Golf ball having non-concentric parting line

• US 9,174,088 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2012
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Acushnet Company (FILA Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Acushnet Company (FILA Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Madson, Michael R., Nardacci, Nicholas M, Hunt, David P
• Primary Examiner(s): Gorden, Raeann
• Application Number:
  US13/625,109
• Publication Number:
  US 20130040760A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,135 Days
• Field of Search: 473/378
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 47/00 Devices for handling or treating balls , e.g. for holding or carrying balls

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a golf ball comprising of non-concentric arcs defining a non-planar parting line on its spherical surface resulting in having a large size disparity between dimples in one hemisphere and adjacent dimples from the opposing hemisphere. The parting line is produced by a pair of adjacent dimples, wherein D indicates dimples and N indicates dimples from the Northern hemisphere and those from the Southern hemisphere are indicated by S. A large disparity may be created, if the following condition is satisfied:

$\frac{D\left(N\right)}{D\left(S\right)}>1.25\mathrm{or}\frac{D\left(N\right)}{D\left(S\right)}<0.80.$

Claims

1. A golf ball having a non-planar parting line about dimples on its spherical surface, the parting line comprising:

non-concentric arcs having straight connecting line segments between the arcs, wherein each arc maintains a tangency with its connecting lines and a relief distance greater than 0.002 inches when measured from a dimple edge to one of the non-concentric arcs; and

a radius of each non-concentric arc relates to a corresponding dimple perimeter diameter according to the equations;

2. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein the golf ball comprises:

A plane comprising a dimple center and the vertical axis through the center of the ball; and

another plane comprising the center of a corresponding non-concentric arc and said vertical axis through the center of the ball,

wherein these planes create an arc shift angle defined to the dimple perimeter diameter by the equation

3. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein adjacent dimples on opposing hemisphere sides of the parting line have a large size disparity which is defined by the equation:

4. The golf ball according to claim 3, wherein adjacent dimples on opposing hemisphere sides of the parting line have a large size disparity which is defined by the equation:

5. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein adjacent dimples on opposing hemisphere sides of the parting line are weighted more towards one hemisphere over the other, based on the equation:

C_RP>

1.5 or C_RP<

0.66

C_RP is the dimple radius preference coefficient.

6. The golf ball according to claim 5, wherein adjacent dimples on opposing hemisphere sides of the parting line are weighted more towards one hemisphere over the other, based on the equation:

C_RP>

2.0 or C_RP<

0.50.

7. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein the dimple pattern of the ball is an icosahedron-based dimple pattern.

8. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein the dimple pattern of the ball is a dodecahedron-based dimple pattern.

9. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein the dimple pattern of the ball is a pentagonal dipyramid-based dimple pattern.

10. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein the dimple pattern of the ball is a triangular dipyramid-based dimple pattern.

11. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein the dimple pattern of the ball is a tetrahedron-based dimple pattern.

12. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein the dimple pattern of the ball is an icosidodecahedron-based dimple pattern.

13. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein the dimple pattern of the ball is octahedral-based dimple pattern.

14. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein the dimple pattern of the ball is a cube-octahedral dimple pattern.

15. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein the dimple pattern of the ball is a hexagonal dipyramid dimple pattern.

16. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein the spherical surface is a cover formed from a urethane or a urea material.