Making the perfect game possible: Revolutionizing the baseball glove with industrial-grade additive manufacturing
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- REV1X Baseball Glove
Tech Stack
- Carbon Digital Light Synthesis (DLS)
- Fast Radius Cloud Manufacturing Platform
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Innovation Output
Technology Category
- Other - Additive Manufacturing
Applicable Industries
- Consumer Goods
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
Use Cases
- Additive Manufacturing
- Rapid Prototyping
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- Hardware Design & Engineering Services
About The Customer
Rawlings is a company with a long history in the baseball business, having been in operation for more than 150 years. They are known for outfitting both amateurs and professionals with their high-quality baseball equipment. Their expertise and reputation for quality are unmatched in the industry. Rawlings is committed to innovation and is always looking for ways to improve their products. Their latest project, the REV1X baseball glove, represents a major transformation in an industry that has been slow to innovate. The REV1X glove is designed to improve gameplay and speed up reaction times, making it a game-changer in the world of baseball.
The Challenge
Rawlings, a company with over 150 years of experience in the baseball industry, aimed to revolutionize the baseball glove by developing the REV1X. The glove leverages the Carbon Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) process to improve gameplay and speed up reaction times. The traditional foam or wool parts in the glove’s thumb and pinky were replaced with latticed pieces, made from FPU 50, that are lighter and thinner. The REV1X lattices are tuned with variable stiffness that better conforms to the player’s hand, leading to better control of the ball. Additionally, the REV1X is ready for gameplay immediately, and it’s more durable and long-lasting than traditional gloves. Once Rawlings perfected the design for the REV1X, they needed to mass produce a glove that would meet their exacting standards for performance and durability on the field.
The Solution
Rawlings partnered with Fast Radius to scale up production of the REV1X glove. Fast Radius had the expansive production capacity and skilled manufacturing engineers who were able to adjust the inserts for manufacturability. This expertise was especially valuable in dealing with FPU 50, which provides the perfect level of stiffness for the glove but presents challenges with yield on the finely tuned latticed parts. The experts at Fast Radius developed a solution to make sure the parts printed reliably every time. Every piece of information needed to make the parts — from the design files, to custom post-processing methods, to fulfillment instructions — is stored in a build package in the Fast Radius Cloud Manufacturing Platform so the parts can be made perfectly today, next week, next year, and beyond. Fast Radius was able to dial in the printing process and develop specific post-processing methods that preserve the tight tolerances needed for the inserts’ finely tuned lattice structures. Ultimately, they improved part yield by more than 4x from initial tests.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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