Has Golfworks ever done research on the grain flow forging process to determine if this process is beneficial or better? It would seem that the patent should have expired by now and if the process were more advantageous other companies would be doing it not also.
The “grain flow” forging that Mizuno calls out was patented in Japan a while ago, 1998 or around then. From what I can tell it has expired but would have to do more research. Basically it is the a 5 or 6 step process, depending on how you count the steps. We used a very similar method in all of our solid forgings (the TE, the MMB-17, the new TE+, etc.) and have for years. Newer forgings of ours are still use multiple steps, but some models are multi material so the process is not exactly the same. Still, multiple steps used to to create consistent grain structures.
Basically by using multiple steps and specific heating processes the final product, after all the steps are done, require much less finishing. The grain structure is more uniform and consistent due to the multiple “forging” processes that are used vs the old way of basically one forged step and a lot of trimming and finishing. Really was never unique to Mizuno, but what they called it and minor variations in the process were. From all of our testing and research, we found nothing different in performance from what is produced from what they call grain flow forging and the 5 or 6 step process used by us and others. Below are the basic steps for the multi-step process.
Britt Lindsey
Thank you for the in depth answer.