Cobra 3D printed irons

[EHolm]

Read on another site that Cobra is set to release 3D printed irons this winter or spring. Anyone have any info on name, tech, price etc?

[third-times-a-charm]

No, but can only assume they're 3D sintered metal that will then be hand/mill finished.

[QuigleyDU]

Has to be an extension of the MIM process... 

[tbowles411]

If they can pull that off, that would be amazing.  Talk about working out the kinks in the design phase.  But I wonder if they would jack up the price because of the technology, even though 3D printing is getting more and more common?

[QuigleyDU]

What would the benefit be? Being able to make a shape or cavity design previously not possible with milling or forging? 

[BlueDragonKorea]

2 minutes ago, QuigleyDU said:

What would the benefit be? Being able to make a shape or cavity design previously not possible with milling or forging? 

Probably increased efficiency and cost savings

[okta]

9 minutes ago, QuigleyDU said:

What would the benefit be? Being able to make a shape or cavity design previously not possible with milling or forging? 

 

You also have complete design flexibility and prototyping capability and should be able to pull off products you can't forge or cast. That said I'm not really sure if that presents an advantage. The biggest advantage would be printing exactly what you need (so significant tooling savings) and being able to test whatever you'd like pretty easily. You'd also be able to finely tune and more exactly get proper weights in the right areas so the tour guys would love this.

 

Another small advantage would be to be able to customize the print, if they implement the tech theoretically you could print any shape you'd like instead of a hand stamp. 

[QuigleyDU]

7 minutes ago, BlueDragonKorea said:

Probably increased efficiency and cost savings

Maybe. Seems less efficient in my small man brain.. Lol

[molecularman]

43 minutes ago, QuigleyDU said:

Maybe. Seems less efficient in my small man brain.. Lol

Yeah,  I have no clue how that works.     But to my uneducated self,  it seems like the process would be slower and I'd be afraid of more voids being created in the final product. 

[BlkNGld]

45 minutes ago, QuigleyDU said:

What would the benefit be? Being able to make a shape or cavity design previously not possible with milling or forging? 

 

Tough to say on the other side of the door.   It could be initially limited to cosmetic changes for all we know.

 

But it has the potential to be a cost effective (and that's relative) way to get much closer to a truly custom set of clubs.    Unless you're a multi major winner or have really deep pockets, designs are adaptations of something made for one of the aforementioned, or they're made, compromises and all, to fit a wide range of players.

 

With 3D printing and the right set of measurements each club's CG could be optimized for how and where you hit the ball.   Offset could be changed or optimized without affecting bounce.   Face flex could be tweaked  based on miss pattern.   Sound and feel could even be tweaked based on personal preference.

 

I'm not suggesting Cobra will have all or any of this, but it will become more and more possible for those willing to pay for it.

[SugarLandGolfer]

I think the main advantage of this will be able to test new concepts quickly adapt. Forging and casting processes take time to setup. 3D printing could save a lot of r&d time. 

[Yacuone]

The backside of the RAD irons has a 3D printed medallion.

[jokerusn]

3D metal printing technology has come a long way in a short time. Some nuclear submarine valves are 3D printed now. The resolution is equal to that of milling but gives you the ability to make any interior shape (CG placement, face thickness/design, structural strength improvements with less material, etc.) without multiple pieces and use multiple materials in a single printing which equals less time to produce, less wasted material, and better consistency.  In the big industrial printers, you can get multiple finished products in less than a day that would have been multiple pieces in a milling machine and still need to be assembled.  I've been waiting to see who does this first.

[iNeedMoreGolf]

I cant wait till they email me a set... so excited.

[wcbjr]

1 hour ago, iNeedMoreGolf said:

I cant wait till they email me a set... so excited.

 

You wouldn't download golf clubs, would you?!

[Myherobobhope]

21 hours ago, QuigleyDU said:

What would the benefit be? Being able to make a shape or cavity design previously not possible with milling or forging? 

If I remember the article, it’s mainly for prototyping irons with the long term goal of mass printing them as costs come down.

 

they can now immediately print almost any idea they can draw on a computer... thus go from theory to practice immediately. 
 

the printed also eliminates the need for welding or brazing, so they can “print” a floating face directly. 
 

I don’t think we will see much immediate impact, but long term it could be interesting, especially as it might allow for infinite customization for iron heads... They wouldn’t be hampered by a need for molds, so any iron design they came up

with could be sold. At least in theory.

 

its definitely interesting but won’t be on market for a bit. 

[iNeedMoreGolf]

3 hours ago, wcbjr said:

 

You wouldn't download golf clubs, would you?!

The technology is there...so yes i would. id also teleport to the course but i hear that might not be till 2028 which is a bummer.

[jongalt55]

Golf club design is largely about how and where mass can be saved, and placed, to maximize performance.  3D printing allows the use of metal lattice structures that would be impossible with casting or forging.  Thus, it opens up the ability for engineers to access additional discretionary weight, thereby allowing them to intentionally place the saved weight where they want it.  Seems to me a way to open up forgiveness and cg placement that wasn't possible with current manufacturing techniques.  If you google 3D printed metal lattice, you'll see tons of images of applications like this one:

[kmay__]

This stuff is wild, it still blows my mind how any metal layered on can form the same bond and replicate the strength of something starting as 1 piece. I have to assume metal 3d printing is essentially "welding" in some respect. The material loss/waste would be incredibly lessened versus milling or even forging where you have to trim off the excess then still grind/mill the part to its final size.

 

But yea its hard for me to grasp it being as strong as high quality steel that has been heated red hot and forged down compressing the molecules and tightening the grain. But technology be like that sometimes. 

[Its_KBO.]

15 hours ago, kmay__ said:

This stuff is wild, it still blows my mind how any metal layered on can form the same bond and replicate the strength of something starting as 1 piece. I have to assume metal 3d printing is essentially "welding" in some respect. The material loss/waste would be incredibly lessened versus milling or even forging where you have to trim off the excess then still grind/mill the part to its final size.

 

But yea its hard for me to grasp it being as strong as high quality steel that has been heated red hot and forged down compressing the molecules and tightening the grain. But technology be like that sometimes. 

That is exactly why as printed parts still have to go through heat treat and hot isostatic pressing furnaces. 
 

Speaking from experience you will not use 3d printing for volume. Most likely it will be for making the molds

[Adamjoyce15]

Cobra with some crazy innovation before anyone else even tries it and gets overlooked until the bigger names decide to follow suit

[TheMoneyShot]

3 hours ago, Adamjoyce15 said:

Cobra with some crazy innovation before anyone else even tries it and gets overlooked until the bigger names decide to follow suit

Sad but very true.

[geakins]

33 minutes ago, TheMoneyShot said:

Sad but very true.

This! People wanted to talk about the M1 and M2 back in 2016. But the LTD had the same low spin but much better forgiveness. Man I should have kept that and not given it to my nephew in law!! 🤣

[osubuckeyes691]

There are definitely other manufacturers who use metal 3D printing from prototyping shapes of new clubs. If you're only producing a few versions, they can be printed relatively quickly and I believe in most cases can even be robot tested due to the material.

[Walkerdb7]

On 10/6/2020 at 7:59 AM, third-times-a-charm said:

No, but can only assume they're 3D sintered metal that will then be hand/mill finished.

No one really sinters in 3D Printing anymore. There’s either lasers melting powder or a binder again fusing the powder together. Cobra works with HP, which is metal binder jet. Of the 2 primary metal technologies, it’s the lower cost version, higher volume, and lower part property version of metal 3D Printing 

[Adamjoyce15]

3D printed putter just made its way to some reviewers, might be proof of concept if they hope to bring it to irons on a bigger scale

[bladehunter]

As a guy who works with metal , how does this work ?  Layers welded to each other ?  Or layers that are fluxed to be bonded by heat in a furnace later ?  Metal doesn’t jist extrude out and stick to the previous layer by itself.  

[Drainey15]

I’m a machinist in the medical field and am familiar with 3D printers. They can do some cool stuff but build times take forever not to mention having to deal with powder. On top of that most everything still has to be machined or metal finished after, but I like that they’re actually tryin somethin new 

[Red4282]

Completely different industry but my experience with some 3d printed products were not good. Looked cheap, felt cheap and broke like it was cheap.

[Myherobobhope]

On 11/20/2020 at 10:11 PM, Adamjoyce15 said:

3D printed putter just made its way to some reviewers, might be proof of concept if they hope to bring it to irons on a bigger scale

Seems like their new irons are a hit with the MIM process... it’ll be interesting to see what they can achieve!