Previous Situation
Manual Inflator
Until now, schools, community centres, sports clubs and professional sports business, have been using inconsistent alternatives for ball inflation. The most common method: manually inflating balls using a manual pump or small portable compressors together with a pressure gauge. As a consequence:
Over-inflated balls: high risk of bursting; low ball life span.
Under-inflated balls: loss in performance, incorrect execution of the sport.
Inconsistency in pressures: different opinions from umpires on the correct ball pressure, which brings possible conflicts between sport clubs and sports competitions.
Inaccuracy: High percentage of human error when manually inflating. It is a common practice to inflate a ball by calculating the number of pumps done with the manual inflator. The number of pumps would vary depending on the size of the ball and the size of the pump. In addition, the pumping needs to be done the same way every time making sure the pump handle is extended to the maximum and be fully pressed.
Time consuming: As a general rule the home club should have around 36 balls for outdoor games ready for pressure testing 2 hours before the start of a game. With manual inflation, this tasks is tedious and unproductive.
Unsafe: High probability of ball-bursting if over-inflated with a regular compressor.