City of Industry, CA - Geometry, I’m told, is the buzzword today in golf club driver design. And it appears that the new 4DX driver from Nickent Golf is a true combination of art and science, incorporating state of the art directional control capabilities with a “classic” shape. What’s more, its 0.4mm, laser welded titanium crown makes it one of the thinnest crowns of any driver on the market. And this, according to master club designer John Heoflich, Nickent’s senior vice president, is the secret recipe for the performance, sound, and feel of the new driver.
This super-thin crown enables the company to save enough weight to manufacture a 460 CC directional control driver that combines a classic tour shape and cutting edge weight technology. The raw driver head weighs 180 grams, which helps increase its swing speed significantly and allows for maximum distance. The construction of the driver is a 6/4 titanium body fused with a 15-3-3 0.4mm titanium crown. Use of the titanium alloy for the crown reduces its thickness by 50 percent, reduces its weight by 20 grams, and, reportedly, makes for the better sound and feel. After reviewing the design of the head and the weight specifications, the vendors in Asia, where many golf clubs are actually manufactured, suggested laser welding as the construction method.
“Laser welding was required to minimize the weight of the crown,” says Hoeflich. “Other methods would not allow us to remove enough weight and we had to use 15-3-3 titanium alloy because it is stronger than cast 6/4 titanium. At 0.4mm, the crown would dent with a softer material.”
For now, the company is using laser welding only on the new driver-its 4DX fairways and hybrids still use brazing to join titanium to steel.-LJB