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

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12064669-B2
Application number	US-202217932830-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2022
Priority date	Dec 13, 2019
Publication date	Aug 20, 2024
Grant date	Aug 20, 2024

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 μm2 (1×10−8 mm2) to 250,000 μm2 (0.25 mm2). 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, a toe end, a top rail, and a sole;
a strikeface comprising a geometric center;
wherein:
the golf club head defines a horizontal reference axis extending through the geometric center of the strikeface from the heel end to the toe end;
the strikeface defines a low region between the horizontal reference axis and the sole;
the low region of the strikeface comprises a textured region including 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 maximum depth measured orthogonal to the strikeface, from the bottom surface to a plane coincident with the strikeface;
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;
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 with 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 strikeface and a urethane covered golf ball is between 0.05 and 0.95.

4. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein each indention comprises a footprint area measured as an area bounded by the sidewalls within a plane coincident with the strikeface, the footprint area is between 0.01 μm 2 and 250,000 μm 2 .

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

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

7. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of indentions are formed by a laser shock surface patterning process.

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

9. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein each indention comprises an aspect ratio between 3 and 150, wherein the aspect ratio equals maximum depth over the width.

10. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of indentions are arranged in an indention array, having multiple indention rows aligned parallel to an array axis.

11. A golf club head comprising:
a body comprising a heel end, a toe end, a top rail, and a sole;
a strikeface comprising a geometric center;
wherein:
the golf club head defines a horizontal reference axis extending through the geometric center of the strikeface from the heel end to the toe end;
the strikeface defines a high region between the top rail and the horizontal reference axis;
the high region of the strikeface comprises a textured region including 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 maximum depth measured orthogonal to the strikeface, from the bottom surface to a plane coincident with the strikeface;
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;
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 with each other.

12. The golf club head of claim 11 , 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.

13. The golf club head of claim 11 , wherein a coefficient of friction between the strikeface and a urethane covered golf ball is between 0.05 and 0.95.

14. The golf club head of claim 11 , wherein each indention comprises a footprint area measured as an area bounded by the sidewalls within a plane coincident with the strikeface, the footprint area is between 0.01 μm 2 and 250,000 μm 2 .

15. The golf club head of claim 14 , wherein the footprint area of each indention has a shape selected from a group consisting of: a square shape, a triangular shape, a rectangular shape, a circular shape, and a hexagonal shape.

16. The golf club head of claim 11 , wherein the one or more sidewalls comprises a number of sidewalls selected from a group consisting of: one sidewall, two sidewalls, three sidewalls, four sidewalls, five sidewalls, six sidewalls, seven sidewalls, eight sidewalls, nine sidewalls, and ten sidewalls.

17. The golf club head of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of indentions are formed by a laser shock surface patterning process.

18. The golf club head of claim 11 , wherein each indention of the plurality of indentions is spaced apart from adjacent indentions by an indention separation distance of between 1 μm and 250 μm (approximately 3.9×10 −5 inch and approximately 0.0098 inch).

19. The golf club head of claim 11 , wherein each indention comprises an aspect ratio between 3 and 150, wherein the aspect ratio equals maximum depth over the width.

20. The golf club head of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of indentions are arranged in an indention array, having multiple indention rows aligned parallel to an array axis.

Assignees

• Karsten Mfg Corp

Inventors

• Spackman Clayson C

Classifications

• B23K26/356

  by shock processing · CPC title

• A63B53/0466

  wood-type · CPC title

• A63B2053/0479

  Wedge-type clubs, details thereof · CPC title

• A63B53/047

  iron-type · CPC title

• B23K26/362

  Laser etching · CPC title