Compound clicks with golfers

A polyphthalamide compound from RTP Company is giving a new range of golf clubs the sense of feel demanded by golfers.

For a golfer, hearing the right "click" when the club hits the ball is very important.

So when General Ribbon Corp (GRC) of Chatsworth, CA, began developing golf clubheads, it listed resonance as one of the major property requirements.

RTP Company's carbon-fibre-reinforced polyphthalamide gave the clubhead the right feel and fulfilled GRC's additional requirements for strength, conductivity, chemical resistance and zero weld lines.

"When we began looking at materials", says Lary Walendy, Manager of Moulding and Tooling at GRC, "We found that the properties we needed were not listed on any datasheet.

Nowhere could we find a material that said 'good for golf clubs'".

GRC needed a very hard, very tough material that was chemical resistant and free of weld lines.

"And, because we powder coat the heads, it also had to have good conductivity", said Walendy.

GRC knew that materials commonly used for clubheads such as nylons and polycarbonate would not work in this application.

"While nylons appear to meet the necessary property requirements", explained Walendy, "They don't make the right sound.

And, the problem with polycarbonate is that it tends to stress crack and fall apart when it comes in contact with fertilizer".

Rather than go through a trial and error selection process, GRC approached RTP Company for help in selecting a material for the club heads.

Engineers at RTP Company worked with GRC in testing different materials until they found a material that met all the necessary requirements: RTP 4000 Series carbon-fibre-reinforced polyphthalamide.

The compound features an unnotched impact strength of 721J/m at 3.18 mm and a volume resistivity less than 10ohm-cm.

RTP Company's technical service team worked with GRC in designing a mould that would optimise processing.

"Our clubhead has sections that range from 0.03 to 0.6in thick.

RTP Company helped with getting the mould to fill evenly and eliminate weld lines and voids", said Walendy.

(This was Engineeringtalk's Top Story on 5 March 2002).

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