Soccer Ball Manufacture

By sumeesh

Soccer

Soccer balls which are used all over the world may seem like a simple product, however it takes a lot of time, different techniques, research, tools and experienced craftsmen to make a high quality soccer ball

Manufacturing process

Step 1 - The Lamination Process

Step 2 - Cutting Panels (Hexagons & Pentagons) Step 3 - Printing Process Step 4 - Hand Stitching Soccer Balls

The Lamination Process The first step in making balls involves the lamination of the rexine (the

outer cover) of the soccer balls. Rexine is also known as synthetic leather. The rexine comes in different color and shades, depending on the colour of

the soccer balls with rexine rolls can be bought to match the PMS Panote color shade as required by the color scheme to match the ball colours.

Usually rexine is bought in rolls and each roll is approximately 25 to 30 meters in length and about 1 meter in width (40 inches).

The rexine roll is then cut into smaller pieces into 40 inches width and 58 inches in length.

The reason to do that is to make the maximum use of the rexine for cutting hexagons and pentagons for size 5 soccer balls with minimal wastage of rexine.

Each piece of  40 X 58 inches rexine can produce hexagons and pentagons for 32 panel 6.5 soccer balls. So two pieces will produce panels for complete 13 soccer balls.

Once the pieces are cut then glue or latex is pasted on the back side of the rexine and a piece of cloth in same width and length is place on top of the glue coating.

The rexine is then left to dry for few hours in natural sunlight for few hours.

The process is repeated three more times by pasting glue on the fabric and applying another layer of fabric.

At this stage 4 layers of polyester fabric has been pasted on the back of the fabric.

These are often reffered to as the layers or the linnings under the cover of the balls

Cutting Panels (Hexagons & Pentagons)

The hexagons and pentagons which you see on a traditional 32 panels soccer balls are cut by a machine.

Special dyes are installed in the machine to cut the panels. There are different dye sizes for size 4, 3, jumbo and mini soccer balls.

The picture below shows how a dyes looks like for cutting hexagons & pentagons.

The small circle like spots on the dyes are used as marks for stitchers to sew the panels together.

There are approximately 720 stiches made to complete one size 5 soccer ball.

Printing Process Once all the hexagons and pentagons then we move on to print the

hexagons and pentagons. Customer design specifications along with logos & printing instructions

derive the printing requirements. The complete sketch of the ball is designed in vector based design

software like Corel. Then silk screen printing process is used to expose the sceens to

sunlight to get an impression of the pattern.

Once all the patterns are exposed then the screen is washed with water leaving the imprint of the pattern on the screen.

These patterns will be later used to print the panels and design on the soccer balls using high quality inks.

The butyl proof ink is used in printing as they last for long time and produce best looking print. The inks are produced to create an exact match of the PMS Pantone colors required to print the balls.

Below is a picture of how printed panel looks like after printing is completed.

Hand Stitching Soccer Balls The last step in the process is to stitch the panels togather and install the

bladder. A complete sketch of the balls are provided to the stitchers with all 32

panels. Like a jigsaw puzzle the stitchers will then assemble the balls by stitching the panels togather. 

An official size 5 soccer ball has total of 720 stitches using polyester threads. The bladder of the ball is glued to the air valve panel before stitching the balls togather.

Finally balls are produced and air is pumped into the balls and are put into the shelves for 48 hours for testing purposes. This time allows for testing the air retention and to ensure the shape of the ball is perfect round shape.

Below is a picture of a ball created by following the sketch pattern.

After the balls are tested then they are deplated and packed for shipping to the customers.

Soccer-Balls-Sizes