pinsetter

1:00 A.M. Pin boys working in Subway Bowling Alleys, 65 South St., Brooklyn, New York, Lewis Hine photo

Automated pinsetter sets up bowling pins

Brunswick Model A pinsetter diagram from US patent 2973204.

In bowling, a pinsetter, or pinspotter, was originally a person who would manually reset bowling pins in their correct position, clear fallen pins, and return bowling balls to players. Probably due to the nature of the work (low-paid, often part-time, manual labor which most frequently took place during evenings) many pinsetters were teenaged boys, and thus pinboy is another name used to describe the job. In 1936 Gottfried Schmidt invented the mechanical pinsetter while with the AMF firm, which largely did away with pinsetting as a manual profession, although a small number of bowling alleys still use human pinsetters. While humans usually no longer set the pins, a pinchaser, or in slang 'pin monkey', often is stationed near the equipment to ensure that it is clean, working properly, and clear minor jams.

Many pinsetters are integrated with electronic scoring systems of varying sophistication. While many pinsetters have a manual reset button to use in case the pinsetter does not automatically activate at the correct time, other types have no automatic tracking of the state of the game, and are always manually activated.

The design of the machines varies. Several types of bowling make use of different designs for machines due to the different size and shape of the pins and balls. Common part descriptions for just about all pinspotting units consist of:

• Sweep - removes fallen pins from the pindeck area of the lane
• Table - places a new "rack" of pins onto the lane for the next frame, and in tenpins and duckpins, lifts the remaining pins for the sweep to remove fallen pins for the bowler's next roll of the ball in those games
• Pin elevator - brings pins upwards out of the lane's "pit" to the top of the unit for re-racking for successive frames
• A system for storing the next full "rack" of pins after delivery to it by the pin elevator system - this can exist within (or as part of) the table, or above and/or behind the table
• Ball return (or "ball lift") - Removes the bowler's ball from the lane's "pit" and sends it rolling back to the bowler on the ball return track, located between paired lane beds, back to the ball return unit at the "heads" of the lanes

Ten-pin

A very common design for ten-pin bowling (the Brunswick Model A, dating from 1955, as well as the developed A2 and JetBack versions of it) pinsetters work as follows.

First, the balls and pins are pushed off the end of the lane onto a shaking board the width of the lane. This "shaker" transfers the ball and pins to the rear of the pit, behind the lane's pindeck. Two large spinning wheels are situated with their common axis along the bowling lane. The ballwheel is the one closer to the bowler and is smooth on the inside; the pin-wheel (or pin elevator) has many pockets which capture the pins.

When a ball rolls back to the ballwheel, friction lifts the ball up to the side where it catches on two lift rods covered with a rubber material. Wedged in between, the ball is rolled upward. When it gets to the top, it is deposited onto a metal track which usually leads underground, and is pushed along by a long accelerator belt. Finally, the ball is pushed upward by two pulleys located at the head of the ball return track, where it is deposited.

When a pin rolls back, the smaller diameter of the pin allows it to fall rearwards through the ball return wheel. Still being shaken by the board, it bounces around until it lands in a pocket in the pinwheel. It may be seated in the pinwheel head-first or base-first. The wheel brings the pin to the top and drops it into a metal tray, called a "turnaround pan". It's shaped somewhat like a scoop, with the lip of the scoop facing the bowler. The weight of the pin's body makes it drop into the pan base-first. It orients the pin so that its base is coming toward the bowler. From there a conveyor belt lifts the pin up, letting it slide into one of ten spots in a rotating metal basket called the "turret". (situated just above the triangular-shaped deck, visible the bowler when the pins are set.) When a pin lands in an empty location in the turret, the turret rotates (or "indexes") so that the next pin will land in the next location, with the center of the turret also having an open location for the number 5-pin, at the center of the complete rack. Once the turret is full, the machine waits until it needs to re-set the pins. At that point, all ten pins are simultaneously dropped from the turret into the spotting table, which lowers them onto the lane.

This style of machine is typically loaded with 20 pins, though most proprietors normally put in 22 pins to facilitate quicker loading and faster operation of the pinsetter, especially in cases where the bowler(s) make two strikes in quick succession. Adding a couple of extra pins does not put undue stress on the machine, but adding more than that is not advisable due to damage that can occur to the machine. Other centers will only load the pinsetter with 19 pins. Having only 19 pins in the machine will cause fewer "stops" this is normally done by centers who don't take care of their property like they should. There is a drawback to 19 pins though, if stops do not occur problems will not be found until they become severe.

Other types of pinsetters

• The GSX is the Brunswick's current state-of-the-art pinsetter. It is characterized by a sweep that descends as soon as the ball enters the pindeck. This machine uses a conveyor belt on the pit floor to move the pins to a vertical elevator system similar to the ones utilized on the AMF 82 series pinspotters, while the ball exits the pit at the side through a ball door. Pins are loaded using a combination of belts. The ball return system on this machine uses an under-lane accelerator as opposed to a lift. It lowers the pin table on every cycle to determine scoring.

• The AMF family of pinspotters, the very first ones ever used in quantity in the industry, have changed little since the original version. There are three main pinspotter models, the 82-30 (no longer produced, but still in common use, ever since the 1960s US bowling boom and the early career of Dick Weber), the 82-70 (prototyped in 1962, and still in production, since 1968), and the newest version the 82-90 and the 82-90XLI, both of which use the 82-70's general mechanical design. All operate generally the same with small improvements. The 82-30's operation and mechanics, having been developed from AMF's pioneering 82-10 experimental model, are quite different from the Model A, A-2 and JetBack units from Brunswick (which the AMF 82-10 predated by almost a decade), with differing sweep and table designs, and especially in how the pins are handled after they got to the top of the machinery. After the bowler rolled their ball, the ball would strike the cushion block after knocking down the pins. This would activate the machine, which would lower the sweep to the guard position. Then the table would descend and the respot cells would close around the heads of the standing pins. The cells that had pins in them would complete an electrical circuit which would send the scoring information to the display, and also would light one or more of ten "pindicator" lights on the pinspotter's masking unit in front of the machine, to identify remaining pins. After the table had lifted the remaining pins, the machine would run the sweep, clearing the dead pins from the pin deck, then return to the guard position once more. The ball and pins would travel on a continuously running carpet belt at the bottom of the pit. The ball, being heavier, would travel to one of the side kick-backs where it would enter a shared ball return. The pins would travel under the cushion into the circular pin elevator, at the rear center of the unit, which would bring the pins up to a "distributor arm" which travels laterally as well as forward and back (on the 82-30 a guide rail atop the spotting table governed the distributor's head piece movements) over the table, to deliver the pins to the corresponding bins, awaiting the next spotting cycle. (In the 82-30, its semi-cylindrical bins were part of the visible spotting table, suspended below the table's frame, with each bin inclined, pin-base-forward, in front of each spotting cell.) After the table had returned to its upper position the sweep would also lift, and the machine would shut down and await the next ball. For spotting the new rack of pins, the 82-30 version would tilt the pin-filled cylindrical bins vertically as the table descended, and tilt the bins slightly rearwards to clear the new rack of pins just as the table started upwards, leaving the new rack of pins spotted on the lane for the next frame.
  There have been specific upgrades and improvements made to the machines produced after the 82-30. The 82-70 is the general standard in most modern bowling centers today. It features a microprocessor-operated chassis that is upgraded to short cycle the machine for strikes, gutter balls, or 7 10 pick-offs. It features solid state motors. The 82-90 and the 82-90XLI are upgraded further, replaced controls with machine status indicator lights, single control centers that handle two machines, and perhaps the most important upgrade is the self shutdown control, which shuts the machine down to prevent damage from continuing to operate with a fault. QubicaAmf has also introduced many different scoring systems that are compatible with all pinsetters and pinspotters.

The 82-30 units also became famous in the early 1960s for having the "Magic Triangle" pindicator screen on their masking units as advertised by AMF, which added a set of eleven lighted "arrows" to the usual numbered ten lights for standing pins, triangular corner lights that indicated the first or second ball to be rolled, and separate lights to indicate a foul, or a strike. The "arrows" were for the purpose of advising an inexperienced bowler to assist in spare conversion, by indicating where a second ball delivery should hit the remaining pins for a successful conversion, and were triggered by appropriate combinations of standing pins that helped the machine select which one of the eleven arrows to illuminate. Rear view of an AMF Magic Triangle screen and the patent document for it

• The Mendes company produced a magnetic pinsetter known as the MM-2001. It featured a flat magnetic pin table and magnets on the head of each pin. It had a pit similar to the AMF and an elevator similar to the GSX. Pin loading involves the combination of a carousel and magazine. The company claimed this technology reduces stops in play due to table jams on out-of-range pins. Mendes was bought out by Qubica, which sold the machine as the MAG3 until its partnership with AMF.

Candlepin pinsetters

The most common candlepin pinsetters were made by a company named Bowl Mor, which was founded in the 1940s by two attorneys, Howard Dowd and R. Lionel Barrows. According to the International Candlepin Bowling Association (ICBA), Dowd and Barrows were searching for business venture that could weather an economic depression. Marketing research on their part found that participant sports met this requirement, and that bowling was one of the top three participant sports at the time. The first Bowl Mor pinsetters ^[1] were installed at the Whalom Park amusement park in 1949. Though no longer manufactured, refurbished units, parts and maintenance support are available from several vendors.

Bowl Mor pinsetters have a depressed pit approximately 14" long at the end of the bowling lane, placed about 4" below the level of the lane surface, with a curtain behind it, hanging past the lane surface but not touching the bottom of the pit. The curtain arrests the backwards motion of struck balls and pins, so that they fall onto the pit. When a reset takes place, a sweep bar descends, driven by a chain drive system on each side of the machine, and sweeps the pins and balls off the lane, through the depressed area, and past the curtain and onto a rotating turntable. Here, pins and balls separate, being spun off the turntable by centrifugal force into the elevators.

An elevator composed of a rotating rack of open frames (similar to an industrial toaster) catches the pins and hauls them towards the top of the machine, and then turns 90 degrees to bring the pins horizontally across, bringing the pins past ten conveyors each wide enough to hold pins in a lengthwise orientation. Unline the pinspotters used for tenpins and duckpins, since candlepins have identical "ends" to them, the machine does not have to orient the candlepins in one particular direction. The pins fall off the end of the conveyors into spotting tubes, mounted at their base onto the plate that forms the main part of the spotting table. Just as the sweep nears the forward end of its travel, and begins to move out of the way while ascending to its resting position, the table drops to the metal plate pindeck at the end of the lanebed, and release a set of pins, and then ascends to its own resting position, ready to be filled with pins once more.

A separate elevator next to the turntable transports the balls to the ball return system, which has a near-vertical ramp which the balls roll down to gain enough momentum for them to roll through a trough back up the alley, coming to rest in a rack next to the approach area where players can grab them. Bowl Mor pinsetters are stocked with 24 to 27 pins, and are deemed substantially more reliable than typical Ten-pin bowling pinsetters. Most parts of the machine are driven by chains or belts. A Bowl Mor unit weighs approximate 1450 pounds, and draws 24 amps at 110 volts from three-wire 110-220 volt service mains. The ICBA lists the cost of a refurbished Bowl Mor unit at approximately $5000.

AMF manufactured candlepin pinsetters for a short time in the 1960s, using a Bowl Mor-style spotting table and an adapted tenpin-style sweep bar that operated at an unusually rapid pace during its sweep.^[2]

Unless triggered into action by an automated scoring unit, candlepin pinsetters must be started by the bowler at the conclusion of a frame, by using a button or foot pedal operated switch to start the reset cycle.

Five-pin pinsetters

Five-pin bowling is a popular variation in Canada, and pinsetters fall into two categories: string and free-fall. String pinsetters are more prevalent, and consist of machines attached to the head of each pin, by means of a cord. Essentially, the pinsetter is triggered by the movement of any pin by more than an inch or two. With that, the machine lowers a guard, pulls up all 5 pins, and resets those which did not move. There is on average a three second lag from when the pins were knocked down to when the guard is lowered. The pit floor is angled such that the ball is gravity-fed to a track that leads to an elevator. The elevator lifts the ball to the return track.

Free-fall 5-pin pinsetters work in a way similar to their ten-pin counterparts, although they do not engage automatically (like a candlepin unit does) when a ball is bowled or pin knocked down. When the player pushes their "Reset" button, the machine lowers a guards, lifts standing pins and sweeps away the downed pins. If it does not recognize any standing pins, it will set up a new set for the next frame. Unlike tenpin, balls and pins are picked up in the same elevator or conveyor and are separated at the top of the machine.

Duckpin pinsetters

Duckpin bowling is played in two varieties.

Hard belly duckpin is popular in the northeastern United States. One popular pinspotter in this sport is the Sherman, with conveyor belts, as required by the sport's ruling body, the National Duckpin Bowling Congress, at the ends of the gutters that move fallen pins to the pit. The Sherman's sweep device is located on the right side, vertical "kickback" panel of the lane and pivots 180 degrees (much like a fence gate) to clear pins. The pin table always handles the pins by the neck. A new rack of pins is created with a moving magazine that is shaped like a pin triangle. When the magazine is loaded, the pin table picks the pins out of the magazine and sets them on the lane.

The Bowl-Mor company also made a duckpin pinspotter for a time, using a similar sweep device to its more famous candlepin machines.

Soft belly or rubber band duckpin is played in Quebec. Most of these bowling centers use a string type pinsetter similar to five pin. Apart from five-pin, rubber band duckpin is the only bowling variant that currently sanctions string type pinsetters. The free-fall machine for this sport features a rotating pit floor similar to a Bowl-Mor, conveyor belts in the gutters, an elevator similar to the Brunswick GSX, a turret similar to the A-2, and a rather flat looking pin table. The sweep is similar to the candlepin Bowl-Mor.

References

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External links

• Development of the Automatic Pinsetter
• HowStuffWorks.com on pinsetters (describes the later Brunswick GS-10 and GSX pinsetters)
• Bowlinglinks all over the World, sorted by categories
• Article about a bowling alley that still (as of 2000) uses human pinsetters
• ICBA page about Bowl Mor units
• AMF 82-30 pinspotter videos page
• Part 1 and Part 2 of two-part video of Brunswick Model A2 pinspotter in action
• Manufacture and operation of AMF 82-70 pinspotters
• The Bowl-Mor candlepin pinsetter in action
• The Sherman duckpin pinspotter in action