Golf Club Face Insert With Microspheres for Sound and COR
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing golf club heads with polymer fills or inserts to dampen sound reduce ball speed and coefficient of restitution (COR), necessitating a material that improves sound without compromising these performance metrics.
Innovation Solution
A golf club head featuring a polymeric material with microscopic bubbles, such as glass, ceramic, or plastic, integrated into the striking face to maintain COR while enhancing sound quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-generated harmful factors
If a polymer fill or insert is used to dampen sound, then sound quality is improved, but ball speed and coefficient of restitution (COR) are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies porous materials by incorporating a foam material with a cellular structure into the club head assembly. The foam material includes a plurality of cells that allow controlled flexing and vibration dampening. This porous structure enables the material to absorb impact vibrations and improve sound quality while maintaining sufficient flexibility to preserve ball speed and COR, unlike solid rigid polymers that overly constrain face flexing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies composite materials by combining the foam material with other materials in the club head assembly. The foam material is integrated with the club head body, striking face, or weight system to create a composite structure that balances vibration dampening properties with mechanical performance requirements, achieving both improved sound quality and maintained ball speed.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If a rigid polymer with Poisson's ratio of 0.5 is used to fill cavity, then sound dampening is improved, but face flexing is prevented and COR decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies porous materials by using a foam material with a cellular structure instead of solid rigid polymer. The foam structure provides void spaces that reduce the effective Poisson's ratio and allow controlled compression and expansion during impact. This enables the material to dampen sound vibrations while still permitting sufficient face flexing to maintain COR above regulatory thresholds.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies parameter changes by modifying the physical properties of the damping material from solid rigid polymer to foam material with specific cellular structure. This changes the material's Poisson's ratio, density, and compressibility parameters, allowing it to provide sound dampening while maintaining the flexibility needed for optimal COR performance.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The incorporation of microscopic bubbles in the polymeric material maintains or slightly improves COR and significantly reduces sound impact, offering improved sound quality without sacrificing ball speed.
Implementation Method 1
The presence of the microscopic bubbles in the polymeric material prevents the COR of the golf club head from decreasing by more than 0.10, and more preferably by more than 0.05, when compared with a golf club head having all of the same features and characteristics but which lacks a polymeric fill material completely
Data Source
AI summary
A putter-type golf club head having a body with a face insert composed of a cast urethane and glass microspheres is disclosed herein, as are methods of making face inserts with a polymer-microsphere mixture. The microspheres are non-uniformly distributed within the cast urethane to have a greater concentration of the microspheres at one section of the insert. The microspheres include K, S, iM, and XLD microspheres.