Golf Club Head with Ripple Structure

Abstract

A golf club head with a shell structure constituting with a body part and a hitting surface (face) incorporates, a groove is formed in the body part near the interface with the hitting surface. Several additional ripples are formed in the inner surface of the face plate. The groove in the body part and ripples of the inner surface of the face plate contributed as a powerful shock absorber but also preventing breakage of the head as well as strong repulsive mechanism improving flying distances.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of Invention[0002]This invention relates generally to golf clubs and more particularly to the improvement of the driver head and fairway metal head.[0003]2. Description of Prior Art[0004]Conventional golf clubs especially drivers have been improved to maximize flying distances by increasing repulsive power of driver's striking face. Early efforts have lead to thin head faces with supporting structures (U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,001) to prevent breakage. Lately, more advanced structures such as volcano or convex like shapes (U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,084, U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,596 or U.S. Pat. No. 7,338,338 B2) with thick center portions and thin peripheral portions have been developed to increase repulsive power without breakage from high ball contact stress.[0005]Even though the recent improvements described prevent breakage of the sweet spot area, these kinds of structures suffer from having the weight in the center face which result in a smaller MOI, a...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]This invention was thought out to solve the problems mentioned above. Based on the impact mechanics, as the driver head face impacts the golf ball, the impact area absorbs shock energy and stores it by flexing backward at the moment of impact. The flexed driver head face improves energy transfer efficiency to the golf ball. Additionally, the flex of the driver head face results in a lower peak stress. By achieving this driver head face flex without substantial thinning of the sweet spot periphery, the proposed invention avoids the breakage issues associated with previous designs.

[0009]This invention provides a golf club having improved ball flight distances with relatively lower breakage rate of the club head. This is achieved by adding a groove as a shock absorbing device on the body part adjacent to the hitting area and constructing several donut or spiral shaped ripples on the inner surface of the face plate of hitting surface.

[0011]Conventionally, the face of the club head absorbs impact energy at the moment of impact against the golf ball and the face is bent in the opposite direction of the club head's movement. However, with the proposed structure, which has a slightly larger inner surface of a face plate than conventional structures, the stress diverges very fast through the thin and thick parts formed alternately as concentric rings (or ellipses). Consequently, regardless of the impact spot of the face, the stress per unit area is lower than that of conventional drivers and thus lowers the brakeage rate of the driver head.

[0012]Due to improved repellant power by the thin parts of the ripples (valley) and the raised maximum impact strength of the thick part of the ripples (peak), the club head has increased the driving distances with a lower breakage rate compared to the conventional designs. Also, the groove adjacent to the face works as a shock absorber and absorb the impact energy when the impact occurs on the peripheral region of the face.

Problems solved by technology

Additionally, the flex of the driver head face results in a lower peak stress.

If the stress of impact exceeds the material limits, the club head face or adjacent area can crack.

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