Golf Ball Manufacturing
Golfers around the world realize that it’s important to find that perfect ball that suits their game.
One golf ball manufacturer, long regarded as the most prestigious brand name in the $1 billion-per-year golf-ball industry, offers an array of golf ball types to suit the games of every type of golfer. Indeed, the manufacturer makes so many different types of balls and so many compressions, it is confusing even to professional golfers.
Research and Development
The manufacturer’s Research and Development Department takes on the challenge to continually improve the quality and composition of their golf balls and to expand their product lines. A scientist in R&D says one of the critical elements of a golf ball is the core composition. The core is the golf ball’s source of energy. Differences in core construction affect spin rate (control), initial velocity (distance) and compression (feel).
The typical core construction, either wound or solid, offer significant differences in control and feel. Wound balls have three parts: center, winding and cover.
The Problem:
The R&D Department conducts core compression experiments to continually improve the interior design of their golf balls. R&D uses rheometers, an instrument for measuring the flow of viscous liquids, made by Monsanto, to measure different heating cycles of the polymers that comprise a golf ball’s center. Measuring different heating cycles simulates part of the actual process of developing the ball’s core. By simulating the process with the rheometer, the Department can perfect the heating and compression process to improve the golf ball’s core, and hence, overall control and feel of the ball.
Monsanto, the manufacturer of the rheometer, offers its own SPC software to analyze the viscosity data output of the device. However, R&D had a need to overlay curves for different heating cycles which the custom SPC package would not allow. So they needed an easy way to get the data into MS Excel that not only supported this graphing feature but they were also very familiar with. (Excel is easy to use and a powerful spreadsheet that includes extensive statistical analysis features).
The WinWedge solution
They discovered that by using the WinWedge Pro (by TALtech) to interface the rheometer directly into MS Excel, they could overlay the heating curves and analyze their results.
WinWedge parses and filters the data from the rheometer and inputs it in to Excel for real-time graphing of the heating cycles.
WinWedge Advantages:
- Flexible solution utilizing WinWedge to input data from rheometers (an instrument for measuring the flow of viscous liquids) into Microsoft Excel
- Cost effective and accurate data collection
- Free support by by phone or email
- Lifetime License
Updated August 2026