Some of our most rewarding experiences at Midwest Rubber are when true collaboration results in a superior product that fills a need and solves a problem. That’s what happened with the Give-N-Go hockey puck rebounder.
Our customer had invented a new type of training tool for hockey players. The tool’s bumpers needed to be just the right hardness and thickness to produce effective results in practice sessions. The goal (pardon the pun) was to mimic as closely as possible passing and receiving with another player, with the ability to withstand even the hardest passes. This would require a specific blend of materials. The challenge was on! Midwest Rubber created a prototype of the training tool and worked with the customer to test a number of materials in-house before arriving at the ultimate rubber compound for the job.
Because of the experimentation that occurred during the development process, we had all of the information we needed to design the final mold and begin production using our thermoset rubber molding process, or more specifically, transfer molding. The end result? The Give-N-Go hockey puck rebounder is the first of its kind to use (patent pending!) solid rubber bumpers, which provide rebounds that are flat, fast, natural and predictable – just what you’d want in a training tool. See it in action here!
The Give-N-Go is used internationally, and our customer was thrilled to learn recently that the Detroit Red Wings are using the Give-N-Go in their practice sessions! Midwest Rubber is so proud of the part we play in bringing our customer’s visions to fruition.
We love helping our customers solve problems, and we’ve been in the business of collaboration for a long time. If you have a manufacturing challenge, reach out to the Midwest Rubber team, and let’s see how we can solve it together.
