High performance golf balls are really hard to make. Only a couple of major brands are controlling all of the world’s market. They are using this position to earn huge profits by selling golf balls at really high prices. Vice is completely changing this. Vice is the first brand in the world that manufactures high performance golf balls and sells them directly to you for a fair price.
High performance golf balls are really hard to make. Only a couple of major brands are controlling all of the world’s market. They are using this position to earn huge profits by selling golf balls at really high prices. Vice is completely changing this. Vice is the first brand in the world that manufactures high performance golf balls and sells them directly to you for a fair price.
Check out our golf ball production process in 10 steps
Our Team in Germany and Taiwan has been engineering and manufacturing high performance
golf balls since the early 90’s. Today more than 200 engineers, designers, craftsmen
and production workers build and operate sophisticated custom equipment for the
production of millions of high-tech golf balls per year.
This is what’s mainly inside of a golf ball: Rubber. We mix it up with other chemicals to make a hot batter and then cool it between two huge steel drums.
The rolled up rubbery sheets are pushed into a rubber extruder, which forces the rubber into a die. It now resembles large marshmallows, which are called slugs. The slugs vary in color and mixture depending on the type of core manufactured.
The slugs are sent to a compression mold machine. The bottom part of the mold presses to the top part applying more than one ton of pressure. The slugs are shaped and baked at the same time. The slugs bake at 167 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. The slug now has transformed to a solid golf ball core.
After the cores have been molded we then aftertreat them abrading surfaces so that they will accept the casing layer which is molded over the top of those.
Each of the cores, whether it’s the PRO, the Pro Plus or the Tour model, is grown to a precise dimension. After that the casing layer is molded on the top of that. The casing layer is also grown to a precise thickness and outer diameter before we apply the mantle layer (Surlyn or Urethane depending on the ball model) on top of it.
A robot transports the casing layered cores for the Vice Tour ball model to another mold,
the so-called injection mold. A ram pushes melted Surlyn through tubes to a mold cavity.
This forms the outside shell of the golf ball complete with the specific dimple structure of each ball model.
Cast Urethane balls (the Vice Pro and Pro+ model) are not injection molded.
These balls are cast with a unique urethane elastomer cover.
This very complex casting process makes one of the best performing urethane balls in the industry.
Important process step for cast urethane balls is that the cover adheres to the Surlyn casing layer underneath it.
The balls then run into a bin which funnels them to a golf ball elevator which brings them to an automatic miller. This removes little pieces of leftover ball shells and all excess of Surlyn / Urethane.
Robotic arms now carry silicon pads to a laser engraved steel plate.
The pads soak up ink from the plate and transfer the laser imprint to the balls.
For the Vice Pro and Pro+ models we have a vision technology to locate within the
dimple pattern the correct position for the Vice Logo, the players number as well as the putting line.
Next an automated machine sprays the balls with Polyurethane while they rotate on top off spindles. The Polyurethane protects the ink logos that are stamped on the balls and also is the key to perfecting the ball performance. Robotic arms carry the wet golf balls to a drying rack where they cook at 66 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes.
Ultimate care is not only taken in engineering but also in our quality control process. Every ball is checked from a static point of view in numerous testing scenarios. We make sure that every golf ball we provide is consistent size and weight and shows a perfectly centered core.
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