Golf adopts Formula One Technology in Unique Williams License Agreement
Oxford, UK, February 8, 2010 - Williams F1 announced today that is has
entered into a unique license
agreement with Williams Sports, a US golf equipment company. Williams Sports
has a very successful
background in the golf business, building one of the most successful golf
club companies in the industry
during the mid to late 2000's, while producing golf equipment that was used
to win 44 times on PGA Tours
worldwide. Combining Williams F1's engineering capability with the
established golf club design and
production experience of the team at Williams Sports, will create a
partnership that will advance golf club
designs to a new level in 2010 and beyond.
The purpose of the partnership is to inject Williams F1's Formula One
technology into the design and
manufacture of Williams Sports' golfing equipment. The initial areas of
technical partnership are in the
aerodynamic profiling of golf club shafts, ferrules and heads, and the
application of composites and alloys
materials science in club design. With current limitations on modern golf
club design, aerodynamics and
materials are now the most important aspect of research and development for
advance golf products. In
addition, the rapid 'concept to delivery' lead times typical of Formula One
will allow these progressions to
reach the golf market sooner than via traditional R&D routes.
Both aerodynamics and carbon fibre composite technology are core Formula One
competencies.
Aerodynamics is the key performance differentiator in Formula One. Alongside
traditional experimental
disciplines such as wind tunnel testing, the sport leads the aerodynamic
predictive discipline of
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to model the drag and downforce
characteristics of their race cars. At
Williams F1, a CFD model of the AT&T Williams race car contains hundreds of
millions of data points,
allowing the smallest change to be assessed and analysed in a virtual
environment for its aerodynamic
impact across the entire car geometry. Over an average season, a Formula One
car will undergo more
than 100 aerodynamic revisions to improve on-track competitiveness.
The sport has also pioneered the application and use of low weight, high
strength carbon fibre since the
1980s, developing race cars that withstand ten annual penetration, static
and dynamic crash tests to
ensure driver safety while not compromising performance. Along with carbon
fibre, several other materials
that are critical to the performance of the race cars will be featured in
the line of Williams Sports products.
The clubs will feature tungsten inserts that will be used for fine tuning of
weight distribution, which is a
process used in Formula One. High nickel content super alloy, used in the
manufacture of the lightweight
racing car exhausts, will be the featured material in the Qualifier Series
of Williams Sports irons.
Initial CFD analysis has shown that the aerodynamic profiling of a top
surface trip and diffuser geometry to
the underside of a driver head, does, under control conditions, lend the
club a smaller wake and improved
pressure recovery. The net gain for the golfer is a reduced loss of swing
energy in addressing the ball and
a more stable head angle better enabling a clean and directional ball
strike.
In simulations, the Williams Sports' FW32 driver demonstrated 19% less drag
force and an 11.5%
decrease in drag coefficient as against a similarly-specified TaylorMade
Burner driver.
Frank Williams, Williams F1's Team Principal said, "We are at the start of a
fascinating period of business
development. We have much proprietary know-how which we are now bringing to
wider consumer as well
as industrial applications, and our engagement with Williams Sport is a
clear example of applying our
knowledge usefully in areas outside of Formula One. I have great hopes for
its potential to revolutionise
design in golf equipment.
"This is a very exciting partnership for my team and I," said Michael Lee of
Williams Sports. "Having
access to Williams F1's extensive design and engineering know-how puts us
one step ahead of every
other company in the golf industry. So many limitations have been placed on
golf equipment that it was
just a matter of time before a golf company started looking at aerodynamics
and new materials. Williams
Sports is leading the way into a whole new era of club design. We are
honoured and excited about what
the future holds for the partnership between Williams F1 and Williams
Sports."
-source: williams
