Golf Driver/ball Impact Acoustic Measurement System

This experiment assessed whether or not a golf club impact acoustic testing methodology using a fixed golf club/launched golf ball setup would record less error in the captured acoustic signatures than industry standard methodologies (a stationary ball/swinging club setup). Two steel-shafted golf drivers were tested using this new system that launched golf balls using a pressurized air cannon into an anechoic chamber at a fixed club specimen, where the ensuing impact signature was recorded by three microphones located inside the chamber. To quantify the level of error captured in each signature, the standard deviations in frequency mode and decay time between successive shots were calculated, and these values were compared to industry-supplied data. The data suggested that the experimental methodology recorded less error than the industry methodology. The data collected from the experimental setup also illustrated several distinct and club-specific frequency response modes, many of which were not present in the data supplied by industry, suggesting that industry testing methodologies do not fully capture the club-head impact response.