Non-Circular Injection Port Golf Ball Mold Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional golf ball molds struggle to achieve uniform dimple arrangement and high dimple surface coverage, leading to aerodynamic asymmetry and manufacturing defects such as molding defects, scorching, and core eccentricity, due to limitations in resin injection port design and dimple configuration.
Innovation Solution
A golf ball mold with non-circular resin injection ports formed between dimple-forming protrusions that intersect the parting line, featuring a shape with rotational symmetry and a specific surface area, allowing for dense dimple arrangements without imbalances in resin injection pressure and flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If circular injection ports are used with reduced diameter to accommodate dense dimple arrangements, then dimple surface coverage increases, but resin injection pressure imbalance and flow rate instability occur
Solution Approach 1:
The invention transitions from circular injection ports to non-circular (e.g., rectangular, triangular, or irregular) injection ports. This asymmetric shape allows for a larger opening area while maintaining compatibility with dense dimple arrangements, thereby increasing dimple surface coverage without causing resin injection pressure imbalance or flow rate instability.
2Manufacturing precision
If injection ports are positioned to avoid overlapping with dimple-forming protrusions, then dimple arrangement uniformity improves, but available surface area for injection ports decreases
Solution Approach 1:
By采用非圆形 injection ports, the design can position the port opening in regions between dimple-forming protrusions while maintaining sufficient opening area. The asymmetric shape allows the port to navigate the limited available space effectively, ensuring both uniform dimple arrangement and adequate injection port surface area.
3Ease of manufacture
If rectilinear parting planes are used for ease of mold fabrication, then manufacturing simplicity increases, but dimple arrangement uniformity decreases due to wide great circles at the equator
Solution Approach 1:
The invention employs non-circular injection ports with asymmetric shapes that can be integrated into molds with rectilinear parting planes. This allows the mold to maintain simple rectilinear parting planes for ease of fabrication while the asymmetric injection port design enables uniform dimple arrangement by providing adequate opening area in strategically positioned regions.
Data Source
AI summary
A golf ball mold that is composed of a plurality of mold parts which removably mate to form a cavity having an inner wall with a plurality of dimple-forming protrusions thereon, wherein a non-circular resin injection port is formed between a plurality of mutually adjoining dimple-forming protrusions which include dimple-forming protrusions that lie across a parting line of the mold. Also provided is a golf ball molded using such a mold, and a golf ball manufacturing method which uses such a mold. By using the mold of the invention, even when manufacturing golf balls with a high dimple surface coverage on which the dimples are tightly arranged particularly up to the vicinity of the resin injection port, imbalances in the resin injection pressure and flow rate during injection molding are suppressed, enabling golf balls to be manufactured without production problems such as molding defects, scorching, core deformation and core eccentricity.