DIGITAL SCULPTURE

New 500 series: chapter 3

By Inesis

June 23^rd, 2023

In the last episode, club designer Charles presented the design of the future 500 irons. The project is now in the hands of Alex, 3D modeler. His mission: to transpose the lines imagined by the designer into a 3D object respecting the technical constraints imposed by the engineers.

THANK YOU HOLLOW BODY

The first criterion that the 3D modeler must respect when sculpting the head is weight. This is defined down to the gram for each iron in the series.

The main feature of 500 irons is that they are "hollow body" clubs, meaning that the inside of the head is hollow. This allows us to meet the objectives set by the product manager: power, forgiveness and looks.

This is a godsend for Alex, as he can work not only on the outside of the head, but also on the inside of the cavity to add or remove weight more easily.

By analyzing the drawings produced by the designer, Alex quickly identifies that the issue lies in the "step" that joins the top and bottom of the head. Its location will have a direct impact on the position of the center of gravity. With 500 irons, we're looking for a lower, more rearward position of the center of gravity than with 900 irons, but less than with 100 irons. The aim: to find the perfect compromise between power, feel and forgiveness.

CREATING THE MONSTER

It all starts with the creation of a "monster". Alex sets the first parameters of the future head: loft, lie, bounce and offset. From there, he begins to rough out the shape, gradually getting closer to the designer's desired form. The monster respects 80% of the design and 100% of the mass target.

This is followed by several return trips with the designer to refine the lines.

1. POWER

To obtain greater ball speed, we opted for a forged face on the one hand, but also an "L-Cup" face on the other. This means that the face is not welded to the body anywhere around the perimeter of the face. A notch in the base allows the weld to be offset. As the weld adds material, offsetting it keeps the face thickness at a minimum at the bottom of the head for maximum trampoline effect.

2. TOLERANCE

To make a head tolerant, you need to place weight on the toe and heel. The fact that we've opted for a hollow head allows us to do this by working the inside of the cavity.

The head of the 500 V2 irons is slightly shorter than that of the first generation. As the weight is the same, we've been able to add extra weight at the ends, for the benefit of tolerance.

3. LOOK

The offset of a head is the rearward offset of the sole edge in relation to the shaft axis. More offset is used on clubs for advanced players than for expert players, as it facilitates square contact and ball take-off. But a high offset is not very pleasing to the eye. The offset has been reduced compared to the 500 V1 irons, and Alex has worked hard on the transition between the hosel and the face to further limit the perception of offset.

We've also reworked the top line (the top of the head), so that it looks slightly thinner, without ever being unsettling. If you've got an old 3-iron in your garage, you'll know what we mean.

The back of the head is studied from this point of view. We don't want the player to see what's going on behind the club's back. We're talking about clubs for experienced players, not beginners!

THE SPECIAL CASE OF 5-IRON

Club lofts have tended to fall in recent years. The average 7-iron for experienced players is currently around 28°, the same as a 5-iron a few years ago. Thanks to technical progress, this makes it possible to extend distances without making clubs difficult to play. But even so, a 5-iron at 22° can be a little complicated to hit for a player with an index of around 30. So we decided to design it as a utility.

A utility is a cross between an iron and a hybrid. It looks like an iron, but the sole and cavity are larger. The center of gravity is moved back to make it more powerful and forgiving.

Image: on the left, the 5-iron, on the right, the 6-iron.

IN THE 500 FAMILY, I’D LIKE THE GAP WEDGE

On the other side of the range, there's another problem. Since the loft of the 7-iron is 28° and we want gaps of 4 to 5° between each club (i.e. around 10 meters), we end up with a pitching wedge at 42° and a first wedge at 52°. So we've added a club, a gap wedge, to ensure we always have the right club for attacking greens. Because there's nothing worse than being between two clubs in this situation. A small pitch, a big 52°? It would be a shame to find yourself in this situation and miss the green!

This gap wedge has been designed as an iron, not a wedge. It therefore benefits from the hollow body construction that makes it powerful and forgiving. It's a challenge to design a hollow club with a high mass (287g) and a very open loft, as this is synonymous with a very wide sole, which doesn't look very good. Alex has therefore worked on the cavity, which here is very reduced to reach the weight target while respecting the look of all the irons in the series.

AND THE WEDGES

Let's talk wedges while we're at it. We've gone back to the first-generation 500s, which perform very well. We've reworked the sole to make it more versatile. The face is slightly larger to position the center of gravity higher to generate more spin (the ball stops faster on the green). When Alex projected the designers' drawing, he quickly realized that the mass was too great. Since we're dealing with a full head, we decided to create a cavity at the back of the head, the position and shape of which we defined to achieve the desired physical characteristics.