Manufacture Engineering I

Keni Rachmanandi
7510040048
1 D4 Mechatronics B

Production System
Hillerich and Bradsby – Sports Goods

Manufacture System: Wood Baseball Bat (Louisville Slugger)

Hillerich and Bradsby are sports good company in Louisville, USA. J.F Hillerich and
his son John “Bud” Hillerich started their woodwork shop in 1855. They produce some sports
goods especially baseball equipment (bat & glove). Most famous product was baseball bat
under Louisville Slugger brand. It was used by many famous player of professional league in
USA and Japan.
Baseball bat is primary equipment of baseball sport. It is used to hit (bat) the ball.
Wood bat is a bat which made from wood. Ash, Maple, and Bamboo wood is common wood
for making baseball bat. Although it has simple shape, baseball bat has strict regulation
include dimension, weight, and material. The price of Louisville Slugger brand baseball bat
ranged from $20 - $200 (Rp.180, 000 – Rp.1, 800,000) depend on material and use
(recreational or competitive).
 Manufacture Process:
1. Choosing Material
The material of the baseball bat is wood, but not all tree wood can be made to be
baseball bat. The common wood materials are Ash, Maple, and Bamboo. The most expensive
one is Ash Tree wood, because it is very hard, but not so heavy. Maple is also expensive
because it is lighter and has almost same strength as Ash Tree wood, but it is easier to shatter
or broke into pieces.

2. Processing Raw Wood

The process started from cutting a huge log of wood into smaller blocks. The blocks
have dimension at least 50 inches (1270 mm) length. The blocks are turned to have 3.5 inches
(90 mm) in diameter and rounded shape. The dimension is made slightly bigger than regulated
dimension because it will be processed again in the next step. After that those blocks are
smoked or exposed on sunlight. This process made the wood more dry and decrease the water
in the wood cell. A dried wood is stronger, lighter and long-lasting than fresh wood.

3. Shaping
Shaping the bat is quite simple we just need few operations. In the early period of this
company make the bat by handmade (manual carving), but now this company uses the CNC
machine to process the bat. Shaping begin with programming the CNC machine with the
design of the bat. The design of the bat consists of some part:
a. Head: Part of the upper tip of bat. The tip has some shape: the rounded and concave “cup”
shape
b. Barrel: Strongest part which have widest diameter and will has contact with the pitched
ball.
c. Handle: The barrel narrows to become the handle which much thinner than the barrel.
Handle is place where the player grips the bat to swing.
d. Knob: The bottom part which little wider than handle. It keeps the bat from sliding off
player hands.
Then the material is placed in the spindle of the machine. After that, machining process
begins from bottom to the top. The first to shape is knob part, make sure knob part has little
wider than handle and smooth and blunt surface. Then move forward, the curving knife pushes
in to turn large wide part to shape long thin handle of the bat. The handle length is nearly half
or one third of the bat and its diameter at most 1 inch wide. It helps to lighten the bat and make
comfortable grip for player’s hands. Then the curving pulls out slowly while keep move
forward to shape the barrel. The barrel is usually one fourth or one third of the bat length.
Closing to the tip the curving knife pushes in again to narrow the head part. This make the
edge of the bat have blunt angle and round shape. Then for some bat to make concave “cup”
heads, we need inner curving knife and turn into cup shape. This cup shape helps to lighten the
bat and move the center of gravity towards the handle. Then we need to cut the bat from the
spindle grip to remove the bat from machine. Then cut manually to remove the excess of wood
that we don’t need from the baseball bat.
The next step is polishing the surface with abrasive paper or sandpaper on all surface
on the bat include the edge and the body. This process makes the surface smooth enough to
paint and to give nice look on the bat. After the shaping process the bat must match with
regulation tolerance (1067 mm length, 70mm barrel diameter wide, and 1 kg weight).
Otherwise the products are failed. If the production is done by the CNC machine the failed
products rate is nearly zero.

4. Finishing
Finishing processes is painting for painted bat or labeling and coating with varnish for
natural colored bat. Before finishing process make sure the bat is clean from wood dust and
others dirt. The bat is painted with wood paint. They just immerse the bat to the paint solution
and let it dry. For natural colored bat, usually labeling is done with burning the bat with hot
patterned mold. They roll the bat above the hot mold with little pressure. The when the bat
touch the mold the label appear with black color, the result of burning wood. Then varnish the
bat to give shiny look

References
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Special:Book&bookcmd=download&collection_id=518899f1aec2cb78&writer=rl&retur
n_to=Hillerich+%26+Bradsby
www.youtube.com/the_making_of_the_best-known_bat_in_baseball_and_pop_culture
. Video of Hillerich and Bradsby manufacture process
www.slugger.com , Hillerich and Brudsby homepage website.