Driver Club Face Composite Structure for CT Creep Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern golf club heads experience CT creep, exceeding USGA regulations after multiple impacts with a golf ball, making it difficult to maintain compliance.
Innovation Solution
A driver-type golf club head design featuring a strike face with a non-metal insert and a strike plate made of a fiber-reinforced polymer, combined with a monolithic construction and specific material properties to maintain CT within regulatory limits after repeated impacts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional metal club head design is used, then initial CT performance is good, but CT increases excessively after multiple impacts (CT creep)
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies composite materials by combining a titanium alloy club head body with a polymer material insert in the strike face region. This composite construction allows the club head to maintain CT compliance after multiple impacts, as the polymer insert provides CT stability while the titanium body provides structural integrity. The composite approach resolves the contradiction between initial CT performance and CT stability after repeated use.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes material parameters by selecting specific polymer materials with appropriate mechanical properties (density between 1-2 g/cm³, specific tensile strength, elongation, and impact resistance). By carefully selecting and controlling material parameters, the club head maintains CT within regulatory limits after multiple impacts, addressing the reliability issue without compromising structural integrity.
2Reliability
If non-metal insert material is used, then CT compliance is maintained after multiple impacts, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the club head into distinct components: a titanium alloy body and a separate polymer insert. This segmentation allows each component to be manufactured independently using optimized processes, then assembled together. The insert can be molded separately and then integrated into the club head, reducing overall manufacturing complexity while maintaining CT compliance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses an intermediary approach by introducing a polymer insert as a mediating element between the titanium body and the strike face. This insert serves as an intermediate component that provides the necessary CT stability while being manufactured separately and then integrated into the club head structure, simplifying the overall manufacturing process.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a driver-type golf club head that has a strike face. The strike face has a central region, defined by a 40 mm by 20 mm rectangular area centered on a geometric center of the strike face and elongated in a heel-to-toe direction. The driver-type golf club head is configured such that after 500 impacts of a standard golf ball at the geometric center of the strike face, where at each impact the standard golf ball has a velocity of 52 meters per second, the CT of the strike face at any point within the central region is less than 256 microseconds and the CT at the geometric center of the strike face is no more than five microseconds different than the initial CT value.