Changing the Way Its Done

DeMarini, a division of Wilson Sports, produces some of the most popular fastpitch baseball and slowpitch softball bats in the world. Several years ago, DeMarini approached LSINC (Booth C6115), located in Huntsville, AL, to see if there was a way to convert its traditional bat decoration techniques to direct-to-cylinder digital print. 

At that time, direct-to-cylinder  printers were only able to print on true cylinders or tapered media. DeMarini needed a printer that could follow the contours of their bats from the barrel-end to the handle.

“Ideas to Reality” is LSINC’s tagline, and represents how its team approaches some of Fortune 500’s biggest manufacturing challenges. 

LSINC met the challenge with its Perivallo360 printer. This first of its kind full-color, helical printer enables the inkjet head to follow the contours of an item so that ink can be jetted consistently over the surface. 

For DeMarini, the technology greatly increases efficiencies, minimizes labor costs, and enables just-in-time manufacturing of the bats. Traditional decorating methods required DeMarini to order water slide decals months in advance, which meant forecasting not only for the aluminum bat itself, but also the quantity of each design that would be needed for the season. These decals then had to be hand applied to each bat. 

Now, bats are printed on-demand, designs can be more fluid, and the entire process is more efficient. LSINC submitted the X14 Aluminum Barrel “VooDoo” Baseball Bat on DeMarini’s  behalf. It won the Premier PRINT 2022 Best of Category – Digital Print award. 

Visit LSINC to see its commercially-available version of the Perivallo360, the Perivallo360m. This more compact version of the printer can handle media up to 5.5" in diameter, and up to 16" long. It prints one item at a time onto cylinders, tapers and contoured items like vases, stemless glasses, and wine and spirit bottles.