Gallery: Tour the Factory That Cranks Out 90 Million Tennis Balls a Year
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Rolls of felt in that familiar yellow hue measure eight feet wide and over 200 feet long.
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Two steel rollers knead the rubber, which is then pushed through an extruder to form a roll sliced into small chunks called “slugs.”
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The slugs are pressure-heated in molds to form half shells. Those are trimmed, buffed, and aligned to await adhesive.
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Blue adhesive is applied to the shell halves.
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The halves are fused together in a hydraulic press.
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Ball cores are shaken around in a machine with sandpaper-like walls to texture them before glueing.
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Workers rake ball cores over racks to dry after an adhesive bath.
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A machine stamps felt panels called "dog bones" out of huge sheets of felt.
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Stacks of felt panels called “doggones” are dunked into vats of glue, coating the edges in white adhesive.
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Workers assemble two felt panels around the pressurized core with a desktop machine.
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A worker places a ball.
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The covered balls are sealed in a hydraulic press again to cure the white seams.
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Workers fluff and inspect every ball before logo stamping.
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Nearly finished balls churn through the factory.
