Design and personalization of golf club heads using electron beam melting, functionally graded porosity, and numerical analysis

The current work portrays a new concept of designing and manufacturing golf club heads with functionally graded porosity (FGP) by means of electron beam melting (EBM). The golf industry has seen a huge push for optimal design of golf club heads over the last 50 years and has increased in popularity, growing to an annual GDP of 3.9 billion dollars in equipment sales in 2009. Equipment manufacturers have invested heavily in research and development of golf clubs; from the grip, to the shaft, to the club head. Highly accepted and verified design parameters that improve performance such as increased moment of inertia (MOI), low center of gravity (COG), and shaft stiffness have been used to design highly effective golf clubs throughout the world and each equipment manufacturer utilizes these parameters to increase golf club performance. Electron Beam Melting makes it possible to print porosity within a golf club head to reduce the weight and optimize performance. The dynamic properties of porous materials are investigated theoretically with ANSYS LS-DYNA and experimentally using Trackman Pro® swing and ball flight monitoring system. The porosity in the club head was analyzed numerically by simulating the impact between the club head and a steel ball in order to determine the coefficient of restitution (COR) of the club head; and college level golfers hit the golf clubs to experimentally analyze club head performance. EBM makes possible the design and personalization of golf club heads that allow individual golfers to maximize their playing potential. The manufacturing freedom of EBM makes possible highly personalized and cost effective club head designs that are presently not available or reasonable do to long lead time and high costs of traditional manufacturing technologies. In light of the advancement of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and the consequent wide spread applications in the aerospace, automotive, and biomedical industries, the current work discusses a new application in sport technologies; for example, in the golf industry. EBM makes it possible to print golf club heads quickly and allows for personalized design to fit the individual golfer.