JP5204826B2 - Golf club head - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a golf club head that can improve resilience performance.

  A golf club in which a hit ball flies well plays an important role in improving a score in a golf competition. In order to increase the flight distance of the hit ball, it is effective to increase the restitution coefficient of the head. The coefficient of restitution of the head can be increased by minimizing the energy loss during hitting. Specifically, it is considered effective to reduce the thickness of the face portion of the head as much as possible and bring the first-order minimum value of the frequency transfer function of the golf club or golf club head closer to that of the ball.

  Therefore, in recent years, in order to further reduce the thickness while maintaining the strength of the face portion, it has been devised to use a β-type titanium alloy or amorphous alloy, which is a high strength material with a low Young's modulus, for the face portion. . However, in order to achieve higher resilience by selecting materials, it is necessary to wait for the completion of new materials, and there is a limit at present.

  On the other hand, efforts have been made to obtain a high coefficient of restitution using current metal materials by structural ingenuity. For example, in order to reduce the rigidity of the face portion, it is effective to increase the face surface that is the surface thereof. A head having a large face surface area has a slightly lower face strength than a head having a small face surface area with the same face portion thickness, but the rigidity can be further reduced. Therefore, if the thickness is set so that the strength of the face portion can be maintained, the rigidity can be lowered while maintaining the strength. However, since the club swings, the weight of the club head cannot be drastically increased empirically, and as a result, the increase in the area of the face surface causes an increase in the weight of the entire head. was there.

Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-33071

  As a result of intensive research, the inventors have found that the head main part, which is connected to the outer periphery of the face part and forms the back face side, more specifically, at least part of the crown part, the sole part or the side part, The present inventors have found that the rigidity of the entire head can be reduced and the high resilience performance can be realized by providing a pleat-shaped portion that bends and protrudes into a substantially U-shaped cross section in the hollow portion of the present invention, and has completed the present invention. As described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a golf club head that can improve resilience performance.

The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises a face portion having a face surface for hitting a ball, and a head main portion which is connected to the back surface of the face portion and forms the back face side, and a hollow portion is formed inside. The head main portion includes a crown portion connected to the upper edge of the face surface and forming the upper surface of the head, a sole portion connecting to the lower edge of the face surface and forming the bottom surface of the head, and the crown portion and the sole. A side part extending from the toe side edge of the face surface to the heel side edge of the face surface, and a heel side of the face part, the crown part, and the side part and arranged in the vicinity of the intersection part. And a neck portion to which one end of the shaft is mounted. The head main portion extends from the head main portion and bends into the hollow portion in a substantially U-shaped cross section. A pleated portion is formed on the outer surface of the head by a concave portion formed by bending the U-shaped cross section, and one end of the pleated portion is positioned on the crown portion. In addition, the crown part, the toe side part and the sole part are extended along the peripheral edge of the face surface and terminated on the heel side of the sole part, and the groove-like parts are separated from each other and substantially parallel to each other. It has a pair of groove walls, and an elastic material that can be deformed following the head body at the time of hitting the ball is arranged so that the outer surface of the head is flush with the elastic body , and the width GW is 2 to 5 mm on the outer surface of the head. The dent amount GD is 5 to 8 mm .

The invention according to claim 1 is characterized in that a plate thickness of the pleated portion is 1.0 to 1.5 mm.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the golf club head according to the first aspect, the groove-shaped portion is formed such that a distance S between a groove edge on the face surface side and a peripheral edge of the face surface is 50 mm or less. is there.

The invention according to claim 3 is the golf club head according to claim 1 or 2, wherein one end of the pleated portion is located near a neck portion of the crown portion.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the golf club head according to any one of the first to third aspects, the length of the pleated portion is 60% or more of the entire circumferential length of the peripheral edge of the face surface.

  As in the present invention, the head main portion is provided with a pleat-shaped portion that extends from the head main portion and is bent in a substantially U-shaped cross section in the hollow portion, thereby increasing the coefficient of restitution and the flight distance of the hit ball. Can be improved.

  When the groove main part formed on the outer surface of the head main part by the pleated part is filled with an elastic body that can be deformed following the face part at the time of ball hitting, the head main part is substantially flat. In addition to preventing foreign matter from getting into the groove-like portion without impairing the bending characteristics, it is possible to prevent an uncomfortable appearance.

  Further, as in the second or third aspect of the invention, by limiting the width GW of the groove-shaped portion and the amount of depression GD, or by limiting the position of the pleated portion, the face can be more effectively and reliably produced. The rigidity of the part 2 can be reduced.

It is a perspective view of a head showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. It is the AA sectional view. It is an expanded sectional view of a pleated part. It is a reference drawing of a pleated part. It is an expanded sectional view of a pleated part. It is an expanded sectional view of a pleated part. (A)-(C) are the top views of the head which shows other embodiment of this invention. (A) is the rear perspective view of the head which shows other embodiment of this invention, (B) is the sectional drawing. It is a top view of the head which shows other embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view in a normal state in which a golf club head (hereinafter, simply referred to as “head”) 1 according to the present embodiment is placed on a horizontal plane with a specified lie angle and loft angle, and FIG. 2 is an exploded view thereof. perspective view, FIG. 3 is a plan view of the head, Figure 4 is a line a-a enlarged sectional view of FIG. 3, respectively it shows.

  In the figure, a head 1 includes a face portion 2 having a face surface F for hitting a ball, and a head main portion 3 that is connected to the back surface (surface opposite to the face surface F) of the face portion 2 and forms the back face side. It consists of.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the face portion 2 has a thickness Tf of, for example, 1.0 to 3.0 mm, preferably 1.5 to 2.9 mm, and more preferably about 2.0 to 2.7 mm. The When the thickness Tf of the face portion 2 is less than 1.0 mm, the strength tends to decrease. Conversely, when it exceeds 3.0 mm, the resilience performance tends to decrease. Further, in this example, the face portion 2 having a thickness Tf formed with substantially the same thickness is exemplified, but the face portion 2 may be configured to be more easily bent by thickening the central portion and thinning the peripheral portion. It can be preferably implemented.

  Specifically, the head main portion 3 includes a crown portion 4 whose outer surface is connected to the upper edge Ea of the face surface F (in addition, the symbol “E” is used when referring to the entire periphery of the face surface) and forms the upper surface of the head. The sole surface 5 that is connected to the lower edge Eb of the face surface F and forms the bottom of the head, and the crown surface 4 and the sole portion 5 are connected to each other through the back face from the toe side edge Ec of the face surface F. A side portion 6 extending to the heel side edge Ed of F, and a neck portion 7 which is arranged in the vicinity of the intersecting portion on the heel side of the face portion 2, the crown portion 4 and the side portion 6 and to which one end of a shaft (not shown) is attached. With Further, the head 1 of this example illustrates a wood type head such as a driver (# 1) having a hollow portion i therein. The hollow portion i may be in a hollow state, but may be filled with, for example, a foamed resin that does not substantially contribute to the rigidity of the head.

  The head 1 can be formed of various metal materials such as aluminum alloy, titanium, titanium alloy, and stainless steel. In this example, Ti-6Al-4V, which is an α + β type titanium alloy, is adopted. For example, one or two or more parts are formed by the lost wax precision casting method, and these are integrally joined as required. Is illustrated. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is needless to say that it can be manufactured by other materials and other molding methods.

  One of the features of the head 1 of the present invention is that the head main portion 3 is provided with a pleated portion 9 extending from the head main portion 3 and protruding into the hollow portion i by being bent into a substantially U-shaped cross section. To do.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the pleated portion 9 is exemplified by a portion extending in the vicinity of the face surface F along the peripheral edge E of the face surface. More specifically, one end 9a of the pleat-shaped portion 9 is located near the neck portion 7 of the crown portion 4, and the crown portion 4, the toe side portion 6, and the sole portion along the peripheral edge E of the face surface. An example is shown in which 5 is extended and terminated on the heel side of the sole portion 5.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the pleated portion 9 has a groove-like portion 10 formed on the outer surface of the head main portion 3 by a concave portion formed by bending with a substantially U-shaped cross section. In FIG. 5, the fragmentary sectional view which expanded the pleated part 9 is shown. As shown in FIG. 5, the groove-like portion 10 has a pair of groove wall portions 10a and 10a that are spaced apart from each other and face each other, and a groove bottom portion 10b that connects the groove wall portions 10a and 10a. Groove walls 10a, 10a are both to greens substantially parallel to each other extend substantially perpendicular to the f head main portion 3. In addition, the groove bottom portion 10b is formed by an arcuate curve in this example, and prevents stress concentration at the groove bottom portion 10b. The radius of curvature of the groove bottom 10b is preferably about 50% of the groove width.

On the hollow portion i side, it is desirable that the intersection j between the pleated portion 9 and the inner surface of the head main portion 3 is appropriately chamfered with an arc to prevent stress concentration .

  Such a pleat-shaped portion 9 is bent and protrudes toward the hollow portion i with a substantially U-shaped cross section, and is accompanied by a significant increase in weight of the head main portion 3 such as the crown portion 3 and / or the sole portion 4. Instead, the surface area of the head main portion 3 is increased in a pseudo manner within a limited head weight range. When the thickness of the head main part is the same, a head having a larger surface area of the head main part 3 can have a lower rigidity as in this example.

Further, the pleated portion 9 having a pair of groove walls that are spaced apart from each other and substantially parallel to each other has a substantially U-shaped cross section, so that the spring properties due to the relatively easy contact between the groove walls 10a and 10a facing each other. Can be demonstrated. Therefore, by forming such a pleated portion 9 at a position where it can be easily displaced when hitting the ball, the entire head can be bent with a good balance. Moreover, the pleated portion 9 is advantageous in terms of durability of the head as a result of alleviating the local displacement of only the face portion 2 when hitting the ball and ensuring the displacement of the entire head. Therefore, the pleated portion 9 described above can alleviate the concentration of displacement on the face portion 2 and is advantageous in preventing deterioration of the durability of the face portion. Thus, by providing the pleated portion 9 in the head main portion 3, it is possible to reduce the rigidity of the head while maintaining the strength and achieve high resilience performance.

  As described above, in order to bend the pleated portion 9 more effectively at the time of hitting, for example, the distance S between the groove edge 10e on the face surface side of the groove-shaped portion 10 and the peripheral edge E of the face surface is set to 70 mm. In the following, it is more preferable that the thickness is 30 mm or less, and further preferably 15 mm or less, and it is desirable to be close to the periphery E side of the face surface. Thereby, the resilience performance of the head can be improved more effectively. If the distance S is greater than 70 mm, the effect of bending the pleated portion 9 tends to decrease. If the distance S is too small, the back surface of the face portion 2 and the pleated portion 9 may interfere with each other in the hollow portion i, making it difficult to form. Therefore, in combination with any of the above upper limit values, 3 mm or more More preferably, it is 5 mm or more, more preferably 5 to 10 mm. The distance S is measured along a horizontal plane and perpendicular to the peripheral edge E.

Further, in order to bend the pleated portion 9 effectively, it is desirable to arrange the pleated portion 9 substantially in parallel with the peripheral edge E of the face surface. Thereby, the impact force at the time of hitting the ball effectively acts in the direction in which the groove wall surfaces 10a and 10a of the groove-like portion 10 are brought into contact with and separated from each other, thereby further increasing the deflection of the head. Note that “substantially parallel” means that, in addition to the case where the distance S is always constant, the change value X represented by the following formula (1) is 0.5 or less at the maximum value Sa and the minimum value Sb of the distance S. Preferably, the aspect of 0.4 or less is included.
X = (Sa−Sb) / Sa (1)

  Further, the length of the pleated portion 9 is not particularly limited, but is preferably 30 mm or more, more preferably 50 mm or more, and particularly when provided along the peripheral edge E of the face surface, preferably the entire peripheral edge E of the face surface is preferable. It is effective to form with a length of 60% or more, more preferably 80% or more of the circumferential length.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 7, the plate thickness Tp of the pleated portion 9 is the same as the plate thickness Tc of the head main portion 3 (crown portion 4 in FIG. 7) on which the pleated portion 9 is formed, or the plate Although it may be larger than the thickness Tc, it is particularly preferable to make it smaller than the plate thickness Tc. Thus, by setting the plate thickness Tp of the pleated portion 9 to be smaller than the plate thickness Tc of the head main portion on which the pleated portion 9 is formed, the spring constant of the pleated portion 9 is lowered, and further the head 1 The rigidity can be reduced and the resilience performance can be improved.

The plate thickness Tp of the pleated portion 9 is 1.0 to 1.5 mm. If the thickness Tp is less than 1.0 mm, durability beat significantly lower the head main portion 3 and conversely exceeds 1.5 mm, a low rigidity is impaired resilience performance is deteriorated. Specifically, the plate thickness Tp of the pleated portion 9 is, for example, 0.5 to 2.0 times the thickness Tc of the head main portion 3 on which the pleated portion 9 is formed, more preferably 0.7 to It is desirable to set at about 1.0 times.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the groove-like portion 10 has a width GW on the face surface F of 2 to 5 mm. Wherein the width W is larger than 5 mm, concave depth GD to deflect the wrinkled portion 9 must also correspond deeper, arising discomfort becomes as other appearance on the specificity of the head durability is lowered . On the other hand, when the groove width GW is smaller than 2 mm, it becomes difficult to form the pleated portion 9 itself having such a groove-like portion 10, and the groove walls 10a and 10a come into contact with each other at the time of hitting and a large deflection is caused. I can't get it.

Further, the recess amount GD of the groove-like portion 10 is 5 to 8 mm. Is less than dented GD is 5 mm, the less effect of lowering the rigidity of the face portion 2, except that molding opposite to more than 8 mm is difficult, durability deterioration arising. Further, the groove width GW and / or the recess amount GD can be changed in addition to the case where the groove width GW and the recess amount GD are formed constant.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the groove-like portion 10 is provided with an elastic material 11 that can be deformed following the head main portion 3 when the ball is hit. As a result, the head main portion 3 can be substantially flush. The elastic material 11 is not particularly limited as long as it can exert the above-described action. For example, various elastic rubbers, foamed rubbers, soft resins, foamed resins, etc., that do not hinder the deformation of the pleated portion 9. A thing with low rigidity is suitable.

  In this way, by arranging the elastic material 11 in the groove-like portion 10 and making the head main portion 3 flush with each other, it is possible to feel uncomfortable when the head is held without impairing the low rigidity of the head due to the pleated portion 9. Can be prevented. Moreover, it becomes preferable at the point which can suppress biting of foreign materials, such as earth and sand, a lawn, etc. to this groove-shaped part 10. FIG. Further, after the elastic material 11 is filled in the groove-shaped portion 10, for example, by uniformly coating the groove, the visibility of the pleated portion 9 can be hindered from the outside. Can also be prevented.

  Of the head main portion 3, the crown portion 4 normally has the smallest thickness. Therefore, when the ball is hit, the crown portion 4 is particularly easily bent except for the face portion. Therefore, when the pleated portion 9 is provided at least in the crown portion 4, the amount of deflection of the head can be increased more effectively. On the other hand, since the sole portion 5 of the head main portion 3 is not visible to the golfer when the head portion 3 is held, when the pleated portion 9 is provided on the sole portion 4, it is useful for preventing a sense of discomfort in appearance.

  9A to 9C show another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9A illustrates an example in which the pleated portion 9 includes a parallel portion 9A along the peripheral edge E of the face surface and a non-parallel portion 9B not along the peripheral edge E of the face surface. The non-parallel portion 9B has, for example, an arc shape that is convex toward the face surface side, and is formed near the center in the width direction of the face portion 2 in plan view. FIG. 9B shows an embodiment in which the pleated portion 9 is composed of only non-parallel portions 9B that do not extend along the peripheral edge E of the face surface. Furthermore, the thing of the figure (C) has illustrated what was formed in the vicinity of the rear edge 4e of the crown part 4 along this rear edge 4e.

  FIG. 10 shows still another embodiment of the present invention. 10A is a perspective view of the head 1 as viewed from the rear, and FIG. 10B is a cross-sectional view thereof. In this embodiment, the pleated portion 9 is formed on the side portion 6. As described above, the pleat-shaped portion 9 may be provided at any position as long as it is the head main portion 3, and the present invention can be implemented in various modes. In the above embodiment, the single pleat-shaped portion 9 is illustrated. However, for example, as shown in FIG. 11, it can be formed by two or more independent portions, and at this time, it is divided into the crown portion 4 and the sole portion 5. Various modifications such as two or more may be made.

  As described above, the embodiment of the present invention has been described by taking the wood type golf club head as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to such a form. It is also possible to apply to utility type and even putter type.

Hereinafter, embodiments that further embody the present invention will be described.
A plurality of types of wood-type golf club heads made of titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) with a head mass of 190 g were manufactured based on the specifications shown in Table 1, and the restitution coefficient and durability of each head were tested. Further, a head having substantially the same shape having a configuration outside the present invention was also prototyped and its performance was compared. In the heads of Reference Examples 1 to 6, the length of the pleated portion was set to 85% of the entire peripheral length of the peripheral edge E of the face surface. In Reference Examples 7 and 8, the length of the pleated portion was set to 45% of the total peripheral length of the peripheral edge E of the face surface. The thickness of each part of the head main part was set as follows.
Crown: 0.7-1.5mm
Sole part: 1.0-2.0 mm
Side part: 1.0-2.0mm
The test method is as follows.

<Restitution coefficient (Spring effect test USGA method)>
The rebound characteristics of the head are as follows. S. G. A. The procedure for Measureing the Velocity Ratio of a Club Head for Conformance to Rule 4-1e, Revision 2 (February 8, 1999). Specifically, a golf ball is launched using a ball launching device, is caused to collide with a sweet spot on the face portion of the head placed without being fixed on the pedestal, and an incident velocity Vi and a rebound velocity immediately before the collision of the golf ball. Measure Vo. Then, when the incident speed of the golf ball is Vi, the rebound speed is Vo, the head mass is M, and the average mass of the golf ball is m, the restitution coefficient e is calculated by the following equation.
(Vo / Vi) = (eM−m) / (M + m)
The distance from the golf ball launch port to the face portion is 55 inches, and the ball is allowed to collide at a right angle with the face surface at a position not more than 5 mm away from the sweet spot position of the head. Further, Pinnacle Gold made by Titleist was used as the golf ball, and the initial velocity of the ball was set to 160 feet ± 0.5 feet (48.768 ± 0.1524 m / s).

<Durability>
The same golf ball as described above was manufactured by mounting the same FRP shaft on each test head and mounting a 46-inch wood golf club on a swing robot, and adjusting the head speed to 50 m / s. The ball was hit with 3000 balls for each club at a sweet spot, and the damage of the head was visually observed. The test results are shown in Table 1.

  As a result of the test, it can be confirmed that the reference example increases the coefficient of restitution while maintaining the durability as compared with the comparative example.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Golf club head 2 Face part 3 Head main part 4 Crown part 5 Sole part 6 Side part 7 Neck part 9 Neck part 10 Groove part 11 Elastic material C Sweet spot F Face surface GW Groove width GD Groove part Dent amount

Claims (4)

A golf club head comprising a face portion having a face surface for hitting a ball and a head main portion connected to the back surface of the face portion and forming the back face side, and having a hollow portion therein,
The head main portion includes a crown portion that is continuous with the upper edge of the face surface and forms the upper surface of the head, a sole portion that is continuous with the lower edge of the face surface and forms the bottom surface of the head, and a joint between the crown portion and the sole portion. The side part that extends from the toe side edge of the face through the back face to the heel side edge of the face face, the face part, the crown part, and the side part are arranged in the vicinity of the intersecting part and one end of the shaft is mounted With a neck part,
The head main portion is provided with a pleated portion extending from the head main portion and protruding into the hollow portion by being bent into a substantially U-shaped cross section,
The pleat-shaped portion forms a groove-shaped portion on the outer surface of the head by a concave portion formed by bending the U-shaped cross section.
In addition, one end of the pleated portion is located in the crown portion,
Along the peripheral edge of the face surface, the crown part, the side part on the toe side, and the sole part are extended and terminated on the heel side of the sole part,
The groove-shaped portion has a pair of groove wall portions that are separated from each other and are substantially parallel to each other, and an elastic material that can be deformed following the head body at the time of hitting a ball is provided, and the outer surface of the head is flush with the elastic body. Furthermore, the width GW of the head outer surface is 2 to 5 mm, the dent amount GD is 5 to 8 mm,
The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein a thickness of the pleated portion is 1.0 to 1.5 mm . 2. The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the groove-shaped portion is formed such that a distance S between a groove edge on the face surface side and a peripheral edge of the face surface is 50 mm or less . The golf club head according to claim 1 , wherein one end of the pleated portion is located near a neck portion of the crown portion . 4. The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein a length of the pleated portion is 60% or more of a total circumference of a peripheral edge of the face surface . 5.

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