Golf Club Head Ballast Undercut Stress Relief
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional golf club heads become rigid due to thickened faces and soles, leading to a degradation of the diving board or spring behavior, which limits energy transfer from the club to the ball at impact.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a hollow body iron with a ballast undercut and a cascading sole, allowing for reduced face thickness while maintaining stress relief and improved energy transfer, achieved through a combination of a weighted ballast and advanced geometries in the sole and ballast.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the face and sole are thickened to ensure traditional golf clubs do not exceed maximum stress limits, then the club becomes more rigid and structurally stronger, but the diving board or spring behavior of the club head is degraded
Solution Approach 1:
The club head is divided into multiple regions with different thickness characteristics: a thinned forward region for energy transfer and a thicker rear region for structural strength. The sole is segmented into a forward region with reduced thickness and a rear region with greater thickness, allowing each region to serve its specific function without compromising the other.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the club head are given different local properties: the face and forward sole region are thinned to enhance flexibility and energy transfer, while the rear region maintains greater thickness for structural strength and stress distribution. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction by allowing the club to be both strong where needed and flexible where needed.
2Use of energy by moving object
If the face thickness is reduced to improve energy transfer and spring behavior, then the diving board effect is enhanced, but peak stress values increase
Solution Approach 1:
The sole is segmented into a forward region with reduced thickness for energy transfer and a rear region with greater thickness for stress distribution. This segmentation allows the forward region to be thinned without subjecting the entire sole to reduced thickness, thereby managing peak stress through strategic thickening in the rear region.
Solution Approach 2:
The design transitions from uniform thickness to variable thickness across the sole, adding a dimensional variation that allows different regions to serve different functions. The forward region is thinned in one dimension to improve energy transfer, while the rear region maintains greater thickness to manage stress, resolving the contradiction through spatial differentiation.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the club head is made more rigid to maintain structural integrity, then maximum stress limits are not exceeded, but the spring-like behavior and energy transfer are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The club head is segmented into regions with different rigidity characteristics: the rear region maintains greater rigidity for structural integrity and stress management, while the forward region is thinned to reduce rigidity and enhance spring behavior. This segmented approach allows the club to be structurally sound where needed while remaining flexible where needed for energy transfer.
Solution Approach 2:
Different local regions of the club head are assigned different rigidity properties through variable thickness design. The rear region maintains greater rigidity for structural integrity, while the forward region is locally thinned to improve flexibility and energy transfer. This local quality differentiation resolves the contradiction by allowing the club to exhibit both structural stability and spring-like behavior in appropriate regions.
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
This design enhances the spring-like behavior of the club head, allowing for improved energy transfer and increased ball speed, while also reducing peak stress values and extending the wear life of the club head.
Implementation Method 1
Hollow body irons, ideally, operate as a diving board, initially deflecting rearward during impact and subsequently returning forward
Implementation Method 2
a ballast undercut and a cascading sole, allowing for reduced face thickness while maintaining stress relief
Data Source
AI summary
Described herein is a hollow body iron-type golf club head having a sole and ballast configured to relieve stress within a forward region of the sole. In a first configuration, the golf club head comprises a ballast undercut for relieving stress. In other configurations, the ballast undercut is combined with additional stress relief features, such as a cascading sole near the face sole juncture, for further reductions to face thickness. In further configurations, the ballast defines a recess for receiving a ballast weight having a density greater than the body, thereby improving mass properties of the golf club head.