Golf Ball Cover Thickness and Hardness Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional golf balls face challenges in achieving a balance between resilience performance, spin performance, spin stability, and scuff resistance, with soft covers affecting resilience and thin covers compromising spin performance.
Innovation Solution
A golf ball design featuring a core with a spherical center and mid layer, and a cover with a thickness of 1.0 mm or less and hardness of 20 or greater to 50, which maintains spin performance and stability while preventing deterioration of resilience, achieved through specific compositions and crosslinking agents in the inner and outer layers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a soft cover is employed to improve spin performance, then spin rate increases, but resilience performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by precisely controlling the cover thickness to 1.0 mm or less and hardness to 20-50, creating an optimal balance point where the cover is thin enough to maintain resilience but still sufficiently substantial to generate spin. This quantitative parameter optimization resolves the contradiction between spin performance and resilience.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs composite materials by combining the cover with a multi-layer core structure (center inner sphere, center outer layer, and mid layer) having specific hardness gradients. This composite construction allows the soft cover to generate spin while the harder core layers maintain resilience, distributing the functional requirements across different material layers.
2Strength
If a thin cover is used to maintain resilience performance, then resilience is preserved, but spin performance is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent resolves this contradiction by establishing specific parameter ranges: cover thickness of 1.0 mm or less and hardness of 20-50. These parameter thresholds ensure the cover remains thin enough to preserve resilience while maintaining sufficient mass and compliance to generate adequate spin during clubface impact.
3Strength
If cover hardness is increased to improve scuff resistance, then scuff resistance improves, but spin performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent resolves this contradiction by optimizing the cover hardness parameter to fall within 20-50 on the Shore D scale. This intermediate hardness range provides sufficient resistance to scuffing from clubface friction while remaining compliant enough to deform during impact and generate spin, avoiding the trade-off present in conventional designs.
Data Source
AI summary
A golf ball containing a core, a reinforcing layer and a cover. The core is formed by a center and a mid layer. The center is formed by a center inner sphere and a center outer layer. The center inner sphere and the center outer layer are obtained through crosslinking of a rubber composition. The base polymer of the mid layer is an ionomer resin. The base polymer of the cover is a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer. The thickness Tc of the cover is equal to or less than 1.0 mm. The hardness Hc of the cover is 20 or greater and 50 or less. The ratio (D2/D3) of the amount of compressive deformation D2 of the core to the amount of compressive deformation D3 of the golf ball is 0.98 or greater and 1.10 or less.