[John Hernlund]

Hi Dave,

I'm curious about the process of making the Blizzard discs. I imagine that in the ordinary process of making solid discs, one would usually would press out any air bubbles that result from melting the input plastic pellets, before injection into the mold, and that most injection molding machines probably have a mechanism for pressing out unwanted air. In the Blizzard case, you guys manage to get air into the injected plastic, but it is distributed in small bubbles, and you also seem to have some sort of control on bubble sizes (the blems show a range of variability and experimentation). Getting a frothy mixture of air and molten plastic with uniform small bubbles is probably very difficult to do just by mixing air and plastic pellets together (like one might do in a pot). I'm going to make a wild guess that maybe the bubbles are created by some sort of additive in the plastic itself that generates gases during injection (perhaps triggered by the decompression that occurs once the plastic enters the mold and undergoes radial expansion?). For example, you could produce the plastic in a high pressure CO2 chamber, and the gases would be dissolved into the plastic itself prior to injection molding. This would produce a more uniform bubble distribution when the bubbles are exsolving internally from the plastic itself. The degree to which the bubbles are stretched (elliptical vs. spherical) is then an indication of how far the bubbles were transported under deformation (stretching) in the injected plastic from the point where they initially exsolved (they should always begin spherical) and/or past the critical point where the plastic rheology is soft enough to relax deformed shapes back to spherical (owing to surface tension). In any case, the excess pressure of the bubbles seems to be an easy way to explain the bubble dome shape of the flight plate...it makes the flight plate try to expand outward, but since it is confined by the relatively rigid rim, it bows upward instead.

Anyways, is there any chance you could enlighten us about this process? It is very cool to behold, and a very fun new technology developed by Innova. Or perhaps it is your trade secret, that you do not wish to reveal. Can't hurt to ask.

I've picked up a 140g Wraith and 150g Katana (with the cool Hero Discs stamps), and both fly very nicely. I had some fantastic downwind hyzer flip throws with the Katana, while a bubble-topped Wraith flies high speed stable with a tight fade. The biggest advantage I've seen from throwing these discs is:
1) Great distance with less power, although good form is still required.
2) Much easier to throw over high objects/up steep grades.
3) Less tired after throwing these all day.