Golf club

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016287952-A1
Application number	US-201514812737-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 29, 2015
Priority date	Jul 22, 2014
Publication date	Oct 6, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A golf club head includes a golf club body, a hosel connected to a heel portion of the golf club body, a face connected to a front of the golf club body, the face including an inner surface, an outer surface, and at least one boundary condition feature.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A golf club head comprising:
a golf club body, the golf club body including a crown, a sole, and a skirt connecting the crown to the sole, the golf club body including a heel portion and a toe portion; a hosel connected to the heel portion; and a face connected to a front of the golf club body, the face including
an inner surface and an outer surface defining a thickness, the thickness being measured as the distance between the inner surface and the outer surface;
at least one face-located boundary condition feature, and
at least one variation in thickness proximate to at least one end of at least one face-located boundary condition feature.

2 . The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein each variation in thickness is an increase in thickness relative to at least one portion of the face that is distal to the end.

3 . The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein the boundary condition feature is a channel.

4 . The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein the boundary condition feature is a thru-slot.

5 . The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein the variation in thickness is a boss.

6 . The golf club head of claim 5 , wherein the boss is about cylindrical.

7 . The golf club head of claim 5 , wherein the boss encapsulates the end of the boundary condition feature.

8 . The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein each face-located boundary condition feature is elongate in a direction from crown-to-sole and including a crownward end and a soleward end.

9 . The golf club head of claim 1 , further comprising a shaft connection system, the shaft connection system allowing adjustment of at least one of loft angle, lie angle, and face angle of the golf club head.

10 . A golf club head comprising:
a golf club body, the golf club body including a crown, a sole, and a skirt connecting the crown to the sole, the golf club body including a heel portion and a toe portion; a hosel connected to the heel portion; and a face connected to a front of the golf club body, the face including
a geometric center defining the origin of a coordinate system having an x-axis being tangent to the face at the geometric center and parallel to a ground plane, a y-axis being orthogonal to the x-axis and parallel to the ground plane, and a z-axis being orthogonal to both the x-axis and the y-axis, and
an inner surface and an outer surface defining a thickness, the thickness being measured as the distance between the inner surface and the outer surface;
at least one boundary condition feature being elongate in at least one of the x, y, and z directions and having at least one face-located end being defined along the face, and a variation in thickness coincident with each face-located end of the at least one boundary condition feature.

11 . The golf club head of claim 10 , wherein the variation in thickness is a boss.

12 . The golf club head of claim 11 , wherein the boss is about cylindrical.

13 . The golf club head of claim 11 , wherein the boss encapsulates the end of the boundary condition feature.

14 . The golf club head of claim 10 , further comprising a shaft connection system, the shaft connection system allowing adjustment of at least one of loft angle, lie angle, and face angle of the golf club head.

15 . A golf club head comprising:
a golf club body, the golf club body including a crown, a sole, and a skirt connecting the crown to the sole, the golf club body including a heel portion, a toe portion, a leading edge, and a trailing edge, the golf club body defining a volume of greater than 150 cubic centimeters; a hosel connected to the heel portion; and a face connected to a front of the golf club body, the face including
a geometric center defining the origin of a coordinate system having an x-axis being tangent to the face at the geometric center and parallel to a ground plane, a y-axis being orthogonal to the x-axis and parallel to the ground plane, and a z-axis being orthogonal to both the x-axis and the y-axis;
an inner surface and an outer surface;
at least one face-located boundary condition feature, each face-located boundary condition feature having at least one end on the face, and
an end reinforcement proximate to the face-located end of the face-located boundary condition feature.

16 . The golf club head of claim 15 , further comprising a shaft connection system, the shaft connection system allowing adjustment of at least one of loft angle, lie angle, and face angle of the golf club head.

17 . The golf club head of claim 15 , wherein the reinforcement is a thickened region.

18 . The golf club head of claim 15 , wherein the reinforcement includes at least one rib.

19 . The golf club head of claim 15 , wherein the reinforcement includes gradual thickening.

20 . The golf club head of claim 15 , wherein the reinforcement includes heat treatment of the region of the face proximate to the face-located end.

Assignees

• Taylor Made Golf Co

Inventors

• James Andrew
• Johnson Matthew David
• Beach Todd P

Classifications

• A63B60/00

  Details or accessories of golf clubs, bats, rackets or the like · CPC title

• A63B2053/0491

  with added weights, e.g. changeable, replaceable · CPC title

• A63B53/0466 Primary

  wood-type · CPC title

• A63B60/52

  with slits · CPC title

• A63B2053/0416

  Human Necessities · mapped topic