Life expectancy and cycle of synthetic lanes

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kajmk
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Life expectancy and cycle of synthetic lanes

Post by kajmk »

Granted, there are variables that impact wear and tear (mileage may vary). That aside, what do you know about this topic.
I'd read in the past where the scoring decline was not steady, but actually had a bump upwards in the curve before it began declining again.
Be that as it may, share what you know and hold to be true, cite resources and data if you are aware.

A comment by elgavachon, in another recent topic, was the impetus for this question.
If you know of an existing thread, include it in your reply.

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Re: Life expectancy and cycle of synthetic lanes

Post by bowl1820 »

Here's a series about lane conditions and it contains some information on this subject IMO.

This part mainly: Lane Conditions ‘101' Part 4: Why “House Patterns” are bad for bowling.

It's Talking about how high ratio patterns that force bowlers to play in similar areas accelerate wear on those areas of the lane. They show some images of new lane surface versus 12 year old surface.
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Re: Life expectancy and cycle of synthetic lanes

Post by cheech »

unfortunately i dont have the link handy but i read an article on the kegel website explaining how synthetic lane topography developed and why it developed because i remember when they first started getting installed in my area 15-20 years ago people were hailing them as a god send. they would eliminate the "bad pairs" in the house. finally every pair in the center would be the same. fast forward 10-15 years later everyone is complaining about every pair is different. they hit a bad pair during a tournament and cost them the cut. etc. In the article they were saying the life of a synthetic lane was approx 7 years. during their "lane mapping" research and compilation of the data base they found synthetic lane topography began to significantly change after about 7 years of "average" wear and tear due to the increased friction of these high performance coverstocks. now all of a sudden knowing the lane topography of the center is just as important as adjusting surface on your bowling ball.
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Re: Life expectancy and cycle of synthetic lanes

Post by elgavachon »

kajmk wrote:Granted, there are variables that impact wear and tear (mileage may vary). That aside, what do you know about this topic.
I'd read in the past where the scoring decline was not steady, but actually had a bump upwards in the curve before it began declining again.
Be that as it may, share what you know and hold to be true, cite resources and data if you are aware.

A comment by elgavachon, in another recent topic, was the impetus for this question.
If you know of an existing thread, include it in your reply.

Cheerio!
Eric just posted a good video to go along with this topic
[youtube][/youtube]
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Re: Life expectancy and cycle of synthetic lanes

Post by pjape »

So the big question is, is there anything that can be done with a synthetic lane that's wearing out other than replace it? Obviously, replacement is pretty much out of the question for the majority of proprietors because of cost.

Is is possible for a wood lane to ever get to the point where sanding doesn't work and it has to be replaced? I don't know, but I have a feeling if this does happen, it takes far longer to wear out compared to a synthetic lane.

My proprietor told me how much it cost him to install 40 synthetic lanes in the mid-nineties, but I forget what he told me. I do remember him telling me that it cost about $40,000 to sand his then wood lanes.

Does anyone here own or manage a center that still has wood lanes? Do modern bowling balls wreak havoc on wood lanes too? Do you have to resurface your lanes more often than in pre-reactive days?

Oh, and here's one more thought. If a company designs a lane surface that is tough enough to stand up to modern bowling balls, would such a lane surface hook more or less? I'm guessing less, as it would have to be incredibly hard. If this would be the case, would the ball companies just design balls to hook even more? Of course, that's what they're doing anyway, so.....
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Re: Life expectancy and cycle of synthetic lanes

Post by rrb6699 »

I can attest to the fact that some centers I bowl in have totally worn heads where my ball jumps left upon release. I have to not only line up strikes, but, spares with my (faitly) straight ball. what I mean is my hard rubber or plastic spare ball goes straight except I cannot just release it any ole way or it jumps on me. mostly on 10 or 7 pins. I usually miss left.

I can throw a backup or slight backup ball if I have to.

I think most wear comes from the millions of impact points where balls hit the lane surface initially.

rr
I think head replacement is the only solution.
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Re: Life expectancy and cycle of synthetic lanes

Post by J_w73 »

They should put oil down to protect the lane surface... oh wait they do sort of. Seems they put oil down so people can average 230, not protect the lane surface.
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Re: Life expectancy and cycle of synthetic lanes

Post by pjape »

J_w73 wrote:They should put oil down to protect the lane surface... oh wait they do sort of. Seems they put oil down so people can average 230, not protect the lane surface.
Not too long ago I read in an article (I think from Kegel) that the USBC minimum of 3 units of oil is not enough to protect a lane. I think their recommendation was no less than 6 units. Sure, much more is put in the center, but a THS has only 3, maybe less, on the outside boards where most league bowlers play. Can you imagine the outcry if proprietors started putting 6 units outside ten?
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Re: Life expectancy and cycle of synthetic lanes

Post by bowl1820 »

pjape wrote:
Not too long ago I read in an article (I think from Kegel) that the USBC minimum of 3 units of oil is not enough to protect a lane. I think their recommendation was no less than 6 units. Sure, much more is put in the center, but a THS has only 3, maybe less, on the outside boards where most league bowlers play. Can you imagine the outcry if proprietors started putting 6 units outside ten?
5 units the article is in post number two above. Lane conditions 101 part two pdf
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Re: Life expectancy and cycle of synthetic lanes

Post by Pinbuster »

Wood lanes do eventually wear out.

Depending on the amount of play they need to be sanded down every year or two. Technology has gotten better with the lane sanding where they don't have to take the lane down as much as they did 50 years ago to get it smooth again. Eventually the lane is sanded down so far nails start to show up on the lane surface and the wood bed is then pretty much done.

After they sanded the lanes down they would then apply several coats of urethane that the lane conditioner would be applied to.

In addition wood lane houses I bowled on would drag an additional coat of urethane after about 6 months.

We had a house that had the original Brunswick avilane installed in 1987 when it was built new. They replaced those lane synthetics after about 25 years with the current avilane.

The old avilane did have a track area but that actually helped scoring. It created a built in bump area in the track to you could play out to. The only real problem was if you got outside the track it got slightly slicker creating an OB area.

I've always felt they replaced the lanes more for cosmetic reasons than performance. Certain areas of the approach and laydown areas had the board images worn off.
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Re: Life expectancy and cycle of synthetic lanes

Post by Glenn »

This post is VERY interesting to me; especially the Kegel document 4. The document exactly describes my local bowling center.

Trying to have a conversation with the lane man is like pulling teeth; he does not like to share any information relating to HIS lane conditions. The center got dinged by the USBC this year for not having enough oil across the pattern, and he made adjustments accordingly (?) - bowlers have complained regularly since the change. After periodic nagging for a copy of the house oil pattern, I finally got the information. The center installed HPL 9000 overlays to the first 24 feet many many years ago (exact date is unknown to me), and the backends are wood. The house oil pattern is to protect that synthetic overlay by applying 7 loads of forward oil from 10-to-10 for the first 10.5 feet, 5 loads from 12-to-12 for the next 5 feet, and buffed to 40 feet. The ratio is 11:1 and the total volume of oil is 23 mL. This house pattern is the only pattern used for social, league, and tournament bowling, so I am confident that it is burned in. He's using the same oil recommended by the overlay installer oh-so many years ago - Defense/S, and the oil pattern probably came from that same source and era.

Of course each lane has its own personality topography-wise.

From what the document says, I guess we are stuck with this pattern. It will be interesting to see what happens when the center decides that this durable overlay needs to be replaced due to the damage caused by dry boards as a result of their choice of house pattern.

I would love to know the condition and maintenance schedule of the lane oil machine ...

When you start delving into the different aspects of the bowling environment, it is amazing what you learn!
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