Paintball: How Paintballs Are Made

How Paintballs Are Made

Do you ever wonder what that sticky goop is when a paintball busts on your mask? Ever wonder what a paintball tastes like? Ever think about how they make each paintball, and what kind of work goes into making all the millions of paintballs being fired around the world? Here I will outline how paintballs are manufactured and exactly what they are made of.

What's In These Things...?

You've probably caught yourself saying - What if I eat one? Will I die? Does it taste like chicken? Not to worry, paintballs are non-toxic and biodegradable - but they don't taste like chicken so I don't advise you to eat them! Here are some of the raw ingredients that go into paintballs...

• Mineral Oils



• Polyethylene glycol



• Iodine



• Calcium



• Food coloring



• Sorbitol



• Gelatin



• Various other food ingredients/sweetners

The Manufacturing Process

The Shell

The first thing they do at the factory is make the hollow shell. In order to make the paintball shell they have to pour water into a massive heating bowl where the workers add sorbitol and sweeteners. They also apparently add a secret ingredient that the public isn't allowed to know about (maybe chicken?). Next, they transform the hollow shell so that it has a round shape. They do this by adding the key ingredient: gelatin. Gelatin is the same substance used in soft candies and the outer shells of Advil gel caps and liquid vitamins. Once the ingredients are all together they melt and mix them for around 30 to 40 minutes.

Once 40 minutes is up, they line up a machine for what they call the "dropping." This is a process that refers to the transfer of ingredients from a mixer to a heated vat they call the "gel tote." Workers are careful to take out any inconsistencies in the mix or any solids that didn't melt in the process. Once the mix is in the gel tote, they lower in a blender-type machine that blends the gel for 15-20 minutes. Voila! You have the hollow shell! Now it's time to load that sucker up with the good stuff.

The Fill

The second thing they do at the factory is make the fill. The fill is what goes inside the hollow shell, and it's made up of polyethylene glycol. Polyethylene glycol is the same idle liquid you find in basic cough syrups at your local pharmacy.

Next comes the "feed room" where the vats of gel and fill feed into what's called a "capsulation machine." This capsulation machine is the same kind that makes gel cap medicines that the majority of us take when our kids are bouncing off the walls! First, the machine spreads out the gel on to a cool drum. What this ends up doing is creating a 'continuous' sheet of thin gel - this is referred to as a 'gel ribbon.'

When it cools it cures the gelatin to the point where it can be molded into a hollow shell of the ball. The machine then presses the gel ribbon into a dye with half circle pockets, each forming 1 half of a ball shell - the machine does the next 3 steps in one shot. It aligns the two half shells together to form a hollow ball, then injects the filling and seals the two half shells together. Pretty slick process I say!

Now To Dry The Paintballs

As they finish the fill process, the paintballs are now warm and soft. Now they need to be cooled down so they can harden. They put the paintballs in what they call a "tumbling machine." This machine essentially shakes, dries, and keeps the paintballs looking round. Once the paintballs are done in the tumbling machine, they are put onto shelves and left to dry.

Quality Matters

Once the paintballs are dried out, depending on what factory or company it is, they will either feed the paintballs through a counting machine or have workers fill cases by weight. Workers do visual checks on the majority of the paintballs and they look for the obvious flaws, such as not being round, broken or too soft. Before the paintballs get shipped out to store owners and field operators, the paintballs are test fired (the fun part!). Once all these small tests and observations are complete, the paintballs are ready to be used by the general public (to be smeared all over your friends and co-workers).

Non-Toxic and Biodegradable

What would happen if paintballs weren't made to be biodegradable? Well, you would have one big environmental hazard that's what. The paint would never go away, and whole regions of forests would be ruined. But no worries, they're biodegradable and the paint and gelatin are meant to dissolve in water. So when it rains, it cleans up the mess - and no one would ever know an epic battle took place... until the next game of course.

Now you know how Paintballs are made, and what they're made of... So I guess the question is then - are you going to eat them raw, or with ketchup?

About The Author

Niko Brain is a freelance writer and offers sound advice on the sport of Paintball. He runs his own personal paintball site and enjoys writing reviews on Paintball Guns and

Paintball Gear. He's your "average Joe" paintball player and is an up and coming industry resource that loves to help newcomers to the sport.

Riot X to play Chicago Open PSP Xball

Local Paintball Team, Riot X, is preparing for the trip up to Bollingbrook, Illinois to play in Division 3 Xball at the PSP tournament June 26th through June 29th. Riot X is comprised of a bunch of players out of the Richmond and Charlottesville areas in Virginia, who currently practice at The Amelia Paintball Park.

We are attaching a few pictures of the Riot X at the paintball field near Richmond, VA. This team has been really working hard and we really wish them the best of luck at the tournament. This weekend the team is holding a two-day practice because they were not able to practice in the extreme heat of last week. The team should be showing up with a full roster and actually will be pitting for a couple pro teams including Amelia Paintball Park's favorite pro team, Infamous.



Look for great things from this up and coming paintball team.

Amelia Paintball Park Grand Opening June 21&22

Amelia Paintball Park

GRAND OPENING JUNE 21 & 22, 2008

Amelia Paintball Park is very happy to announce they will be having their Grand Opening on June 21 and 22nd. We will have various national level tournament paintball players at the complex practicing for their next events in the PSP and NPPL. We will have a woods course and NPPL Field Setup for play by everyone. We will also be offering many giveaways while supplies last including:

• Free Hot Dog and bag of Chips with entry fee coupon
• Free Water
• Free Gatorade
• Free Gun Barrel Graffitti
• Free Paintball Stickers
• Free Pod with every rental
• One person will win a DC MONSTARS, a top level National Professional Paintball League Team's jersey
• One person will win a Richmond Riot, a National Professional Paintball League Team's jersey
  

With these freebies, you can't go wrong coming out to the Amelia Paintball Park for our Grand Opening June 21 and 22. We will be opening 8am on June 21 and Noon on June 22.

http://www.AmeliaPaintballPark.com
Give us a call if you need directions or

more information:

804-594-0528

Email:
PlayPaintball@AmeliaPaintballPark.com

EPL Tournament Series

We would like to wish the Knuckle Up Kids best of luck attending The Eastern Paintball League tournament hosted at Hematomas Paintball this weekend. The Knuckle Up Kids will be playing D3 at the Tournament and currently practice at the Amelia Paintball Park. The tournament is in the standard 5-man format with a center flag and ramping allowed.


The EPL series started in 2007 and has continued to grow as it travels up and down the east coast from Virginia down to South Carolina. Most of the tournaments are hosted within an hour of the beach and at various paintball fields along the east coast. This is a great tournament series for those who are just starting out as a team because the costs are low, competition isn't quite as high a caliber as those in the larger national tournaments, you can bring your own paint, and of course the prizes are very good.

The EPL currently has several divisions for players and offers 3-man and 5-man formats. There are 5 events scheduled for the 5-man series in 2008. While there are only 4 tournaments scheduled for the 3-man format. Look for the EPL to continue to grow as it broadens its reach further inland within the next year.

Again, everyone wish The Knuckle Up Kids good luck as they head out to represent Richmond Paintball.

Amelia Paintball Park

We are happy to announce that a new Paintball Park has been approved in Amelia, Virginia which is within about half an hour of Richmond. This is great news for all of you looking to play woods and tournament paintball in Virginia. There really isn't much in terms of paintball in that area of the state and this really offers a great oppurtunity to many different areas such as Farmville, Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico and other various areas. This new facility will be opening as soon as the fields and netting can be constructed and will be offering a new type of theme for the east coast and also offer the top notch tournament fields including PSP and NPPL fields. Many tournaments will be visiting this field and once you come out you will understand why.

The facility includes plenty of parking, restrooms, showers, a concession stand and other amazing things. The property is shared by the Amelia Motor Raceway which involves Go Kart Racing as approved by the VDKA and WKA. The already top notch Go Kart facility will only add to your experience while out paintballing.

Please check back with their website for the most competitive pricing on the east coast along with the most family friendly atmosphere you could ask for. Visit the Amelia Paintball Park.

1 Year VT Massacre Anniversary

Today is the One Year anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre. All of our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those involved. This time last year i was talking on AIM with two of the members of the Virginia Tech Paintball Team. One was one floor below the first shooting the other one floor above in Ambler Johnston, a dorm. A few of my paintball friends could have been there if only 1 or 2 things different happened. One friend who plays with Arsenal has classes in one of the rooms that was shot up only one hour after it! When I went to VT i had most of my classes in that building, in the same area. Dr. Loganathan was one of my professors when I went to Virginia Tech and was one of the most happy men you would ever talk to. I respect the courage that all of the students, professors, and faculty on campus have and even more important I have great respect for those who decided to return back to Virginia Tech. The Virginia Tech Paintball team actually attended a CFOA Tournament a week or two after the shootings and played pretty well considering everything they had gone through and are still going through because of that horrible day.

Some people have stated that there need to be tighter gun controls and they should allow professors to carry guns on campus. I think this is stupid. The SWAT, ATF, Police, FBI, etc were on campus during the largest part of the shootings and they couldn't do anything about it. It's really brought to my attention how bad terrorism could get in any country and that instead of fighting over oil we should perhaps be focusing on how to better prevent outbursts like this. There are a million "what-if" stories, but the fact is it's happened and shootings seem to be getting more and more common. We need to not only check people's backgrounds for handguns but also for shotguns and rifles and black powder guns. All guns can be used as a weapon. I know we have the right to bear arms, and i support that, but it seems we need tighter legislation on the background checks, especially if someone with a mental disorder is allowed to purchase guns. Anyways, i think we need to figure out a way to prevent something like that from happening again not only on campuses around the country but everywhere there are large concentrations of people.

My heart goes out to all of those who lost their lives during the shooting and hope that they have found their peaceful place and know that the whole world was deeply saddened by what happened.

NPPL Huntington Beach

This past weekend was the last paintball practice for teams before the NPPL Huntington Beach event which is held from March 27-30. Please support and cheer on our sponsored teams playing in the tournament. Notable teams to cheer on are Richmond Riot playing Division 2 and DC Monstars playing Division 1. These teams have put much money, and practice in for this tournament. The teams are quite excited to play on the beach at the biggest event of the year.

Richmond Riot has a completely new roster this year including Nubby, Phil, Ben, Andy, Page, Cody, and John. Players on the DC Monstars come from such famous and successful teams as Sin, Sinful, Justice, DC Devastation, and Crimz. Look for the DC Monstars captain, Ramon, to hold down the fort and lead his team to another strong showing at this tournament.

Huntington Beach is the first tournament of the National Professional Paintball League for the 2008 season and is called by many as the biggest tournament of the year. Many big vendors come out to show their support such as draxxus, evil, bob long, macdev, jt, and many other manufacturers. The tournament is hosted on the beach right by the Huntington Beach Pier and held from March 27-30 this year. Teams come from all around the world and the levels of play are from Division 3 up to Pro and this year includes a new Pump Division which only allows pump paintball guns.