How paintballs are made How Paintballs Are Made Softgels are
made on special, very expensive, softgel encapsulating machines.
In 1933, Robert Scherer designed and patented the first such
machine. Here’s how a softgel encapsulation machine works: - Hot
liquid gelatin is formed into two thin but wide gelatin ribbons.
Each gelatin ribbon passes over a rotating die. The dies are
designed to form a capsule of a particular size and shape, such
as a paintball. Softgels can be round like paintballs, oblong,
or unusually-shaped. - Each die with its gelatin ribbon presses
against the other die as the dies rotate. Each die has half the
gelatin shell. As the dies meet, the fill (whatever goes inside
the softgel) is injected into the area between the two gelatin
sheets. The dies continue to rotate, pressing the two warm
gelatin ribbons against each other and forming a filled gelatin
capsule. The seam on a paintball shows where the two gelatin
sheets met. - Finally, the now-sealed gelatin capsule drops away
from the rotati