English Abstract

Volleyball Development and Manufacturing Methods

Ryutaro OGAWA
MIKASA CORPORATION, Asakita-ku Hiroshima, JAPAN
Nippon Gomu Kyokaishi,(2020),93(2),37-43 General Review in Japanese

Volleyball made its Olympic Games debut in Tokyo in 1964, at the 18th Tokyo Olympic Games, where MIKASA was approved as one of several game ball suppliers. Since the 22nd Summer Olympic Games in Moscow 1980, we have continued to witness the sports of volleyball at the Olympics. Then, our indoor volleyball and beach volleyball are the exclusive official ball for all the games organized by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) throughout 2020.


Our concept are: (1) to pursue soft feeling and softness of volleyball, (2) to strive for the performance of ball control, (3) to seek the balls visibility.


We have succeeded in achieving the softness of volleyballs, with the base of artificial leather made of the non-woven micro fiber fabrics and also with the resin layer inside foamed, which has made the double-cushion construction and contributed to attaining the softness.


The ball flight depends upon the asperity of ball surface. Fine asperities have been made to the ball surface, which is "Dimple Construction" and for the aerodynamic characteristics, it has contributed to more stable flight of our volleyballs.

Keywords: Volleyball, FIVB, Official Ball, Aerodynamic, Stable Flight