AMERICAN PINBALL VISIT

In October 2018, just a couple of days before the official unveiling of American Pinball’s second title, Oktoberfest: Pinball on Tap, Pinball News paid a visit to the company’s factory in Streamwood, Illinois.

Understandably, everyone at American Pinball was keen to keep their new game under wraps until the presentation in Wheeling, however the company’s Sales & Marketing Strategist, Nirmal Vasani showed us around their facility and, as we shall see, quite a bit more.

The offices to the left of the picture above are where the game design and development takes place.  On the opposite side is a room where the programmers are working, along with the office of the head of American Pinball, Dhaval Vasani.  Between them, and on the right of the picture above, is the doorway to the factory.

We examined the production line to see how it operates and to compare it to how other pinball companies, past and present, build their games.  The Houdini game is their current game, although work was taking place to build up several Oktoberfest machines too.

As expected, we begin with unpopulated playfields.

American Pinball source their playfields from two different suppliers, and there are a few telltale differences between them, such as the type of pattern used to diffuse light in the inserts and the hardness of the wood.

First, T-nuts are hammered onto the playfield to hold the devices.  Then the flat rails and ball guides are mounted.  These playfields are then clamped into a rotisserie so that they can start their journey along the line, passing numerous workstations where more and more playfield parts and assemblies are added.

With all attention focused on making the Oktoberfest machines there were no Houdini playfields being worked upon while we were there, although there were plenty of partially-complete ones waiting on the line.

Each workstation has several parts bins, while above them is either a sample playfield showing how it should look when everything has been added or a paper diagram showing part locations.  A yellow Post-It note identifies the workstation number.

Once many of the top-side parts have been added, the rotisserie is flipped over so under-playfield parts can be fitted.  Work will continue on the top later down the line.

The Houdini game uses the P³-ROC pinball control system from Multimorphic, so the RGB LED driver boards which are part of the same system and are mounted under the playfield come from them.

The central area of the line is used to produce small playfield assemblies such as wired stand-up targets and short cables.

There is a ‘bascule’ bridge half-way along the line which raises to let people and parts through and then lowers to make a continuous track.

One thing you might have noticed here is just how clean everything is – even the floor.  This is part of the culture inherited from the parent company, Aimtron, which manufactures electronic circuit boards and devices in a closely-controlled environment.

The last few workstations complete the assembly of the bottom and then the top of the playfield.

The cabinets and backboxes come in from their manufacturer complete with decals attached.  American Pinball then fit the trim pieces, add the mounting hardware, and then install the various components such as the power supplies, the speakers and amplifier, the monitor and backbox lighting, the flipper buttons, tilt bob, start button, power switch and mains connector.

The complete games are then tested before being boxed and shipped.

We mentioned earlier how American Pinball’s (API) parent company was Aimtron, and how their extensive manufacturing experience and know-how in the gaming, amusement and defence sectors shaped the culture at API.

To find out exactly what this means, we hopped into the the car and drove for twenty minutes to the nearest Aimtron factory (they have six, both in the US and India) located in Palatine.

We were given a tour of the manufacturing floor, but before we reached it we ran into a familiar face.

Aimtron are contract manufacturers, meaning clients come to them wanting electronic boards built according to their own designs.  Most boards use surface-mount devices, although some through-hole components are used too for higher-power applications.

Aimtron also have a ‘line’ down which boards progress until complete, and there are some similarities with pinball here too.

The bare boards start on the line and are screen-printed; not with paint but with solder paste.  This paste sits on the component pads while the individual components are very precisely picked from large rolls of devices and positioned within 20 microns – less than half the width of the human hair.

This picking/placing machine is actually two machines in one, as there is an identical set-up on the opposite side, meaning it can be producing two completely separate products at the same time.

The board with the components placed on it, then passes into a ten-stage oven, where it is gradually heated to around 265°C until the solder paste melts and then slowly cooled to prevent cracking.

But Aimtron does more in the gaming and amusement business than just bringing a manufacturing culture to API.  For many years they have built boards for various gaming and coin-op companies, with LED boards for slot machine toppers a steady business.

With our tour of Aimtron complete, we headed back towards API in Streamwood.  However, before that we stopped off at this party rental business just behind the Aimtron building.

Why were we visiting this company?

Simple.  The party rental business is moving out, and this building is going to be the new home for American Pinball.

API is used to working to tight deadlines.  Houdini was completely redesigned, prototypes build and it was presented to the public in under six months, and Oktoberfest is being pushed in a similar way to be ready for this week’s unveiling.  In that same spirit, Nirmal told us they plan to have API building games in this new facility before the end of the year.  This year. 2018.

That seemed highly ambitious to us, but the Vasani family have shown many times how they can beat all expectations and achieve the seemingly-impossible.  They intend to have two production lines for API’s regular games along with a third for bespoke or contracted manufacturing projects.

The new space is five times the floor area of their Streamwood facility, so there will be plenty of room for expansion and to host other manufacturing if required. The long-term aim is to move away from using the P³-ROC control system, and with such a ready electronic design and manufacturing facility just around the corner, that can only be a matter of time.

This visit to API’s forthcoming home concluded our look at American Pinball’s current and future operations.  Huge thanks to Nirmal Vasani for being our guide and letting us go behind the scenes.

Yes, we did get to see Oktoberfest: Pinball on Tap in the design offices.  We can’t bring you any pictures of that just yet, but the game will be revealed at the API seminar at Pinball Expo on Thursday and you will be able to see it all here at Pinball News.