Variable-Thickness Golf Club Face Plate for Consistent CT
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Solution Overview
Problem
Golf club heads exhibit inconsistent ball flight characteristics due to discrepancies in characteristic time (CT) across the face plate, necessitating thicker face plates to comply with USGA limits, which compromises flexibility and performance.
Innovation Solution
A golf club head with a variable face thickness (VFT) design, featuring a central region with increased thickness and a peripheral region with reduced thickness, angled to normalize CT and maintain compliance with USGA guidelines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the face plate thickness is increased to ensure regions with inherently high CT remain below the USGA limit, then compliance with USGA limits is improved, but the CT in regions with inherently low CT decreases further, resulting in large variation in CT values across the face plate surface
Solution Approach 1:
The face plate is designed with non-uniform thickness distribution, where different regions have different thicknesses optimized for their specific CT characteristics. Thinner regions are placed where inherently low CT occurs to boost flexibility, while thicker regions are placed where inherently high CT occurs to maintain compliance, achieving both local optimization and overall consistency
Solution Approach 2:
The thickness parameter of the face plate is varied systematically across different regions to normalize the CT values. By changing the thickness parameter locally, the design compensates for the inherent CT variations and achieves uniform CT performance across the entire face plate surface
2Reliability
If the face plate is made thicker to maintain high CT regions below USGA limit, then compliance is improved, but flexibility and performance of the club head decrease
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of uniformly increasing the entire face plate thickness, the design applies local thickness variations tailored to specific regions. This allows the face plate to maintain compliance in high-CT regions while preserving flexibility in low-CT regions, thereby maintaining overall performance
Solution Approach 2:
The face plate is segmented into multiple regions with different thickness characteristics. This segmentation allows independent optimization of each region - some regions can be thicker for compliance while others remain thinner for flexibility, achieving a balance between compliance and performance
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a golf club head having a body portion and a face portion, wherein the face portion comprises a variable thickness profile disposed on the rear surface of the face plate. The face portion comprises an x axis and a y axis perpendicular to the x axis, dividing the front surface into quadrants. The variable thickness profile comprises a peripheral region, a transition region, and a central region. The central region extends partially into all four quadrants. The thickness of the face plate in the transition region tapers between the maximum thickness of the face plate in the central region and the minimum thickness of the face plate in the peripheral region. The transition region extends to portions of the peripheral region near to the top portion and the bottom portion. The transition region extends nearer to the bottom portion than the top portion.