Patent 8662882 was granted and assigned to Nike, Inc. on March, 2014 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The disclosure provides a golf ball mold that may produce a golf ball with a reduced gate defect. The golf ball mold may have a mold cavity having a mold chamber including a surface shaped as the inverse of a substantially hemispherical shape and a parting edge disposed along the perimeter of mold chamber. At least one gate may be disposed on the parting edge to provide a path for a cover material to be injected into the mold chamber. The gate may include a flat middle surface connected by a first side surface and a second side surface disposed opposite the first side surface. A round having a radius of curvature ranging from about 0.2 mm to about 0.5 mm may be disposed along a middle gate edge of middle surface and/or a side gate edge of one of the first side surface and the second side surface.