Diamond Billiard Products has completed a significant engineering conversion, replacing the traditional wooden legs on its tournament pool tables with a high-performance molded composite solution. The shift from wood to plastic, developed in partnership with custom injection molder Manar, reduces labor, improves durability, and accelerates installation at professional tournaments.
For decades, Diamond's table legs were made of wood, requiring cutting, shaping, sanding, finishing, and pre-assembly across multiple departments. The process involved eight employees and 10 to 12 individual components per leg, with production taking up to three months from raw material to finished product. Brent Lykins, mechanical engineer at Diamond, said the company sought to streamline manufacturing and enhance performance. "The wood legs were very labor intensive. We wanted to streamline it," he explained.
The new design consolidates parts into a primary molded body with a foot block and shaft, reducing the component count from 10 to 12 wood parts to just three. The material chosen, 40% long-glass polypropylene, provides the strength needed for structural performance. Finite element analysis confirmed the legs could support a 1,200- to 1,300-pound table with minimal deflection, and real-world stress testing involved lifting and dropping tables to confirm durability.
Tournament installation also saw dramatic improvements. Previously, installers had to access leveling nuts near the floor, often lying on their backs to make adjustments. The new design features a side-access panel and allows adjustments using a battery-powered tool while seated. Legs can be adjusted up to 1.5 inches to accommodate uneven floors, making installation three to four times faster with improved ergonomics. At large tournaments with hundreds of tables, the time savings are substantial.
Anthony Neeley, new business development and director of operations at Manar, emphasized the collaborative approach: "This wasn't just about molding a part. It was about applying a design for manufacturability approach to meet the structural demands of tournament-level use and deliver measurable operational improvements." Manar helped refine Diamond's initial concepts into a manufacturable solution, providing guidance on material selection, part design, and tooling while helping validate performance through analysis and testing. Diamond's facility is located near a Manar location, enabling close collaboration and rapid sample exchange.
Following the success of the leg conversion, Diamond also partnered with Manar to manufacture its table pockets. Previously, pocket components were molded domestically, shipped to Taiwan for leather wrapping, and returned, resulting in long lead times of up to three months, freight delays, and quality fallout of up to 50%. The redesigned pocket consolidates parts, eliminates the overseas finishing step, uses automated molding with robotic insert placement, and offers improved durability with a modern matte black textured finish. This redesign mitigates risk, reduces scrap, and improves supply reliability.
Pool tables are iconic, traditional products, and innovation in this category is uncommon. By converting a core structural component from wood to composite, Diamond reduced labor and manufacturing time, improved installation ergonomics, increased durability, strengthened supply chain reliability, and maintained tournament-level performance. The partnership with Manar allowed Diamond to modernize a legacy product without compromising the quality players expect.
