Golf ball

• US 5,253,872 A
• Filed: 12/11/1991
• Issued: 10/19/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Callaway Golf Company (Topgolf Callaway Brands Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Ben Hogan Co. (Perry Ellis International Incorporated)
• Inventors: Lemons, Lane D., Jepson, John W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Marlo, George J.
• Application Number:
  US07/805,595
• Time in Patent Office: 678 Days
• Field of Search: 273/232, 273/220, 40/327
• US Class Current: 473/384
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0004 Surface depressions or protrusions
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0006 Arrangement or layout of dimples
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0009 Polygonal
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0018 Specified number of dimples
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0019 Specified dimple depth
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/002 Specified dimple diameter

Abstract

An arrangement for dimples on the surface of a golf ball is disclosed. The golf ball surface is subdivided by projecting a tetrakaidecahedron onto the surface thereof. Dimples are arranged according to the location of the hexagons and trapezoids which comprise the tetrakaidecahedron. The hexagons and trapezoids can also be divided into triangles by inclusion of diagonals therein. With the inclusion of diagonals, up to ten great circle paths can be defined and the dimples can be arranged so that they do not intersect any of the great circle paths.

Claims

1. A golf ball having an equator (16) which is a great circle path about said golf ball, said great circle path being defined as a circle on the surface of the ball formed by a plane which passes through the center of the ball, and first and second poles (14) on the surface of the golf ball, the poles being the points where a line perpendicular to the said plane of the ball and which passes through the center of the ball intersects the surface of the golf ball, and said golf ball having a plurality of dimples on the surface thereof, said dimples being distributed on the surface of the golf ball according to the configuration of a tetrakaidecahedron projected onto the surface of the golf ball, said projected tetrakaidecahedron comprising two spherical hexagons (10) and twelve spherical trapezoids (12), one said spherical hexagon (10) having as its center point the first pole (14) and the other said spherical hexagon having as its center point the second pole (14), the legs (24) of each hexagon (10) serving as a top (24) of each spherical trapezoid (12) and a section of the equator (16) serving as a base of each spherical trapezoid (12), each of the sides (18) of each of the spherical trapezoids (12) extending from a vertex of the spherical hexagon (10) to the equator (16), all said spherical trapezoid sides (18) being equal in length and each said spherical trapezoid (12) having the shape of a truncated spherical isosceles triangle, and said dimples being symmetrically positioned on the surface of the golf ball to correspond to the layout of the hexagons and trapezoids of the said tetrakaidecahedron projected onto the surface of the ball.

2. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein each said spherical hexagon is subdivided into spherical triangles formed by three spherical diagonals extending from opposed vertices and passing through the pole and wherein at least some of said spherical trapezoids are subdivided into spherical triangles by spherical diagonals extending from opposed vertices and wherein there are sufficient spherical diagonals extending from opposed vertices in the spherical trapezoids to form a great circle path with at least some of the sides of the spherical hexagon.

3. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein there are no dimples which intersect the equator, the sides of the spherical hexagon, or the sides of the spherical trapezoids.

4. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein each said spherical hexagon is subdivided into spherical triangles formed by three spherical diagonals extending from opposed vertices and passing through the pole, said spherical diagonals forming great circle paths with the spherical trapezoid sides which extend from the vertices of the spherical diagonal.

15. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein there are dimples of at least two different shapes.

16. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein there are dimples of at least two different diameters

17. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein at least some of the dimples are non-circular.

5. A golf ball having an equator (16) which is a great circle path about said golf ball, said great circle path being defined as a circle on the surface of the ball formed by a plane which passes through the center of the ball, and first and second poles (14) on the surface of the golf ball, the poles being the points where the axis of a line perpendicular to the said plane of the ball and which passes through the center of the ball intersects the surface of the golf ball, and said golf ball having a plurality of dimples on the surface thereof, said dimples being distributed on the surface of the golf ball according to the configuration of a tetrakaidecahedron projected onto the surface of the golf ball, said projected tetrakaidecahedron comprising two spherical hexagons (10) and twelve spherical trapezoids (12), one said spherical hexagon (10) having as its center point the first pole (14) and the other said spherical hexagon having as its center point the second pole (14), the legs (24) of each hexagon (10) serving as a top (24) of each spherical trapezoid (12) and a section of the equator (16) serving as a base of each spherical trapezoid (12), each of the sides (18) of each of the spherical trapezoids (12) extending from a vertex of the spherical hexagon (10) to the equator (16), all said spherical trapezoid sides (18) being equal in length and each said spherical trapezoid (12) having the shape of a truncated spherical isosceles triangle, each said spherical hexagon being subdivided into spherical triangles formed by three spherical diagonals extending from opposed vertices and passing through the pole, said spherical diagonals forming three great circle paths with the spherical trapezoid sides which extend from the vertices of the spherical diagonal, said spherical trapezoids being subdivided into spherical triangles by spherical diagonals extending from opposed vertices, said spherical triangles in combination with the sides of the spherical hexagons forming six great circle paths, whereby a total of ten great circle paths, including the great circle path at the equator, are formed and said dimples being symmetrically positioned on the surface of the golf ball to correspond to the layout of the said ten great circle paths derived from the tetrakaidecahedron projected onto the surface of the golf ball.

6. The golf ball of claim 5 wherein at least some of said spherical trapezoids are subdivided into spherical triangles by spherical diagonals extending from opposed vertices.

7. The golf ball of claim 6 wherein spherical diagonals extending from opposed vertices are present in all of the spherical trapezoids whereby, in combination with the sides of the spherical hexagons, the sides of the spherical trapezoids, the spherical diagonals of the spherical hexagon and the equator, a total of ten great circle paths is formed.

8. The golf ball of claim 5 wherein the dimples on the surface of the golf ball are arranged so that they do not intersect any of the said ten great circle paths.

9. The golf ball of claim 5 wherein the dimples are arranged so that they intersect three of the great circle paths but so that they do not intersect the other seven great circle paths.

10. The golf ball of claim 5 wherein the dimples are arranged so that they intersect six of said great circle paths but do not intersect the other four of said great circle paths.

11. The golf ball of claim 5 wherein the dimples are arranged so that there is only one great circle path which is not intersected by any dimples.

12. The golf ball of claim 5 wherein there are dimples of at least two different shapes.

13. The golf ball of claim 5 wherein there are dimples of at least two different diameters.

14. The golf ball of claim 5 wherein at least some of the dimples are non-circular.