How hockey pucks are made
Some hockey pucks are baked in a mold for about 18 minutes at 300 °F, then left alone for a full day to harden.
- stations
- 8
- things upstream
- 6
- raw sources
- 5
- steps from the ground
- 2
The short version
A hockey puck is a disc of vulcanized rubber mixed from natural rubber and additives. The mix is milled, pushed into long logs 3 inches across, and cut into 1-inch slices. Each slice goes into a mold and is pressed under heat. The puck hardens for a day, then gets trimmed and cleaned.
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Blend the rubber mix
Natural rubber is combined with antioxidants, bonding materials and other chemicals. The recipe balances hardness against resilience.
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Roll it on metal mills
The mixture is turned between metal rollers, where workers add extra natural rubber and make sure it is even.
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Test a sample
A machine checks that a sample of the rubber will harden at the right temperature.
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Extrude long logs
An extruder pushes the soft rubber out in logs 3 inches (7.6 cm) in diameter.
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Slice into pucks
The logs are cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) pieces while the rubber is still soft.
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Mold under heat
Workers set the slices into molds the exact size of a finished puck, with up to 200 cavities per palette. Some makers compress the molds cold, and others at 300 °F for 18 minutes.
300 °F for 18 minutes
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Let them harden
Pucks come out hard and rest for 24 hours.
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Trim off the flash
A trimmer machine cleans extra rubber from each puck. The molding leaves a diamond cross-hatch on the edge for grip.
Worth repeating
- A standard ice hockey puck is 1 inch thick, 3 inches wide and weighs between 5.5 and 6 ounces.
- Early rubber pucks were made by slicing a rubber ball and trimming the disc square.
- Tracking pucks hold circuitry and a six-hour battery inside the rubber, and flash infrared light 60 times a second.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and hockey puck starts as these 5 raw sources.
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Sources
Cite this page: "How hockey pucks are made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/hockey-puck