Variable Thickness Golf Club Face Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Golf club head manufacturers face challenges in designing USGA-conforming clubs that balance high moments of inertia for forgiveness with large striking surface sizes, often requiring trade-offs between these performance characteristics due to mass constraints and regulatory limits on COR and PCT.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a variable thickness face with specific thickness profiles along the x-axis and z-axis, increasing the moment of inertia and striking surface area while maintaining durability and compliance with USGA regulations, achieved through equations defining minimum, maximum, and nominal thicknesses that vary radially from the face's center, allowing for increased discretionary weight distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the size of the striking surface is increased to improve forgiveness, then the moment of inertia increases, but the face thickness must be increased to maintain durability, which reduces the coefficient of restitution
Solution Approach 1:
The face is designed with variable thickness, where different regions have different thicknesses optimized for their specific functions. The thickness varies radially from the center, with thicker regions providing durability and appropriate COR in critical areas, while thinner regions allow for larger overall face size without compromising durability or COR excessively.
Solution Approach 2:
The thickness parameter of the face is changed from a uniform value to a variable function of radial distance. This parameter change allows the face to achieve both large size for forgiveness and appropriate COR by optimizing thickness at each radial position rather than using a single thickness value throughout.
2Reliability
If the moment of inertia is increased to improve forgiveness, then the mass distribution is changed, but the USGA regulations limit the maximum head volume and mass
Solution Approach 1:
The mass distribution parameters are optimized by changing the thickness parameter of the face radially. This allows the moment of inertia to be increased through strategic mass distribution in the body regions while keeping the overall head volume within USGA limits. The variable thickness face enables fine-tuning of mass distribution without adding excessive volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The club head utilizes composite construction with a body and a face that can be made from different materials or material compositions. This allows optimization of the body for high moment of inertia while maintaining overall volume constraints, and the face for appropriate COR and durability.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If the face thickness is increased to maintain durability, then the coefficient of restitution is improved, but the moment of inertia decreases
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the face have different thicknesses optimized for their specific functions. Regions requiring high COR have appropriate thickness, while other regions use thinner material to maximize moment of inertia. This local optimization resolves the contradiction between COR and moment of inertia.
Solution Approach 2:
The thickness parameter is changed from uniform to variable, allowing the face to achieve both appropriate COR in critical regions and high moment of inertia overall. The radial variation in thickness enables simultaneous optimization of both parameters.
Data Source
AI summary
A golf club head includes a body defining an interior cavity. The body includes a sole positioned at a bottom portion of the golf club head, a crown positioned at a top portion, and a skirt positioned around a periphery between the sole and crown. The body has a forward portion and a rearward portion. The club head includes a face positioned at the forward portion of the body. The face defines a striking surface having an ideal impact location at a golf club head origin. Some embodiments of the club head have a high moment of inertia and variable thickness face.