Mirco Steffen - Pinball Expo 2018 - Pinball News

Pinball News (Pinball Expo 2018)·video·41m 11s·analyzed·Oct 23, 2018

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

CPR's Mirco Steffen details playfield reproduction tech, new Red Curls product, and licensing challenges at Expo 2018.

Summary

Mirco Steffen presents CPR's pinball playfield reproduction and restoration capabilities at Pinball Expo 2018, detailing his evolution from machine restoration to industrial-scale playfield manufacturing using CNC routers, robotic insert application, and automated clear-coating systems. He introduces new products including Red Curls (laminated reverse-printed cabinet decals) and unbreakable plastics for classic games, discusses licensing challenges (particularly Disney's Indiana Jones delays), and outlines his service model for custom reproduction playfields.

Key Claims

CPR uses custom-formulated clear coat with 85% solvent content in single coats versus competitors' 8-10 coat systems
high confidence · Direct statement by Mirco Steffen on clear coat composition and efficiency
CPR operates with two large insert-gluing robots plus a third robot with vision system for automatic color/shape identification and feeding
high confidence · Detailed description of robotic assembly line during presentation
Red Curls (laminated cabinet decals) system uses 0.8mm thick reverse-printed plastic with high-gloss finish and strong adhesive
high confidence · Product specification provided during presentation
Disney licensing for Indiana Jones has been delayed approximately 6 months; new movie scheduled for 2020 is likely cause
medium confidence · Mirco Steffen's response to audience question about Indiana Jones timeline
CPR can produce new playfield titles at capacity of one every two weeks
high confidence · Direct statement about production capacity during Q&A
Williams/Bally plywood masters have quarter-inch tolerance variance, preventing accurate drilling hole placement across cabinet variants
high confidence · Explanation of hole placement tolerance challenges with original cabinets
CPR's unbreakable plastic material cannot break under excessive screw tightening and resists ink separation from surface
high confidence · Product demonstration and material specification during presentation
Gottlieb licensing for Black Hole, Haunted House, Stargate, and Spirit has been cleared for production
high confidence · Direct statement of licensing status for specific titles

Notable Quotes

“The glue has to be applied by hand and it takes a lot of time and it's not very accurate. So I came up with constructing a robot for that.”
Mirco Steffen@ 2:57 — Explains CPR's innovation in automating labor-intensive insert installation process
“If they are not okay, I will not sell the playfield. So there will not be a B or C or D playfield level going in the market from my end.”
Mirco Steffen@ 13:14 — Quality control philosophy emphasizing no tiered product levels for defective playfields
“It's more important that how many solvent you have in the clear coat and what quality of the clear coat you have. So usually I can do a clear coat where I have 85% solvent.”
Mirco Steffen@ 10:03 — Technical differentiation claim about CPR's coating methodology versus competitors
“I will always do my own projects and will do whatever play fields are needed. So if somebody asks me to do joust, then I will do joust. Same with other titles and it doesn't matter if they are done or if they are doing by somebody else at this time.”
Mirco Steffen@ 23:50 — Addresses competitive overlap with CPR on same titles; pragmatic approach to market
“Disney has lots of other projects to do, and so Indiana Jones licensing is not their major project right now. I'm waiting for a contact from them for like, I don't know, half a year now or something.”
Mirco Steffen@ 29:30 — Reveals licensing bottleneck with major IP holder affecting production timeline
“The plywood we use is custom made. This is not available on the market. It is a very strong A-grade birch inner part, which is laminated with a very thick, hard rock maple from Canada.”

Entities

Mirco SteffenpersonCPRcompanyJersey Jack Pinballcompany Planetary Pinballcompany Disneycompany Wayneperson Attack from Marsgame

Signals

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business_signal: CPR offers trade-in service: customer provides playfield master for CAD file generation; in return receives free reproduction playfield
high · Mirco Steffen described deal: customer provides master playfield, CPR generates CAD file and provides free new playfield if master meets quality standards
?
business_signal: CPR operating with significant automated manufacturing capacity: two large insert robots plus vision-fed distribution robot; biggest CNC router processes four playfields simultaneously
high · Detailed description of robotic assembly line with automatic tool changing, vision system for insert identification and feeding
?
competitive_signal: Competitive overlap on Joust playfield reproduction between CPR and CPR; Mirco Steffen pragmatic about market rather than defensive, indicating confidence in manufacturing differentiation
high · Explanation of simultaneous Joust production; statement that quality and availability matter more than exclusive market position
?
licensing_signal: Disney licensing for Indiana Jones playfield delayed approximately 6 months; new movie development (scheduled ~2020) likely cause of approval bottleneck
medium · Mirco Steffen stated CAD file complete, robots programmed, artwork ready; waiting Disney contact for ~half year; new movie delayed to 2020 range
$
market_signal: CPR able to sustain production of titles at one new playfield every two weeks, with flexible minimum runs as low as 5-10 pieces for screen printing
high · Direct statement of production capacity; flexible manufacturing enabling niche title reproduction at small volumes

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.124

0:00

Thank you very much. Thank you. Good morning. So maybe I start with a little overview how I came into this and so how I came into producing Playfields and into the pinball lobby at all. So, we had pinballs since I was a small child. I was always fascinated by pinball machines. And in 2001, I started to shop out pinball machines. So I basically bought old used games and completely shopped them out to the highest conditions, like galvanizing all the metal parts and restoring play fields, clear coating play fields, all that stuff. So, somewhere in 2006, I got in touch with Wayne and so the opportunity came up to do reproduction play fields. At this time, I was thinking about Attack from Mars because this was a high sought after title and nobody had anything for it. So, I started with redoing Attack from Mars Artwork and bought my first CNC router. So this was a little bit easy machine. We still have that as a backup machine, but it's one of the ones which we don't use very often. So this router has the capacity to cut two play fields on the workspace. So basically, it did not have a tool changing unit. And after the first production round, we found out that's simply not worse to do any play fields was changing the tools manually because you have a lot of time what you need to do one after the next of the tools. So first thing I did, I constructed a tool changer for this machine and implemented it in the software. And so this tool changer can do 20 tools, which is very much for machine like this. After that, we came to the problem that the inserts take a lot of time to glue in by hand. And it's really a pain in the ass if you want to put on the glue in the exact amount without any drips or any too much or too less glue. And the glue we use is a very specific glue which is not moving or it keeps the inserts away from moving, which is completely different system than anybody else uses because they always have the moving inserts which usually causes the ghosting. In this case, the glue has to be applied by hand and it takes a lot of time and it's not very accurate. So I came up with constructing a robot for that. So I bought an industrial robot and constructed a tool. So I'm very sorry that I can't show any pictures because we have several secrets in the company and I cannot show these. So there will be no videos or pictures of the production be shown. So this robot has a work hat where we can put on eight inserts same time and the new one has 16. So this hat will be loaded at a magazine or a tray and then the robot applies the glue and puts in the inserts full automatic. So this was the start in a smaller facility and it didn't take long that we needed more space because I've also an injection molding machine so I have my own tools and my own injection molding machine so I can do any inserts anytime. And it's very important that we can do new styles or anything else in a short lead time so I can cut my own molding dies for inserts and just run them in a small run. I could even run five or ten pieces if necessary. Usually I have a big stock of different inserts so I can just grab them out of the storage. So after we came into doing play fields for Jersey Jack, the one robot soon came to the point that one robot isn't enough because the capacity of one robot is only 25 play fields per day. This is at the end of the line if you feed several manufacturers. So we soon bought a second machine and so these two machines are gluing inserts right now so we have two big robots gluing the inserts and I have a third small one in the middle of these two with a vision system so these inserts are feeded in a bulk on a feeder as a mix so this vision system identifies color and shape of the insert and feeds the other two with the right inserts what they need in this time. So this is a full automatic cell and no employees are working on this one. So this, the robot has the ability to change the play fields themselves. So once the play field is done, puts it aside, takes the next one, start from the beginning and the small one feeds them with the inserts. So the only thing somebody has to do is to refill the insert bulk. So after that, we have some routers and so we have, the biggest one can do four play fields at the same time. So we have a big capacity to run bulk play fields or individual ones. So if we come to own designs, it's possible to run individual play fields of even a single run. So whatever you want to do, it's no problem to do a single play field with your own design and we could run one or two or three pieces and digital print them. There's no sense for screen printing because the screen printing is too expensive. So when we come to the machines, we use a sanding machine which is a very, sensitive white belt sander. So this machine can do in between codes sanding, full automatic. So I have the print and the clear coat on top and we run it through the sander and level it and then we have an absolutely level play field. So when we come to codes, the, our whole system is custom made so there are a lot of discussions going on what code and what quality and dimpling and all this stuff. So I'm very aware of that and we continuously develop the materials. So over the years since we started, there's a lot of improvement in the material and in the process. So the codes are developed more and more to a very high resistant and very scratch resistant clear coat. So all codes we use, they are not away level on the free market. They are made for us and we develop the mixture. So what anybody else can use is not the same what we do. And especially the final clear coat, which is the most important one, is a very secret mixture because it contains a lot of stuff to make the surface smooth and very durable against ball wear. So when we come to the clear coating, we have another force robot doing the clear coats. So this machine runs full automatic in a closed room. And so we avoid getting dust in there. And so the mixture of the coats is done right in front of the nozzle. So there's always fresh coat mixed. There's a monitored pumping system which makes sure that the clear coat has always the right mixture. So there's no chance that the clear coat is not mixed very well or something else can happen. And so we get the fresh clear coat always in time when we have the play field on the painting booth. So there's a big tray and the robot takes them one after the next, full automatic, and after they are cured they get out and will be ready to go. Usually it is possible to send or pack the play field after two or three days after the clear coat is applied. We have a special curing system so that this is cured pretty well and fast. And once you get the playfield at home, it's ready to install. The clear coat is not end hard, so there will be still some little shrinking and little movement in the surface, but it's ready to install and can be assembled. Usually it takes several days or weeks anyway to install the playfields. and so in that time the play field will be cured completely and it's ready to play. And this does not affect any dimpling or something. So as soon as we send out the play field, it's ready to install.

15:42

So installation is pretty easy. just peel it off and position it with the cut it out areas and just stick it on. I did not drill the holes for the play field or for the back box lock screws. These have to be done at the cabinet itself because the Williams cabinets had a huge tolerance. I checked it with the cabinets I have at home and there's about a quarter of an inch tolerance in the lengths. So that's very difficult to match the right size. What I did is that I kept the space from the back so that it's matching in the front and we might have a little gap on some cabinets on the back side where it is not visible anyway. So I did do the cutout for the legs. They come with a steel leg protector set so that the legs do not touch the decal itself. The same system is used on the Jersey Jack Premium Games for a longer time, so these decals are coming from us. They use the system for several years and they are working very well. So far, we didn't have the chance to put them on the market for Williams Bally games because there are so many different types of cabinets out. So basically all of different shapes like fish tails or funhouse, they all need different routing patterns and so we have to individually route these on a CNC router. They can be cut with a scissors if they don't fit, but it's easier for the machine to cut it and then it's a smooth surface. So once they are applied, it takes about 24 hours till they have the full strength of the glue. And once the strength is reached, you will not be able to take it off. This is a very, very high durable resist and water resistant adhesive. So as this is very new and I have done them just two weeks ago, I don't have any install videos so far. When I return home, I will do a video and put that on YouTube or on my website so that everybody can see how it is actually installed and how that works and how it looks like. So in the vendor hall there's a dialed in which has red curls on so if somebody would like to know how it looks like this is a good example. A dialed in collector's edition. Yeah it's in the vendor hall. So the titles I have so far is Medieval, Attack from Mars. they would fit for the MMR or Attack From Mars rerun games as well. So the Cactus Canyon is one, Seer of Magic, Bride of Pinbot, Funhouse, Whitewater, and Fishtails. Attack From... Adam's Family is already in progress, so the artwork is being prepared right now. There will be two versions, actually probably four versions, so there will be the regular blue version and the gold version, there will be a gold glitter version and probably a blue glitter version coming as well. So like the same style we have on the Addams Family gold glitter version on the play field. So when this has to be cleaned, you cannot use a paper towel because this might scratch the surface. So some kind of a microfiber towel would be pretty good. So are there any questions so far, or do we do the questions later? Just ask if there's something. So beside these Red Curls, we have another new product. These are unbreakable plastics. So they are made on a special material which you simply can't break. Everybody knows how difficult it is to install a plastic and then you put in the screw and put it tight, and as soon as you put it too tight, the plastic breaks. So I can show here, this plastic does not break. It can be banded. It's very durable. I can bend it back, and it still does not break. And even on this small area here, it does not break into two pieces.

20:06

And this bigger one is very hard and very tough to bend, so this does not break. So you do not need any defender washers anymore or any defending plastics or whatever. So I do have it for Banzai Run and Joust so far. We have the Banzai Run play fields ready for the show, so I have them just presented And so I do have the whole set for Banzai Run with the plastic set and the back glass as well as the Bose Playfields They are available right away Same for Joust Unfortunately FedEx lost the package with the aprons. The aprons are not here. I would have to show them on a video or on a photo when I return home. Hopefully, they find the package. I don't know. So when we come to these plastics, it is not possible to scratch off this ink. So whatever you use, you can use a screwdriver, you will destroy the ink somewhere, but you cannot separate it from plastic. So the issue there was before was like when you peel off the protective film after laser cutting, you damage the plastic very easily. So this will not happen on these plastics and they are very, very durable. So the UV resistance of this ink to sunlight is supposed to be like six years, and with the plastic on top of it, it's probably more. So if you have it in a basement or at home, it will never be fading or something. If you have them outside in the sun, probably the red would be the first one which will fail, but everybody knows how the colors fade over the years. But with the modern inks, it's completely different than before. So we do have the Joust plastic set with the Joust Playfield as a bundle package. So there was a lot of discussion going on about the Joust, so I would like to lose two words about it, how this came to Joust. I didn't want to run Joust, but I have had several people asking me at the Texas Pinball Show earlier this year, can you do joust. So first reaction from my end was, well, no, I don't want to because I have to bend the playfield and it's difficult to ship and I don't want to hesitate with that. So when I came home, I did the test with some old playfields and just cut them in the middle and see if I could bend them. And this was easier than I thought. And so basically we We ended up doing them because we had the access to original screen films. So it didn't take me long to generate them. But the issue was, same time I got in touch with someone who had an iOS play field, and so there was some talk back and forth. Somehow CPR noticed that we would like to do the joust, and they moved it out of their boutique zone in production. We had the situation that I have already started production in the background. I do not announce what I'm doing first, so that's why there might be a mix match or whatever, I don't know. The idea was that I run them and then they jumped on the train and did them even if they had them in their boutique zone for a while. I'm very sorry that there's a mix of these different manufacturers doing single play fields, but At the end, it doesn't matter. So I will not care what is done by them or not. I will always do my own projects and will do whatever play fields are needed. So if somebody asks me to do joust, then I will do joust. Same with other titles and it doesn't matter if they are done or if they are doing by somebody else at this time, as long as the license is available. So right now the Buddy Williams licenses are free and I can do any title. Beside the Belly Williams licenses, I have the Gottlieb licenses for several titles. So recently, Black Hole and Haunted House have been finished. The license for Stargate cleared. So Stargate will go in production shortly. Same with Spirit. They are already prepared. And I will have Whirlwind and Creature from the Black Lagoon available shortly when I return home, there was only a little missing, so I would almost have them here, but the time was too short. Oh, something is here what I missed. So the back glasses and the plastic sets are printed with the same colors we use for the play fields. So that means the colors will match exactly. There's no difference, even not a single little bit of a difference between the colors. So if you have the plastic set and the play field from our end, it will be the exact match. And this is something we didn't even see on the original factory play kits. So maybe for the joust, we have a package deal of the plastic set and the play field for $1,350 shipped. And for Banzai Run, we have a package deal with the play field set, both play fields, the complete plastic set for $1,200, and if we add the back glass for $1,400 shipped. Just for that information, but all these prices can be found in my stores. I do have a pin site store where we have listed most of the stuff. I didn't take pictures of the new stuff so far, only of the play fields before I packed them. There simply wasn't enough time. So the Banzai Run play fields, for example, shipped on Monday and it was a very tight schedule. So last Monday, not a week before. So when we come to the doing which play fields are coming or what would you like to do, I do have the deal if somebody has a play field I could use as a master, you will get a free new one if I get the other one, if it's in the shape what we need, depending on if we have the screens or not, the artwork has to be good or not. So basically I need a playfield for the CAD file and sometimes for the artwork. So I don't know which titles are most wanted. I do have capacities to do one probably every two weeks, a new title. It depends a little bit on the main production, but there's a lot of room for new titles coming up. So if If there's demand for something specific and you have a play field we could use as a master, then just don't hesitate to contact me. We don't have a real minimum production run size. So even if we go to screen printing, as I can store the screens and reuse them, we have the possibility to do like five or ten pieces. So even if there's only demand for like five pieces of a new title, I would run it. There is room for custom changes if we go to a digital version. So if somebody wants to replace a color or add a color or whatever, add glitter. Glitter is an effect I would like to use on more games. So I guess I will do something on Arabian Nights shortly with gold, maybe something else on other titles, I don't know. So if somebody has an idea, just contact me and we can do something specific. So there are different possibilities of glitter. It doesn't have to be gold. It can be any color. There are glitter particles in any color available. So if we come to minimum production size, we have the chance to do very small individual projects. So if somebody is doing their own machine or own design, I can supply the whole package with plastics, play fields, cabinet art, back glasses, whatever. So I basically need a CAD file and a printable file for the specifications we would have to talk back and forth. And I can do the inserts as well. So for small runs, there's no chance for doing individual dies, but I have more than 50 dies existing. So there's a huge shape of all the inserts which I used on the Bally Williams games and several additional which I have in stock so I can just take them out of the storage or even run them in the color I have or I need. So I think that's basically all I have as a new, as news for this show. So are there any questions? Did I forget anything? Yes. Yes, basically yes. Well, this is a third party license. Indiana Jones is already prepared. I have the CAD file programmed, the robots are programmed, the art file is already set up, and we are just waiting for the clearance from Disney. And as you can imagine, Disney has lots of other projects to do, and so Indiana Jones licensing is not their major project right now. I'm waiting for a contact from them for like, I don't know, half a year now or something. So this is taking a lot of time. But even Creature took like eight or ten weeks till it was cleared. So this big movie companies take a lot of time to clear individual titles. Yes? Now, you have that licensing issue. Are you working through Planetary? Yes, that's the one part of the license for the Williams part. And the additional licenses have to go to the movie companies depending on which one it is for Creature as Universal. Planetary. Planetary has the main license. Yeah. Main pipeline that they're asking the studio contacts that they have all the time for approval so it's better. Well, basically I have to contact the contacts. Go straight to the studio. Yeah, I go straight to the movie companies and talk to them about what I would like to do and what additional license we need. So Planetary just has the Williams license and does not do anything with a third party license. If you have any delays, you should ask them for what they advise about. Yeah, we always try to. So we try to through all of the different channels But it very difficult right now for Indiana Jones They have a new movie coming up and so that probably the reason why they delay any promotion or anything with Indiana Jones license The movie was delayed, so I don't know when we see it. I think it's short of 220 right now or something. I don't know.

34:12

So this wood goes to a very high-end tolerance process, so we have very strict restrictions what we want to have the wood look like and what quality it has to be. There's a big issue with warping. We all know about it. This is mainly a reason how this wood is made, so I'm not very much involved with that. I just reject the ones which are too much warped. I don't know how they do it or what they do wrong, but it's the matter of how they make the wood. There's a lot of time involved when these sheets are manufactured till they can be used, because the wood has to sit and rest for a while. So the longer I sit and rest, the better it is to go into production. And it depends on the time of the year when the wood is put together because between the sheets, it's very difficult for any humidity to go in or out. So as soon as we seal the surface, then we have a problem with the humidity which is maybe locked in the wood. We have some processes to avoid that we lock in humidity. This is one of the major tasks to avoid stronger warping. It's still wood and it will warp all the time. As soon as the wood rails are attached, then it's reduced to an acceptable amount as long as it is not twisted. If the play field is twisted, then you can't use it at all. If we have sheets like this, we don't use them. or if this happens later, which happens very rarely, we destroy the play field and sell them as decoration. So they will not go on the market. And the wood is a major thing about dimpling. So if the surface is very soft, it depends on the wood quality. There are different grades of the maple available. If it's very soft maple, then you have stronger dimples than on the other ones. But wood will always dimple, so it has to. If it doesn't dimple, then we have the ball bouncing everywhere because the steel is harder than wood, and it will always damage the wood surface. Even if you take a pinball and throw it on your neighbor's car, you will have a dimple, and we will maybe have new friends. Okay, any other questions here? . Yeah. . No, we are talking about that to be used, this one on the manufacturing games. This is too new at this point to have them on the current games, but maybe in the next ones. . Yeah, I know. . Yeah, and it would be much easier and very durable, But the problem... No, it's not a big price difference. The plastic material for a plastic set for the sheet is only the smaller cost of it. It's maybe like 10% of the final cost. They didn't have the idea. Why did nobody use the RedCals before? Okay, any other questions? Audience Member 2, have you done any Gottlieb electronic animals? Not yet, I just started with Gottlieb, so the first ones I did was the Haunted House and Black Hole. Audience Member 2, if you were going to do one from the 70s, would you use modern third coat? Yes, yeah. Audience Member 2, it could be made as gorgeous as some of these. Yeah, I would not be able to use the old process because the old process is a screen print on wood and without any coats at all. Even if we use the screen print without anything on top of it, it doesn't look nice. The materials have changed over the last years, and there will be another change in Europe. We have very high restrictions due to the chemicals which are in the inks or in the coats, and there's always a new change. The EU is very restricted with chemicals, especially solvents or other stuff. So there cannot be any lead in the inks anymore. So in the 80s there were only leaded inks and they have different behavior than the modern inks. So there's a huge difference and I think it's simply not worse to try to copy the old system so the new one is still nice for the old games. Would you say that, you know, when you hear about taking lead out of paint, Yeah.