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The RockBats Process
You buy wood, you place it on a lathe, and you turn a bat. Sounds easy, right? Players are scrambling to find top-quality solid-wood baseball bats, and at the same time we see more and more new companies entering the marketplace. Do you ever wonder why we are seeing so many broken bats in games today?
At RockBats, we have implemented a 4 step process for the development of each of our bat models - (1) the design, (2) the wood, (3) the manufacture, and (4) testing.
The Design Each model was developed on a computer and analyzed to assure that the stresses in the handle do not exceed a certain threshold. If stresses in the handle are too high, the bat will break more often than you'd like. We analyzed the properties of the shape, and this provides an early indication about feel and performance.
The Wood Before we were a baseball bat business, our lumber business sold baseball bat blanks to other bat manufacturers. The photo to the right shows what we did - we would process vacuum kiln-dried lumber into squares that were perfectly straight-grained. Today, we still target vacuum kiln-dried stock. However, we process the blanks straight from the log. We have detailed specifications for the physical and mechanical properties required for each baseball bat blank. Just like the lumber used to build your home requires a grade stamp, the wood used in our bats must meet a long list of grade and property requirements before it is considered for use in a RockBat. The wood that qualifies is then matched to the bat design, and handed over to the manufacturing phase.
This photo alone explains why we have the statement...
NO TWO SOLID-WOOD BATS ARE ALIKE
Which log would you choose to make your bat?
We use special testing techniques to assure that our bats possess the desired mechanical properties to achieve the "pop" and performance that is causing many players to make the switch to RockBats.
In this pile of logs, note that we didn't just pick the biggest logs.
If you drove your car over a wood bridge, would you want that bridge to be made with wood from big logs? or from tested logs that are assured to have high strength?
Through our direct sourcing of logs from around our area, we use logs that are absolutely the highest quality possible. If a bat manufacturer is not physically located in the Sugar Maple growing regions, like we are, then they likely do not have access to these kinds of logs. Our group has logged many miles in sourcing the logs that get used for RockBats. In fact, there are certain plots of land in Wisconsin that have standing trees that are already targeted for future RockBat production.
Logs are processed using state-of-the-art sawing technology.
Before a single cut is made on a log, laser scanning technology is used to fully map the diameter and shape of the log. This allows the sawyer sitting in the "cockpit" to make the appropriate decisions when cutting into the logs. This produces the absolute straightest grain possible in a baseball bat billet.
After log processing, comes billet processing. Each plank processed at the mill is individually inspected and processed for baseball bat quality 3x3s.
Some bat manufacturers, and billet producers, state that billets processed from lumber are inferior to billets processed from logs. Besides the question, isn't everything processed from logs?.. what they are probably trying to say is "if careful attention is not paid to processing parallel-to-the-grain, resulting billets will be inferior". In the above extreme example, we have a plank that would have resulted in reject billets, but due to special processing at the straight-line-rip saw, we produced 2 major league quality billets.
(straight-grain in all 4 faces - same result as having split the log with a splitting wedge)
Some logs were so spectacularly straight, that they were sawn as a perfectly straight-grained 16-ft planks!!
Finally comes kiln-drying. We use the most advanced vacuum kiln-drying technology possible. Below left, you see the platform where baseball bat billets are stickered and stacked, and then they are rolled into the vacuum chamber seen at the far end. Billets are monitored real-time while they are being dried. Electronic sensors are used to measure temperature, relative humidity, and wood moisture content in the kiln. Temperature and humidity are continuously controlled to achieve the optimum rate of moisture release, and when the moisture content reaches the target, the wood is ready.
And one final note regarding the wood, we only use Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) - which only grows in North America. There are many other species of maple from all over the world that look like Hard Maple, but do not have the superior mechanical properties. A comparison of mechanical properties will show that Acer saccharum is the strongest maple in the world.
The Manufacture Manufacturing involves wood turning, sanding, cupping, and finishing. The lathe process cuts the bat in one pass, and multiple stages of sanding are conducted to achieve a smooth surface.
We could confidently say that RockBats has the most advanced process for cupping baseball bats in the industry today. We use a Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) router to smoothly machine each cup. Click here to view a tiny video that shows a RockBat getting cupped.
Finishing involves the application of stain and clear coat - we have a multi-step process that results in a beautiful finish. For use in Professional Leagues, we have had to develop a black-stain process that allows the wood grain in Hard Maple to show through.
The final product is a black-stained bat that has a natural finish cup. We feel that it is important that you are able to see the grain on the end of the bat, not just for quality inspection, but also to view our unique orientation for FORCE TechnologyTM.
Testing All of our RockBat models have passed one final stage - player testing and feedback. Even with all of the advanced processes that we described above, we still made sure that our bat models were tested by actual players at all levels of play. Even our Youth bat models were tailored toward young players who are only used to swinging -10 aluminum. In all cases, we were not completely satisfied with the final design of each of our bat models until we achieved a feedback rating of "WOW".
One final question What solid-wood baseball bat would you choose for your game?
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