OOAK Table Tennis Forum

The ball I have is a seamed ball Manofan. I ran it and a Nittaku 40+ (SHA) through my robot's ball scale last night and it is fractionally larger than the Nittaku. I still haven't weighed it, but it feels lighter. It also acts lighter in play than all other poly balls I've used.

That Chiang Mai club where Brett was playing used Tibhar 40+ balls (the old seamed ones). I remember there were a number of broken ones on the railing. I suspect they're the same as the old DHS 40+ balls.

Iskandar

C.1 The Stamp
The stamp on the ball must include the following four components:
• The ITTF Approval. This may be indicated by the initials “ITTF” or by "ITTF approved", or by the ITTF
logo.
• the trademark or brand name
• the inscription "Made in", followed by the country of production
• the inscription of either:
“40”, or “40mm” for celluloid balls
“40+” for non-celluloid balls
The stamp on the ball may not include any other components.
If the production process is taking place in more than one country, the reference shall be to the main
step of production. For example,
- if the ball is made of two halves which are produced in country A and put together in country B, the
reference is country A
- if the raw material of the ball is originating from country A and any material processing is done in
country B, then the reference is country B
Any case of doubt shall be brought before the ITTF Equipment Staff and will be decided by the ITTF
case by case.
The same text must appear on all balls of an approved brand. I.e. it is not permitted to put one
country name on some balls and a different one on others with the same brand name. Wrong claims
will be penalized with a fine and can lead to immediate withdrawal of the ITTF approval.
No other text is permitted. The stamp may cover an area no greater than 280mm² described by a
circle or a rectangle with a maximum side length of 25mm circumscribing all letters and symbols. It
may be printed in one or two colours, but the same colour or combination must be used for all balls of
one brand. All inscriptions must be easily readable. The trademark or brand name should be the most
pronounced inscription.
The requirements of Section C.1 do not apply to the secondary stamp for specific events (see A.3).

C.2 Trademark or Brand Name

The Approval of the ITTF, the country or the expression “made in .....” are not considered to be part of
the trademark or the brand name. The trademark or brand name must be unique and may not be used
for another type of ball, especially not for an unapproved one. All balls with the same trademark or the
same brand name must have the same level of quality.
Also, a celluloid and a non-celluloid ball of the same supplier must not carry the same trademark or
brand name, respectively. If the supplier wishes to brand his celluloid and non-celluloid balls as similar
as possible, the minimum difference accepted is that the term “40+” is added to the brand of a
celluloid ball to define the brand of a non-celluloid ball. For example, “Super Supplier – Mega Brand”
and “Super Supplier – Mega Brand 40+” are an acceptable combination for the brand name.
With a brand name containing “40+”, both requirements no. 2 and 3 of C.1 are considered as fulfilled.
However, the “40+” then cannot just be used on the ball stamp, but must be used everywhere
(packaging, sales channels, advertisements etc).
An ITTF approved ball may loose its approval if the supplier markets another non-ITTF-approved ball
with the same or similar appearance as the ITTF approved one, with which it could be confused.
The ITTF will make its best effort to ensure that the trademark or brand name does not infringe on the
already existing balls brands. The ITTF is not responsible for any illegal use of registered trademarks.
Verifying the correct and legal use of trademarks is not part of the ITTF approval procedure.

C.4 Date Code
All packagings (see A.4), but not the ball itself, must be marked with a date or a date code
corresponding to the date of production (month / year). The date code must be readable without the
need to destroy the packing. As long as the supplier uses his own date code system the supplier must
inform the ITTF Equipment Committee about the date code used and it’s decoding. From January 2004
on a uniform date code system will be used.
The date code consists of 4 characters: the first 2 for the month and the last 2 for the year. Month and
year are encoded using the capital letters from A to I for the numbers 1 to 9 (A = 1; B = 2; etc. up to
I = 9; X = 0).
Examples: a) ABXC means 1203, which is decoded as December 2003.
b) XEAA means 0511, which is decoded as May 2011
This date code system will be mandatory for all ITTF approved ball brands.
Manufacturers are strongly encouraged to clarify the design of the stamp, the packaging and the date
code before production with the ITTF Equipment Committee.
A missing date code is penalized with a fine.

That is strange!



Also bizarre is when you click on the "Made in China" logo to enlarge it, the "GERMANY" logo comes up instead!



Note it doesn't say "Made in Germany", though... Wonder if they might still be made in China!

It was funny - back when you could still buy film, the local Carrefour store carried Carrefour brand film that was "Made in the EU" - they didn't want to put "Made in Italy" because that would tag it as Ferrania film (which the cognoscenti-photogs disliked).

Iskandar