Many people currently assume that a paintball contains paint inside its shell.
That’s why they call them paintball. Although this was true of the initial product, paintballs no longer hold paint. So, how are paintballs made?
The manufacturer uses polyethylene glycol and color to make paintball pellets, which are soluble (can be cleaned with water) and biodegradable.
If you want to know more about the details, Discovery UK will show you!
7 Steps On How Paintballs Are Made
Let’s take a closer look at the paintball manufacturing process. This straightforward technique includes everything from dyeing to packaging.
Making The Paint
Paintballs usually contain polyethylene glycol, which is a color. Not only is this a safe solution, but it also provides the ideal thickness for paintball filling.
People often make paintball paints in different facilities specializing in dye production. The dye is non-toxic, water-soluble, and biodegradable.
After producing the color, people will transport it to specified encapsulation factories, where the process will finish.
Encapsulation
This step is in which manufacturers will pour the dye into the spheres. The capsules include chemicals similar to those found in capsule medications.
A significant amount of the composition is gelatin. As a result, the paint is harmless for the environment and people’s health, and so are the capsules.
Inputs
The dye is in a full tank at the top, and it is pushed via a pipe in calibrated amounts by a fill pump.
Employees put slabs of melted gelatin into the second input. After that, the gelatin moves about in oil rollers and drums. These two parts of the machine work together to turn dense gelatin into sheet form.
After thinning, people will transfer the gelatin to two grooved drums that rotate in opposite directions.
The gelatin transforms into the spherical shape of a paintball when it makes contact with the spaces in the drums.
Injecting The Dye
Then, people inject the pre-made color precisely into the ball using the pumps and injection wedges.
The die presses the sides of the haft-spheres after pumping the paint into them, bonding them, and finishing the encapsulation process.
The paint then falls into the chute, gathered up for drying and tumbling.
Tumbling
Tumbling is a critical component of the procedure. Paintballs must be evenly spherical to be used appropriately.
The gelatin must be warm to mold when the paintball exits the encapsulation device. The paintball pellets are softly thrown about in a tumbling machine during tumbling.
In this process, the paintballs are gently spun from all sides, guaranteeing that the gelatin forms perfect homogeneous spheres.
An interesting detail about this process is that the length, temperature, and general procedure are all kept under wraps!
Drying
Then, people must empty the tumbler and put the paintballs on racks to air dry when finishing the tumbling process. During this period, the gelatin has stiffened considerably.
The time it takes to air dry them is dependent on the manufacturer’s specific formula.
Packing
The employees verify the paintballs for manufacturing faults before packing them into cases.
They put the paintball pellets that pass into a “hopper,” a machine that automatically loads paintballs into containers based on their weight. About 2500 paintball pellets are in a container of paintballs.
Quality Control
Workers will test the completed paintballs randomly for flaws and defects regularly.
Multiple tests will be necessary for verifying that you are receiving the highest quality products. They include temperature resistance checks, brittleness tests, solubility testing, and dimension and weight tests.
Byproducts
It is fantastic news for individuals concerned about the environment since the paintball manufacturing process produces no byproducts or toxic residue.
The method’s materials and byproducts are entirely safe for the environment and human health, just like the end product.
What Is In A Paintball?
The paint’s constituents are food coloring, mineral oils, ethylene glycol, and calcium. The gelatin bubble encases a tablet or vitamin containing these active ingredients.
What’s more intriguing is that they hold water-based pigment inside, making them solid on the exterior but flexible inside!
Outer Shell
The exterior shell is cellulose acetate, gelatin, or another form of plastic.
The finest paintballs have an exterior shell robust enough to withstand being shot from a gun while still soft enough to shatter on contact without causing damage.
Color is typically added to the gelatin exterior to be seen more quickly on the field.
Several colors — commonly orange, yellow, or red – may be utilized based on the organization or taste.
Inside
A water-based, liquid color is within the paintball. The manufacturer uses non-toxic, food-grade materials to fill the sphere.
Water-soluble polyethylene glycol is one of such components. It also includes dye derived from dietary sources.
FAQs
We have collected some frequently asked questions when researching this field. We hope they will be helpful and save you a great deal of searching time.
How Do You Make Paintballs?
People use gelatin capsules containing polyethylene glycol and color to make paintballs. The manufacturer creates paintballs by rolling heated liquid gelatin into thin ribbons and running them through a rotating die, forming the capsule’s two halves.
What Are Paintballs Made Out Of?
Paintballs, often known as “paint,” are circular gelatin capsules that contain principally polyethylene glycol, as well as additional water-soluble and non-toxic ingredients and color.
Paintball pellets are from edible food-grade ingredients, but they have an unpleasant taste due to their tendency to dry up the tongue.
Can You Fill Your Paintballs?
It’s simple to fill paintball pellets. The most common way is to utilize a syringe loaded with your preferred dye. Inject the color into the hollow shells until they are full.
Final Thoughts
Overall, paintballs are entirely safe. They are produced with food-grade components and may last longer in a cold and dry location for extended periods without losing quality or effectiveness.
Paintball is also an enjoyable method to increase your adrenaline levels. We hope you better understand how paintballs are made after reading this article.
Thank you for reading!