Pinsetter

Others have no automatic tracking of the state of the game, especially in candlepin and duckpin bowling sports, which use smaller balls, and in which the machines are manually activated.

The designs of automatic pinsetters vary depending on each company's hardware implementations, and on a particular bowling sport's rules and specifications.

Bowling-game variants may use different sizes, shapes, and weights of pins and balls, requiring equipment specifically made to handle them.

Part descriptions common to nearly all pinspotting units include: In the mid 1800s, various alternatives to free-standing pins received U.S. patents to solve perceived problems in pinsetting and ball return, aiming to avoid the need for human pinsetters.

One scheme (1851) involved pins with spherical bases that, when hit by a ball, merely fell over in place, then were rotated back to a vertical position.

There are three main pinspotter models: the aforementioned 82-30 (no longer produced, but still in common use, ever since the 1960s US bowling boom and the early career of Dick Weber); the 82-70 (prototyped in 1962,[7] and still in production, since 1963[8]); and the newest versions, the 82-90 and the 82-90XLI, both of which use the 82-70's general mechanical design.

The cells that have pins in them complete electrical circuits that send scoring information to the display, and turned on one or more of ten "pindicator" lights – pioneered by AMF in May 1953 – in an electrically illuminated triangular framed screen on the pinspotter's masking unit in front of the machine, to identify remaining pins.

After the table returns to its upper position, the sweep also lifts, and the machine shuts down to await the next ball.

The "arrows" were for the purpose of advising an inexperienced bowler to assist in spare conversion, by indicating where a second ball delivery should hit the remaining pins for a successful conversion, and were triggered by appropriate combinations of standing pins that helped the machine select which one of the eleven arrows to illuminate.

It features a microprocessor-operated chassis that is upgraded to short cycle the machine for strikes, gutter balls, or 7–10 pick-offs.

When an A series pinsetter starts the reset process, balls and pins are pushed off the end of the lane by the rake or sweep onto a shaker board in place of the AMF-variety carpet belt.

The Model A, A-2 and JetBack series pinsetters all characteristically halt their operation, should the pin turret not yet be full of pins for the next frame, by pausing the sweep bar at the back of its rearwards travel and holding the table in its fully elevated position, until the pin-turret fills and releases its load into the spotting table's upper level.

This style of machine is typically loaded with 20 pins, though most proprietors normally put in 21 pins to facilitate quicker loading and faster operation of the pinsetter, especially in cases where the bowler(s) make two strikes in quick succession — on all the Model A-based unit designs, the "second ball cycle" used for both a second ball's delivery or a strike won't complete if the turret is not full, with the deck waiting in its elevated position as stated previously.

The mechanical portion of the pinsetter was originally manufactured in the Brunswick plant in Stockach, Germany; in 1999, it was relocated to Hungary.

Subsequent models are:[16] The GS is characterized by a sweep that rotates downward (as opposed to dropping) as soon as the ball enters the pin deck.

A GS-X shows “gsx” on the sweep when it is down, unless this marking has been removed or covered by the bowling center proprietor.

The company claimed this technology reduced stops in play due to table jams on out-of-range pins.

The now-defunct Bowl Mor firm of central Massachusetts (no relation to Bowlmor AMF), which was more famous for its candlepin pinsetters, also made tenpin pinspotters early in their history.

Some are still in service, with at least one bowling center in Japan[21] having continued to use them, with some design features similar to the Brunswick Model A units in appearance and function.

The most common candlepin pinsetters were made by a Massachusetts company named Bowl-Mor (no relation to Bowlmor AMF), founded in the 1940s by attorneys Howard Dowd and R. Lionel Barrows.

According to the International Candlepin Bowling Association (ICBA), Dowd and Barrows were searching for a business venture that could weather an economic depression.

When a reset takes place, a "twin-board" sweep bar descends, driven by a roller chain drive system on each side of the machine along a pair of L-shaped tracks, and sweeps the pins and balls off the lane, rearwards off the pin-plate, past the curtain, and onto a rotating turntable in the pit with eight flat radial "fences" to push the pins rearwards.

A pin elevator composed of a roller chain-driven rotating rack of open frames (similar to an industrial toaster) catches the candlepins and hauls them towards the top of the machine.

Most parts of the machine are driven by chains – especially the sweep board's drive system, on two L-shaped tracks on either side of the unit – or belts.

[27] Unless triggered by an automated scoring unit, candlepin pinsetters must be started by the bowler at the conclusion of a frame, by pressing a button or foot pedal.

Free-fall 5-pin pinsetters work in a similar way[28] to their ten-pin counterparts, and requires initiation by the bowler pressing a "reset" button as a candlepin unit does to "cycle" it, when a ball is bowled or pin knocked down.

The Sherman's sweep device is located on the right side, vertical "kickback" panel of the lane and pivots 180 degrees (much like a fence gate) to clear pins.

The Bowl-Mor company also made a duckpin pinspotter for a time, using a similar sweep device[30] to its more famous candlepin machines.

Apart from five-pin, rubber band duckpin is the only bowling variant that currently sanctions string type pinsetters.

Some bowling alley staff have been killed or fatally injured in pinsetting machinery accidents, often as a result of crushing or asphyxiation.