Golf club head with vibrational damping system

Abstract

Embodiments of an iron-type golf club head comprising a damping system. The damping system includes an insert covering a lower portion of the back face and a badge covering an upper portion of the back face. The damping system covers a large proportion of the back face and provides a club head with desirable sound and feel characteristics. The iron-type golf club head further comprises one or more features that promote a high moment of inertia and a CG position substantially aligned with an impact axis to improve ball speed and club head sound and feel at impact.

1 . An iron-type golf club head comprising:
 a strike face comprising an impact point and an impact axis extending perpendicular to the strike face through the impact point;   a back face opposite the strike face, a heel, a toe opposite the heel, a top rail, a sole opposite the top rail, a ground plane tangent to the sole at an address position, a rear wall extending upward from the sole at least partially towards the top rail, the rear wall comprising a rear wall top edge, and a center of gravity;   an insert cavity formed by at least an inner surface of the rear wall, a lower portion of the back face, a heel inner surface, and a toe inner surface;   a damping system comprising an insert disposed within the insert cavity and a badge attached to an upper portion of the back face, the damping system defining a damping system coverage area greater than 85% of an available surface area of the back face;
 the badge comprising an adhesive layer, a rigid layer with a rigid layer density less than 3.0 g/cm 3 , a badge mass less than 5.0 grams, and a badge MOI less than 7.5 g·cm 2  about the impact axis; and 
   wherein the center of gravity is located within 0.025 inch of the impact axis in a vertical loft direction.   
     
     
         2 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 1 , further comprising a toe mass extending between the toe inner surface and an exterior surface of the toe, the toe mass comprising a toe mass upper surface extending between the rear wall top edge and the lower portion of the back face and increasing in height towards the exterior surface of the toe. 
     
     
         3 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 2 , wherein the rear wall top edge comprises a toe segment angle between 15° and 75° relative to the ground plane. 
     
     
         4 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 3 , wherein the insert cavity is offset toward the heel. 
     
     
         5 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 4 , wherein the insert cavity further comprises an insert cavity length L C  measured between the heel inner surface and the toe inner surface and an insert cavity center point located equidistant between the heel inner surface and the toe inner surface, wherein the insert cavity center point is heelward of the impact point. 
     
     
         6 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 5 , wherein the insert cavity length L C  is between 1.5 and 2.5 inches. 
     
     
         7 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 1 , further defining an impact cylinder extending perpendicular to the strike face, centered about the impact point, and having an impact cylinder radius of 0.5 inch, wherein greater than 25% of the badge mass is located within the impact cylinder. 
     
     
         8 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 2 , further comprising a toe section mass located toeward of a scoring area toe boundary and a heel section mass located heelward of a scoring area heel boundary, wherein a difference between the toe section mass and the heel section mass is less than 5.0 grams. 
     
     
         9 . An iron-type golf club head comprising:
 a strike face comprising an impact point and an impact axis extending perpendicular to the strike face through the impact point;   a back face opposite the strike face, a heel, a toe opposite the heel, a top rail, a sole opposite the top rail, a ground plane tangent to the sole at an address position, a rear wall extending upward from the sole at least partially towards the top rail, the rear wall comprising a rear wall top edge, and a center of gravity;   an insert cavity formed by at least an inner surface of the rear wall, a lower portion of the back face, a heel inner surface, and a toe inner surface;   a damping system comprising an insert disposed within the insert cavity and a badge attached to an upper portion of the back face, the damping system defining a damping system coverage area greater than 85% of an available surface area of the back face;
 the badge comprising an adhesive layer, a rigid layer with a rigid layer density less than 3.0 g/cm 3 , a badge mass less than 7.5 grams, wherein less than 3.0 grams of the badge mass is located above the impact axis, and a badge MOI less than 7.5 g·cm 2  about the impact axis; and 
   wherein the center of gravity is located within 0.025 inch of the impact axis in a vertical loft direction.   
     
     
         10 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 9 , wherein the badge comprises a maximum badge thickness less than 0.25 inch. 
     
     
         11 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 9 , wherein the rigid layer comprises a non-metallic material. 
     
     
         12 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 11 , wherein the rigid layer comprises ABS, PLA, polycarbonate, polyvinyl chloride, nylon, polypropylene, high impact polystyrene, acetal, high-density polyethylene, acrylic, reinforced polyamide, polycarbonate blends, or a fiber-reinforced resin. 
     
     
         13 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 9 , wherein the rigid layer is coupled directly to the adhesive layer. 
     
     
         14 . An iron-type golf club head comprising:
 a strike face comprising an impact point and an impact axis extending perpendicular to the strike face through the impact point;   a back face opposite the strike face, a heel, a toe opposite the heel, a top rail, a sole opposite the top rail, a ground plane tangent to the sole at an address position, a rear wall extending upward from the sole at least partially towards the top rail, the rear wall comprising a rear wall top edge, and a center of gravity;   an insert cavity formed by at least an inner surface of the rear wall, a lower portion of the back face, a heel inner surface, and a toe inner surface;   a damping system comprising an insert disposed within the insert cavity and a badge attached to an upper portion of the back face, the damping system defining a damping system coverage area greater than 85% of an available surface area of the back face;
 the badge comprising an adhesive layer, a rigid layer with a rigid layer density less than 3.0 g/cm 3  and a badge mass less than 5 grams, 
   a toe mass extending between the toe inner surface and an exterior surface of the toe, the toe mass comprising a toe mass upper surface extending between the rear wall top edge and the lower portion of the back face and increasing in height towards the exterior surface of the toe;   wherein the center of gravity is located:
 within 0.025 inch of the impact axis in a vertical loft direction; and 
 within 0.050 inch of the impact axis in a horizontal direction. 
   
     
     
         15 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 14 , wherein the rear wall top edge defines a toe segment that extends upwards from a remainder of the rear wall top edge at the toe mass. 
     
     
         16 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 15 , further comprising a rear wall ratio between 1.5 and 3.0 defined as a maximum rear wall height within the toe segment divided by a maximum rear wall height within the remainder of the rear wall top edge. 
     
     
         17 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 15 , wherein the toe segment defines a toe segment angle 15° and 75° relative to the ground plane. 
     
     
         18 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 9 , further comprising a toe section mass and a toe section volume each located toeward of a scoring area toe boundary and a heel section mass and a heel section volume each located heelward of a scoring area heel boundary, wherein a difference between the toe section mass and the heel section mass is less than 5 grams. 
     
     
         19 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 18 , wherein the heel section mass and the toe section mass are each greater than 25% of a total club head mass and the heel section volume and the toe section volume are each less than 25% of a total club head volume. 
     
     
         20 . The iron-type golf club head of  claim 18 , wherein a percentage difference between the heel section mass and the toe section mass is less than 10%.