Sports Engineering

Bowling Pinsetters Explained

How machines set up bowling pins automatically

By: Megan Lai, Journalist

April 12, 2025

Bowling pinsetters have changed bowling for the better. They help make bowling more efficient, and fun! By reading this article, you’ll learn about how bowling pinsetter machines can help clean up bowling aisles.

Components of the Pinsetter System

There are many parts that combine to clean up bowling aisles. Bowling lanes have two systems: the pinsetter system, and the system that helps get the bowling balls back to the rack where people can receive bowling balls. We can start off with the pinsetter machine. First off, the board behind the pin deck, which is where all of the pins are placed, is called the ball cushion assembly. This board helps absorb the impact and energy from the ball and the pins that get knocked back. Another term that is helpful to know is deadwood, which is the name for the pins that have gotten knocked over. After the bowling ball has been bowled onto the lane and there is deadwood on the pin deck, a machine helps lift all of remaining pins, and the deadwood gets pushed back and off the pin deck. The surface behind the pin deck is called the ball pit, and it involves a conveyer belt, which helps push everything back towards the back of the bowling lane. Because the ball cushion assembly is a certain height, only the pins can pass through, and the bowling ball gets blocked off. Behind the bowling ball pit is the pin elevator. This elevator helps lift the pins into the distributor, and it is a conveyer belt that moves up and down. The elevator also has ledges that help level the pins. When the pins get to the top, they slide onto the distributor. This distributer has little rotating parts that help propel each pin into the right part. When the process is finished, and all 10 pins have been distributed, the distributor flips the pins upright, and places them back onto the pin deck, in which another ball can be bowled again.

Components of the Bowling Ball Return System

Now that we have gone over the pinsetter system, we can go over the ball return system. When everything got knocked back into the ball pit, the ball cushion assembly blocked the bowling ball from being collected into the pin elevator. The ball cushion assembly also has a slight tilt, making the bowling ball slide to one side. On that side of the pinsetter system, there is a hole that can fit a bowling ball, and it is blocked by a pressure sensor plate. This plate can detect if a bowling ball is going to go into the hole, since it feels pressure for around 3 to 4 seconds. This allows the pressure sensor plate to open, and the ball can slide into the underground compartment. Under the compartment, there is another conveyer belt that is responsible for launching the ball forward, underground. Once the ball gets near the rack, which is above ground, there are wheels that help bring the ball up, and onto the rack. This way, bowlers can collect the bowling balls and continue bowling.