How Hockey Pucks Are Made

When you're sitting in the stands watching an Ice Hockey game, you probably aren't thinking about how hockey pucks are made. You're too busy watching the action, rooting for your favorite team, and hoping for a hat trick. That puck out there on the ice, however, has been through quite a journey to get to where it is today.

In order for a hockey puck to be used by the National Hockey League, the hockey puck has to be made by a specific company. The International Glass Company, located in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, is the company that supplies pucks to the NHL. The process used by the International Glass Company is similar to the process that other companies may use to make hockey pucks, as well. There are only a few companies in the entire world that make professional hockey pucks.

Hockey pucks are made from vulcanized rubber. Vulcanized rubber is created by mixing granular rubber with a specific bonding agent. The vulcanized rubber is injected into a hockey puck molding pallet. For junior-sized pucks, which are blue in color, a coloring agent is mixed into the heated rubber before it is poured into the molding pallet. Each pallet holds 200 pucks. The pallets use a cold compression process to create the puck.

Once the puck is created, it's time for the design and logo process. The pucks are given a silk screening which embeds the particular logo appropriate for that puck. From there, the complete pucks are boxed and sent to their destinations. This is the same process that most hockey puck manufacturers use to make pucks that will be put into play.

This process is highly specialized, and has a high degree of oversight. Each puck has to meet specific regulations in terms of size and weight. Once the pucks are made, they are then frozen for a period of time up to two weeks. After the pucks have been frozen, their ability to bounce is tested to make sure they behave the way a hockey puck is supposed to. If, at any point, the puck doesn't meet specifications, it is melted back down and used to make new pucks.

Not all hockey pucks are made this way, however. Novelty and souvenir pucks are made in more of a mass-production type of way. Instead, the rubber is molded into large tube shapes, and machine-cut into the correct thickness. These pucks can be made in a much quicker and less expensive way than professional pucks.