Golf enthusiasts are getting used to the concept that 3D printing is starting to shape their favorite sport. Players like Rickie Fowler and Bryson DeChambeau now stand out with 3D-published sticks. Almost as a risk to their competitors, those champions digitally promote wedges and irons made on occasion such as American Express and Augusta National. Now, consumers have the opportunity to play like the champions when Cobra Golf launches the first commercial series of iron clubs published in 3-D, called LIMIT3-d.
Ryan Roche, chief innovation officer at Cobra Golf, told this writer in an interview about the new range: “The challenge we’re solving here [with the LIMIT3-d series] is that golf is a very ambitious game and other people want to play anything that looks like them. It’s more akin to what a professional would play, like a sword, but they want forgiveness and the characteristics of a game-enhancing club. It’s hard to marry the two, however, with 3D printing, we can feel like we’ve made it.
As with other additive production (AM) technology programs, the use of 3D printing has enabled with LIMIT3-d diversity design probabilities that match the classic strategies used to forge sticks. The 316L stainless metal irons published in 3D incorporate internal lattice structures that allow a strategic redistribution of 33% of the clubhead weight. This design simplifies the placement of up to 100g of injection-moulded tungsten weight on the heel and toe, which are fixed on the heads with published three-dimensional images. Metal caps. This optimises the centre of gravity and particularly increases the moment of inertia. The result is a compact blade shape with staggered tolerance and distance, comparable to complex models such as Cobra’s KING TEC or TEC-X irons.
“We’ve published a lot of prototypes and gadgets for our field trippers in 3-D over the years,” Roche said. “From a progression point of view, it’s a credit to us to drive our progression process forward. We can create things that are tailored to the wishes of our players on the excursion and try out new ideas. A lot of them are scientific projects like: what happens if we do this with the club, etc. And we can do something, check it quickly, and then jump in. in our casting and forging process. But we also know that the additive can allow us to design other tactics and bring new designs, new structures that will improve the functionality of our clubs. It’s really exciting for us.
To achieve those design improvements, Cobra relied on nTop’s design software, which increased the speed at which Cobra engineers can create and test prototypes. By automating the design exploration procedure, the team was able to speed up the iteration procedure twice. In the end, the Roche Group was able to decide on the most productive truss designs to optimize internal mass distribution and acoustics.
“The combination of nTop’s computer design software and COBRA’s innovation has resulted in a golf club that overcomes performance barriers, setting a new standard for the industry,” Bradley Rothenberg, nTop’s CEO, told this author.
Available for $3,000 in a limited run of 500 units, it’s not like Cobra’s previous clubs, even commercially published 3D putters are found. While Cobra has already implemented additive production to lighten its high-end putters at a moderate price, the LIMIT3-d series looks much more like a professional club. It combines the aesthetic and tactile qualities of a forged blade with the functional characteristics of a larger game-enhancing iron. With that in mind, his payload is competitive with other game-enhancing clubs. .
Within the 3D printing industry, the overall goal has been to reduce prices to a point that allows additive production to compete with mass production. In truth, many corporations, such as GE, have published in 3D on a giant scale, but to the maximum. Many of the parts manufactured through those corporations are not the kind of thing a customer will ever touch unless those customers build jet engines.
“It’s a high-end advertising product. It’s not a 10 percent lighter aircraft engine,” Roche said. “It’s not a cool aerospace satellite that the average user would possibly have no connection to. This is an advertising product. We make it imaginable with 3D printing and make it available to you. We can do it at scale. I think this is a wonderful time not only for the golf industry, but also for the additives industry.
Roche is wrong. Cobra is at the forefront of what fits into the first category of 3D printing for large-scale customers: sporting goods. While corporations like Adidas and Brooks Running 3D print thousands of midsoles for athletic shoes, Cobra is mass-producing golf, first with its KING line of putters and now with the LIMIT3-d series of irons.
We see similar trends in helmet pads, motorcycle parts, and other high-end sports equipment. Although 500 sets may not seem like a huge volume, this technique allows corporations to bring test products to market in a way unimaginable with Classic Manufacturing. After a successful pilot with this limited series, it’s quite imaginable that Cobra could also get a multi-laser steel 3D printer to make 500 printheads, not in a single run, but in a single print job.
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