Golf Club Manufacturing Challenge

Customer:

Golf Club Manufacturer

Background:

The manufacturer had a novel idea for a new golf club design. Instead of a one-piece cast or forged club head they designed a club with a cavity in the "sweet spot" area and filled that area with hexagonal titanium inserts. The inserts varied in hex size from 1/8" to 3/16" but were only 1/8" long, Cutting the parts to length and deburring them was a challenge. The customer had been having a sub-contractor cut the parts on a screw machine but the quality and costs were unacceptable.

Manufacturing Challenge:

The hex inserts were being made from several different titanium alloys, all of which are difficult to cut and even more difficult to deburr. The quantities were over 1 million parts per year. The inconsistent lengths and burrs from the screw machine presented numerous assembly problems and required costly secondary operations.

Solution:

Everite designed custom tooling for the TC1C electrochemical cutoff machine that would hold the hex shaped material. The small hex size allowed the machine to cut 20 bars at a time. The parts were cut successfully; completely burr free while holding the required +/-.002 length tolerance. The cutting cost dropped from $80/M to $25/M, a saving of over $55,000 on one part number alone.