Golf club head with improved performance

• US 8,251,834 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2009
• Issued: 08/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Acushnet Company (FILA Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Acushnet Company (FILA Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Curtis, Andrew J., Golden, Charles E., Rice, Scott A., Roberts, Douglas E., Preece, Thomas W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Passaniti, Sebastiano
• Application Number:
  US12/643,356
• Publication Number:
  US 20110151994A1
• Time in Patent Office: 981 Days
• Field of Search: 473324-350, 473287-292
• US Class Current: 473/329
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0408 characterised by specific dimensions, e.g. thickness
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0412 Volume
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0416 Heads having an impact surface provided by a face insert
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0466 wood-type
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 60/00 Details or accessories of golf clubs, bats, rackets or the like

Abstract

A golf club head with an improved sweet spot, defined as a portion of the striking face that has at least 99.7% of the maximum ballspeed is disclosed herein. More specifically, the present invention discloses a golf club head with a significantly circular sweet spot that encompasses at least about 1.5% of the total striking face. A golf club head in accordance with the present invention may generally have a improved face geometry with an elliptical factor of greater than about 0.5, a beveled transition portion around the striking face of the golf club head, a variable face thickness region with decreases thickness, or even a tilted bulge and roll radius all helping improve the performance of the golf club head.

Claims

1. A golf club head comprising:

a striking face with a frontal surface area of greater than about 3750 mm²;

a posterior body portion further comprising a crown portion and a sole portion, wherein said crown portion is coupled to an upper portion of said striking face and said sole portion coupled to a lower portion of said striking face; and

a beveled transition portion at least partially surrounding a perimeter of said striking face connecting said striking face with said posterior body portion;

wherein a surface area of said beveled transition portion comprises at most 3.0 percent of a total surface area of said golf club head.

2. The golf club head of claim 1, wherein said frontal surface area of said striking face comprises at least 9 percent of said total surface area of said golf club head.

3. The golf club head of claim 2, wherein said surface area of said beveled transition portion is less than about 850 mm².

4. The golf club head of claim 3, wherein said total surface area of said golf club head is between about 32,000 mm² and about 35,000 mm².

5. The golf club head of claim 2, wherein said striking face has an elliptical geometry with a major axis and a minor axis.

6. The golf club head of claim 5, wherein said major axis and said minor axis are tilted in a direction of high toe to low heel.

7. The golf club head of claim 6, wherein the tilt of said major axis and said minor axis is greater than about 3.0 degrees and less than about 16.0 degrees.

8. The golf club head of claim 7, wherein said striking face has a sweet spot, defined as the area of said frontal surface area of said striking face having at least 99.7% of a maximum ballspeed achievable by said golf club head, that encompasses greater than about 1.5% of said frontal surface area of said striking face.

9. A golf club head comprising:

a striking face with a frontal surface area of greater than about 3750 mm²;

a posterior body portion further comprising a crown portion and a sole portion, wherein said crown portion is coupled to an upper portion of said striking face and said sole portion coupled to a lower portion of said striking face; and

wherein said frontal surface area of said striking face comprises at least 9 percent of a total surface area of said golf club head and

wherein said striking face has a sweet spot, defined as the area of said frontal surface area of said striking face having at least 99.7% of a maximum ballspeed achievable by said golf club head, that encompasses greater than about 1.5% of said frontal surface area of said striking face.

10. The golf club head of claim 9, wherein said striking face has an elliptical geometry with an elliptical factor of greater than about 0.50;

wherein said elliptical factor is defined as a length of a minor axis of said striking face divided by a length of a major axis of said striking face.

11. The golf club head of claim 10, wherein said major axis and said minor axis are tilted in a direction of high toe to low heel.

12. The golf club head of claim 11, wherein the tilt of said major axis and said minor axis is greater than about 3.0 degrees and less than about 16.0 degrees.

13. The golf club head of claim 12, wherein the tilt of said major axis and said minor axis is greater than about 8.0 degrees and less than about 16.0 degrees.

14. The golf club head of claim 13, wherein the tilt of said major axis and said minor axis is greater than about 12 degrees and less than about 16 degrees.

15. The golf club head of claim 9, wherein no point within said sweet spot is greater than about 7.0 mm away from a geometric center of said sweet spot.

16. The golf club head of claim 15, wherein said sweet spot has a substantially circular shape.

17. The golf club head of claim 9, further comprising a beveled transition portion at least partially surrounding a perimeter of said striking face connecting said striking face with said posterior body portion;

wherein said beveled transition portion has a radius of curvature greater than about 25 mm.

18. The golf club head of claim 17, said beveled transition portion further comprising:

a toe beveled transition portion; and

a heel beveled transition portion,

wherein said toe beveled transition portion has a radius of curvature greater than about 30 mm; and

wherein said heel beveled transition portion has a radius of curvature greater than about 25 mm.