Cobra 3D Printed Irons

[mchepp]

I searched around but didn’t see any other threads on this so I’ll put it here. I work in the laser industry and one of the applications has been additive manufacturing. The main market for the past 10 years has been SpaceX and the space industry and some medical applications. The new one I saw this week is 3D printing irons. Cobra and the company that they are using is marketing these irons pretty aggressively. 

In talking with the folks in the booth at the trade show, the claim is that they can gain strength but reduce the weight to put it exactly where they want. The print of the iron is very cool. Mostly everything behind the face is a thin metal lattice and then in the heal and toe is a block of tungsten for weight. 

I am old enough to remember the arguments about forged versus cast irons. I wonder if folks here will pay a bit more to get 3D printed irons.  They have a booth here where you can hit them but I hate lines and the line to do it is always long. I go again tomorrow, and if the line isn’t too long I’ll give it a try and report back.

Edited June 26 by iacas
removed all-black images

[Vinsk]

[mchepp]

[ChetlovesMer]

3 hours ago, Vinsk said:

I almost did a coffee spit take. 
Well played sir. Well played.

 

[billchao]

14 hours ago, mchepp said:

I wonder if folks here will pay a bit more to get 3D printed irons.

That’s going to be a no from me. Why should I pay extra for new technology just because of their R&D cost? I doubt they’re going to be transformative. I’ll stick with the old tech if it’s cheaper.

[Vinsk]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

That’s going to be a no from me. Why should I pay extra for new technology just because of their R&D cost? I doubt they’re going to be transformative. I’ll stick with the old tech if it’s cheaper.

‘But these go to 11.’ Haha. Too much @ChetlovesMer?

[iacas]

You don't need to 3D print a blade.

I haven't watched this yet (literally about 30 seconds in), but it's probably interesting:

[ChetlovesMer]

1 hour ago, Vinsk said:

‘But these go to 11.’ Haha. Too much @ChetlovesMer?

These go to eleven...

😁

[iacas]

Okay, that video wasn't great. It's just a mild explanation of gear effect, and they don't even cover it very well.

[mchepp]

I nice intro.

 

5 hours ago, billchao said:

That’s going to be a no from me. Why should I pay extra for new technology just because of their R&D cost? I doubt they’re going to be transformative. I’ll stick with the old tech if it’s cheaper.

I think paying extra is only the beginning because of the supply chain challenges of this. As I mentioned the only market today for 3D metal printing is very high quality metals. Space grade rockets mostly. Once the supply chain gets geared towards making irons I think the price may even come down a little. There is also limitations on how many you can make. The printers themselves cost nearly a million dollars and you could probably make one set per day...maybe a bit more. Maybe 2-3 sets a day, the printing process takes time. Once there are more companies doing it everything might shift a little. 

[billchao]

8 minutes ago, mchepp said:

I nice intro.

 

I think paying extra is only the beginning because of the supply chain challenges of this. As I mentioned the only market today for 3D metal printing is very high quality metals. Space grade rockets mostly. Once the supply chain gets geared towards making irons I think the price may even come down a little. There is also limitations on how many you can make. The printers themselves cost nearly a million dollars and you could probably make one set per day...maybe a bit more. Maybe 2-3 sets a day, the printing process takes time. Once there are more companies doing it everything might shift a little. 

I don't see them ever being comparable in price to a typical cast club and I don't think they're going to outperform existing irons due to limitations of the equipment rules and physics. So really a person would be paying a premium for the cool factor alone, or maybe they really don't like the look of cavity backs? Those aren't good enough reasons for me, though I'm sure they are for plenty of people out there.

[GolfLug]

Same here. Cool but why?