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         Stern Pinball Factory Tour Pictures |  Page 3                                              

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Here are some recent pictures of the Stern Pinball factory floor, located in Chicago, IL  during latest production run of their smash pin hit, The Simpsons Pinball Party. Stern is the sole remaining pinball maker in the world today !

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Fully-populated playfield on rotating test stand	Another view of playfield being tested for quality assurance
Worker attaching CPU, power & driver boards to backbox	Almost finished machines awaiting final QA testing
The completed product, ready to ship to homes, non-profits and commercial establishments throughout the world !
Stern Pinball Facts
Stern Pinball is the last remaining manufacturer of coin-op pinball machines in the world Data East Pinball was incorporated in November of 1986. Sega bought Data East Pinball in 1994. Stern bought Sega Pinball in 1999, and Gary Stern is the President of the company. The Stern pinball machine factory is housed in a single 40,000 sq. foot building in Melrose Park, IL. Stern makes roughly 3 new pinball machines a year, with production supplemented by previously models. Typical design time for a new pinball machine, from conception to production line, is about 1 year. A typical design team consists of a game designer, software engineers, mechanical engineers, bill of materials personnel, artists, a sound engineer, a dot matrix display artist, and other complimentary staff. Stern engineers use 3-D modeling to create many of the parts for a game. Stern currently makes about 55 games a day on their production line. There are about 3500 individual parts needed to manufacture a pinball machine. There are approximately 1200 screws, nuts, and washers, 100 connectors, 88 terminals and 357 tie wraps in a typical pinball machine There is about a 1/2 mile of wiring contained in each pinball machine. There can be up to 72 switches and  24 coils in a pinball machine. There are approximately 115 lights, consisting of bulbs, flashers and strobes in a pinball machine. There is an average of 15 songs used in the sound design of a typical modern pinball machine. Stern  pinball machines offer their machines in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German. Spanish speech is also available is the U.S., and French speech also available in Canada Gary Stern, President Of Stern Pinball

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