Rawlings Uses 3D Printing to Produce New Baseball Glove

Rawling’s newest baseball glove, the REV1X, features 3D-printed lattice inserts. According to Rawlings, this “first-of-its kind glove uses an intricate lattice design in the pinky and thumb inserts made using the Carbon Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) 3D printing process. The company claims these inserts don’t wear out as easily as traditional materials and “therefore provide unmatched playability and improved ball handling on the field.”

Carbon Digital Light Synthesis is a resin-based 3D printing process that uses digital light projection, oxygen-permeable optics, and engineering-grade materials to produce polymeric parts.To produce this new glove, Rawling’s has partnered with Fast Radius, a provider of additive manufacturing (AM) services, as well as CNC machining, injection molding, and urethane casting services. According to Fast Radius, the Carbon DLS AM method used to produce this new glove is “a resin-based polymer process that uses light and heat to create parts with isotropic properties, complex geometries, and excellent surface finishes.”

According to Fast Radius, its Chicago factory has the largest installed base of Carbon DLS technology in North America.

John Nanry, chief manufacturing officer at Fast Radius.John Nanry, chief manufacturing officer at Fast Radius, said Fast Radius’ Cloud Manufacturing Platform, combined with Carbon DLS 3D printing technology, enabled Rawlings to manufacture these innovative lattice inserts at scale for mass production and get the glove out of development and onto the diamond as quickly as possible.

The Cloud Manufacturing Platform at Fast Radius enables customers to design parts with access to part engineering libraries to help ease the development process, access a global network of microfactories for unlimited production capacity that can be scaled up or down to meet demand shifts, and move from prototype of production parts in days rather than months.

Philip DeSimone, co-founder, chief product and business development officer at Carbon.“The REV1X glove is validation that our DLS process accelerates time to market by producing functional prototypes that are ready for mass scale. The lattice insert [in this glove] is a major milestone in glove design and brings the latest in additive manufacturing to baseball,” said Philip DeSimone, co-founder, chief product and business development officer at Carbon.

The REV1X glove is now available online from Rawlings, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and JustBallGloves.com.

Read more about how 3D Printing is changing production models.