Customizable Putter Head with Interchangeable Weight and Face Components
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current putter designs fail to provide a personalized feel and consistent ball launch for golfers due to their fixed structures, which can lead to inconsistencies in putting performance, as they do not adequately account for individual swing characteristics and preferences.
Innovation Solution
The development of putters with a ball striking face featuring a polymeric material exposed through openings, combined with a rear body member that can be customized in weight, distribution, and material, allowing for interchangeable components to adjust the putter's characteristics to better match a golfer's swing and preferences.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If putter designs use fixed structures, then manufacturing is simple, but they fail to provide personalized feel and consistent ball launch
Solution Approach 1:
The putter head is divided into multiple interchangeable components including weight members, face inserts, and rear body members that can be independently selected and attached. This segmentation allows golfers to customize weight distribution, face material, and overall characteristics without designing entirely different putter heads, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The putter head design incorporates universal attachment mechanisms and standardized interfaces that allow multiple weight members and face inserts to be interchangeably mounted on the same putter head body. This multi-functionality enables a single putter head to serve multiple customization purposes, achieving personalized feel without proportionally increasing device complexity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If putter designs use interchangeable components for customization, then adaptability improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the putter into standardized components (head body, weight members, face inserts), each component can be manufactured independently using optimized processes. This segmentation allows parallel production of components that are then assembled through standardized attachment mechanisms, improving ease of manufacture despite increased customization options.
Solution Approach 2:
The design allows customization through parameter changes such as weight member mass, face insert material properties, and center of gravity positioning, rather than requiring completely different structural designs. This approach enables extensive adaptability while maintaining consistent manufacturing processes for each component type.
3Reliability
If putter designs use polymeric material on ball striking face, then feel and consistency improve, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The polymeric face insert is pre-formed with the desired surface characteristics and material properties before being attached to the putter head. This preliminary action ensures consistent ball launch characteristics are built into the insert itself, reducing the precision requirements for the final assembly process while maintaining reliable and consistent ball launch.
Solution Approach 2:
The design uses composite construction with polymeric face inserts mounted on metal or composite head bodies. This composite approach allows the polymeric material to provide consistent ball launch and desired feel, while the supporting structure provides dimensional stability and precise positioning, thereby achieving reliability without excessive manufacturing precision requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
Putter heads include a ball striking head body member and a rear body member. In some putter heads, the ball striking head body member includes a rearwardly extending body support having an opening defined therein, and the rear body member extends through this opening. In other putter heads, the rear body member includes a forwardly projecting platform that includes an alignment aid thereon. In still other putter heads, the ball striking head body member includes rearward extending arms at the heel and toe sides that extend rearward at an angle to a location outside the heel and toe edges, respectively, of the ball striking face. Additionally, the rear body member of other putter heads have a first end engaged at a heel side of the ball striking head body member and a free second end that is not engaged with any portion of the putter head.