Golf club head with textured faceplate and methods of manufacturing the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11478682-B2
Application number	US-202017121581-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2020
Priority date	Dec 13, 2019
Publication date	Oct 25, 2022
Grant date	Oct 25, 2022

Abstract

Embodiments of a golf club head with a textured strikeface and methods to form said club head through laser shock treatment are generally described herein. The golf club head can comprise a body and a strikeface. The strikeface has a textured front surface, with an array of indentions. Each indention can have a footprint area of between 0.01 μm 2 (1×10 −8 mm 2 ) to 250,000 μm 2 (0.25 mm 2 ). The textured front surface can affect the spin imparted to a golf ball upon impact. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A golf club head comprising:
a body comprising a heel end and a toe end;
a strikeface comprising a geometric center;

wherein:
the strikeface comprises a front surface;
the front surface comprises a plurality of pocket regions:
each pocket region of the plurality of pocket regions comprises a plurality of indentions;
each indention of the plurality of indentions comprises a center point, one or more sidewalls, and a bottom surface;
each indention has a footprint area measured as the area bounded by the sidewalls within a plane coincident with the front surface;
the footprint area is between 0.01 μm 2 and 250,000 μm 2 ;
each indention has a maximum depth measured orthogonal to the front surface, from the bottom surface to a plane coincident with the front surface;
the maximum depth is between 0.1 μm to 15 μm;
each indention has a width measured in a heel-to-toe direction through the center point of the indention;
the width is between 0.1 μm and 500 μm;
the plurality of indentions are formed by a laser shock surface patterning process;
each pocket region is spaced apart from adjacent pocket regions by a pocket region separation distance; and
the plurality of pocket regions do not overlap each other.

2. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein:
each indention has a height measured in a sole-to-top rail direction through the center point of the indention; and
the height is between 0.1 μm and 500 μm.

3. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein a coefficient of friction between the front surface and a urethane covered golf ball is between 0.05 and 0.95.

4. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein each indention's footprint area has a shape selected from the group consisting of: a square shape, a triangular shape, a rectangular shape, a circular shape, and a hexagonal shape.

5. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sidewalls comprises a number of sidewalls selected from the group consisting of: one sidewall, two sidewalls, three sidewalls, four sidewalls, five sidewalls, six sidewalls, seven sidewalls, eight sidewalls, nine sidewalls, and ten sidewalls.

6. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of indentions covers between 30% to 60% of the front surface.

7. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of indentions covers between 60% to 100% of the front surface.

8. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein the footprint area is between 500 μm 2 and 100,000 μm 2 .

9. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein every indention of the plurality of indentions is spaced apart from adjacent indentions by a separation distance of between 1 μm and 250 μm (approximately 3.9×10 −5 inch and approximately 0.0098 inch).

10. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of indentions increase golf ball spin rate by 5% to 30%, under wet conditions.

11. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of indentions increase launch angle by 1-3 degrees, under wet conditions.

12. A golf club head comprising:
a body comprising a heel end and a toe end;
a strikeface comprising a geometric center;

wherein:
the strikeface comprises a front surface;
the front surface comprises a plurality of pocket regions;
each pocket region of the plurality of pocket regions comprises an indention array, having multiple indention rows aligned parallel to an array axis;
each indention comprises a center point, one or more sidewalls, and a bottom surface;
each indention has a footprint area measured as the area bounded by the sidewalls within a plane coincident with the front surface;
the footprint area is between 0.01 μm 2 and 250,000 μm 2 ;
each indention has a maximum depth measured orthogonal to the front surface, from the bottom surface to a plane coincident with the front surface;
the maximum depth is between 0.1 μm to 15 μm;
each indention has a width measured parallel to the array axis through the center point of the indention;
the width is between 0.1 μm and 500 μm;
the indention array having the multiple indention rows is formed by a laser shock surface patterning process;
each pocket region is spaced apart from adjacent pocket regions by a pocket region separation distance; and
the plurality of pocket regions do not overlap each other.

13. The golf club head of claim 12 , wherein:
the golf club head further comprises a horizontal reference axis, which extends through the geometric center of the strikeface from the heel end to the toe end; and
the indention array is angled such that the array axis intersects the horizontal reference axis at an angle of plus or minus 0 to 90 degrees.

14. The golf club head of claim 13 , wherein:
the indention array is angled such that the array axis intersects the horizontal reference axis at an angle selected from the group consisting of: plus or minus 10 degrees, plus or minus 20 degrees, plus or minus 30 degrees, plus or minus 40 degrees, plus or minus 45 degrees, plus or minus 50 degrees, plus or minus 60 degrees, plus or minus 70 degrees, plus or minus 80 degrees, and 90 degrees.

15. The golf club head of claim 12 , wherein:
the golf club head further comprises a horizontal reference axis, a low region, and a high region;
the horizontal reference axis extends through the geometric center of the strikeface from the heel end to the toe end;
the low region is below the horizontal reference axis;
the high region is above the horizontal reference axis; and
a majority of the indention array is located within the low region.

16. The golf club head of claim 12 , wherein a coefficient of friction between the front surface and a urethane covered golf ball is between 0.05 and 0.95.

17. The golf club head of claim 12 , wherein:
the indention array comprises an array length, measured in a direction from the heel end to the toe end; and
the array length is between 1.5 inch and 2.5 inches.

18. A golf club head comprising:
a body;
a strikeface;

wherein:
the strikeface comprises a front surface;
the front surface comprises a plurality of pocket regions;
each pocket region of the plurality of pocket regions comprises an indention array, having multiple indention rows aligned parallel to an array axis;
each indention comprises a center point, one or more sidewalls, and a bottom surface;
each indention has a footprint area measured as the area bounded by the sidewalls within a plane coincident with the front surface;
the footprint area is between 0.01 μm 2 and 250,000 μm 2 ;
each indention has a maximum depth measured orthogonal to the front surface, from the bottom surface to a plane coincident with the front surface;
each indention has a width measured parallel to the array axis through the center point of the indention;
the width is between 0.1 μm and 500 μm;
each indention comprises an aspect ratio, which equals the maximum depth over the width;
the aspect ratio is between 3 and 150;
the indention array having the multiple indention rows is formed by a laser shock surface patterning process;
each pocket region is spaced apart from adjacent pocket regions by a pocket region separation distance; and
the plurality of pocket regions do not overlap each other.

19. The golf club head of claim 18 , wherein the aspect ratio is between 75 and 125.

20. The golf club head of claim 18 , wherein the aspect ratio is between 50 and 100.

Assignees

• Karsten Mfg Corp

Inventors

• Spackman Clayson C

Classifications

• A63B53/0445 Primary

  Details of grooves or the like on the impact surface · CPC title

• B23K26/362

  Laser etching · CPC title

• A63B53/0466

  wood-type · CPC title

• A63B2053/0479

  Wedge-type clubs, details thereof · CPC title

• B23K26/356

  by shock processing · CPC title