Iron Face Thickness Profile for COR and Vibration Damping
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Cavity-back golf club heads with inserts or dampers for sound and vibration damping adversely affect performance characteristics such as coefficient of restitution (COR) and center of gravity (CG), leading to unpleasant feel and sound during impact.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a localized stiffened region on the striking face with optimized face thickness profiles and cutouts in the damper to maintain performance while improving sound and feel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If stiff badges, dampers, and/or other inserts are placed in the cavity to provide sound and vibration damping, then sound and vibration damping is improved, but coefficient of restitution (COR) and characteristic time (CT) deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating a localized stiffened region on the striking face with a specific thickness profile rather than uniformly stiffening the entire face. This localized approach provides the necessary stiffness to maintain COR and CT performance while allowing other regions to remain flexible for effective vibration damping. The stiffened region is positioned specifically to influence ball impact characteristics without compromising overall face flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the striking face into different regions with different stiffness characteristics. The localized stiffened region is separated from the rest of the face, allowing independent optimization of each region's properties. This segmentation enables the stiffened area to maintain performance characteristics while the surrounding areas provide damping benefits.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If stiff badges, dampers, and/or other inserts are placed in the cavity to provide sound and vibration damping, then sound and vibration damping is improved, but weight of the golf club head increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses local quality by implementing a localized stiffened region rather than adding heavy dampers throughout the cavity. This approach provides necessary structural stiffness in a specific area without adding significant weight to the entire club head. The localized thickening of the face portion achieves the damping effect where needed while maintaining overall weight efficiency.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If stiff badges, dampers, and/or other inserts are placed in the cavity to provide sound and vibration damping, then sound and vibration damping is improved, but center of gravity (CG) height increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by concentrating the stiffening effect in a localized region on the striking face rather than adding mass throughout the cavity. This localized approach influences the CG position minimally compared to distributed damping solutions, as the added material is confined to a specific area rather than being spread throughout the club head structure.
4Reliability
If face thickness is increased to maintain stiffness and performance, then coefficient of restitution (COR) and characteristic time (CT) are maintained, but weight of the club head increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent resolves this contradiction by applying local quality - increasing face thickness only in a localized stiffened region rather than uniformly throughout the entire face. This selective thickening provides the necessary stiffness to maintain COR and CT performance characteristics while minimizing the total amount of material added, thereby limiting weight increase to only what is necessary for performance maintenance.
Data Source
AI summary
Iron-type golf club heads can have a high-COR face portion with an optimized face thickness profile that maximizes selected performance characteristics, such as ball speed, ball spin or ball trajectory angle, while maintaining certain required constraint properties, such as keeping stresses low for durability. Such face portions can have certain regions that are significantly stiffer than other regions of the face portion. For example, a low region of the face portion can be significantly stiffer than a high region of the face, or one quadrant of the face can be significantly stiffer than other quadrants of the face. Disclosed face thickness profiles can feature irregularly shaped contours that maximize the distribution of material in the face for optimal performance characteristics within defined constraints.