BMF SPORTS EQUIPMENT TESTINGS OPENS ITS DOORS

BMF Sports Equipment Testing, the world's standard in software-driven air cannon manufacturing, announced today that it has opened its in-house laboratory to companies and individuals alike. The Portland, Oregon plant, which to date has nearly three dozen of their golf ball cannons in use worldwide by club, shaft and ball manufacturers, plans to offer independent test services on a contract basis to allow greater industry-wide access.

"Its really a response to market demand", states general manager Jeff Lee. "We just found too many companies interested in this highly specialised information who've come to use wishing that there were options beside spending $50,000 to buy a cannon. Subsequently we've also found individual clubmakers interested in the service as well."

BMF, which was established in 1959, built its first air cannon for the golf industry in 1992. Since then it has evolved from a machine used primarily for destructive durability testing to including a computer hardwood / software interface which collects critical data, energy loss and velocity ratios. This led to the development of test blocks, or series of test comprised of sequences of protocols providing significantly more meaningful insight than previously possible.

The BMF Golf Ball Tester, developed for measuring and charting the performance characteristics of balls, can individually track up to twelve balls at a time. It started shipping in January of 1997.