JP4307976B2 - Golf ball with sinusoidal curved surface - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an aerodynamic surface of a golf ball. The present invention particularly relates to golf balls having sinusoidal curved surfaces.

  Golfers probably knew that golf balls that were devised on the surface would fly better than those with a smooth surface in the early 1800s. Hand-made gutta-percha golf balls were available for purchase in the 1860s, and golf balls with brambles (protrusions rather than depressions) were popular from 1800 to 1908. In 1908, British Taylor William Taylor patented a golf ball with dimples, which flew better and more accurately than a golf ball with a bramble. A. G. Spalding and Bros purchased US rights (US Pat. No. 1,286,834 issued in 1918) and introduced GLORY balls featuring TAYLOR dimples. Until the 1970s, this GLORY ball and other golf balls had 336 dimples of the same size and the same pattern, ATTI pattern. The ATTI pattern is a regular octahedron pattern, divided into eight concentric straight lines, and is named after the main manufacturer of golf ball molds.

  The only improvement on the surface of the golf ball over a 60 year period was made by Albert Penfold, who invented a mesh pattern golf ball for Dunlop. This pattern was invented in 1912 and was accepted until the 1930s. A combination of mesh patterns and dimples is disclosed in Young's US Pat. No. 2,002,726, issued in 1935, “Golf Ball”.

  Traditional balls that are readily accepted by the general consumer are spheres with multiple dimples, each dimple having a circular cross-section. Although many golf balls have been disclosed that break this tradition, most of these non-traditional ones have been commercially unsuccessful.

  The vast majority of non-traditional golf balls still adhere to the golf rules set by the United States Golf Association (“USGA”) and the St. Andrews Royal Ashant Golf Club (“R & A”). As specified in Appendix III of the Golf Regulations, the weight of the golf ball must not exceed 1.620 ounces avoire dupore (45.93 g) and the golf ball diameter is from 1.680 inches (42.67 mm). It must be small, this means that at a temperature of 23 ± 1 ° C., by its own weight, it passes through a 1.680 inch diameter ring from 100 random locations and passes less than 25 balls. The fill and ball must not have been deliberately modified, designed or manufactured to be different from the spherically symmetric shape.

  As an example, US Pat. No. 5,916,044, Chomosaka et al., “Golf Ball”, discloses the use of protrusions to conform to the 1.68 inch (42.67 mm) diameter limit of USGA and R & A. is doing. The Shimosaka patent discloses a golf ball having a plurality of dimples on the surface and a row of protrusions having a height of 0.001 to 1.00 mm from the surface. Accordingly, the diameter of the land area is smaller than 42.67 mm.

As another example of a non-traditional golf ball, U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,552 to Pucket et al.
No., “Short Range Golf Ball”, which discloses a golf ball having brambles instead of dimples to reduce the flight distance to half that of a normal golf ball for playing on short courses.

  Another example of a non-traditional golf ball is Pocklington, US Pat. No. 5,536,013, which has a raised portion within each dimple, and the dimples are square, diamond, and pentagonal. Such dimples having a plurality of types of shapes are disclosed. The raised portion of each dimple in Pocklington adjusts the overall volume of the dimple.

  Another example is Kobayashi, U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,638, "Golf Ball", which discloses a golf ball having dimples with depressions in each dimple. The depression in the kobayashi dimple is intended to reduce the pneumatic resistance at low speed and increase the flight distance.

  Yet another example is Treadwell US Pat. No. 4,266,773, “Golf Ball”, which has a rough band and a smooth band on the surface, while the golf ball is in flight. The boundary layer is tripped.

  Aoyama U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,378, “Golf Ball with Uniform Land Shape” discloses a golf ball with triangular dimples. The total flat area of Aoyama is not greater than 20% of the surface area of the golf ball, and the purpose of this patent is to optimize the shape of the uniform land area, not dimples.

  Other variations on the dimple shape are described in Stayfel, US Pat. No. 5,890,975, “Golf Ball and Method of Forming Dimples thereon”. Some of the stayel dimples have an elongated oval shape instead of a circular cross-sectional shape. This elongated dimple makes it possible to increase the surface area. In Stafel design patent D406,623, all dimples are elongated.

  A variation on this theme is Moriyama et al., US Pat. No. 5,722,903, “Golf Ball”, which discloses a golf ball having normal and elliptical dimples.

  A further example of a non-traditional golf ball is Shaw et al., US Pat. No. 4,722,529, “Golf Ball”, which has dimples and 30 dumbbell shaped bold patches for improved aerodynamics. A golf ball is disclosed.

  Another example of a non-traditional golf ball is Caddoniga, US Pat. No. 5,470,076, “Golf Ball”, which discloses that each dimple has an additional recess. is doing. The large and small concave dimples of Cadóniga are believed to reduce the air wake during flight of the golf ball.

  US Pat. No. 5,143,377 to Oka et al., “Golf Ball” discloses circular and non-circular dimples. The non-circular dimples of the dimples of the Oka golf ball are square, regular octagon, and regular hexagon, and occupy at least 40% of 332 dimples. These non-circular dimples have double slopes that exclude air from the surroundings to create air turbulence.

  US Pat. No. 5,377,989, “Golf Ball with Equal Diameter Dimple” discloses a dimple having an odd number of sides and an arcuate top to reduce the air resistance of the golf ball during flight. is doing.

  U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,150, Lavalley et al., “Golf Ball” discloses a golf ball having overlapping elongated dimples that maximizes the area covered by the dimple on the surface of the golf ball.

  U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,039, Oka et al., “Golf Ball” discloses a golf ball in which at least 40% of the dimples are polygonal. Oka golf balls are pentagonal, hexagonal, and octagonal in shape.

  While many variations of the surface of the golf ball have been shown over the prior art, there remains a need for a golf ball with a surface that minimizes the volume required to trip the air boundary layer at low speeds. ing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a golf ball that meets USGA requirements and minimizes the area for tripping the air boundary layer around the golf ball during flight, thereby requiring the required turbulence. Which makes it possible to achieve larger distances. The present invention makes it possible to achieve this by providing a golf ball having a sinusoidal surface. The total front area is minimized but sufficient to trip the boundary layer.

  Having outlined the invention, the above and further objects, features and advantages thereof will be appreciated by those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, golf ball 20 can be a two-piece golf ball, a three-piece golf ball, or a multi-layer golf ball. Further, the three-piece golf ball may have a wound layer or a solid layer. Further, the core of the golf ball 20 may be solid, hollow, or filled with a gas or liquid fluid. The core of the golf ball 20 can be any suitable material. A solid three-piece golf ball having a cover made of a preferred thermosetting polyurethane is disclosed in US Pat. No. 6,190,268, “Golf Ball with Polyurethane Cover”, incorporated herein by reference. A preferred two-piece golf ball having a cover made of ionomer material is disclosed in pending US patent application Ser. No. 09 / 847,094, “Golf Ball”, which is hereby incorporated by reference. A preferred high COR golf ball is disclosed in US Pat. No. 6,443,858, “Golf Ball with High Restitution”, incorporated herein by reference. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other materials for making the golf ball 20 can be used without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention. The golf ball 20 is finished with a base coat and / or a top coat.

  Golf ball 20 has a sinusoidal curved surface 22. The golf ball 20 also has an equator 24 that divides the golf ball 20 into a first hemisphere 26 and a second hemisphere 28. A first pole 30 is located 90 degrees along the longitudinal arc from the equator 24 of the first hemisphere 26. A second pole 32 is located 90 degrees along the longitudinal arc from the equator 24 of the second hemisphere 28.

  The sine wave curved surface 22 has a sine wave structure 42 formed by a plurality of sine waves. Each sine wave on the sinusoidal curve surface preferably has an amplitude in the range of 0.005 inches to 0.100 inches, more preferably 0.009 inches to 0.05 inches, and most preferably 0.01 inches to 0.00. This defines an outer surface of 03 inches, preferably at least 1.68 inches.

  The preferred embodiment of the present invention reduces the land area to almost zero because only one point of each sine wave is present on a spherical, outermost spherical surface having a diameter of 1.68 inches or more. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the diameter of the outermost sphere can be 1.68 inches or less, but current golf regulations specify that the diameter should be at least 1.68 inches. Yes. In particular, for golf balls that meet USGA and R & A, the land area of traditional golf balls forms a sphere with a diameter of at least 1.68 inches. This land area is traditionally minimized by dimples recessed from the surface of a traditional golf ball sphere, resulting in the presence of land areas without dimples. However, in the golf ball 20 of the present invention, only the point of the vertex 50 of each sine wave defines the land area on the outermost peripheral surface of the golf ball 20.

  Traditional golf balls are designed with dimples to “trip” the air boundary layer on the surface of the golf ball to create turbulence and create high ascending force and low resistance. The sinusoidal structure 42 of the golf ball 20 according to the present invention trips the air boundary layer around the surface of the flying golf ball 20.

  As shown in FIG. 2, an outermost spherical surface of 1.68 inches surrounds the sine wave structure 42 as indicated by the dotted line 45. The volume of the sine wave structure 42 measured from the bottom to the top 50 of each sine wave is very small between the inner sphere 21 and the 1.62 inch outermost sphere. In the preferred embodiment, the top 50 is on a 1.68 inch outermost sphere. Therefore, more than 90% and close to 95% of the total volume exists below the outer sphere of 1.68 inches.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the distances h and h 'from the bottom to the top 50 of the sine wave will vary to achieve a golf ball 20 that meets or exceeds the 1.68 inch requirement. For example, if the diameter of the inner sphere 21 is 1.666 inches, the sine wave of one hemisphere 26 is combined with the sine waves of the other hemisphere to be 1.68 inches, so the sine wave interval h is 0. 007 inches. In the preferred embodiment, the inner sphere 21 will be smaller if a sine wave with a greater distance h 'is required. Therefore, for example, if the diameter of the inner sphere 21 is 1.661 inches and the distance h ′ of each sine wave is 0.009 inches, the outermost sphere has a diameter of 1.68 inches. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, since each top is a point of a sine wave, the width of each top 50 is small. Theoretically, the width of each top 50 approaches the width of the point. However, in practice, the width of each top 50 of each sine wave is determined by the precision of the mold used to make the golf ball 20. The accuracy of the mold is determined by the master itself used to make the mold. In fact, the width of each top 50 is 0.0001 inches to 0.001 inches.

  Referring again to FIG. 2, the preferred embodiment of the golf ball 20 of the present invention has a split line 100 corresponding to a sine wave around the equator 24. Accordingly, the amplitude of the sine wave determines the number that crosses the dividing line 100. Such a golf ball 20 uses the mold disclosed in US patent application Ser. No. 09 / 442,845, filed Nov. 18, 1999, “Golf Ball”, which is incorporated herein by reference. Manufactured.

  The golf ball 20 of the present invention is manufactured as described in US Pat. No. 6,117,024, “Golf Ball with Polyurethane Cover”, incorporated herein by reference. However, one skilled in the art will appreciate that other materials can be used to make the golf ball of the present invention. The aerodynamics of the sinusoidal structure of the present invention provides a golf ball that has a greater flight distance than a traditional golf ball having a similar structure.

  In this regard, the Golf Rules approved by the USGA and R & A provide that the initial velocity of the golf ball is 250 feet (76.2 m) per second (allowing a maximum 2% error of 255 feet per second) and a total distance of 250 yards ( 256m) plus 29% of the total distance of 296.8 yards (6% will be reduced to 4%). A complete description of the golf rules can be found on the USGA web page www. usga. org or R & A web page www. randa. org. Thus, the initial velocity and total distance of the golf ball must not exceed these limits in order to comply with the golf rules. Therefore, the golf ball 20 needs to have an aerodynamic pattern that allows the golf ball 20 to not exceed these limits.

  The sine wave that defines the surface of the golf ball 20 has various amplitudes and frequencies. FIG. 5 shows six different sinusoidal powers 60-65 modulated differently. Each power of each sine wave 60-65 has a period starting from zero, having a maximum value 68 in the first quarter period (90 °) and a minimum value 70 in the third quarter period (270 °). And becomes zero again at the end of the period (360 °). The period or wavelength of the sine wave defines the sinusoidal curve surface 22. Each maximum value 68 of the sine wave is the top 50 of the outermost sphere 45, and the minimum value 70 is the lowest point of the surface 22 of the inner sphere 21. Each top 50 has a maximum value of one sine wave or more. In one embodiment, all sine waves have the same frequency. As shown in FIG. 6, in another embodiment, the top 50 has a first sine wave 75 having a maximum value at the top 50 and a second sine wave 77 having a maximum value at the top 50. As shown in FIG. 7, the sine wave 75 has a first frequency, and the sine wave 77 has a second frequency as shown in FIG. The frequency is defined as the number of wavelengths per quarter (90 °) around the golf ball 20. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the sine wave 75 has a frequency twice that of the sine wave 77.

  As shown in FIG. 9, in another embodiment, it has a top 50 with three sine waves 81, 83, and 85 as shown. 10-12, the frequency of the sine wave 81 is significantly less than the frequency of the sine wave 83, and both the sine waves 81 and 83 are larger than the sine wave 85. FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 13, yet another embodiment has a top 50 of five sine waves 91, 93, 95, 97 and 99 having different frequencies. As shown in FIGS. 14-18, sine wave 93 has the highest frequency and sine wave 99 has the lowest frequency.

  FIG. 19 shows a sine wave 101 having eight peaks 50a-50i that are the maximum value of the sine wave. As shown, the sine wave extends a quarter length of the golf ball 20. Each period or wavelength of the sine wave 101 begins at a quarter length position before the top 50 and ends at a three quarter length position along the sine wave 101. The parallel sine waves 103a to 103i each have a maximum value at the top portions 50a to 50i and are set to 45 ° with respect to the sine wave 101.

  FIG. 20 shows another embodiment of a golf ball 20 'having a sinusoidal curve 22'. FIG. 21 shows a partially enlarged view of the golf ball 20 of the present invention, showing the sinusoidal surface 22 in more detail.

  FIG. 22 shows a sine wave 72 in a separated helical sine wave state. The sine wave 72 extends radially in and out of the golf ball.

  FIG. 23 shows an example of a sinusoidal curved surface 22 in which multiple sine waves overlap to define the surface of a golf ball. In FIG. 23, the sine wave 253 overlaps the sine wave 251. The frequency of the sine wave 251 is considerably lower than that of the sine wave 253. The top 50 defining the outermost sphere 45 uses the maximum value of the sine wave 253, while the minimum value is limited by the sine wave 251.

  From the foregoing, those skilled in the art will appreciate the advantages of the present invention and that the invention has been described in connection with a preferred embodiment, and that other embodiments and many variations shown in the drawings are shown. It will be readily understood that modifications and equivalent substitutions may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is not specified by the above description except as indicated in the appended claims.

It is the figure seen from the equator side of the golf ball of the present invention. It is the figure which looked at the outline of the equator of the golf ball of FIG. It is a cross-sectional enlarged view which shows the amplitude of a sine wave. FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view showing the amplitude of a sine wave having a higher frequency than that of FIG. 3. It is a figure which shows the power of the sine wave from which various modulation differs. It is a partial top view of two sine waves that intersect at the apex. It is sectional drawing of the waveform 75 of FIG. It is sectional drawing of the waveform 76 of FIG. FIG. 6 is a top view of three sine waves that intersect at the top. It is sectional drawing of the sine wave 81 of FIG. It is sectional drawing of the sine wave 83 of FIG. FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of the sine wave 87 of FIG. 9. It is the elements on larger scale of the five sine waves which cross | intersect in a top part. It is sectional drawing of the sine wave 97 of FIG. It is sectional drawing of the sine wave 99 of FIG. It is sectional drawing of the sine wave 91 of FIG. It is sectional drawing of the sine wave 93 of FIG. It is sectional drawing of the sine wave 95 of FIG. FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged view of a sine wave along a quarter length of a golf ball that intersects a parallel sine wave. It is the figure seen from the equator side of the other Example of the golf ball with a sine wave curve. It is the elements on larger scale of the golf ball of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the sine wave of the separated helical sine wave. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating another embodiment in which two sine waves overlap to define a sinusoidal curve surface.

Explanation of symbols

20 Golf Ball 21 Inner Sphere 22 Sine Wave Curve Surface 26, 28 Hemisphere 42 Sine Wave Structure 45 Outer Sphere 50 Top 100 Dividing Line

Claims (3)

A first hemisphere with sinusoidal surface defined by the sinusoidal curve overlapping of multiple,
A golf ball having a second hemisphere having a sinusoidal curve surface defined by a plurality of overlapping sinusoidal curves,
The first hemisphere and the second hemisphere are connected to each other along a dividing line having a sinusoidal shape;
A golf ball having an outermost sphere diameter of 4.27 cm (1.68 inches) or more.   The golf ball of claim 1, wherein at least one sine wave defining the sinusoidal curve surface has a different frequency than other sine waves.   The golf ball of claim 1, wherein each sinusoidal surface is a helical sinusoidal surface.

Images