Dimple patterns for golf balls

Abstract

The present invention provides dimple patterns with tetrahedral tilings where the dimples are arranged in multiple copies of a first domain and a second domain, and the dimple pattern in the first domain is different than the dimple pattern in the second domain. A majority of dimples are provided having a first plan shape and a first profile shape, and at least one of the domains has a sub-pattern of nearest neighbor dimples having either a plan shape or a dimple profile shape that is different than the majority of dimples.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a Continuation-in-Part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 672,910, filed Nov. 9, 2012, which is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 251,590, filed Oct. 3, 2011, now abandoned, which is a Divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 262,464 filed Oct. 31, 2008, now Pat. No. 8,029,388, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to golf balls, particularly to golf balls having improved dimple patterns. More particularly, the invention relates to methods of arranging dimples on a golf ball by generating irregular domains based on polyhedrons, packing the irregular domains with dimples, and tessellating the domains onto the surface of the golf ball. Still more particularly, this invention relates to dimple patterns with tetrahedral tilings wherein there exists a sub-pattern of dimples that ar...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a method for arranging dimples on a golf ball surface to improve its aerodynamic symmetry and make parting lines less visible. This is achieved by arranging the dimples in a pattern derived from an irregular domain generated from a regular or non-regular polyhedron. The method involves choosing control points of a polyhedron, generating an irregular domain based on those control points, packing the irregular domain with dimples, and tessellating the irregular domain to cover the surface of the golf ball.

Problems solved by technology

A sphere is a bluff body, which is an inefficient aerodynamic shape.

Because the number of symmetric solid plane systems is limited, it is difficult to devise new symmetric patterns.

Moreover, dimple patterns based some of these geometric shapes result in less than optimal surface coverage and other disadvantageous dimple arrangements.

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