Golf Tech – Mill, Baby Mill!
Golf club manufacturing has been transformed in the past few decades with modern computer-aided design and advanced precision manufacturing using high-tech equipment and space-aged materials technologies. Golfers can now benefit from these state-of-the-art advancements with golf clubs that are higher in quality, perform better and can be fit and customized like never before, ultimately allowing golfers to trust their equipment more, have increased confidence and greater enjoyment of the game.
Golf clubs were originally made by hand by blacksmiths and woodworking artisans. Iron heads and putter heads were hand forged from carbon steel, hand hammered into their blade shapes, hand ground and hand stamped with the blacksmith’s maker’s marks. Woods were fashioned from hickory, oak and persimmon hardwoods, with brass and other metals attached for weight and durability.
There was a golden era of innovation in the 1920’s and 1930’s, brought on by the popularity of the game and the advent of the industrial revolution. Charles E. Billings, a distant relative, ran Billings and Spencer manufacturing in Hartford Connecticut, and forged all kinds of equipment using his innovative forging hammers, from Colt firearms, to Singer sewing machines, to his own brand of patented wrenches, hammers, knives and other tools. And innovative golf clubs.
The large-scale forging hammers allowed C.E. Billings to forge irons with a tighter grain structure, more precision (and less waste) and greater consistency and tighter tolerances. He also developed a method of milling the score lines in innovative patterns, again aiding consistency over the older method of pressing in the grooves using a patterned die, which wasn’t always straight or even.
And this milling improved the club’s quality, consistency and accuracy. Milling in those days was performed on what are called “manual mills” which are still used today, but in fewer and fewer numbers as they require vast skill, training and expertise to cut metal away from a raw block or billet of metal one step at a time, with one tool at a time, all controlled by a machinist operating the hand controls, often taking days to create one single golf club (usually putters). Manual mills are now replaced by more modern CNC Machining centers. “CNC” is an anacronym for “Computer Numerical Control” where the milling machine (aka machining center) is controlled by a computer program, with great precision, repeatability and reliability.
Computers now play a major role in the design phase of golf clubs as well. CAD, or Computer Aided Design, is now employed by the vast majority of equipment companies, with state-of-the-art software programs such as Solidworks, an industry standard in modeling programs. Once the designs are perfected and finalized, they are then converted into machining center programming using additional software such as Mastercam, which controls the machining operations via CAM or Computer Aided Manufacturing, to control the machining operations and tools to mill out the product from the stock materials.
Today’s modern machining centers (including CNC Mills and CNC Lathes) can hold dozens of cutting tools, interchanged automatically, indexed and automatically checked for position and even wear, so numerous cutting operations can be performed with great precision and efficiency in a single setup or operation.
Interchangeable pallets of stock materials allow multiple parts to be milled at one time, further increasing productivity and efficiency. And external robotic arms are also integrated and programmed to load and unload the parts and pallets with automatic doors, vise jaws, and start/stop commands and all the milling operations orchestrated by the CAM software programs. These programs and robotic tools increase capacity and decrease the costs of machine operators, and they work around the clock without the need for meals or breaks!
Together these software and hardware systems make up “CAD/CAM” to design, create and manufacture today’s high-tech CNC milled golf club designs.
Advancements in the machining centers also allow the mills to move the stock material in five different axis under or next to the cutting tools, versus three axis mills used previously. This allows more complex parts to be milled with less loading and unloading operations, and also increases the quality of the parts by reducing the incidences of mis-matched operations, operator error all while increasing efficiency, quality and productivity.
MACHINE Putters are manufactured here in the DFW Metroplex using these state-of-the-art design and manufacturing processes, using Made in USA equipment such as Haas CNC machining centers, U.S.-sourced advanced materials such as 6-4 Titanium, super dense Tungsten and exotic materials such as hand-forged Damascus and Mokume Gane that are then CNC precision milled, marrying the ancient craft of hand forging and the precision of CNC milling. Intricate hand finishing helps soften the look and feel for the discerning eye and brings out the beauty and luster of the metals.
Patented modular construction with interchangeable and adjustable components provide virtually endless fitting and customization options to suit each individual’s unique specifications, preferences, wants and needs.
By utilizing these advanced design, engineering and manufacturing technologies, we are able to offer more custom-fitting solutions and model, style, material, alignment and aesthetic options than any other brand, benefitting our customers with the very best in performance, look and feel … all improving confidence and enjoyment in their games, scoring and winning.
Mill, Baby, Mill! Let the good times roll! – Dave
About the author: David Billings is a 35-year golf industry veteran, has been credited with 19 U.S. and International Patents on his Golf Club designs and technology inventions, and is widely recognized for his pioneering designs, technologies and work in custom fitting and adjustable technologies. Billings’ golf club designs and technologies have been licensed by numerous brands, his companies’ putters have been used on tour by over 25 Hall-of-Fame players and celebrated in double-digit wins on all the major tours. Billings, a native Texan, is a graduate of the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles and the Parsons School of Design. The SAM PuttLab and David Billings’ modern, high-tech and locally made MACHINE putters can be found, tested and fit by Travis Fussell at Integrity Golf Performance in Frisco Texas, by appointment.