JP2000233034A - Manufacture for golf club head - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently manufacture a golf head having a melt adhesive layer by melting metal or ceramic to adhere to the surface of a plate part before welding the part in the case of welding the plate part made of metal to the club head main body to manufacture a golf club head. SOLUTION: In manufacturing a wood type golf club, prepared are a club head main body 2 and a sole plate 12 manufactured from titanium or titanium alloy by forging or casting. At this time, a substantially quadrangular opening is formed in a part corresponding to a sole part in the club head main body 2, and the sole plate 12 is manufactured in a shape corresponding to the opening of the club head main body 2. On the surface of the sole plate 12, a spray layer 14 of metal with high specific gravity such as stainless steel or the like or ceramics is formed as a weight by spraying, and then the sole plate 12 is installed in the opening of the club head main body 2 and welded and integrally formed to complete a golf club head.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a golf club head, and more particularly, to a method for efficiently manufacturing a golf club head having a metal or ceramic melt adhesion layer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a method of manufacturing a golf club head by welding a plate component such as a sole plate or a face plate to a club head body having a crown portion. In such a golf club head, in order to reduce the center of gravity or improve the wear resistance, a high specific gravity metal or a wear resistant metal is laminated on the plate component. Examples of the laminating means include a method of using a clad material and a method of performing mechanical processing such as press-fitting, caulking, and bold fastening. Further, as a lamination method excellent in adhesiveness and workability, a method is known in which after the club head is welded and assembled, the above metal material is sprayed on the surface of the plate component to form a sprayed layer.

However, in this method, a metal material is sprayed onto a complex three-dimensional club head having a large number of curved surfaces, so that the club head is fixed in a predetermined position which is easily sprayed, or a portion other than the sole portion or the face portion. It is necessary to perform a masking operation on the curved surface portion so that the portion is not sprayed. For this reason, the thermal spraying operation is very troublesome, so that the production efficiency is extremely poor. Further, the thermal spraying efficiency is extremely poor due to the large waste of the thermal spraying material.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a golf club head by welding a metal plate component to a club head body. It is to provide a manufacturing method.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a golf club head having a low center of gravity at low cost.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a low cost method of manufacturing a golf club head that is resistant to wear and damage.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve these problems, the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a golf club head in which a metal plate component is integrated with a club head body by welding. Metal or ceramic is melt-adhered to the surface of the plate component in a single product state before the process, and then the plate component is welded and integrated with the club head body.

According to the present invention, as described above, before welding the plate component to the club head body, the metal or ceramic is melt-adhered to the surface of the single plate component. The plate component is substantially flat, sits flat against a plane, and is simple in shape. Therefore, since a large number of plate components can be arranged on a plane at a time to perform the melt adhesion, productivity can be improved. In addition, since the plate component can be accurately fixed to the flat surface easily, it is possible to form a molten adhesion layer having high dimensional accuracy without thickness unevenness. Further, waste of materials such as metal or ceramic can be reduced.

Here, the "melt adhesion" may be specifically performed by, for example, thermal spraying. Thermal spraying refers to melting a metal or ceramic and spraying the resulting melt from a nozzle onto the surface of the plate component.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The manufacturing method of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, as an intermediate part before welding, FIG.
FIGS. 2A and 2B show a method of preparing a club head body of a wood type golf club exemplified in FIGS.
A sole plate as shown in (b) is prepared as a metal plate part.

1 (a) and 1 (b), the club head main body 2 is hollow inside and includes a crown portion 4, a hosel portion 6, and a face portion 8. A substantially square opening 10 is provided in a portion corresponding to the sole portion. The club head body 2 having such a shape is manufactured by forging or casting, for example, from titanium or a titanium alloy.

2 (a) and 2 (b), the sole plate 12 has a shape corresponding to the opening 10 of the club head body 2. The sole plate 12 is made of the same material as the club head body 2 and is manufactured by forging or casting from titanium or a titanium alloy, for example. On the surface of the sole plate 12 thus manufactured,
As the weight, for example, a metal or ceramic sprayed layer 14 having a high specific gravity such as tungsten, stainless steel, nickel alloy, copper, brass, zinc, and iron is formed by thermal spraying.

As a method for forming the thermal sprayed layer 14, metal or ceramic may be thermally sprayed on the sole plate 12 one by one, but preferably, as shown in FIG. It is preferable to perform thermal spraying on a plurality of wafers at a time by arranging the thermal spray nozzles (not shown) along these rows at a reduced interval. In this thermal spraying process, masking materials 16a and 16b are adhered to the edge of the sole plate 12 as necessary, and the thermal spray layer 14 is used for welding to the club head body 2.
Should not be formed. FIG. 3 illustrates a case where the masking material 16a is applied to the entire periphery of the sole plate 12 for masking, and a case where the masking material 16b is applied to two sides of the sole plate 12 for masking.

In the manufacturing method of the present invention, the sole plate 12 prepared as described above is mounted on the opening 10 of the club head main body 2 and welded along the mating surface to integrate the sole plate 12 with each other. Make the golf club head as shown. In this welding, the sole plate 12 provided with the masking materials 16a and 16b is removed to expose the edge 12e, and then the edge 12e is attached to the edge 10e of the opening 10 of the club head body 2. The contact is performed.

As described above, when the sprayed layer 14 is formed on the sole plate 12 in a single piece state before being welded to the club head body 2 and then welded to the club head body 2 to manufacture a golf club head, a large number of golf club heads can be formed at one time. Since the thermal spraying can be performed by arranging the sole plates 12 in a stable state on a plane, a golf club head with high production efficiency can be manufactured. Moreover, unlike a three-dimensional club head whose fixing is unstable, the flat sole plate 12 can stably fix the flat sole plate, so that it is possible to obtain the thermal sprayed layer 14 with high dimensional accuracy without thickness unevenness. In addition, it is possible to reduce the waste of thermal spray material such as metal having a high specific gravity.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, when the sole plate 12 is attached to the head main body 2, the sprayed layer 14 is formed on the inner side surface of the sole plate 12 which is on the inside, as shown in FIG. It may be formed on the outer surface of the sole plate 12. In this case, as a thermal spray material, in addition to a high specific gravity metal as a weight, a wear-resistant cemented carbide,
Metal such as cermet or ceramic can be used. When the thermal spray layer 14 is formed on the inner surface of the sole plate 12 as shown in FIG. 4, the appearance of the club head main body 2 can be seen more clearly than when formed on the outer surface as shown in FIG. At the same time, there is no problem even if the thermal sprayed layer 14 has poor corrosion resistance. Therefore, it is preferable to form the thermal spray layer 14 on the inner surface of the sole plate 12 as shown in FIG.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, one side of the sole plate 12 is manufactured so as to match the shape of the face portion 8. However, the opening 10 is formed only on the bottom side of the club head main body 2. The sole plate 12 may be manufactured in a rectangular shape with four sides straight as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B so as to correspond to the opening 10. In this case, the thermal spray layer 14 can be formed in the same manner as described above. However, when a plurality of thermal spray layers are arranged as shown in FIG. 7, there is no gap between the adjacent sole plates 12, and the waste of thermal spray material can be further reduced. Also, by using a long masking material 16c to apply a large number of masks at once,
The working efficiency of thermal spraying can also be improved.

FIG. 6A shows the sole plate 12.
The shape is preferably a quadrangle in plan view as shown in (b), but may be a polygon such as a pentagon or hexagon in plan view. However, as shown in FIG. 8, a shape having a curved periphery in plan view is not preferable because the sprayed material protrudes to a range indicated by a one-dot chain line to cause waste of the sprayed material (spray efficiency 70). %degree).
On the other hand, in the case of a square sole plate in a plan view, there is almost no waste of the thermal spray material (thermal spray efficiency of about 100%).

Further, in the embodiment described above, the case where the metal plate component is the sole plate has been described. However, the sprayed layer can be formed on the face portion of the golf club head in the same manner. For example, a club head body in which a crown portion, a hosel portion, and a sole portion are integrally formed and a face plate is formed separately is manufactured. A golf club head is manufactured by forming a sprayed layer 14 in which a wear-resistant material such as ceramic is sprayed in advance on the surface of the separate face plate, and then welding the face plate to a club head body. Can also. Also in this case, a golf club head can be manufactured with high production efficiency as in the above embodiment.

Although the above-described embodiment is a case of a wood type golf club, the present invention is not limited to this and can be applied to other golf club heads such as a hollow or solid iron golf club head. is there.

In the present invention, the club head body and the plate component are intended to be manufactured using a weldable metal, but are particularly preferable when titanium or a titanium alloy is used.

The metal or ceramic to be sprayed in the present invention may be a high specific gravity metal, an abrasion resistant metal or a ceramic which has been conventionally sprayed for the purpose of lowering the center of gravity of a club head or imparting abrasion resistance. Etc. can be used. Examples of the high specific gravity metal include tungsten, stainless steel, nickel alloy, copper, brass, zinc, iron, and the like, and one or more kinds can be selected from these groups and used.

[0024]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, metal or ceramic is melt-adhered to the surface of the plate component in a single piece state before welding the plate component, and then the plate component is welded to the club head body. As a result, the production of the golf club head having the metal or ceramic melt adhesion layer is facilitated, and the golf club head can be manufactured with high production efficiency and thermal spray efficiency.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an example of a club head body before welding used in a manufacturing method of the present invention, (a) is a front view thereof,
(B) is AA sectional drawing of (a).

FIG. 2 shows an example of a sole plate before welding used in the manufacturing method of the present invention, (a) is a plan view thereof,
(B) is BB sectional drawing of (a).

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of a step of spraying a sole plate in the manufacturing method of the present invention.

4 is a cross-sectional view of the golf club head manufactured according to the present invention, taken along the line AA in FIG. 1 (a).

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of another golf club head manufactured according to the present invention, taken along the line AA in FIG. 1 (a).

6A and 6B show another example of a sole plate before welding used in the manufacturing method of the present invention, and FIG.
(B) is CC sectional drawing of (a).

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of a step of spraying the sole plate according to FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing another example of the sole plate before welding used in the manufacturing method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Club head body 12 Sole plate 14 Thermal spray layer 16a, 16b, 16c Masking material

Claims (10)

[Claims] In a golf club head manufacturing method in which a metal plate part is integrated with a club head body by welding, a metal or ceramic is melted on the surface of the plate part in a single piece state before welding the plate part. A method of manufacturing a golf club head, wherein the plate component is adhered and then welded and integrated with the club head body. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plate component has a polygonal shape in plan view. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the polygon is a quadrangle. 4. The golf club head manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the plate component is a sole plate. 5. The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein a part of the surface of the plate component is masked, and a metal or ceramic is melt-adhered to the surface of the plate component. Production method. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the metal to be melt-adhered is a high specific gravity metal selected from the group consisting of tungsten, stainless steel, nickel alloy, copper, brass, zinc and iron. Golf club head manufacturing method. 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the metal or ceramic is melt-adhered to an outer surface or an inner surface of the sole plate.
7. The method for manufacturing a golf club head according to any one of claims 1 to 6. 8. The method of manufacturing a golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the fusion adhesion is performed by thermal spraying. 9. A plurality of plate parts are arranged in a line at a narrow interval on a plane, and a plurality of plates are simultaneously sprayed at a time by moving a spray nozzle along these lines. A manufacturing method of the golf club head according to the above. 10. A golf club head obtained by the method according to claim 1.