Smart Parts - Manufacturing in Paintball ZDSPB.com > Tech index > Manufacturing in Paintball > Smart Parts

Smart Parts grew their manufacturing base to eventually gain the description of largest in-house machine shop within the paintball industry. The machinery and processes used to create their markers was absolutely unrivaled, and we're all able to learn quite a bit from the small amount of information available. By my estimates their machine shop was worth well over $20 million, built up from their small machine shop all the way back in 1992. Bar stock comes in one end, finished high-end markers leave the other. 24/7/365.

Unfortunately, Smart Parts liquidated their manufacturing operation in 2010 and now outsource all their products to overseas developers under the offshoot company of GOG Paintball. Since that time Dye Precision has surpassed them in terms of manufacturing abilities, however it's obvious that Smart Parts' massive inventory of CNC equipment would easily out-produce any other paintball manufacturer in existance; then or now. It's highly unlikely that any other developer will ever be given the chance to grow as large as Smart Parts' former manufacturing facility, and their unwanted exit from the US manufacturing market was indeed a heavy loss in many ways.

In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that Smart Parts markers weren't entirely US-manufactured because many of the plastic components came from mainland China (grip wraps, solenoids, Ion exoskeletons, lightpipes, small molded parts, etc). All of their aluminum castings were done by facilities in the US. Markers such as the Impulse, 09 Impulse, Shocker Sport, Luxe, Shocker SFT and NXT, and high-end Ion clones such as the Epiphany and EOS were almost entirely US-produced. Cheaper Ions and Ion clones (Ion XE, Vibe, SP1) use components from other countries. Current-day GOG markers are extremely similar to the aforementioned Ion clones, but are entirely non-US-produced as far as I know.

Live From Latrobe 2003:
One of the best insights into SP's manufacturing operation was brought by a shockerowners.com members (DasBaldDog) who took pictures and shared details while participating in a tech certification class for the then-new Shocker SFT marker in 2003. He had many more pictures, but most of them were lost to a harddrive crash. I was able to recover some of them.

Above are many pictures of 2003 Shocker SFT markers during assembly.

Some of the differences between production model Shockers and earlier development-only versions of the marker were discussed during tech classes in 2003. The original model for the marker was a closed bolt version known as the Legion Shocker. They look very similar from the outside but are completely different internally. The design was abandonned and switched to the production-style open bolt Shocker SFT. Early versions of the marker included an LPR port at the front, but this concept was eliminated to simplify performance and tuning (it also made body fabrication easier).

Private Label Impulse body subassemblies awaiting final prep work. Seen above are assorted Strange Impulses, Adrenalin Impulses, and others.

Impulse production was still going strong at this point, however the then-new Shockers would overtake Impulses within a few months. Early production Shockers were being produced in the pictures above. You can also see images of the Max-Flo 4500 manifold stem awaiting anodizing.

CNC Milling Inventory:
Smart Parts had many milling machines running continuously, meant to complete complex workpieces as easily as possible. As with most paintball companies, most milling components of a marker are simplistic, however the bodies and frames are much more intricate and time-consuming. Everything SP produced was designed to be mass produced using any number of pallet-changing horizontal CNC mills. This allows finished workpieces to be swapped out for new ones while another set of workpieces are being milled simultaneously.

Mazak FH-5800 (3qty) horizontal CNC mill 40-pallet FMS: This workcell was primatilly used for long-cycle components that require extensive 3d milling, such as bodies, ASAs, some foregrip components, and others. The manufacturing cell consists of three horizontal CNC mills which are attached to each other by an automated pallet change storage system. This allows many dozens of partially-finished workpieces to be staged at once, which equate to a huge amount of queued products waiting ot be produced. Therefore, the combined workcell can run for dozens of hours on end, then a finished set of bodies is available after only a few days of automated work.

Mazak FH-580/40 (3qty) horizontal CNC mill 20-pallet FMS: This workcell is similar to the larger FH5800 system, however the machines hold more tools and are suited to shorter-cycle workpieces. The combined cell also has an automated pallet changing system, but the pallets aren't stored away as with teh FH5800 system. In this system, the pallets are all accessible by multiple operators which can swap out the workpieces for new ones while other programs are running. Each pallet of workpieces has a separate machining program, so all of the three horizontal CNCs can share the same pallets so long as the tooling is identical.

Additional horizontal CNC mills: miscalleneous workpieces were also made using traditional horizontal CNC machining centers. This included a Mazak FH-480, FH-480X, and three HTC-400 horizontals.

Two more remaining milling machines, this time vertical instead of horizontal. These Mazak VTC-20B 4-axis mills were likely used for more versatile work but probably not extended production.

CNC Turning Inventory:
This inventory is only accurate as of 2009 when SP's machine shop was at its peak. All of Smart Parts' lathe inventory consist of swiss-type barfed lathes with live tooling. Many of them had multiple tool turrets which could perform multiple operations on the same workpiece at once, then workpieces are transfered to the machine's subspindle where the remaining "backside" features are created. Once a workpiece is set up and the dimensions adjusted, these machines can run for days on-end and create thousands of parts without much intervention aside from loading additional bars into the feeder.

Star ECAS 32-T swiss 9-axis subspindle multiturret lathe (7qty): These lathes were the primary production machines used by SP; they were the largest and most powerful swiss lathe in used at the factory. Each machine has two spindles, three turrets, and can create many component front and back operations in one program.

Seen above are some of the additional lathes employed by SP. These lathes aren't as large or powerful as the ECAS, but are very effective at producing complex workpieces. Their inventory included the following:
Star KNC-32II swiss 5-axis subspindle multiturret lathe (4qty)
Star KJR-25BII swiss 5-axis subspindle multiturret lathe (4qty)
Star KJR-20B swiss 5-axis subspindle multiturret lathe (2qty)
Star KNC-20B swiss 5-axis subspindle multiturret lathe (2qty)
Citizen Cincom E32 swiss 5-axis subspindle multiturret lathe (2qty)
Additional Star swiss lathes (SR-20II, SB-16, SV-32J, KNC-32, SR-16, JNC-16, MAF-42, VNC-20B)

Additional Production Inventory:

Hydromat Epic R/T 32/45-16 rotary transfer MTM (2qty): An extremely elaborate multi-operation CNC machine capable of producing thousands of components within hours. These machines operate by simultaneously creating each feature of the workpiece all at once, spread across up to 16 different workpieces. Each operation only takes a few seconds to complete, so the final production time for one finished component is only as long as the slowest component. This machine is capable of producing items like these: one Shocker fire chamber within 13 seconds, one Ion boltstop within 6 seconds, hose barbs take only 5 seconds.
Sunnen hones (8qty): Barrels are honed using these common machines, which rotate the barrel while moving it in and out of the honing stone.
Brown & Sharpe Gauge 2000 CMM
Kawasaki robotic buffing workcell (4qty)
ABB robotic buffing workcell

All American Paintball Park 2005:
In 2005 SP purchased a new building in the nearby town of Greensburg PA. This building would eventually house several indoor paintball fields in addition to SP's main assembly and testing area, along with their corporate office headquarters. The machine shop remained at the old 100 Station street building.

Although I traveled there many times, I never took any pictures as they wouldn't allow filming during certain times. However, occasionally people would film the general tour during tech certification classes. Here's one such video:

Permalink: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpUB4RxjjEY

Permalink: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx-ydwHpgSQ

The AAPP assembly facility was made to keep up with the huge demand for Ions that began in 2005, as described by Sean in the above video. However, demand tapered off as time went on, which left the assembly area with only a handful of people when demand was lower. The Ion's first summer of 2005 was the busiest time in the history of the company, and they were running at full capacity. It was required to have several thousand markers available and ready to ship due to the production lead-times.

Liquidation 2010:
The company filed for bankrupcy and virtually the entire machine shop was auctioned off in 2010. I filmed the entire auction and uploaded videos to the links below.

Permalink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDSzicBbB0c

Permalink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGS5fT2B_54

Permalink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw3bdgWl2c8

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