Readers of this blog know that I am amazed by the lack of golf shaft related patents, especially in light of the technology that goes into the design and manufacturing of shafts (see this post).

This week Aldila was granted their first patent in over 25 years! This is hard to imagine… an industry leading innovative publicly traded company that only has 2 patents. Amazing! They must know how to keep trade secrets.

The patent that was granted this week is USPN 7243531 titled “Method and Apparatus for Dynamically Locating Neutral Shaft Plane.” The patent describes the invention as:

Apparatus and method for locating the neutral bending plane of an elongated flexible shaft, typically a golf club shaft, by mounting one end portion of the shaft in a clamping mechanism having a rotatable clamp member that permits the shaft to turn about its longitudinal axis while being driven through a motion simulating a golf swing, with sufficient speed to cause the inertial loading of the shaft by its own mass, enhanced by a head weight, to turn the clamp member and the shaft into alignment with the path of movement of the shaft during the simulated swing. A brake fixes the shaft in this position during the swinging motion. A first embodiment uses a rotary motor to rotate the shaft in a radially projecting position about a stationary axis, with a clamping mechanism and brake mechanism on a base plate mounted on the motor shaft. A second embodiment mounts the clamping and brake mechanisms on a robotic golf-strokes machine to move along an arcuate path, and a third embodiment mounts the clamping and brake mechanisms for movement along a linear path, and a fourth mounts the clamping and brake mechanisms in a hand held mechanism to move along the swing path of the intended user.

Check out this figure from the patent.

Congratulations Aldila.

David Dawsey - Looking for Golf Shaft Inventions and Patents