How Paintballs Are Made
Mike Lang asked:
Have you ever wondered how those thin yet sturdy shells were made that contain paint and can be shot out of a gun to splat all over your opponent? The process for making paintballs is pretty interesting and you might be surprised at what is used to make them.
Paintballs are made of a thin skin of gelatin that will break upon contact. They are filled with non toxic, water soluble ingredients that are colored by a dye. The paint is biodegradable and will come out of clothing or off human skin with just water. When the paintball hits a person it splats color signifying they have been hit.
Paintballs are made on special machines that aren’t available to the public as the process is too intricate and the machines are extremely expensive. The following process is a rather complicated and lengthy one that only manufacturers of paintballs can do.
To make the hollow shell of the paintball, the gelatin is melted down and other additives are introduced while color is added and blended in. This mixture is run through an encapsulation machine, the same type of machine that drug companies use to make gel caps. The machine forces the gelatin onto a cooled drum which produces a thin sheet of gel called a ribbon. Two ribbons each pass over their own rotating die, or mold, that forms each half of the ball. The dies press against each other as they are rotated and eventually align to meet and seal making a round ball by placing the two half shells together. Once that happens the shells are filled with paint injected into them. You can usually see a seam on each paintball. This is where the dies came together. The paintball is sealed and comes out of the die being dropped out of the machine. The shells are very soft and bouncy at this time. The balls go down a conveyor belt and are then put in trays to dry. During the drying period the gelatin shrinks around the paint making them less soft and bouncy.
Two tone or Dual Colored paintballs are made the same way except there are two colors of gelatin being introduced instead of one. One side will be one color and the other side will be another.
After the paintballs have dried they go through a counting machine and into bags and cartons for you to purchase.
The quality of paintballs depends on the quality of the ingredients used to make them. Some companies make excellent quality paintballs but they are very expensive, up to $100 per 2000 round count. These should be left to those playing in tournaments since it could be detrimental to the game to have a defective paintball break inside the barrel of the gun. Other paintballs can cost around $50 to $60 per 2000 round box and still might be too expensive for practice. Practice balls can be purchased in a 500 count for about $16. That is a little more affordable, but they won’t be the same quality of the ones you pay more for. Find the paintball that is right for you by trying several different varieties.
Kansieo.com
Have you ever wondered how those thin yet sturdy shells were made that contain paint and can be shot out of a gun to splat all over your opponent? The process for making paintballs is pretty interesting and you might be surprised at what is used to make them.
Paintballs are made of a thin skin of gelatin that will break upon contact. They are filled with non toxic, water soluble ingredients that are colored by a dye. The paint is biodegradable and will come out of clothing or off human skin with just water. When the paintball hits a person it splats color signifying they have been hit.
Paintballs are made on special machines that aren’t available to the public as the process is too intricate and the machines are extremely expensive. The following process is a rather complicated and lengthy one that only manufacturers of paintballs can do.
To make the hollow shell of the paintball, the gelatin is melted down and other additives are introduced while color is added and blended in. This mixture is run through an encapsulation machine, the same type of machine that drug companies use to make gel caps. The machine forces the gelatin onto a cooled drum which produces a thin sheet of gel called a ribbon. Two ribbons each pass over their own rotating die, or mold, that forms each half of the ball. The dies press against each other as they are rotated and eventually align to meet and seal making a round ball by placing the two half shells together. Once that happens the shells are filled with paint injected into them. You can usually see a seam on each paintball. This is where the dies came together. The paintball is sealed and comes out of the die being dropped out of the machine. The shells are very soft and bouncy at this time. The balls go down a conveyor belt and are then put in trays to dry. During the drying period the gelatin shrinks around the paint making them less soft and bouncy.
Two tone or Dual Colored paintballs are made the same way except there are two colors of gelatin being introduced instead of one. One side will be one color and the other side will be another.
After the paintballs have dried they go through a counting machine and into bags and cartons for you to purchase.
The quality of paintballs depends on the quality of the ingredients used to make them. Some companies make excellent quality paintballs but they are very expensive, up to $100 per 2000 round count. These should be left to those playing in tournaments since it could be detrimental to the game to have a defective paintball break inside the barrel of the gun. Other paintballs can cost around $50 to $60 per 2000 round box and still might be too expensive for practice. Practice balls can be purchased in a 500 count for about $16. That is a little more affordable, but they won’t be the same quality of the ones you pay more for. Find the paintball that is right for you by trying several different varieties.
Kansieo.com
How to Make Paintballs
davemathews asked:
There are quite a few different opinions that are out there when it comes to how to make paintballs yourself at home. You might also get a few questioning glances about why you even want to bother taking all of that time to make your own paintballs. You need to remember to make your paintballs small enough to fit into the barrel of any of the paintball guns out there. Make no mistake about it you are going to be much better served by making reusable paintballs out of modeling clay (because it is durable) that you can use over and over again (for a while at least).
Some would say that making your own reusable paintballs is more economical; while others say that the single use paintballs that are commercially available are the best. If you are making your own paintballs according to the popular how to make paintballs guides and articles many will advise you that Crayola’s Model Magic Modeling Clay is the best thing to use to make a reusable paintball that is durable and workable; while other guides will advise you to create a shell out of silicone tubing or another easy to work material (like the gelatin based material that commercial paintballs are made from) that you would fill with paint that is both water-soluble and friendly and messy colorful enough to really make their presence known, seen and felt when you get hit by them. Firing any of these types of paintballs out of the popular paintball guns is easy to do.
The paintball that you make yourself is not going to be as perfect as those that you can buy that are commercially made; yet that is the beauty of it as well. If you already have some type of mold made to shape the shells of your paintballs you are halfway there. You need to remember to make the paintballs the right size to fit into the barrel of the paintball gun that you are likely to be using. You also need to remember that there are different sizes and calibers of paintball guns just like there are in regular guns that shoot bullets. It has been said (and easily proven by doing a search) that there are so many different how to make paintballs articles that you could refer to so that you have a better idea about how to go about making your own paintballs.
Making your own paintball mold is pretty easy (or so some of the available how to make paintballs articles and guides state) and does not take that much time or cost that much. Those of you that have paintball guns and want to get involved with all of the excitement of the various paintball tournaments and get into some pretty wicked paintball fights with your friends need to remember that paintball come in as many sizes as the guns themselves do; and are measured in calibers (just as bullets are). Too large a paintball will not fit in your gun; and too small will not go anywhere.
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There are quite a few different opinions that are out there when it comes to how to make paintballs yourself at home. You might also get a few questioning glances about why you even want to bother taking all of that time to make your own paintballs. You need to remember to make your paintballs small enough to fit into the barrel of any of the paintball guns out there. Make no mistake about it you are going to be much better served by making reusable paintballs out of modeling clay (because it is durable) that you can use over and over again (for a while at least).
Some would say that making your own reusable paintballs is more economical; while others say that the single use paintballs that are commercially available are the best. If you are making your own paintballs according to the popular how to make paintballs guides and articles many will advise you that Crayola’s Model Magic Modeling Clay is the best thing to use to make a reusable paintball that is durable and workable; while other guides will advise you to create a shell out of silicone tubing or another easy to work material (like the gelatin based material that commercial paintballs are made from) that you would fill with paint that is both water-soluble and friendly and messy colorful enough to really make their presence known, seen and felt when you get hit by them. Firing any of these types of paintballs out of the popular paintball guns is easy to do.
The paintball that you make yourself is not going to be as perfect as those that you can buy that are commercially made; yet that is the beauty of it as well. If you already have some type of mold made to shape the shells of your paintballs you are halfway there. You need to remember to make the paintballs the right size to fit into the barrel of the paintball gun that you are likely to be using. You also need to remember that there are different sizes and calibers of paintball guns just like there are in regular guns that shoot bullets. It has been said (and easily proven by doing a search) that there are so many different how to make paintballs articles that you could refer to so that you have a better idea about how to go about making your own paintballs.
Making your own paintball mold is pretty easy (or so some of the available how to make paintballs articles and guides state) and does not take that much time or cost that much. Those of you that have paintball guns and want to get involved with all of the excitement of the various paintball tournaments and get into some pretty wicked paintball fights with your friends need to remember that paintball come in as many sizes as the guns themselves do; and are measured in calibers (just as bullets are). Too large a paintball will not fit in your gun; and too small will not go anywhere.
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