The 2022 Pinball Expo marked several firsts, one of which was the first ever Jersey Jack Pinball factory tour. Visitors to the Schaumburg Convention Center on the morning of Thursday 20th October could sign up to join one of the tour groups and be given a free coach ride followed by a guided tour around the Jersey Jack Pinball factory in Elk Grove Village.
Unfortunately, Pinball News was busy on Thursday working away in the Convention Center from 7am to set up the audio and video equipment for the three full days of seminars, and so we weren’t able to be part of that tour.
Thankfully though, the Jersey Jack Pinball team arranged for us to have a private tour two days earlier, with game designer Eric Meunier as our guide.
So, we are pleased to bring you this detailed report from the Jersey Jack Pinball factory.
(picture: Jonathan Joosten)
In the reception area are four JJP titles showcasing the very first game they made – The Wizard of Oz – and the three most recent – Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Guns ‘N Roses and Toy Story 4.
While all were either Limited Edition or Special Edition models, the Guns ‘N Roses was even rarer than that.
The reception area is also home to some of the awards won by the company.
The first sight we see as we move into the production area is a familiar one from years of taking the Stern Pinball tour.
Walking past the lunch heating/eating area we see two playfield production lines. At the time of our visit only one was in use. The second had been shut down in preparation for the Pinball Expo tour which would take place in two days’ time. Red tape was being laid on the floor to indicate the tour route, while exhibits of partially completed playfields were positioned along the tour so guests could see how the components are gradually added.
As we have seen at other companies, there are essentially three separate sections of a pinball machine – the playfield, the cabinet and the backbox.
The playfield is by far the more complicated to manufacture. Not only does it have the most individual components, but many of those components are bespoke to each title. Then there are the different versions of that title, each of which may have further variations.
While the cabinet and backbox feature title and version-specific artwork and metalwork, these are relatively easy to vary. The basic designs of the cabinet and backbox enclosures don’t change.
As a result, far more resources and staff are devoted to building up the playfield, which arrives at the factory in a box from JJP’s playfield manufacturer, Mirco Playfields in Germany.
Two titles were in production around the time of our visit – Toy Story 4 and Guns ‘N Roses, although only Toy Story 4 was actually on the line while we were in the factory.
All playfields are hand-inspected to make sure they haven’t picked up any damage during shipping.
Any which are found to be less than perfect and can’t be easily touched-up are marked as seconds and sold as decorative items for wall hanging or used for give-aways.
Once they pass inspection, playfields go into racks until they are ready to start their journey down the production line.
The next stage for a playfield is to have a number of holes drilled so that posts, flatrails (metal ball guides) and T-nuts can be added. These holes also ensure that later mechanisms are mounted in exactly the correct place.
To achieve that, playfields are mounted in a rotisserie which allows the playfield to be easily flipped between the top and the underside, and also makes it easier for them to travel over the production line’s rollers.
Once the holes are drilled, those posts and flatrails are added to the otherwise-unpopulated playfield.
Each station has a set of electric screwdrivers or nut drivers. These are usually suspended above the line on a retracting cord, so they can be pulled down to the playfield when needed.
Adding all the hundreds of parts to a playfield requires great stock control. The stock room at Jersey Jack Pinball is extensive and tightly managed.
Besides the regular posts and switches, game-specific mechanisms also need to be installed.
Because they require time-consuming assembly and testing, these sub-assemblies are made at separate workstations behind the production line workers, and then put into racks for the line workers to access.
Each sub-assembly requires its own parts list, schematic diagram, assembly tools, assembly instructions and testing equipment. Since these have to be made from scratch for every new sub-assembly, if a sub-assembly can be reused in future games it saves a considerable amount of time and resources.
The Duke Caboom jump ramp is a complex mechanism requiring accurate and robust action, while also lying level with the playfield when not activated.
While some sub-assemblies can be stacked in storage bins, others are more delicate and require special handling.
The Star Adventurer illuminated marquee plastic is especially impressive, having dozens and dozens of controllable LEDs to create intricate and attractive patterns.
If any electrical or mechanical errors are discovered, the playfield is sent to be fixed and a fault report generated so the problem doesn’t recur.
Meanwhile, the cabinets and backboxes are being fitted with their components. These are simpler to build and are largely the same across different models with the exception of the metal trim and artwork decals.
The completed cabinet, backbox and playfield are then brought together to make a finished machine.
The game is then tested to make sure all the parts are working together correctly.
Tested games then have the backglass and playfield glass added before they go to the packing and shipping department, where they are boxed and taken to the loading docks to await collection.
Two different safety devices are attached to each shipping box. One detects whether the box has been tipped beyond a certain angle or fallen on its side, while the other indicates whether the box had suffered shock from being dropped. These are for the recipient to check before accepting the game from the shipping company.
You don’t need these liquid indicators to tell you when some of the more severe damage has occurred, such as having a fork lift’s prongs pushed through the cabinet or the box dropped from a truck. Two games returned to the JJP factory suffered potentially catastrophic damage which may render them unrepairable.
The loading dock isn’t only for outgoing games, of course. Deliveries for the factory also come in through these doors.
Also on the factory floor is the machine shop, where game designers and mechanical engineers can cut and shape metal, wood or plastic pieces, route playfields, or turn items on the lathe. This can be to make prototype pieces, create assembly or test fixtures, cut a whitewood playfield or make adjustments to existing pieces.
There was one area we couldn’t visit this time, and that’s the room where future games are in development. Maybe next time.
That concludes our look around the Jersey Jack Pinball factory. We hope you enjoyed seeing how they make their amazing games as much as we did.
It really is a sobering reminder of just how much work goes into mass-manufacturing a pinball machine – far more than most people imagine.
All the workstation set-ups – the tools, parts and documentation – have to be devised for each title. There are numerous custom parts which have to be designed, drawn, ordered, assembled, tested and then installed into the game, with sub-assembly fixtures and test boxes created for each of them.
And, of course, every part in the game has to be in stock ready for production, otherwise everything grinds to a halt.
Huge thanks to Eric Meunier for taking time out of his day to show us around and to Ken Cromwell for making it all happen during a busy pre-Expo time. Thanks also to Steve Ritchie and Mark Seiden for taking us out to lunch afterwards.
