The present invention relates generally to an improved golf club head wherein a portion of the golf club head is made out of a multi-layered lightweight material. Using this lightweight material at different portions of the golf club head allows more discretionary mass to be created, which can be used to further improve the performance of the golf club by manipulating the center of gravity and moment of inertia of the golf club head.
It is generally understood in the industry that the performance of a golf club head is largely dependent on the location of the Center of Gravity (CG) and Moment of Inertia (MOI) of the golf club head. In order to adjust the CG and MOI of a golf club head, golf club designers often strategically place mass at specific locations within the golf club head to achieve the desired CG and MOI. Pursuant to the design objective above, golf club designers have constantly struggled with way to reduce unnecessary mass from various portions of the golf club in order to strategically place it at more desirable portions. This process is so important to the design of a golf clubs; the golf club design industry even has a specific term used to describe this type of mass savings, called “discretionary mass”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,833 to Werner et al. illustrates one of the earlier examples of trying to create more discretionary mass by creating a lightweight low density striking face that is supported to its rear by a hollow shell structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,860,824 to Evans illustrates another example of golf club designers attempt in creating more discretionary mass. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,860,824 it is contemplated that a golf club head has a body portion that is preferably composed of a lightweight non-metallic material to help reduce mass from the body portion of the golf club head.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,331 to Lo et al. illustrates another example of increasing discretionary mass by creating a composite-metal wood-style golf club head having a metal casing with at least two opening in the crown in which composite covers are disposed.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 7,361,100 to Morales et al. illustrates a modern day example of utilizing modern day materials to increase the discretionary mass within a golf club. More specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 7,361,100 discloses a golf club head that is formed with a crown having an aperture with an arcuate rear edge and a forward edge that is substantially parallel to the striking face, wherein the opening formed in the aperture by the ribs are filled with an organic-composite material such as carbon fiber epoxy.
It should be noted that although all of the above referenced prior art are very capable of reducing unnecessary mass from various portions of the golf club head, it fails to address the ancillary drawback associated with the usage of lightweight materials such as graphite composite. When lightweight materials are used to replace metallic materials at various portions of the golf club, the sound and feel of the golf club can significantly degrade, resulting in a undesirable golf club. Hence it can be seen from the above that although the current art is capable of creating discretionary mass by using lightweight materials, it fails to do so while minimizing the undesirable sound and feel of the golf club.
One aspect of the present invention is a golf club head comprising of a striking face portion located at a frontal portion of said golf club head and a body portion attached to an aft portion of said striking face portion further comprising a crown portion and a sole portion. The golf club head has at least one of the crown portion and the sole portion further comprising of a base layer and a lightweight cover layer, wherein the base layer further comprises a plurality of cutouts and the lightweight cover layer has an Internal Exposure Percentage of between about 15% to about 60%.
In another aspect of the present invention, a golf club head comprising of a striking face portion located at a frontal portion of said golf club head and a body portion attached to an aft portion of said striking face portion further comprising a crown portion and a sole portion. The golf club head has at least one of the crown portion and the sole portion further comprising of a base layer and a lightweight cover layer, wherein the base layer further comprises a plurality of cutouts and the lightweight cover layer has an Internal Exposure Percentage of between about 15% to about 60%, and the base layer has a maximum thickness of less than about 0.50 mm and the lightweight cover layer has a maximum thickness of less than about 0.30 mm.
In another aspect of the invention is a golf club head wherein the golf club head produces a sound that has a Critical Time Tcritical of greater than about 0.01 seconds and less than about 0.02 seconds; the Critical Time Tcritical is defined as the amount of time it take the sound to oscillate from a peak amplitude Apeak to a point of 10% of the peak amplitude Apeak.
In another aspect of the invention is a golf club head wherein the lightweight cover layer has an Internal Exposure Percentage of 0%.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings, description and claims.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, further serve to explain the principles of the invention and to enable a person skilled in the pertinent art to make and use the invention.
The following detailed description describes the best currently contemplated modes of carrying out the invention. The description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention, since the scope of the invention is best defined by the appended claims.
Various inventive features are described below and each can be used independently of one another or in combination with other features. However, any single inventive feature may not address any or all of the problems discussed above or may only address one of the problems discussed above. Further, one or more of the problems discussed above may not be fully addressed by any of the features described below.
In order to provide a more clear illustration of the various components of the golf club head 100 in accordance with this exemplary embodiment of the present invention
The base layer 210 may generally be comprised out of a titanium type material with a density of between 4.0 g/cm3 and about 4.7 g/cm3, more preferably between about 4.1 g/cm3 and about 4.6 g/cm3, and most preferably about 4.4 g/cm3. This titanium base layer 210 not only serves to help provide structural rigidity to the crown portion 204 of the golf club head 200, but can also help contribute to the generation of discretionary mass by incorporating a plurality of cutouts 208 across the entire area. The plurality of cutouts 208 shown in this exemplary embodiment of the present invention may generally be oval or circular shaped in order to provide the most mass savings all while preserving the structural integrity of the base layer 210. However, it should be noted that although the oval or circular shaped cutouts 208 are preferred, many other types of cutout 208 geometry can be used to remove material from the base layer 210 without departing from the scope and content of the present invention.
When holes are cut out from a material, it is generally understood that the structural rigidity of the material may suffer. Hence, in order to address the potential degradation of the structural rigidity in the crown portion 204 due to the plurality of cutouts 208, the present invention may utilize a combination of different technologies. First and foremost, the present invention attempts to recapture some of the lost structural rigidity by utilizing a higher strength titanium material for the base layer 210. In one preferred embodiment of the present invention ATI 425 Titanium material is used; however, numerous other high strength material such as SP 700 Titanium, KS 120 Titanium, KS 100 Titanium, Titanium 8-1-1—may all be used without departing from the scope and content of the present invention so long as it provides an elevated strength performance. In addition to the utilization of a high strength titanium material for the base layer 210, the present invention also utilizes a lightweight cover layer 212.
The lightweight cover layer 212 shown in
The combination of the base layer 210 and the lightweight cover layer 212 allows the golf club head 200 to achieve the maximum amount of discretionary mass all while preserving the structural rigidity in the crown 204 portion to be able to endure the high impact stressed between a golf club 200 and a golf ball. The amount of discretionary mass saved from the crown 204 portion can then easily be applied to more strategic locations within a golf club head 200.
One exemplary location of this more strategic location of discretionary mass can also be seen in
In order to illustrate how the various components interact with each other in an assembled setting,
It is worth noting here that although the above discussion focuses on the mass, thickness, and density of the different layers in order to reduce unnecessary mass and create discretionary mass, the crux of the current invention is based on the ability to achieve the mass savings without sacrificing the all-important sound and feel of the golf club head. Based on the discussion above one can clearly see that the material used for the lightweight cover layer, by the nature of having a lower density, can help reduce the mass of the golf club when it is used compared to standard titanium type material. However, the present invention recognizes that when lightweight material is used to replace traditional titanium materials, the sound and feel of the golf club head suffers. This degradation in the sound and feel of the golf club when lightweight material is used occurs because the acoustic vibration that occurs during impact with a golf ball will differ depending on the material.
The present invention not only recognizes the potential for degradation of sound, but also addresses this issue by finding the proper balance between the amount of mass saving achieved together with the preservation of the sound and feel of the golf club head. In order to achieve this harmonious balance, the present invention has found that by focusing on the amount of the lightweight cover layer 412 being exposed internally through the cutouts 408 of the base layer 410 will help preserve the acoustic signature and feel of the golf club head all while obtaining the discretionary mass desired. This amount of exposed lightweight cover layer 412 through the cutouts 408 is generally expressed as a percentage of the total internal surface area of the lightweight cover layer 412, and is extremely critical to the proper functionality of the present invention. More specifically, it can be said that in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, only between about 15% to about 60% of the internal surface area of the lightweight cover layer 412 is exposed internally through the cutouts 408, more preferably between about 20% to about 50%, and most preferably between about 25% to about 45%. The range of internal surface area exposed is critical to the proper functionality of the present invention because if too much of the lightweight cover layer 412 is exposed internally through the cutouts 408, the acoustic sound and feel of the golf club suffers. Alternatively, if too little of the internal surface area of the lightweight cover layer 412 is exposed through the cutouts 408, then the mass savings does not become significant enough to achieve any mass savings.
In order to quantify this very important percentage, the present invention has created a very simplistic term called the “Internal Exposure Percentage”, defined as the internal surface area of the lightweight cover layer 412 that is exposed through the cutouts 408 divided by the total internal surface area of the lightweight cover layer 412. This “Internal Exposure Percentage” is summarized by Equation (1) below:
As described above, the Internal Exposure Percentage of a lightweight cover layer 412 for a golf club head in accordance with the present invention is most preferably between about 15% to about 60%, more preferably between about 20% to about 50%, and most preferably between about 25% to about 45%.
Moving onto the actual graph shown in
A golf club head in accordance with the present invention may generally have a Critical Time Tcritical of greater than about 0.01 seconds and less than about 0.02 second, more preferably greater than about 0.015 seconds and less than about 0.02 seconds, and most preferably greater than about 0.0175 and less than about 0.02 seconds without departing from the scope and content of the present invention. Alternatively speaking, it can be said that the time it takes for the sound amplitude to go from the peak amplitude Apeak to an amplitude that is 10% of peak amplitude Apeak is defined as the Critical Time Tcritical, and is generally greater than about 0.01 seconds and less than about 0.02, more preferably greater than about 0.015 seconds and less than about 0.02 seconds, and most preferably greater than about 0.0175 seconds and less than about 0.02.
Other than in the operating example, or unless otherwise expressly specified, all of the numerical ranges, amounts, values and percentages such as those for amounts of materials, moment of inertias, center of gravity locations, loft, draft angles, various performance ratios, and others in the aforementioned portions of the specification may be read as if prefaced by the word “about” even though the term “about” may not expressly appear in the value, amount, or range. Accordingly, unless indicated to the contrary, the numerical parameters set forth in the above specification and attached claims are approximations that may vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by the present invention. At the very least, and not as an attempt to limit the application of the doctrine of equivalents to the scope of the claims, each numerical parameter should at least be construed in light of the number of reported significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding techniques.
Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad scope of the invention are approximations, the numerical values set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely as possible. Any numerical value, however, inherently contains certain errors necessarily resulting from the standard deviation found in their respective testing measurements. Furthermore, when numerical ranges of varying scope are set forth herein, it is contemplated that any combination of these values inclusive of the recited values may be used.
It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing relates to exemplary embodiments of the present invention and that modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.
This application is a continuation-in-part (CIP) of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/945,243, filed. Nov. 18, 2015, the disclosure of which us incorporated by reference in its entirety.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20170136318 A1 | May 2017 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 14945243 | Nov 2015 | US |
Child | 15375877 | US |