Discover: An Amazing 3D Printed Telescopic Golf Club

Golf, it is a sport of inches. One little pebble on the ground can be the difference between winning and losing. Golf clubs come in different sizes, with multiple shaped heads, each with different purposes. The typical golf clubs are made out of steel, titanium, or carbon fiber, as they need to be very strong in order to handle the repetitive striking of hard balls.

One young man, named Duncan K. Anderson decided to try something new. Anderson, a student at the Lahti Insitute of Design, was assigned with creating a promotional tool for a design agency named Webb deVlam. The task was to pick a product that symbolized the company and design the packaging accordingly. Anderson came up with the idea of a 3D printed golf putter.

This wasn’t just any putter though, it was a telescopic club that would be packaged with 3D printed balls as well.

“Golf was chosen as a subject as it’s a game of bonding, experience and rejuvenation,” explained Anderson. “3D printing was chosen as it exemplifies the structural and technological capabilities of the company and is a product that would interest corporate clients.

The golf club, and the balls were 3D printed, while the packaging was made out of different colors of cardboard. Anderson had tried to print his design on an older 3D printer that he had access to, but found that he wasn’t able to print the telescopic design all in one piece on the machine available. So, Anderson went to a company called 3D Print UK for some help. Using 3D Print UK’s industrial level selective laser sintering machines, Anderson was able to have the golf club set printed out exactly how he had envisioned. The set is 3D printed using a nylon material that is very durable.

Anderson entered his creation into the Student Starpack 2014 competition and came away with several awards: The Starpack Gold Award, Webb deVlam Sponsored Award & Nampak Champion Award.

Webb deVlam felt that Anderson’s project was everything that they had hoped for when providing the school with their request.

“Showed true understanding of the brief and executed it brilliantly,” said Webb deVlam. “Every usage point of the product – from opening to playing, related back to Webb deVlam. Both graphically and structurally excellent. Epitomizes who we are as a packaged product. Hands-down winner!”

While you probably won’t see 3D printed nylon golf clubs on the golf course anytime soon, the idea and the design that Anderson came up with is quite phenomenal. What do you think of this design? Discuss in the 3D Printed Golf Club forum thread on 3DPB.com.