Methods of reducing center shift of golf ball components and improving concentricity
AssigneeAcushnet Company
InventorsManjari Kuntimaddi, Edward Costa, Erin McDermott
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present disclosure provides methods of reducing center shifting of golf ball components, which, in turn, improves concentricity of the resulting golf balls. The methods include extruding a golf ball component material through an extruder to form an extrudate having a first temperature, cutting the extrudate at a second temperature to form a component prep, and molding the component prep into the golf ball component. The preps formed by the methods of the present disclosure include surfaces having reduced or no concavity.
Claims18
A method of forming a golf ball component, comprising:
- cooling a die of an extruder to control the temperature of a golf ball component material extruded therethrough,
- extruding the golf ball component material through the die to form an extrudate, wherein the golf ball component material extruded through the extruder has a first temperature,
- cutting the extrudate to form a component prep, wherein the component prep comprises a shaped body having at least one end that is substantially planar and the component prep has a second temperature that is less than the first temperature, and
- molding the component prep into the golf ball component.
A method of forming a golf ball component, comprising:
- extending a cooling jacket around an extrusion die head,
- cooling the extrusion die head to control the temperature of a golf ball component material extruded therethrough,
- extruding the golf ball component material through the extrusion die head to form a cooled extrudate,
- cutting the cooled extrudate to form a component prep, wherein the component prep comprises ends that are substantially planar, and
- molding the component prep into the golf ball component.
A method of forming a golf ball component, comprising:
- extending a cooling jacket around an extrusion die head,
- circulating a coolant through the cooling jacket to cool the extrusion die head,
- extruding a golf ball component material through the extrusion die head to form a cooled extrudate, wherein the cooled extrudate has a temperature less than the temperature of the golf ball component material,
- cutting the extrudate to form a component prep, wherein the component prep comprises at least one end having a surface flatness according to the following ratio:
- 0
- .
- 9
- ≤
- L
-
- 1
- L
-
- 2
- ≤
- 1
- where L1 is the length of an edge of the component prep from the center of the surface of the end to the center of a flat portion of the component prep and L2 represents the maximum length along the edge of the component prep to the flat portion, and
- molding the component prep into the golf ball component.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.