Golf ball

• US 4,974,855 A
• Filed: 11/27/1989
• Issued: 12/04/1990
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/1988
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Taylor Made Golf Co., Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salomon SA (Anta International Group Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Morell, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Marlo, George J.
• Application Number:
  US07/441,818
• Time in Patent Office: 372 Days
• Field of Search: 273/232
• US Class Current: 473/384
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0004 Surface depressions or protrusions
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/00065 located around the pole or the equator
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0019 Specified dimple depth
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/002 Specified dimple diameter

Abstract

The present invention relates to a golf ball. In order to improve the indifferent character of the orientation of the ball with respect to the strike, the peripheral surface (2) of it has dimples (69) essentially distributed inside 48 identical elemental surfaces (68), in the form of spherical right-angle triangles, delimited by 9 equatorial circles (56 to 61, 65 to 67) of the sphere defining the general shape of the peripheral surface (2) of the ball (3).

Claims

1. A golf ball comprising a peripheral surface having a general shape of a sphere and a plurality of dimples arranged in said peripheral surface and distributed on the latter in accordance with at least one repetitive motif defined by sub-division of said peripheral surface along arcs of equatorial circles centred on a centre of said sphere and mutually connecting points of said peripheral surface corresponding to determined points of a cube inscribed in said sphere, said circular arcs defining elemental spherical surfaces and said dimples being essentially inside said elemental surfaces, wherein said sub-division is carried out along:

6 said equatorial circles of which each is centred on an axis passing through respective mid-points of two diametrically opposed edges of said cube and passes through four apices of the latter,

3 said equatorial circles of which each is centred on an axis passing through respective centres of two diametrically opposed faces of said cube and passes via radial projections, onto said surface, of respective mid-points of 4 mutually parallel edges of said cube,

in a manner to define 48 identical elemental surfaces in spherical right-angle triangle form.

2. A golf ball according to claim 1, wherein at least a determined one of said equatorial circles cuts none of said dimples.

3. A golf ball according to claim 2, wherein said determined equatorial circle sub-divides each of the other said equatorial circles into two circular arcs, of which each corresponds to one of two hemispheres defined by said determined equatorial circle, and said circular arcs of one of said hemispheres are angularly displaced, with respect to respectively corresponding ones of said circular arcs of the other of said hemispheres, by the same amount about an axis of said determined equatorial circle.

4. A golf ball according to claim 2, wherein none of said equatorial circles cuts one of said dimples.

5. A golf ball according to claim 1, wherein said dimples are distributed in accordance with an identical motif in said identical elemental surfaces.

6. A golf ball according to claim 5, wherein said sphere has a diameter of the order of 42.67 mm, and said dimples define by their intersection with said peripheral surface circles distributed in the following manner in each said elemental surface of spherical right-angle triangle form, of which the right angle is situated between two sides of different length:

one circle of diameter D₁ of the order of 2.45 mm, positioned in said right angle and approximately tangential to said two sides of said right angle,

one circle of diameter D₂ of the order of 1.40 mm, approximately tangential to said circle of diameter D₁ and to a smaller of said sides of said right angle,

one circle of diameter D₃ of the order of 1.90 mm, approximately tangential to said circle of diameter D₂ to said smaller side of said right angle and to a hypothenuse, opposite said right angle,

one circle of diameter D₄ of the order of 2.50 mm, approximately tangential to said circles of diameter D₂ and D₃ and to said hypothenuse,

one circle of diameter D₅ of the order of 1.38 mm, approximately tangential to said circle of diameter D₄ and to said hypothenuse,

two circles of diameter D₆ of the order of 2.10 mm, of which a first is approximately tangential to said circles of diameter D₁, D₄ and D₅ and to a larger of said sides of said right angle and of which a second is approximately tangential to said first, to said circle of diameter D₅ and to said larger side of said right angle and to said hypothenuse,

one circle diameter D₇ of the order of 0.97 mm approximately tangential to a second one of said circles of diameter D₆, to said larger side of said right angle and to said hypothenuse.

7. A golf ball according to claim 6, wherein each said dimple has a depth of the order of 0.1 mm to 0.5 mm increasing with correspondingly increasing diameter of its said circle.

8. A golf ball according to claim 1, wherein each dimple is shaped as a spherical depression.