Repainting Golf Balls

Question:

I have a customer who is looking at a new business of refinishing recovered (salvaged) golf balls. He has asked me to find a painting system to re-paint them. He believes he will need to process 10,000 balls per day. What companies manufacture automated paint systems to meet this requirement? P. S.

Answer:

That’s an easy one, P. S. I recall touring a golf ball manufacturing plant in the Midwest, several years ago. There were golf balls zipping by in every direction. The balls were spray painted. They must have made a million per day (slight exaggeration). My first thought was, who uses all these balls. And then I remembered that fateful day in 1955, on the Wright Patterson AFB Officer’s Club course, where I lost so many balls I couldn’t finish nine holes. The Pro Shop was closed that day. The course, part of which ran alongside the runway, was table-flat. To add hazards, they dug trenches across the fairway. The leftover dirt was piled up across the fairway like a big fat nut roll. The rough was grass cut six inches high. I never did find the lost balls.
Enough recollection already! Suppliers of painting equipment that meet the requirements are listed in the 2005 Products Finishing Directory & Technology Guide (www.pfonline.com/suppliers.html). By the way, if your customer runs across any salvaged balls with large smiles on them, they were mine.