SPORTS GOODS INDUSTRY – CHOICE OF SPECIES – SPORTS GOODS

MANUFACTURING

Introduction• Sports goods are those objects which are used in sports. It may

be hockey stick, football, bats, tennis nets or anything which can be used in sports.

• Approximately 350 types of sports goods are manufactured in India.

• These sports goods include hockey sticks, cricket balls and bats, carom boards, fishing equipments, chess boards, boxing equipments

• Majority of sports goods manufactured in India are exported to Germany, United Kingdom, France, Australia and United States of America.

Sports goods-History

Various sports are played since ancient times.

cricket bat was produced in 1853.

Golf balls-Ancient golfers used pebbles instead of balls

In 1848, Reverend Adam Paterson made Gutta-percha balls.

The first rubber cored ball was made by Coburn Haskell in 1898.

In India

The sports goods industry of India has its roots in Sialkot, Pakistan. When India was partitioned in 1947,

• Gurgaon

• Meerut

• Jalandhar

• Chandigarh NPC Field Survey

Sports goods industry of Jalandhar

Jalandhar acquired importance during the Mughal period.

Now,Rough estimates suggest that today Jalandhar has more than one hundred major industries and about 20,000 small-scale industries with a most conservative estimate of an annual turnover of approximately Rs 450 crores.

In Jalandhar, about 60 per cent of the sports goods that are manufactured comprise of different kinds of inflatable balls.

Besides inflatable balls, the other sports goods that are largely manufactured are badminton racquets and shuttle cocks, cricket bats and balls, different kinds of gloves and protective equipment.

Various sports goods

Sports goods are include a large numbers such as

Hockey Sticks,

Cricket Bats,

Tennis

Badminton Rackets,

Golf Clubs,

Cricket Stumps,

Bails,

Fishing Rods, Etc.

Requisite Properties of Timber

It must be light with high strength/wt

• Pliable

• tough

• Shock resisting

• Easy to work

• Capable of talking a good polish

• Preferably light in colour.

Bows and arrows

• Yew (Taxus baccata) is an excellent bow it is very

strong, tough and an elastic wood

Other woods

• Acacia catechu

• Pterocarpus marsupium

• Dalbergia sissoo

• Grewia tiliaefolia

Hockey Sticks

Timber for this purpose should be

reasonably light and strong.

Shock resistance

Its should amenable steam bending in

thick sections

Species

• Morus alba

• Celtis australis

Fishing rods

For cheap rods bamboos are used

• Arundinaria falcata (ringle)

• Terminalia manii (Black chugalum)

• Sageraea elliptica (Chooi)

Carom Board

Carom Board is a square playing board of wood with an extremely smooth surface,

A hardwood border frame on all sides, and four small netted pockets in each corner.

A thick and hard frame gives a strong

rebound.

Types of wood used for making carom boards

Carom boards are made up of special wood that is resistant to

water. The smooth surface of the board is made up of high quality

plywood to provide durability. Different accessories of carom

board are being formed out of superior quality of wood

Shisham

Redwood

Mahogany

Rosewood

Teak , Maple , Oak and Cedar .

Olive wood chess board

Beautifully natural shape olive wood chess board, it is carved out of a single piece of olive wood.

The chess board is handmade and hand carved materials: Olive wood

Tennis, Badminton and Squash rackets

• The all rackets are made by bending and gluing together thin veneers of wood

• Straight grain and long fiber wood with good stock resistance is essential for rackets

Species used:

• Fagus spp

• Acer spp

• Fraxinus spp

• Lagerstroemia lanceolata

Cricket Bat• Cricket bat should be weight and light in colour but reasonably strong

• It should be of shock of repeated striking of the ball with great force

Suitable Species

• Willow (Salix alba var. caerulea)

• Persian lilac (Melia azedarach)

• Popular (Populus spp)

• Chinese tallow tree (Spaium sebiferum)

• Gutel (Trewia nudiflora)

• Mulberry (Morus alba)

• Celtis (Celtis australis)

• Sandan (Ougeinia oojenensis)

• Debdara (Polyalthiya fragrans)

Dimension of cricket bat 33 - 33.5" total length

11" handle length

22" batting part

4.5" width

1 " thickness

typically weight of total bat is 1.1 to 1.4 kg.

Cricket bat manufacturing process

Tree cutting

Selecting the Timber

Machining

Pressing the Blade

Fitting the Handle

Hand Shaping

Sanding

Binding, Polishing & Labeling

2. Selecting the Timber

• Choosing mature trees (between 15-30 yrs old),

•The ends waxed and then air or kiln dried to reduce the moisture content.

• The waxing is essential as it prevents quick moisture loss from the end grain which could cause cracks or drying 'cones'.

1. Selection of speciesWillow trees are mainly used

to made cricket bat. .

Cricket Bat

3. Machining

The cleft undergoes various machining processes to be cut into the basic blade shape. Even at the machining stage, the craftsman's expertise is essential.

Dimension of bat:• 12" handle length • 24" batting part • 4.5" width

4. Pressing the Blade•

• The willow fibres have to be compressed in order to strengthen the timber sufficiently to withstand the impact of a cricket ball.

• Generally, we press the blade up to 4 times at up to 2,000lb per square inch.

5. Fitting the Handle

• Handle being spliced into a blade.

• The handle, and rubber strips is fitted through the precise splicing of the handle into the blade.

• The handle is secured using a water resistant wood glue and left overnight to dry.

6. Hand Shaping

The blade is shaped by 'pulling off' the willow with the draw knife.

As with all the other stages of production, the hand shaping is absolutely unique to each bat.

During the shaping, the bat will be removed and tested for balance

7. Sanding

• Drum Sanding.

• Once shaped, the bat will be both course and fine sanded.

• The characteristic finish of a Salix bat can be attributed to very fastidious sanding.

8. Binding, Polishing & Labelling

Binding a handle.

Traditionally bats were 'boned' instead of

polished

Species the use of a bone or piece of cane to

compress the fibres giving both the final finish

and a final pressing

Labels are applied to the face, back and sides of

the bat.

All bats then undergo a final quality inspection,

before being packaged and distributed to shops

Manufacturing of Hockey Stick

• The greatest variety comes in the materials used to make the shaft of the stick. The three primary materials are wood, aluminum, and composite.

• Composites are comprised of reinforcing fibers, such as graphite and kevlar, and binders, such as polyester, epoxy, or other polymeric resins that hold the fibers together.

• Composites are used both by themselves to form hollow shafts and to reinforce wood sticks, much in the same way as fiberglass is used. These materials are generally stiffer and lighter than fiberglass.

Length and widthHockey sticks have been 36-42 inches length ,width of the stick is

2-3 inches.

Weight

Maximum weight for a hockey stick of 737 grams.

Wood aluminum composite

Logs are then fed through a multi-bladed saw that cuts the wood into thin sheets. The sheets of wood and layers of fiber glass (if it is to be used) are coated with adhesive and pressed together in a heated hydraulic mold.

The finished laminate is then cut into the rough shape of a stick and shipped to the stick maker.

The stick maker uses a saw with splayed teeth to cut the rough wood into the desired shape. Each pass on the saw cuts two corners of the shaft, so after two passes the shaft has four beveled corners and has reached its final shape.

The Manufacturing Process

o A block of ash is glued onto the end of the stick.

o This will form the joint between the shaft and the blade.

o A groove is cut into the centre of the block to accept a tongue

shaped into one end of the blade.

o The tongue and groove are glued, fit together, and placed in a

heated hydraulic press to cure for about half an hour

o The dried assembly is then shaped and smoothed on a large

drum sander.

o The fibre glass is pulled over this assembly like a sock and is

dipped in resin and allowed to dry. Once dry, the stick is again

sanded to remove any rough edges.

o Graphics are silk-screened on and parts of the stick may be

painted, and the stick is finished with a clear gloss varnish.

Baseball bat

42 inches in length

Species suitability

Top two species of wood in baseball todaySugar Maple (Acer saccharum)White ash (Fraxinus americana)

Basket ball court flooring

SPECIES Red Oak White Oak Ash Maple

References

www.sporting-goods-industry.com/manufacturing-region-india

jalandhar.nic.in/html/sports_goods_industry.htm

dir.indiamart.com/indianexporters/sports.html

www.hoovers.com/industry/sporting-goods-equipment/1197-1.html