so it looks like spikes of grass as you can see this process is a whole lot faster than waiting for grass to grow an inspector examines the turf to make sure the yarns are even then machinery moves it forward to a coating roller the roller picks up adhesive from a trough below and applies it to the backing of the turf as it moves across this binds the looped web of artificial grass to the backing the adhesive is a bit gooey at this point and needs to be dried the dryer is partly open-air and partly enclosed the enclosed section is about 55 yards long the temperature is carefully controlled too hot and the synthetic grass might melt as it exits hot pins burn holes into the turf to make it water permeable now they check to make sure this grass looks good on the surface they pull out loose bits and measure the fibers then it's over to a device that simulates the effect of football cleats to confirm this turf is tough to install artificial turf they lay a rubber base and add the turf they distributes and throughout spikes of grass to give the turf weight then they spread rubber granules for a softening effect but some turf is more carpet like no fillers needed you are more likely to see that in poor Hut the arenas it's time to wrap up this turf job and toss a few balls around and when it comes to looking like the real thing artificial turf is definitely in the ballpark when people started playing baseball in the 1840s they used their bare hands to catch balls the invention of the baseball glove revolutionized the sport it not only made the game less painful to play it allowed players to quickly scoop the ball up from the field baseball gloves have evolved from hard leather mitts to the sophisticated design players depend on today it all starts with a hydraulic press that punches out the felt padding that will cushion the fingers and thumb the holes will be used to lace the glove another press cuts out the palm section of the glove from a side of leather the palm section also has lacing holes cut into it the hydraulic press then cuts out the web or pocket of the glove preparing it for lacing as well meanwhile a machine heat emboss is the palm section with the company logo embossing also helps identify different leathers and glove styles another worker hand weaves the front and back pieces of the pocket this special basket weave webs gives the glove additional flexibility and control pockets first appeared in gloves in the 1930s she stitches the pocket together then she applies glue to secure the tail ends closes the flap and stitches the web shut another worker then sews the palm lining and the finger lining together by stitching the palm and finger linings together she completes the interior piece of the glove that touches a player's hand she then shows the felt finger pads to the lining these pads give the glove extra comfort and control to build the outer shell of the glove she says well ting leather between the fingers this makes the seam stronger then she sews the fingers and the palm piece together to complete the back part of the outer shell some leather softener helps prevent tearing as she stitches the back in the front parts of the outer shell together she also uses welting leather to add strength and rigidity to the outer shell a worker mounts the finished outer shell onto a finger form heated to about 248 degrees Fahrenheit it takes heat and leather softener to allow the worker to manipulate the shell without damaging the leather the worker then transfers the softened outer shell on to a stationary turning stick in order to turn the outer shell inside out he works the outer shell one finger at a time so he doesn't spoil the leather or the stitching he makes sure all is perfect another worker slips the interior lining onto a mounting support then covers the lining with the outer shell he works the leather to make sure the lining and the shell fit together properly then he applies a special paste that makes the palm more flexible he inserts a felt pad into the thumb then another cushioning pad into the pinky finger using a metal rod to fully insert both pads he then starts lacing the glove with a long strip of leather lacing the glove is a labor-intensive skill that can take up to an hour no machine can do this he makes sure the lacing gets the right tension and the attractive side of the leather faces upwards using special knots and loops he laces the entire glove by hand a worker inserts wooden dowels and mounts the glove on more hot fingers to open up the fingers and thumb this helps the players hand fit into the glove more easily now this truly looks and fits like a glove today's baseball gloves come in all different colors and styles they are so finely handcrafted they could be called works of art when the competition is stiff sometimes it helps to be a little flexible that's the idea behind the carbon-fiber softball bat manufacturers can tweak the stiffness of carbon-fiber to produce a bat with added elasticity it's a striking innovation carbon bats are a high-tech way to improve your game incredibly these hard-hitting bands start with pliable sheets of carbon fiber infused with a special resin they crisscross the sheets and then iron the side with the paper liner to melt the layers at the same a hot steel roller then applies some serious pressure to fuse the carbon fiber layers together they slice it to size now they peel away that paper liner and spiral the carbon fiber around a steel bat form by changing the angle of the weave they can fine tune the bats elasticity to a league specifications or to an individual players performance level they whine polypropylene tape around the carbon layers to squeeze out the air between them they bake the carbon in an oven for two hours this cures the resin impregnated in the carbon so the many layers become one after they slice away the tape they slide braided weaves of carbon and fiberglass over the fuse carbon form they secure the braided tubing with tape they pull a layer of thick carbon over that followed by a super-strong synthetic we've called aramid one last taping and this softball bat is ready to take shape they place the carbon reforms in a mold as the mold closes around them they prepare an epoxy resin they then inject the resident to the mold it permeates the many layers wrapped around the steel form the mold applies hot pressure to bake the layers together and define the contours of these bats it takes just a few minutes in the mold to transform the many layers into a solid bed this five tonne puller now extracts the steel form on which the carbon bat was built they use this pneumatic equipment to test its flexibility a lathe now spins the bed as a cutter moves in and carves the hardened resin base into a knob the knob on the right now meets Leake specifications now this carbon bank goes for another spin so they can sand it from every angle they dip the bats two at a time in black primer and hang them to dry the bat then takes on a more colorful appearance with a variety of spray paints they transfer decals with production information onto the barrel of the bat and a laser burns the company logo and serial number into the painted carbon they cap the bat by press fitting a polycarbonate plug to the barrel resin completes the seal and they add extra to adjust the bats way to league specifications they pump the resin in through a hole in the knob and it flows up to the barrel plug then they weigh each bag to verify that it's within an acceptable range using a hydraulic ram they drive a steel pin into the hole in the bottom of the knob to achieve the correct balance point and it's time to wrap this carbon bat with synthetic leather making it easier to grip these high-tech bats are now ready to team up with raw talent and they could blow the competition out of the ballpark if you have any comments about the show or if you'd like to suggest topics for future shows drop us a line at Science Channel com /au it's made

Channel: SAN PROJECTS

Views: 688,354

Rating: 4.6946888 out of 5

Keywords: how its made, how it's made, baseball, home run, how its made baseball, how its made ball

Id: hAzEGQ_SoaQ

Length: 21min 30sec (1290 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 06 2016