We would like to explore the use of a single wheel pitching machine, but our team lacks the ability for most custom machining and fabrication. Can anyone suggest an off-the-shelf component to serve as the wheel?
We believe that the wheel should have substantial mass (for angular momentum) so that the speed of the wheel is not greatly diminished with every throw. So, we were thinking about using an aluminum hub wheel with flat polyurethane tread such as this one
http://www.greatlakescaster.com/colson_caster_corporation______10_x_3_polyurethane_on_aluminum_core_wheel-7.00010.976.php
This 10 inch wheel may be a bit large, but you get the idea.
Are we on the right track? Can you suggest an alternative?
We may also design the pitching machine to allow for a separate flywheel. This way, we could tune the momentum of the wheel.
Thanks!
You don’t need machining to make a prototype pitcher. Just connect a wheel to a drill, put the wheel between a compressed surface and the ball, fire put he drill, and push the ball through. Works every time. 
I was thinking about the possibility of adding dumbbells or other round steel weights to any kind of flywheel to add momentum. Might be worth a try…
Use the Andy Mark performance wheels and attach weights as you see fit.
You might try a wheelbarrow wheel with a pneumatic tire would be a decent size and they are usually made of steel and are pretty heavy. It would pretty cheap and easy to come by and would give you the flywheel effect that you are looking for. They usually come with bearings in the hub so that might be a trick to figure out how to transmit the torque but nothing that a little creativity cannot overcome.
We did the very same Tonight, but with two wheels.
If you use one wheel to shoot it I would recommend putting it on the bottom of the launcher and squeezing the ball between that and the top of the barrel. That would create a backspin and make the ball more stable in the air and it would bounce less once it hits something.
been there, tried that. Not reccommended unless you want to spend a bunch of time waiting for the wheel to rev up.
When I was was on 1747 we used 3 Kit wheels from 08 (6") direct drive to a cim… it had plenty of power and was pretty accurate.With the current range of parts, it could be done using an FP in a planetary if you wanted to save the cims for the drivetrain.
the sytem used that as well.
Here is a whole bunch of pitching machine videos from various companies that may be useful http://www.atomicrobotics.com/2012/01/shooting-machines-sizes-shapes/