US-12623125-B2 - Golf club head with variable thickness face

US12623125B2US 12623125 B2US12623125 B2US 12623125B2US-12623125-B2

Abstract

A golf club head with improved striking face is disclosed. More specifically, the present invention relates to a golf club head wherein the striking face portion has two regions of increased thickness to improve the performance of the golf club head. The two regions of increased thickness may be connected via a connecting member to form an obround shaped thickened region.

Inventors

Oswaldo Gonzalez
Kyle A. Carr
Gentry Ferguson
Grant M. Martens
Charles E. Golden

Assignees

ACUSHNET COMPANY

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20240131

Claims (1)

1 . An iron type golf club head comprising: a striking face portion located at a frontal portion of said iron type golf club head, adapted to strike a golf ball; wherein said striking face portion has an external frontal surface that is substantially planar, wherein said striking face portion has an internal rear surface that is uneven, wherein said external frontal surface and said internal rear surface combine to define a thickness of said striking face portion, and wherein said striking face portion further comprises; a thickened region having an obround shape, wherein a first end of said thickened region is located near a centroid of said striking face portion, and wherein a second end of said thickened region is located at a location that is 15 mm upward from a ground plane, and at a distance that is a midpoint of a full length scoreline, a body portion attached to a rear of said iron type golf club head, wherein thickened region having said obround shape is angled at an angle α of between about 45 degrees to about 50 degrees, and wherein said thickened region having said obround shape has a width of between about 4.0 mm to about 6.0 mm.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a Continuation-In-Part (CIP) of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/499,735, filed on Nov. 1, 2023, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to an iron type golf club head having a striking face portion that has variable thickness. More specifically, the present invention relates to an iron type golf club head wherein the striking face portion has two regions of increased thickness, wherein a first region of increased thickness is located near a geometric center of said striking face portion and a second region of increased thickness is located away from said geometric center of the striking face portion. The two regions of increased thickness may be connected via a connecting member to form an obround shaped thickened region. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The design of golf club heads often require the proper balance of the desire to maximize the performance of a golf club head together with the durability needs of a golf club head. One of the areas where these diverging and counter acting forces manifest itself is in the design of the striking face of a golf club head. If a golf club designer wishes to maximize the coefficient of restitution of a golf club head, it would be easy for him or her to reduce the thickness of the striking face of that golf club head, leading to more flexibility of the striking face upon impact with a golf ball leading to further distance gains. However, as indicated earlier, the durability of a striking face that is too thin can often result in mechanical failures such as plastic deformation of the striking face, which is undesirable. In order to address this issue, golf club designers have invented striking faces with variable thickness wherein the regions experiencing high stresses are thickened while the remainder of the striking face can have a reduced thickness to maximize performance. U.S. Pat. No. 6,368,234 to Galloway illustrates this concept by incorporating concentric elliptical regions of varying thickness into a striking plate of a metalwood type golf club head, located around a geometric center of the striking face where the golf ball is intended to impact the golf club. Although maximizing distance is one of the main goals of designing for a metalwood type golf club head as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,368,234 to Galloway, the design of striking faces of iron type golf club heads can be more complicated because maximizing distance is not the main objective. Although distance in iron type golf club head is important, the main objective in designing an iron type golf club head is consistency of performance. Additionally, the challenge in designing an improved face design for an iron type golf club head resides in the shape and dimension of an iron type golf club head that creates a location of max deflection that is different from the general impact location of a golf club head. This separation of these two high stress points makes designing an improved striking face more difficult. U.S. Pat. No. 6,746,343 to Yoneyama illustrates the utilization of a thick-walled portion in the back of the lower central part of the front face plate and multiple narrow ribs to radially extend from the thick-walled portion towards the upper and lateral peripheral parts of the front face plate as one way to incorporate a variable face thickness profile in an iron type golf club head. U.S. Pat. No. 10,258,843 to Morales et al. illustrates one of the ways that a variable face thickness profile has in incorporated into an iron type golf club head wherein the striking face is supported by a looped rib to create a variable thickness profile. These designs, although each having their own performance benefits, fails to take advantage of the unique shape of an iron type golf club head that has an impact location that is different from the geometric center of the striking face. Hence it can be seen that there is a need in the industry for a new and improved design for the striking face portion of an iron type golf club head that takes advantage of the unique shape of an iron type golf club head and the existence of two locations of high stress that is unique and distinct from one another. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an iron type golf club head including: a striking face portion located at a frontal portion of said iron type golf club head, adapted to strike a golf ball; wherein said striking face portion has an external frontal surface that is substantially planar, wherein said striking face portion has an internal rear surface that is uneven, wherein said external frontal surface and said internal rear surface combine to define a thickness of said striking face portion, wherein said striking face portion further includes; a first region of increased thickness, located near a centroid