I can’t help but as I watch all these videos and learning about disc making, I’m convinced that the acronym TPU really stands for Trash Panda University.
@@charlescourtney6119 the reason I don't want that (when using the same mold) is the handfeel If they have the same name it's easy to match them Having different names for discs that feel the same is bad (imagine disliking a disc and then buying a copy of it)
@@bilboswaggings not if they tell you its the same mold with Dome or with extra flatness before you buy it... Wouldnt it prevent confusion to have separate names? At the end of the day feel is unique to the person, not the disc. Different grips, throws, etc.
Fantastic video. Thanks a lot! FYI: NZ's RPM Produce a far-less stable version of the Kahu HS driver - the Kahu-XG. It's a combination of mold temperature, and dwell time, which affect the outcome. The Kahu XG ends up with a lower Parting Line, and a dome. The XG variant is only available in Atomic plastic. The dome actually exists in the mold, but ordinarily during cooling, the flight plate pulls down as it lifts the Parting Line, creating a super-fast, very stable disc. The cooling differences are usually down to the Specific Heat Capacity of the TPU being used, but even within the same plastic significant variation is possible, if accurate enough control over mold temp and dwell time is achieved. That's how Simon at RPM explained it to me, anyway. There's also some variation to be found in overall weight, by significantly over-blowing the mold, and I know that Innova do this for a couple of their drivers, to get them up to max weight. The normal volume of the mold being too small to reach full weight without adding weighting agents, or overblowing it. And it you have a great flashing removal process, then there is no penalty for overblowing a mold, except excess flashing - which we know you guys recycle. Edit: It's also worth noting that in RPM's range, the putters Tui and the Ruru have the exact same dome in the mold, but the Ruru pulls board-flat during cooling, while the Tui keeps its dome - including the (required!) flat centre portion. The PDGA say that a disc must have a flat section on the flight plate, but every manufacturer ignores this after the disc is approved by the PDGA. RPM think it is because the Ruru has more TPU in the rim, and so the Tui's flight plate is a bit thicker than the Ruru, and this is what makes the cooling produce a domed disc and a flat disc. Edit 2: It is known that some (*cough* Innova *cough*) manufacturers leave the disc they submit to the PDGA in the mold for an extended period of time, so that the prototype measured by the PDGA comes in at a larger diameter, which means a higher maximum weight. This has been common practice for a while - but is almost never discussed. We know this is true, because when you use a properly accurate measure on a production disc, you will often find that it is 1.5mm to 2mm smaller in diameter than the specification on the PDGA page for that disc. And so there are lots of tricks manufacturers use to manipulate the approval system to their benefit. You can go back many years and get the same diameter mismatch between the specified size, and the actual diameters. Edit 3: That Franklin driver is a piece of garbage, and it has a leading edge which is criminally sharp. It could never be PDGA approved. I stopped an NZ retailer from selling that Franklin three-disc pack, due to the extreme danger the driver represents, and the possible legal liability of selling a dangerously sharp disc. Strangely their putter - an Aviar P&A copy, and their midrange - a ROC copy, are molded nicely, and fly OK. But that driver is a lawsuit in the making.
What a fascinating video! Definitely gets my scientist gears spinning. Some ideas that occurred to me: 1 - Orientation: What if you let the discs cool right side-up instead of upside-down? Perhaps on top of a window-screen-like material to prevent an air seal. 2 - Cooling temperature: What if you were to let them cool in a colder room (or refrigerator?) vs a warmer room? Or left them in ice water to cool? Would this also affect durability?
I was thinking the same. Then, if I saw correctly, they finished cooling stacked in a box. Certainly the bottom discs will be more deformed than the top, and the middle discs will cool slower than the top or bottom.
I’m an injection molding process engineer. When increasing your fill speed rate you should also be raising your transfer position. Also this should all be done with no hold pressure on. The reason for this is your wanting to end with a part that is 90-95% full, this is called the decoupled shot weight. For high production molding the best practice is to fill the mold cavity as fast as possible for the fastest cycle time without having machine limitations like pressure or having quality issues on your part. In your video you started by changing the injection pressure, this setting should start at a maxed out setting while establishing your fill speed, otherwise for an example say you want to fill really fast but limit the pressure to 800 when it really takes 1400. The machine will only give you 800 regardless of how much you might need. Once you found your correct speed, shot size, and transfer position it’s time to start putting hold pressure on. A good starting point is half of injection pressure, so let’s say your injection pressure at transfer is 1400, you would want to start with 700. Then for time start with a large number like 15 seconds. How you determine how much hold time you need is based on when the gate freezes off. How you determine this is easy. During the hold process you will see the screw position move lower and lower until it stops, that’s gate freeze. So let’s say you notice the screw position gets lower for 8 seconds during hold time and stops. So a good set point would be at least 8 seconds but in generally add an extra second or two for good measure. During hold you want to make sure that you are keeping a consistent cushion for best quality repeatability. If the screw is going to zero you’re not keeping cushion. To increase your cushion size MUST add equal amounts to your shot size and transfer, otherwise you will get different results. Also you need to make sure you have proper back pressure settings for your material otherwise you will also get inconsistent results. Setting the screw speeds is mostly based on your cycle time. You want the shot to built 3-5 seconds before the mold opens. A good starting point is 100 rpm for most plastic, but if your shot is not built in time you will have to increase the speed, or if it is getting done to fast you will have to put a screw rotation delay on. You want the time the plastic spends in the barrel to be as consistent as possible. This is called residence time. Plastic that sits in the barrel for 30 seconds vs 2 minutes will get you very different results. I see you guys are manually opening and closing the door in your video, which is going to be obviously more inconsistent than a robot. When you guys were trying different settings I hope you knew this and didn’t keep parts in between the time of thinking what to change next. It’s good practice to always throw away the first 10-15 cycles of parts. Another setting that is important is decompression, which is the retraction of the screw after a new shot is built during the screw rotation. Typically a decompression setting of at least .25 works. What this does is sucks back the check ring that is at the end of the screw. Lastly would be cooling time and that is all determined by quality usually. If you have any other general questions I would love to help out. Like I said at the beginning I’m and injection molding process engineer with about 15 years experience who also loves to disc golf so your channel is everything I’m interested in. I have been watching since the days of you in your garage, it’s super cool to see how fare you have already came in such a short time.
Jesse, I recommend consulting with this viewer. He seems to have the deep process knowhow you need to fully dial in your process. He can also help when you begin varying the mix components of your regrind. Good luck and I hope to see more of rour test results.
@@arr64lima63 yeah I like what this guy has to say hahah. I actually work with regrind recycled material every day, it adds a whole new complicating variable into the mix of problems you will run into.
Get this man in there ASAP also would flash cooling be something to consider being rapidly cooled either inside or outside the mold make a big difference in size and dome height or getting the plastic below ambient temperature then letting it rise to ambient naturally to let the disc relax to its intended or desired shape it wants to be? Idk thinking on a molecular level I wonder if that has any effect on the disc too
@@toker2792 the disc is being cooled the second it is injection into the mold, leaving it in the tool closed for long periods of time like 30 minutes in the video is not practical if they want to make money along with the plastic in the barrel will become degraded after that long of a time which will result in a bad product. Flash freezing in water could work but again in a production facility this is not practical either. What they could do is use a fixture to place the parts in while they cool. The purpose of a fixture is to hold the product in a desired position to allow for additional cooling outside of the mold to allow you to start the molding process all over again.
@@Nick__N I've used water cooled AL tables to achieve this. Pull a part out, place it on the table, then continue onto the next run. Assuming the rim would take longest to cool maybe would want to put rim down on the table, but would that cause warpage in the flight plate?
Its awesome how you are becoming the best educational channel featuring injection molding. I love it because no one else goes into depth. Please keep it up.
Similar to forging metal, material warp can be caused by how fast or slow it cools. What if you cooled the discs in a cold water bath to shock them into their final form, or more slowly in a low-temp oven? There are just so many variables to play with, and every new lesson makes you a better manufacturer!
I know high temp is how Innova gets G-Star from Star having some Star be almost G-Star and was softened during the travel. Innova people, they did after first 2008 run of G-Star is add a sparkle/shimmer to the plastic dye to denote the disc plastic from Star. This is different from Discraft ESP FLX where original from 2008--2009 was a mistake from supplier they had some off plastic for those years where some late 2007--early 2008 ESP was the FLX plastic basically floppy. The Discraft brand did make Z FLX as well but was more a process, why Discraft was able to bring back the brands Z FLX 10--12 years later.
So what you’re saying is that the Inner Core, Dune, and Ozone went from 3 discs to essentially about 12 different discs if not way more. Love this stuff and love your passion for it Jesse.
Eoow !! My god ! - sooo thats a mold minimalists dream !!! Please release theese ! (+ / neutrsl / - editions 😅) and... please make em available in europe ! Would love to bag a full set of Ozones to show off here in denmark ❤️❤️❤️
I would love if you took your three molds and do flat, stock, and dome 3 pack or a 9 pack. That would be awesome. (If you get the same effect with the other molds) I love having one mold in different plastics to get the effect you’re talking about. It would be amazing to have it in one plastic and one mold. Your videos never let down and always so interesting.
Hey Jesse! Great video. Have you ever considered selling your experimental discs as part of a subscription/mystery box type thing? I know that basically all of your viewers would jump at the opportunity to own some of these experimental discs, regardless of their PDGA legality. I'm thinking a monthly (or yearly, or bi-yearly, or seasonally, etc.) box that arrives with first looks (okay, second looks after Personalities like Bodanza and J-Milly) at new molds, experiments like this, exclusive stamps, staff member signed discs, or new plastic test discs like the floppy ones you reground during Bodanza's new video. Instead of regrinding these, people would love to buy them as is, including me. Keep up the good work! P.S. I wonder if you could research more environmentally friendly dyes for discs? this would open the door for mor eart styles you could use.
Wildly informative. I went from thinking you guys were a little obscure to pretty intrigued. The passion you have for this is admirable. You guys will have incredible disc manufacturing skills if you keep messing around like this. If you can control the variance that comes with injection molding to put out consistent products, then you’ll be doing better than most of the big names out there.
New meaning for Custom Discs. If someone could map out a chart of player power and spin, you could offer a custom disc for any variable to get you to a certain point on the field.
Customer - "Hello Trash Panda. Yes I need a Disc for a 440 ft Dog Leg Left, thrown in a headwind with an Arm speed of 60 MPH with 1200RPM". Trash Panda - "Hello. We can do that. I'll mold a driver for you that will put you +/- 15ft of the basket every time in those conditions. Would you like it to Glow in the dark?" Customer - ".... yes. Yes I would."
Thank you for making this video. I have been totally confused by how the same discs can turn out so differently until now. Still confused, but less so...
I wish I lived closer to you. I’ve got 18 years experience of processing plastic, and also want to make my own discs. I’ve got so many ideas and theories. Glad to see your on the right path to one of them
Loved the video Jesse. Thanks for sharing your crazy scientist brain w/the rest of us. I agree w/all the other comments that, if possible, you should intentionally make runs of the stock ozone (9,6,-3,1), the more neutral ozone (9,6-1,1) and the 115 sec ozone (9,5,0,2.5). Do the same thing w/your inner cores and Dunes, and you just went from 3 molds to 9 overnight! A little something for everyone. Also, great to see Kyle dancing, singing, and enjoying his job.
This is an awesome breakdown and super happy with the amount of detail you showed in the process, I am curious what your approach is moving forward with this knowledge for keeping discs "consistent" when making runs with the variance that happens with recycled plastics.
This is a fantastic video, Jesse! I'd love to see all these variations of ozone released with different flight numbers and different ghost stamps to differentiate them!
I really enjoyed this video! It made me appreciate the black magic that is disc manufacturing even more. I would be interested in a video where you test a combo of the factors you tested here. I wonder if you can "anneal" the discs in an oven after injection
Love it! Try cooling each disc top side up with a vaccuum sucking it back down underneath. Interested to know if you could continue to affect the shape as it cools. I hate domey discs, so this is great to see why that might be.
Seeing how much flashing was on the discs with the experimental settings, I wonder if Prodigy is employing a similar strategy. Perhaps it is the only way to get subsequent runs to have the same characteristics as what they submitted/first runs. Needless to say, thanks for peeling back the curtain for us plebs. Would love to see you do a video on mold degredation if/when that happens. Much love from NZ ❤
Fellow molder and disc golfer here great info. For the 30 minute disc I would think you turned off the water heater to the mold. Causing some some. Cool time will drastically change the diameter of a disc and it makes sense to see different flight characteristics. For years I have thought the variation in discs was caused by mold temperature which you just have proved running different cool times. Your hypothesis is correct about Franklin molding discs. I would also guarantee that a random manufacturer made them with a sub 15 second cycle and just pumped them out. Now would be super cool to see same settings with different colors…I would start with a light color and transition to a dark and see the difference in injection time and how that effects the flight.
It’s a really fun disc to throw! I bought two when my local brick n mortar got them. One for me and one for my daughter. It’s super flippy. Throw the fun line! ❤
Excellent stuff! I think this explains a lot about why certain older molds have become so domey - e.g. Discraft Flick & Predator, Innova Firebird, etc.. - It's FASTER to make a domey disc. I think it also tells about the process evolution: Newer machines are faster, hence discs probably do not have the time to cool off any more. One question came up...What about disc weight? If I want a flat Flick today, I go to a lighter weight class nowadays.
This scientific trial and error approach has not only been entertaining but also enlightening. Thank you for taking pride in your work and pushing yourself to be the best at what you do. Cheers!
What's interesting about this (everything about this is interesting to me) is: I'm huge on mold minimization. If I find a mold I'm comfortable with, I don't want to get an understable counterpart because I don't like the feel of understable discs. You could literally make me a bag of 4 molds that fit the OS, S, US slots in the Putter, Mid, Fairway, and Distance classes. Super cool
I guess that cooling temperature in the room at the time of redting in the table also affect , winter runs compared with summer ones generally change in all manufacturers, Great vid and info so cool to know all the insides! Keep the hard work!
Jesse, I really think you would enjoy looking into gong fu tea! You are essentially flash brewing high amounts of leaf with certain amounts of water, but you are able to scientifically, tweak and experiment with the amount of water, the amount of leaf, temperature of water, pouring technique, etc. Not only are you creating a healthy drink, but you really get to tinker With parameters, which you seem to really enjoy! It’s like the injection molding of drinks.
If you want the fastest way to determine what process parameters have the greatest impact on the final shape of the disc, you should run a design of experiments. It would reduce the number of parts you have to make, while still giving you the impact of the different parameters. Also, you should measure the amount of dome and all other dimensions to give you more objective results. I love this video, and how open you are about the manufacturing process and the lessons you are learning! Keep them coming!
I often think that it is sometimes easier to do the experiments than to do a DoE study first; especially if you haven’t ever studied DoE. That said, a bit of planning can go a long way.
Cool comments. Only thing I can think to add is that supposedly one of the kayak brands that has the most robust kayaks (prijon) has had their durability attributed to letting their kayaks cool in the mold. Probably not practical got disc production but it would be cool to see if it indeed yields a more durable product.
Very interesting how all these factors affect the finished properties of a disc!! especially considering trhe mold is the exact same everytime haha. Well I'm a fan of stable discs and comparing the same disc in different plastics so I hope we can get our hands on these discs. 🤞
Just Thank You Jesse! Also please standardize the process and come out with different stability of each disc and brand those run so customers know. I feel like not knowing if a disc from a certain run will be more/less stable from a previous run is a big issue with companys. If you can do that we would love it. Plus more discs for same cost of the mold. Think of the ROI ")
And that's why certain runs are so desirable. You get used to the way a disc flies and feels.Thank you for digging in and revealing the truth of this. By the way, can I get one of those Ultra flat ones in 175g?
My buddy and I were talking about this the other day with the Discmania 2nd run FD. If the FD2 was essentially made to replicate the flight of that specific run FD. Why can’t they replicate it within the same mold? Would that only be possibly with knowing the settings on the injector and using precisely the same plastic?
This would be an interesting one to test a year or more on, when they're being made from a completely different batch of plastic, from the prior sources original suppliers. One mold that's seen a lot of insane dome changes over the years is the Discraft Comet. The blends of ESP and Z plastic have changed over the years, and the discs got flatter and flatter, to the degree where I actually suspect they changed the shape of the mold. More recently, some of the "old school" dome has shown up again, after years of flat ones, a decade after the "old school" dome was just how they ALL came out. At Discraft, they've no doubt changed suppliers, or those suppliers have changed suppliers, in that amount of time (the first ESP Comets are something like 15 years old at this point). I'm sure that plays out at every place that buys plastics, which would mean what you get to recycle would be different a year on, or two years on. It'd be a long experiment, but maybe a yearly test would be interesting, from a scientific standpoint...
Have you thought about a temp controlled shrink room? Maybe something that is 100 degrees that allows for slower cooling? Could this allow a consistency from design to production?
If you adopted that mentality and made an over stable, stable, and under stable version of each disc you would literally be the new vibram. I’m using your packs as the starter packs for an event next year and would love to bag more of these!! Hope you make that a possibility.
Have you guys experimented with different surfaces for the cooling table? It seems like setting them down on the flight plate would affect the domeyness significantly. I would be curious how placing them rim down, or on aluminum vs steel vs granite vs wood would change things. Or even a bowl shaped surface that matches the desired dome shape.
What would be the effect of taking a disc out of the mold and quenching it in a bucket of cold water or quenching oil? I used to do blacksmithing for a hobby and the way to harden a blade was to heat up the steel so the molecules aligned with each other and then quench in in oil to maintain that alignment. Otherwise they go back to their normal orientation. I do not know what effect quenching would have on plastic. Warp it??
I would be curious to see how temperature affects the cooling down process. I wonder what the difference would be between a refrigerator vs a freezer, vs room temp, vs lets say an 80-90-degree room.
Another test that could be interesting. have you tried accelerating the cooling in a refrigerator or freezer? I'd love to see tests with humidity as a factor but that could be a lot harder.
I think until the DG manufacturers gets better quality systems in place we'll continue to see the variability from run to run. You can measure the form of the disc to within microns precision using CMM's. If you control the form of the finished disc you'll see more consistency across runs. But it also makes manufacturing way harder to nail down, and having a 1 day lag time is a killer. You can overcome it of course, but still a hassle. Optics that are injection molding could be an interesting thing for you to check out!
Have you considered the surface in which you are tabling your discs and the affect they have on shrinkage? Wondering how the rate of cooling affects shrinkage and the doming effect if you use something that is more of an insulator than a material that will naturally draw heat out of the disc during rest, particularly on the face of the disc.
This is great. Now you make a disc people like and you tweak the parameters and make a set of the same disc with different flight characteristics. Then we buy all the variations to fit a range of stability slots. Easy money!
I would suggest hiring a consultant to help you set up a Design of Experiments to help you figure out how each of these variables affects the product (stability, dominess, difference to CAD model, etc). Basically, you can set up different phases that can help figure out which variables have significant effects, then narrow down the experiments to only test those significant variables, and eventually be able to plot those variables.
Was there a significant weight difference or trend in the different injections? I wonder if you are getting heavier discs as well as more dome due to the plastic compressing more under the higher pressure and therefore putting more plastic into the mold.
Dunk them in a tank of water when they come out of the mold! I'd love to see if the shape can change a lot more with the quicker cooling rate. Also, the orientation the disc enters the water could be huge. Much like how a Katana gets its curved shape due to differential cooling. I would assume these lower temps would have a less extreme result though.
This would be cool to see the different runs being sold and on the listing for them have the injection parameters listed to give an exact idea of how this disc that you are buying was made
So, what I’m seeing is that it’s not necessarily the plastic, but the way the plastic changes after cooling that changes the flight characteristics. In theory, you could change plastic, and then change the injection parameters so that you always end up with the flight characteristics you want. Of course, there would be limitations because if you went to the extremes on pressure cooldown time etc, for each plastic, the extremes would be different. But you could produce discs that fly the same within that overlap.
Hi Jesse, I think you should market these as Ozone, Ozone Plus, and Ozone Pro. Also I have a hypothesis that if Kyle takes off his glasses, he’s just Bo Burnham
I have one slightly inebriated thought and it is in the nature of the cooling. RN you have a pretty standard cooling cycle; Some time in the injector, some time in neutral room temp on a table, but what if you cooled it slower, like leaving it in a hot environment and slowly lowering temps there, or by flash freezing (sounds bad but who knows)
The flat ones are what I originally thought you guys were going to make. Kinda wish that was the Ozone not the one I have. Very cool disc but wasn’t what i hoped for.
My main question is: will we get to get our hands on the different tpu ozone’s? To me, that thought of potentially having two fairways, that are the same feeling mold (literally same mold) but fly differently, is incredible and something I’d love to have. To be able to cover my fairway lineup potentially with 2 discs would be incredible. Also, I might be the only one but wow I loved the flight of the different tpu ozone. I’d love to see some of those be released sometime!
Yo that overstable ozone looks like a beefcake and I want one lol It certainly opens up more options for you; you can standardize the process for each run of disc (hard with recycled plastic, I know) and hit different stability targets. The current ozone could be the understable version, that sort of thing.
Throughput needs to be high because of $$$ so one can't really cool them in the mold. I've heard from another manufacturer's video they could actually get stuck in there. And when you take it out the environment is not homogeneous, so there goes the consistency. And the another manufacturer says that's the biggest challenge. You could perhaps make cool-down molds for them all and sink them into constant temperature liquid for a couple of days. You concentrated on dome, but PLH changes too because the shrinking dome "pulls" the "hem" up twisting the disc inwards.
Great.. now I want one of each iteration. Actually, this could open up a great new unique market for Trash Panda Discs: customizable discs.. “Choose your stability in the disc model you prefer”. You can thank me later.
I can’t help but as I watch all these videos and learning about disc making, I’m convinced that the acronym TPU really stands for Trash Panda University.
😂 I love that!
Now I want you guys to start selling 3 versions of each disc... overstable, medium and understable
This!
That would be sick.
Or just rename as new molds entirely
@@charlescourtney6119 the reason I don't want that (when using the same mold) is the handfeel
If they have the same name it's easy to match them
Having different names for discs that feel the same is bad (imagine disliking a disc and then buying a copy of it)
@@bilboswaggings not if they tell you its the same mold with Dome or with extra flatness before you buy it... Wouldnt it prevent confusion to have separate names? At the end of the day feel is unique to the person, not the disc. Different grips, throws, etc.
Fantastic video. Thanks a lot!
FYI: NZ's RPM Produce a far-less stable version of the Kahu HS driver - the Kahu-XG.
It's a combination of mold temperature, and dwell time, which affect the outcome.
The Kahu XG ends up with a lower Parting Line, and a dome. The XG variant is only available in Atomic plastic.
The dome actually exists in the mold, but ordinarily during cooling, the flight plate pulls down as it lifts the Parting Line, creating a super-fast, very stable disc.
The cooling differences are usually down to the Specific Heat Capacity of the TPU being used, but even within the same plastic significant variation is possible, if accurate enough control over mold temp and dwell time is achieved. That's how Simon at RPM explained it to me, anyway.
There's also some variation to be found in overall weight, by significantly over-blowing the mold, and I know that Innova do this for a couple of their drivers, to get them up to max weight. The normal volume of the mold being too small to reach full weight without adding weighting agents, or overblowing it. And it you have a great flashing removal process, then there is no penalty for overblowing a mold, except excess flashing - which we know you guys recycle.
Edit: It's also worth noting that in RPM's range, the putters Tui and the Ruru have the exact same dome in the mold, but the Ruru pulls board-flat during cooling, while the Tui keeps its dome - including the (required!) flat centre portion. The PDGA say that a disc must have a flat section on the flight plate, but every manufacturer ignores this after the disc is approved by the PDGA. RPM think it is because the Ruru has more TPU in the rim, and so the Tui's flight plate is a bit thicker than the Ruru, and this is what makes the cooling produce a domed disc and a flat disc.
Edit 2: It is known that some (*cough* Innova *cough*) manufacturers leave the disc they submit to the PDGA in the mold for an extended period of time, so that the prototype measured by the PDGA comes in at a larger diameter, which means a higher maximum weight. This has been common practice for a while - but is almost never discussed.
We know this is true, because when you use a properly accurate measure on a production disc, you will often find that it is 1.5mm to 2mm smaller in diameter than the specification on the PDGA page for that disc. And so there are lots of tricks manufacturers use to manipulate the approval system to their benefit. You can go back many years and get the same diameter mismatch between the specified size, and the actual diameters.
Edit 3: That Franklin driver is a piece of garbage, and it has a leading edge which is criminally sharp. It could never be PDGA approved. I stopped an NZ retailer from selling that Franklin three-disc pack, due to the extreme danger the driver represents, and the possible legal liability of selling a dangerously sharp disc. Strangely their putter - an Aviar P&A copy, and their midrange - a ROC copy, are molded nicely, and fly OK. But that driver is a lawsuit in the making.
What a fascinating video! Definitely gets my scientist gears spinning. Some ideas that occurred to me:
1 - Orientation: What if you let the discs cool right side-up instead of upside-down? Perhaps on top of a window-screen-like material to prevent an air seal.
2 - Cooling temperature: What if you were to let them cool in a colder room (or refrigerator?) vs a warmer room? Or left them in ice water to cool? Would this also affect durability?
yes, the relative humidity in the room where the disc is cooling has to have some effect.
I was thinking the same. Then, if I saw correctly, they finished cooling stacked in a box. Certainly the bottom discs will be more deformed than the top, and the middle discs will cool slower than the top or bottom.
I’m an injection molding process engineer. When increasing your fill speed rate you should also be raising your transfer position. Also this should all be done with no hold pressure on. The reason for this is your wanting to end with a part that is 90-95% full, this is called the decoupled shot weight. For high production molding the best practice is to fill the mold cavity as fast as possible for the fastest cycle time without having machine limitations like pressure or having quality issues on your part. In your video you started by changing the injection pressure, this setting should start at a maxed out setting while establishing your fill speed, otherwise for an example say you want to fill really fast but limit the pressure to 800 when it really takes 1400. The machine will only give you 800 regardless of how much you might need. Once you found your correct speed, shot size, and transfer position it’s time to start putting hold pressure on. A good starting point is half of injection pressure, so let’s say your injection pressure at transfer is 1400, you would want to start with 700. Then for time start with a large number like 15 seconds. How you determine how much hold time you need is based on when the gate freezes off. How you determine this is easy. During the hold process you will see the screw position move lower and lower until it stops, that’s gate freeze. So let’s say you notice the screw position gets lower for 8 seconds during hold time and stops. So a good set point would be at least 8 seconds but in generally add an extra second or two for good measure. During hold you want to make sure that you are keeping a consistent cushion for best quality repeatability. If the screw is going to zero you’re not keeping cushion. To increase your cushion size MUST add equal amounts to your shot size and transfer, otherwise you will get different results. Also you need to make sure you have proper back pressure settings for your material otherwise you will also get inconsistent results. Setting the screw speeds is mostly based on your cycle time. You want the shot to built 3-5 seconds before the mold opens. A good starting point is 100 rpm for most plastic, but if your shot is not built in time you will have to increase the speed, or if it is getting done to fast you will have to put a screw rotation delay on. You want the time the plastic spends in the barrel to be as consistent as possible. This is called residence time. Plastic that sits in the barrel for 30 seconds vs 2 minutes will get you very different results. I see you guys are manually opening and closing the door in your video, which is going to be obviously more inconsistent than a robot. When you guys were trying different settings I hope you knew this and didn’t keep parts in between the time of thinking what to change next. It’s good practice to always throw away the first 10-15 cycles of parts. Another setting that is important is decompression, which is the retraction of the screw after a new shot is built during the screw rotation. Typically a decompression setting of at least .25 works. What this does is sucks back the check ring that is at the end of the screw. Lastly would be cooling time and that is all determined by quality usually. If you have any other general questions I would love to help out. Like I said at the beginning I’m and injection molding process engineer with about 15 years experience who also loves to disc golf so your channel is everything I’m interested in. I have been watching since the days of you in your garage, it’s super cool to see how fare you have already came in such a short time.
Jesse, I recommend consulting with this viewer. He seems to have the deep process knowhow you need to fully dial in your process. He can also help when you begin varying the mix components of your regrind. Good luck and I hope to see more of rour test results.
@@arr64lima63 yeah I like what this guy has to say hahah. I actually work with regrind recycled material every day, it adds a whole new complicating variable into the mix of problems you will run into.
Get this man in there ASAP also would flash cooling be something to consider being rapidly cooled either inside or outside the mold make a big difference in size and dome height or getting the plastic below ambient temperature then letting it rise to ambient naturally to let the disc relax to its intended or desired shape it wants to be? Idk thinking on a molecular level I wonder if that has any effect on the disc too
@@toker2792 the disc is being cooled the second it is injection into the mold, leaving it in the tool closed for long periods of time like 30 minutes in the video is not practical if they want to make money along with the plastic in the barrel will become degraded after that long of a time which will result in a bad product. Flash freezing in water could work but again in a production facility this is not practical either. What they could do is use a fixture to place the parts in while they cool. The purpose of a fixture is to hold the product in a desired position to allow for additional cooling outside of the mold to allow you to start the molding process all over again.
@@Nick__N I've used water cooled AL tables to achieve this. Pull a part out, place it on the table, then continue onto the next run. Assuming the rim would take longest to cool maybe would want to put rim down on the table, but would that cause warpage in the flight plate?
Can I buy the ozone OS?
The OSone?
The CFC
Flat Earth Ozone?
Its awesome how you are becoming the best educational channel featuring injection molding. I love it because no one else goes into depth. Please keep it up.
What happens if you let the disc cool on the other side?
Thought the same thing. Seems like it could be flattening out the dome as it dries this way.
It flies upside down
Right?? Maybe even put a hockey puck or some spacer under it so the rim isn’t even touching the table…
Similar to forging metal, material warp can be caused by how fast or slow it cools. What if you cooled the discs in a cold water bath to shock them into their final form, or more slowly in a low-temp oven? There are just so many variables to play with, and every new lesson makes you a better manufacturer!
I know high temp is how Innova gets G-Star from Star having some Star be almost G-Star and was softened during the travel. Innova people, they did after first 2008 run of G-Star is add a sparkle/shimmer to the plastic dye to denote the disc plastic from Star.
This is different from Discraft ESP FLX where original from 2008--2009 was a mistake from supplier they had some off plastic for those years where some late 2007--early 2008 ESP was the FLX plastic basically floppy. The Discraft brand did make Z FLX as well but was more a process, why Discraft was able to bring back the brands Z FLX 10--12 years later.
This is one of the best disc golf videos I’ve seen.
So what you’re saying is that the Inner Core, Dune, and Ozone went from 3 discs to essentially about 12 different discs if not way more. Love this stuff and love your passion for it Jesse.
Eoow !! My god ! - sooo thats a mold minimalists dream !!! Please release theese ! (+ / neutrsl / - editions 😅) and... please make em available in europe ! Would love to bag a full set of Ozones to show off here in denmark ❤️❤️❤️
As a long time mold minimalist, I fully support (and strongly want) Ozones of varying stability!
There is litteraly a danish Company who does that exact thing. Northstar
This looks like the full work needed for a Master’s Thesis on Factors Effecting Final Object Shape. Fun to watch.
As always, the conclusion is that more research is needed.😊
I would love if you took your three molds and do flat, stock, and dome 3 pack or a 9 pack. That would be awesome. (If you get the same effect with the other molds) I love having one mold in different plastics to get the effect you’re talking about. It would be amazing to have it in one plastic and one mold. Your videos never let down and always so interesting.
Hey Jesse! Great video. Have you ever considered selling your experimental discs as part of a subscription/mystery box type thing? I know that basically all of your viewers would jump at the opportunity to own some of these experimental discs, regardless of their PDGA legality.
I'm thinking a monthly (or yearly, or bi-yearly, or seasonally, etc.) box that arrives with first looks (okay, second looks after Personalities like Bodanza and J-Milly) at new molds, experiments like this, exclusive stamps, staff member signed discs, or new plastic test discs like the floppy ones you reground during Bodanza's new video. Instead of regrinding these, people would love to buy them as is, including me.
Keep up the good work!
P.S. I wonder if you could research more environmentally friendly dyes for discs? this would open the door for mor eart styles you could use.
Wildly informative. I went from thinking you guys were a little obscure to pretty intrigued. The passion you have for this is admirable. You guys will have incredible disc manufacturing skills if you keep messing around like this. If you can control the variance that comes with injection molding to put out consistent products, then you’ll be doing better than most of the big names out there.
I'd like X disc made with Y plastic using the Z injection technique...
The future of disc selection?
New meaning for Custom Discs. If someone could map out a chart of player power and spin, you could offer a custom disc for any variable to get you to a certain point on the field.
Customer - "Hello Trash Panda. Yes I need a Disc for a 440 ft Dog Leg Left, thrown in a headwind with an Arm speed of 60 MPH with 1200RPM".
Trash Panda - "Hello. We can do that. I'll mold a driver for you that will put you +/- 15ft of the basket every time in those conditions. Would you like it to Glow in the dark?"
Customer - ".... yes. Yes I would."
Incredible stuff, as always. Love that you're taking us all along for these tests and I'm even more excited than ever to be throwing TP discs 💪
Thank you for making this video. I have been totally confused by how the same discs can turn out so differently until now. Still confused, but less so...
I see a full trash panda bag in the works! Let’s go!!!
I wish I lived closer to you. I’ve got 18 years experience of processing plastic, and also want to make my own discs. I’ve got so many ideas and theories. Glad to see your on the right path to one of them
Most informative video on the variances of runs ever. Not all heroes wear capes but some make discs from recycled plastic!
Loved the video Jesse. Thanks for sharing your crazy scientist brain w/the rest of us. I agree w/all the other comments that, if possible, you should intentionally make runs of the stock ozone (9,6,-3,1), the more neutral ozone (9,6-1,1) and the 115 sec ozone (9,5,0,2.5). Do the same thing w/your inner cores and Dunes, and you just went from 3 molds to 9 overnight! A little something for everyone. Also, great to see Kyle dancing, singing, and enjoying his job.
so interesting, these kinda vids and transparency really make me like trash panda discs even more
Great to see these tests and like you said, these tests will help you tremendously in your future disc production!
You are now entering Smarter Everyday territory. Time to call Destin perhaps. Awesome video.
You made all those test discs. Now can you put them into an “Ozone pack” of several discs of varying domeyness? I’d buy one!
This is an awesome breakdown and super happy with the amount of detail you showed in the process, I am curious what your approach is moving forward with this knowledge for keeping discs "consistent" when making runs with the variance that happens with recycled plastics.
Thank You for showing this!
I absolutely love you guys and your content. Such a cool video!
Great stuff! You have just begun to satisfy the nerd in all of us. 😂❤
This is a fantastic video, Jesse! I'd love to see all these variations of ozone released with different flight numbers and different ghost stamps to differentiate them!
I really enjoyed this video! It made me appreciate the black magic that is disc manufacturing even more.
I would be interested in a video where you test a combo of the factors you tested here.
I wonder if you can "anneal" the discs in an oven after injection
Love it! Try cooling each disc top side up with a vaccuum sucking it back down underneath. Interested to know if you could continue to affect the shape as it cools. I hate domey discs, so this is great to see why that might be.
Seeing how much flashing was on the discs with the experimental settings, I wonder if Prodigy is employing a similar strategy. Perhaps it is the only way to get subsequent runs to have the same characteristics as what they submitted/first runs.
Needless to say, thanks for peeling back the curtain for us plebs. Would love to see you do a video on mold degredation if/when that happens. Much love from NZ ❤
I LOVE LEARNING!
Fellow molder and disc golfer here great info. For the 30 minute disc I would think you turned off the water heater to the mold. Causing some some.
Cool time will drastically change the diameter of a disc and it makes sense to see different flight characteristics. For years I have thought the variation in discs was caused by mold temperature which you just have proved running different cool times.
Your hypothesis is correct about Franklin molding discs. I would also guarantee that a random manufacturer made them with a sub 15 second cycle and just pumped them out.
Now would be super cool to see same settings with different colors…I would start with a light color and transition to a dark and see the difference in injection time and how that effects the flight.
Hey Jesse, keep up the questioning attitude and retain all the data from the results, you're on to it! Thanks for sharing with us.
I can’t wait to get an ozone now. So excited Yeahh. Thanks Jesse from Trash Panda
It’s a really fun disc to throw! I bought two when my local brick n mortar got them. One for me and one for my daughter. It’s super flippy. Throw the fun line! ❤
This tickles my tism Thankyou Jesse
Excellent stuff! I think this explains a lot about why certain older molds have become so domey - e.g. Discraft Flick & Predator, Innova Firebird, etc.. - It's FASTER to make a domey disc. I think it also tells about the process evolution: Newer machines are faster, hence discs probably do not have the time to cool off any more.
One question came up...What about disc weight? If I want a flat Flick today, I go to a lighter weight class nowadays.
This scientific trial and error approach has not only been entertaining but also enlightening. Thank you for taking pride in your work and pushing yourself to be the best at what you do. Cheers!
What's interesting about this (everything about this is interesting to me) is: I'm huge on mold minimization. If I find a mold I'm comfortable with, I don't want to get an understable counterpart because I don't like the feel of understable discs. You could literally make me a bag of 4 molds that fit the OS, S, US slots in the Putter, Mid, Fairway, and Distance classes. Super cool
Ozone Pro. Ozone OS.
Keep it up Jesse - love the deep dives. Our brains work the same way.
More Kyle!!! Always more Kyle!!!
Been watching since day one. Best video, great insight
Have you done recycled glow? If so does the glow pigment last?
I guess that cooling temperature in the room at the time of redting in the table also affect , winter runs compared with summer ones generally change in all manufacturers, Great vid and info so cool to know all the insides! Keep the hard work!
Jesse, I really think you would enjoy looking into gong fu tea! You are essentially flash brewing high amounts of leaf with certain amounts of water, but you are able to scientifically, tweak and experiment with the amount of water, the amount of leaf, temperature of water, pouring technique, etc. Not only are you creating a healthy drink, but you really get to tinker With parameters, which you seem to really enjoy! It’s like the injection molding of drinks.
Your delivery style is so similar to Smarter Every Day
If you want the fastest way to determine what process parameters have the greatest impact on the final shape of the disc, you should run a design of experiments. It would reduce the number of parts you have to make, while still giving you the impact of the different parameters. Also, you should measure the amount of dome and all other dimensions to give you more objective results.
I love this video, and how open you are about the manufacturing process and the lessons you are learning! Keep them coming!
I often think that it is sometimes easier to do the experiments than to do a DoE study first; especially if you haven’t ever studied DoE. That said, a bit of planning can go a long way.
A question I have is: what would be a greater indicator for disc stability? Parting line or flat top? Love this kind of experimentation! Keep it comin
Cool comments. Only thing I can think to add is that supposedly one of the kayak brands that has the most robust kayaks (prijon) has had their durability attributed to letting their kayaks cool in the mold.
Probably not practical got disc production but it would be cool to see if it indeed yields a more durable product.
Very interesting how all these factors affect the finished properties of a disc!! especially considering trhe mold is the exact same everytime haha. Well I'm a fan of stable discs and comparing the same disc in different plastics so I hope we can get our hands on these discs. 🤞
Just Thank You Jesse! Also please standardize the process and come out with different stability of each disc and brand those run so customers know. I feel like not knowing if a disc from a certain run will be more/less stable from a previous run is a big issue with companys. If you can do that we would love it. Plus more discs for same cost of the mold. Think of the ROI ")
I want that overstable ozone! That flew beautifully!
And that's why certain runs are so desirable. You get used to the way a disc flies and feels.Thank you for digging in and revealing the truth of this. By the way, can I get one of those Ultra flat ones in 175g?
What happens when you combine the variables? Can you get a stock run if you change the settings enough?
I would love to know how you market this to actually sell them? Also does the PDGA approval change? Ozone US Ozone OS Ozone N?
My buddy and I were talking about this the other day with the Discmania 2nd run FD. If the FD2 was essentially made to replicate the flight of that specific run FD. Why can’t they replicate it within the same mold? Would that only be possibly with knowing the settings on the injector and using precisely the same plastic?
Did you do any in pairs with exact same parameters to see if they varied from one another?
So are the supernova ozones on the website more stable than the other ones?
This would be an interesting one to test a year or more on, when they're being made from a completely different batch of plastic, from the prior sources original suppliers. One mold that's seen a lot of insane dome changes over the years is the Discraft Comet. The blends of ESP and Z plastic have changed over the years, and the discs got flatter and flatter, to the degree where I actually suspect they changed the shape of the mold. More recently, some of the "old school" dome has shown up again, after years of flat ones, a decade after the "old school" dome was just how they ALL came out. At Discraft, they've no doubt changed suppliers, or those suppliers have changed suppliers, in that amount of time (the first ESP Comets are something like 15 years old at this point). I'm sure that plays out at every place that buys plastics, which would mean what you get to recycle would be different a year on, or two years on. It'd be a long experiment, but maybe a yearly test would be interesting, from a scientific standpoint...
I want that translucent Ozone!
this video has reignited my fire to make things again
Have you thought about a temp controlled shrink room? Maybe something that is 100 degrees that allows for slower cooling? Could this allow a consistency from design to production?
If you adopted that mentality and made an over stable, stable, and under stable version of each disc you would literally be the new vibram. I’m using your packs as the starter packs for an event next year and would love to bag more of these!! Hope you make that a possibility.
Have you guys experimented with different surfaces for the cooling table? It seems like setting them down on the flight plate would affect the domeyness significantly. I would be curious how placing them rim down, or on aluminum vs steel vs granite vs wood would change things. Or even a bowl shaped surface that matches the desired dome shape.
Can we buy any of these test discs?!? I love the flight of the Nike TPU Ozone!
What would be the effect of taking a disc out of the mold and quenching it in a bucket of cold water or quenching oil?
I used to do blacksmithing for a hobby and the way to harden a blade was to heat up the steel so the molecules aligned with each other and then quench in in oil to maintain that alignment. Otherwise they go back to their normal orientation.
I do not know what effect quenching would have on plastic. Warp it??
How does this effect PDGA approval?
I would be curious to see how temperature affects the cooling down process. I wonder what the difference would be between a refrigerator vs a freezer, vs room temp, vs lets say an 80-90-degree room.
Are the discs that have more dome heavier? I would think a higher injection pressure would create a denser disc
Another test that could be interesting. have you tried accelerating the cooling in a refrigerator or freezer?
I'd love to see tests with humidity as a factor but that could be a lot harder.
Was there any change in depth or width of the rim??
I’m an artist and pushing mediums and materials on a way they weren’t intended. You seem like you would be a cool company to work for.
I think until the DG manufacturers gets better quality systems in place we'll continue to see the variability from run to run. You can measure the form of the disc to within microns precision using CMM's. If you control the form of the finished disc you'll see more consistency across runs. But it also makes manufacturing way harder to nail down, and having a 1 day lag time is a killer. You can overcome it of course, but still a hassle. Optics that are injection molding could be an interesting thing for you to check out!
I think this would be awesome to test further and if consistently repeatable, release as stock releases. Ozone, Ozone+, Ozone++, etc.
Have you considered the surface in which you are tabling your discs and the affect they have on shrinkage? Wondering how the rate of cooling affects shrinkage and the doming effect if you use something that is more of an insulator than a material that will naturally draw heat out of the disc during rest, particularly on the face of the disc.
How can I get one of your experimental discs?
This is great. Now you make a disc people like and you tweak the parameters and make a set of the same disc with different flight characteristics. Then we buy all the variations to fit a range of stability slots. Easy money!
I would suggest hiring a consultant to help you set up a Design of Experiments to help you figure out how each of these variables affects the product (stability, dominess, difference to CAD model, etc). Basically, you can set up different phases that can help figure out which variables have significant effects, then narrow down the experiments to only test those significant variables, and eventually be able to plot those variables.
This might be how they make OS ans SS versions of the same disc ?
Was there a significant weight difference or trend in the different injections? I wonder if you are getting heavier discs as well as more dome due to the plastic compressing more under the higher pressure and therefore putting more plastic into the mold.
Dunk them in a tank of water when they come out of the mold!
I'd love to see if the shape can change a lot more with the quicker cooling rate. Also, the orientation the disc enters the water could be huge. Much like how a Katana gets its curved shape due to differential cooling. I would assume these lower temps would have a less extreme result though.
This would be cool to see the different runs being sold and on the listing for them have the injection parameters listed to give an exact idea of how this disc that you are buying was made
What if you tried quenching the disc in varying liquids as soon as they are made to see if that effects how they cure/set up.
So, what I’m seeing is that it’s not necessarily the plastic, but the way the plastic changes after cooling that changes the flight characteristics. In theory, you could change plastic, and then change the injection parameters so that you always end up with the flight characteristics you want. Of course, there would be limitations because if you went to the extremes on pressure cooldown time etc, for each plastic, the extremes would be different. But you could produce discs that fly the same within that overlap.
Have you ever looked at the molecular weight distributions of the TPUs prior to injection to see if that drives any of the variability between TPUs?
Hi Jesse, I think you should market these as Ozone, Ozone Plus, and Ozone Pro.
Also I have a hypothesis that if Kyle takes off his glasses, he’s just Bo Burnham
this seems like a perfect set-up for a @smartereveryday collaboration.
As someone who likes the idea of mold minimalism but doesn’t play enough to realistically do it, this is a dream come true
I have one slightly inebriated thought and it is in the nature of the cooling. RN you have a pretty standard cooling cycle; Some time in the injector, some time in neutral room temp on a table, but what if you cooled it slower, like leaving it in a hot environment and slowly lowering temps there, or by flash freezing (sounds bad but who knows)
The flat ones are what I originally thought you guys were going to make. Kinda wish that was the Ozone not the one I have. Very cool disc but wasn’t what i hoped for.
Ozone OS coming soon? 👀
My main question is: will we get to get our hands on the different tpu ozone’s? To me, that thought of potentially having two fairways, that are the same feeling mold (literally same mold) but fly differently, is incredible and something I’d love to have. To be able to cover my fairway lineup potentially with 2 discs would be incredible. Also, I might be the only one but wow I loved the flight of the different tpu ozone. I’d love to see some of those be released sometime!
I'd be curious to see what you could manage if an annealing step was added to the process.
Yo that overstable ozone looks like a beefcake and I want one lol
It certainly opens up more options for you; you can standardize the process for each run of disc (hard with recycled plastic, I know) and hit different stability targets. The current ozone could be the understable version, that sort of thing.
Throughput needs to be high because of $$$ so one can't really cool them in the mold. I've heard from another manufacturer's video they could actually get stuck in there. And when you take it out the environment is not homogeneous, so there goes the consistency. And the another manufacturer says that's the biggest challenge. You could perhaps make cool-down molds for them all and sink them into constant temperature liquid for a couple of days. You concentrated on dome, but PLH changes too because the shrinking dome "pulls" the "hem" up twisting the disc inwards.
Great.. now I want one of each iteration. Actually, this could open up a great new unique market for Trash Panda Discs: customizable discs.. “Choose your stability in the disc model you prefer”. You can thank me later.