Future of Disc Golf Molds/Discs/Hybrids

[seedlings]

I just watched these two videos in a row. One about CNC discs and the other where MVP overmolded a Cloudbreaker, Buzzz, TL, and P2. With CNC discs, they claim they will be able to roll up to a tournament and make discs on the spot, and take orders for specific discs, like say you want that super flat run of FD3, but a little less stable, they will make you one with modified top and wing.

I already have an NSH disc, 3D printed from a year or so ago. Very amazing.

So, now in Disc golf we can have custom CNC discs, custom 3D printed discs, and discs that MVP will overmold with one of their wings. Imagine in 5 years!

 

[TiltedFlipCurves]

I love it, honestly just sent in the money for all 3 available CNCs (wish they were 7 speed but whatever)

BUT is someone from PDGA going to approve the custom disc that never existed before and can't be in the list on-site?

 

[Sewer bill]

Disc golf is still operating on late 60s tech. Overmold multimold, ancient. Cnc, ancient. Air bubbles, ancient. Lights out manufacturing, ancient. Laser qc, ancient. The newest tech in disc golf is the 5 axis arms that do pick and place and even that tech is ancient.

The next new wave will be composites and engineered plastics and laser sintered metallic alloys. They already could pass pdga flex tests and have been mass manufactured in other industries for decades.

There's uhmw flavors and Teflons that are nearly indestructible.

There's ptfe flavors of plastic that can manipulate incoming light like crystal structures. Think a disc that looks crystal clear in your hand and at specific angle that when tilted slightly in the light changes color. Or when spinning it changes color.

There's composites that can vary the geometry of the impregnated material to alter stiffness depending on the direction of load. Think a putter that's squishy top down but stiffer sideways or in any orientation maybe canted axis catches chains better.

There's composites that can be squishy as foam and nearly as heavy as copper.

There's sintered titanium mesh lattices that can be as light and as flexible as plastic but changes geometry under small temperature changes. Think a disc that gets domey when cold or flat when warm. Carry a cooler to change the flight characteristics off the tee.

There's so many possibilities and not one big company put any effort in during the covid boom to push the envelope.

There's a low volume designer market just waiting in the wings of the stage.

Things like tech disc type circuits aka mems gyros could easily be incorporated into the wing of a disc and charged wireless with induction or even bendable nickel and piezoelectric circuits that could charge the disc by bending it a couple times.

Discs could be rfid tagged and with a tiny transmitter could be never be lost again.

Discs could have programmable led lights.

I have a feeling that once we get back on track to sustainable progress and out of the covid slump these things may start to look entertaining for some small engineering company to tackle as a side project.

 

[Countchunkula]

^Nice post. You hit the nail on the head with the "low volume designer market" comment. All those things you talk about sound awesome, but there's a reason why dg manufacturers are pretty much exclusively using quick and dirty (read cheap) manufacturing methods. I think I agree that there's a market now for higher quality or added features at a much higher price point.

Sintering technology is awesome and might have some potential for the wider dg market. IME PM/sintered parts are ridiculously inexpensive to make and the tooling is very reasonable.

 

[discerdoo]

Protoflyte is local and I felt up their discs at the Norman pro am a while back. They also had a sample of the plus, neutral and minus discs at a local shop and they let me throw each a couple times in the field. I think they rate them as 12 speed.

Plastic is very interesting, kinda flexy flight plate and mild dome. Tightly molded with zero flashing and feels pretty indestructible. I hadn't warmed up but they all had decent glide and the minus (US) kinda bombed.

Pretty expensive but if they're supposed to be extremely durable. I'm kinda intrigued by them.

 

[kumerow]

All the technologies above can work, but they will notably be pricier, especially at high volumes. I am not sure exactly how much more cost each will be, but $20 discs may look real affordable in comparison. It was very cool to see the precision of the discs. Pros may be able to justify the additional cost, as the six sided discs video reasoned.

 

[itsRudy]

Discs could be rfid tagged and with a tiny transmitter could be never be lost again.

Just posted about a finder about to come out on market based on that.

Homing Pigeon Disc Finder - Opinions

It's like a geiger counter for discs, but with only a sticker on the disc, no heavy chonking beeper. Thinking of getting this farther down the line, I legitimately hate looking for discs in tall grass more than anything and lost 5 these last 3 months on light play. But I don't buy Monday...

www.dgcoursereview.com

 

[Casey 1988]

Newest tech for discs being made is 3D printing discs like NSH Discs/NASH Discs does. Even Recycled discs have been out using idea from 1990's in a 100/World Class mold from Discovering The World part of Wham-O in recycler 100 mold where they use flashing that is removed before selling a disc and badly molded discs unlike Innova in 2010's when brand could have worst flashing of any brand so bad you had to put with disc as main way of removing because sanding or similar cutting and sanding made flashing worse and send out discs dented as non F2.

 

[Sewer bill]

Newest tech for discs being made is 3D printing discs like NSH Discs/NASH Discs does. Even Recycled discs have been out using idea from 1990's in a 100/World Class mold from Discovering The World part of Wham-O in recycler 100 mold where they use flashing that is removed before selling a disc and badly molded discs unlike Innova in 2010's when brand could have worst flashing of any brand so bad you had to put with disc as main way of removing because sanding or similar cutting and sanding made flashing worse and send out discs dented as non F2.

Man that was hard to read.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Man that was hard to read.

Par for the course.