Golf club head with increased radius of gyration and face reinforcement

Abstract

An improved high impact metal clubhead with a unique reinforced composite face wall, increased radius of gyration, and a positive lift air foil surface contour. The composite face wall includes an impact supporting wall rigidified by a pattern of integrally cast reinforcing bars that extend forwardly, rather than rearwardly, from the supporting wall. The reinforced supporting wall is covered by a very hard plastic ball striking insert that is cast in situ over the supporting wall. The increase in radius of gyration is accomplished by extending the heel and toe portions of the clubhead along the face wall further from the geometric center of the head, beyond present day parameters for high impact clubheads. And the positive lift is effected by contouring the top wall of the clubhead downwardly and rearwardly from the base wall more severely almost to the plane of the sole plate, and flattening the rear wall so it is almost co-planar with the sole plate. This configuration results in the top wall being equal to or greater in length than the combined length of the sole plate and rear wall in a vertical plane extending through the clubhead along the target line. The laws of continuity of matter and the air foil shape of the top wall eliminate the negative lift or drag in today's "woods" and offer the possibility of some positive lift to increase ball overspin.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONInvestment casting techniques innovated in the late 1960s have revolutionized the design, construction and performance of golf clubheads up to the present time Initially only novelty putters and irons were investment cast, and it was only until the early years of the 1980s that investment cast metal woods achieved any degree of commercial success. The initial iron clubheads that were investment cast in the very late 1960s and early 1970s innovated the cavity backed clubheads made possible by investment casting which enabled the molder and tool designer to form rather severe surface changes in the tooling that were not possible in prior manufacturing techniques for irons which were predominantly at that time forgings. The forging technology was expensive because of the repetition of forging impacts and the necessity for progressive tooling that rendered the forging process considerably more expensive than the investment casting process and that distinction ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

In accordance with the present invention, an improved high impact metal clubhead is provided w...

Problems solved by technology

The forging technology was expensive because of the repetition of forging impacts and the necessity for progressive tooling that rendered the forging process considerably more expensive than the investment casting process and that distinction is true today although there have been recent techniques in forging technology to increase the severity of surface contours able them at considerable expense.

Faced with this dilemma of manufacturing a clubhead of adequate strength while limiting the weight of the clubhead in a driving metal wood in the range of 195 to 210 grams, designers have found it difficult to increase the perimeter weighting effect of the clubhead.

Such a face depth was not formerly believed possible because of the requirement for face structural integrity under the high impact loads at 100 to 150 feet per second, and the weight requirements of the clubhead of 195 to 210 grams.

There are however limitations on the effectiveness of the reinforcing elements on the face wall of investment cast clubs and particularly metal woods.

However, the perimeter wall extending rearwardly from the forward wall inhibits the direct rearward removal of these core pieces...

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