The world of sports has various types of balls; hence competition among producers of sports balls is on the increase. But for sports balls, quality is key to achieving a competitive advantage in the market. Quality wins it all for sports balls since athletes would only prefer to use quality balls and reject any other sub-standard ball. This is why quality control inspection is an important process in the production process of sports balls.
Quality control is a process before and during production to ensure that a product’s quality is maintained or improved. QC inspection ensures the product’s quality aligns with customers’ expectations. It is also essential for sport ball companies to undergo strict quality control inspection before distributing to the market for sale to meet the high-quality demands of users. Thus, this article shows a detailed process of performing adequate QC inspections on sports balls.
QC Inspection Process
Most successful sport ball companies have effective quality management systems that ensure the execution of QC inspection after production. There are processes you should follow when performing QC inspections. However, these processes to follow depends on the category of sports ball. There are two categories of sports balls:
- Sports balls with hard surfaces: This includes golf balls, billiard balls, ping pong balls, cricket balls, and croquet balls.
- Sports balls with bladders and carcasses: Basketball, volleyball, soccer ball, football, and rugby ball.
The QC inspection process is distinct for both categories of sports balls, but the overall objective remains to pass quality control standards.
Sports Balls With Hard Surfaces:
There are five QC inspection processes for sports balls with hard surfaces, including the following:
Raw Materials Inspection
The first process of QC inspection is the raw material inspection. The aim is to verify whether the raw materials used to produce sports balls with hard surfaces are free from any damage or defect. This process helps to ensure your supplier only delivers quality. Most production of sports balls with hard surfaces involves using special plastics, rubber, cores, and other minerals. If the raw materials are free from defects, they can qualify to move to the assembly line for production. On the other hand, if the raw material is damaged, they will not qualify for the production lineup.
Assembly Inspection
After the raw material inspection stage, the next stage of QC inspection is assembly. All raw materials that pass the first inspection stage move to the assembly line for production. This process is an extension of the first process, whereby the raw materials are inspected to identify any damages or defects that may have occurred in assembling the raw materials. The second check is essential to minimize or avoid using defective raw materials in producing sports balls, which could make low-quality sports balls.
Visual Inspection
The visual inspection entails reviewing sports balls from the assembly line for visible defects such as holes, punctures, cracks, etc., or any other visual production defects. Any sports ball that is visually defective will not proceed to the next production level. This inspection aims to verify that all sports balls with hard surfaces from the assembly line are free from any visual damage or defects before being transferred to the next production line.
Weight and Measurement Inspection
Sports balls with hard surfaces must undergo tests on weight and measurement since all produced sports balls must have the same weight and measure indicated on the product number. Every sport ball that fails the weight and measurement tests will be considered damaged and thus disposed of.
Final Inspection
The final inspection is the ultimate QC inspection process. It employs different testing methods to ensure that all sports balls undergo every inspection process. For instance, extensive unit testing on safe work areas ensures that sports balls are durable and reliable. The goal of the final inspection is to ensure that the total sports balls produced are free from defects or flaws that could have occurred during the whole inspection process.
Sports Balls With Bladders And Carcasses:
The processes of inspecting sports balls with bladders and carcasses are slightly different from the inspection of sports balls with hard surfaces. Here’s the inspection list:
Raw Materials Inspection
The raw materials used in producing sports balls with bladders and carcasses include butyl rubbers, polyesters, leathers, synthetic leather, nylon threads, etc. This process aims to inspect all raw materials used to produce the sports ball to eliminate any damaged materials before proceeding to the assembly line.
Assembly Inspection
The assembly inspection is vital to eliminate premature defects in assembling raw materials. This inspection helps minimize or avoid using damaged raw materials in production.
Inflation/Deflation Inspection
This inspection process aims to inspect and confirm whether there are no internal damages to the sports balls produced. Since sports balls with bladders and carcasses require air to operate, their production process involves inflation to their optimal capacity. In this process, the manufacturers inspect the sports balls for any holes, punctures, or air seepages on every steam to ensure that all inflated sports balls are free from defects. Products found to be defective or damaged will be disposed of or reassembled.
Visual Inspection
The visual inspection is to dispose of any sports ball with visible defects, such as loose threads, holes, extra rubber patterns, etc. This inspection aims to verify that all sports balls with hard surfaces from the assembly line are free from any visual damage or defects before being transferred to the following production line.
Weight and Measurement
Sports balls that require air to work will be weighed and measured according to the specifications of their products to ensure that the information aligns with the product number. Some sports balls, such as tennis balls and other carcass-sewn sports balls, will be measured according to the standard size and dimensions.
Final Inspection
The final inspection employs different testing methods to ensure that all sports balls go through proper inspection. It aims to ensure that the total sports balls produced are free from defects or flaws that could have occurred during the entire review. Any sports balls that fail to meet the required standard will be considered defective and disposed of at this final inspection stage.
EC Global Inspection on Sports Balls
It can sometimes be challenging to keep up with the quality control standards of all sports balls. But you can be assured of compliance with these standards when you hire a third-party quality control company to inspect the production process on your behalf.
EC global inspection is an experienced leading company focused on customer satisfaction by providing top-notch QC inspection throughout production. You will always stay ahead of the competition with EC global inspection with fast delivery of inspection reports and real-time updates during the inspection process. You can visit EC global inspection for proper inspection of your products.
Conclusion
In summary, quality control inspection on sports balls ensures that high-quality balls get to the market for use. Each sports ball has a required quality control standard that must be strictly adhered to. These standards are regulations by either an international institution or a sport-related organization.
Post time: Jan-01-2023