JP2004141299A - Golf club - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To propose an easy method for forming a film on the surface of shaft of a golf club, reducing air resistance received by the shaft in swinging. <P>SOLUTION: A sleeve or a tape having a plurality of holes is attached on the shaft of the golf club to reduce air resistance. The sleeve or the tape is not molded integrally with the shaft but a lightweight member formed of synthetic resin or rubber element is attached by making use of compressibility or extensibility so that easy and optimum specification such as weight, torque, bending stiffness, etc. of the shaft are satisfied without lowering a shaft strength. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a simple method for forming a coating for reducing air resistance on the surface of a golf club shaft.
[0002]
[Prior art]
One of the most important issues in golf club performance is the flight distance of the hit ball, and various ideas have been made to improve the flight distance. Increasing the head speed is effective in improving the flight distance. In order to increase the head speed, the length of the golf club is lengthened, the weight is reduced, and in order to improve the meet ratio, a long lightweight club equipped with a large lightweight head having a large head volume has been widely used.
[0003]
One way to increase the head speed is to reduce the air resistance of the club.
[0004]
Conventionally, golf clubs that focus on reducing the air resistance of the club have a spiral ridge that protrudes from the outer peripheral surface of the shaft, and is thicker than the shaft body in advance by a thickness equivalent to the height of the ridge. This is a method of making a shaft and removing at least the periphery of the surface of the shaft by the height of the ridge, leaving only the ridge portion. (For example, see Patent Document 1)
[0005]
In addition, golf clubs with many indentations on the surface of the shaft have been disclosed a method of reducing pressure resistance by generating turbulent flow around the shaft during swinging and narrowing the low pressure portion at the rear. (For example, Patent Document 2)
[0006]
Each of the above methods is a method in which unevenness is provided on the shaft itself at the same time as the molding of the shaft, or a separately prepared protruding strip member is bonded to the outer periphery of the shaft and integrated. The processing of the provided method has a complicated finishing process, requires a lot of man-hours, and therefore has a problem of high cost.
[0007]
Further, the protrusions and ridges provided on the surface of the shaft are easily damaged during golf play or during transportation in a golf bag, and are liable to cause damage to the shaft. Furthermore, the dent provided in a part of the shaft causes concentrated stress against a sudden load during a golf swing and causes damage.
[0008]
Further, there is a problem in that it is difficult to match the optimum specifications such as weight, torque, bending rigidity, etc., which are important as the shaft performance, and the effective air resistance reduction specifications by integrally forming the unevenness on the shaft itself.
[0009]
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-225542
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-42304
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, the method of providing ridges and depressions on the shaft itself involves serious drawbacks in molding difficulty and shaft strength and shaft performance. Therefore, the present invention proposes a method for easily reducing the shaft strength, reducing the shaft strength, satisfying optimum performance specifications such as shaft weight, torque, bending stiffness, and the like, and effectively reducing the air resistance of the shaft.
[0012]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problems, the present invention
[0013]
(1) A golf club characterized in that a sleeve or tape having a plurality of holes is attached to a golf club shaft.
[0014]
(2) A golf club characterized in that a sleeve or tape provided with a plurality of protrusions, spirals, or linear ridges is mounted on the golf club shaft.
[0015]
(3) The sleeve or tape according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the sleeve or tape is made of any one of vinyl chloride resin, polyolefin resin, silicone resin, natural rubber, polyurethane resin, and styrene resin elastomer. A golf club characterized by
[0016]
(4) A golf club comprising the sleeve or tape according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the sleeve or tape has a thickness of 0.1 mm to 2.0 mm and a length of 100 mm to 300 mm. is there.
[0017]
【Example】
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in which examples are described.
[0018]
FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a golf club according to the present invention, wherein 1-1 is a golf head, 1-2 is a golf shaft, and 1-3 is a golf grip. A state in which a perforated sleeve 1-4 is attached to a tip portion of the shaft near the head is shown. Although the perforated sleeve is shown in an enlarged view in FIG. 2, the perforated sleeve has a tube shape provided with a substantially taper corresponding to the outer dimension of the cylindrical shaft. In addition, a hole having a diameter of 3 mm is formed in the sleeve almost uniformly over the entire length.
[0019]
The perforated sleeve of another embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is provided with a slit in the longitudinal direction of a substantially cylindrical shape, and can be mounted on the shaft by pushing the slit open. Can be inserted into the shaft portion. On the other hand, the perforated sleeve attached to the shaft inserted in the neck portion of the golf club head shown in FIG. 1 is inserted in advance from the tip portion of the shaft and fixed using the tapered shape of the shaft, The head was inserted into the tip of the shaft and fixed with an adhesive.
[0020]
Further, instead of the sleeve, it is possible to form a sheet having a hole in a tape shape and wind the sheet spirally around the shaft. In this case, a double-sided tape can be applied to the back surface of the tape and fixed to the shaft, a double-sided tape can be applied to the winding start and end portions, and the tape can be fixed using an adhesive. Needless to say, a plurality of holes are formed in the tape or a plurality of protrusions or straight protrusions are provided.
[0021]
The sleeve shown in FIG. 4 is an example of a sleeve provided with spiral ridges. Similar to the above-described perforated sleeve, the spiral of the ridges can reduce the air resistance around the shaft during golf swing, increase the head speed, and expect the effect of increasing the flight distance. FIG. 5 shows an example of a golf club equipped with the above-described spiral convex sleeve.
[0022]
As the material of the sleeve, a synthetic resin which is a so-called shrink material of a type that shrinks by heating, such as polyolefin resin or silicon resin, is suitable in addition to vinyl chloride.
[0023]
In the case of the above-described shrink material, the effect of shrinkage by heating can be used, and it can be firmly fixed to the shaft by heating with a drier after mounting or shrinking the sleeve by applying warm water. There is also a method of mounting a highly stretchable material without depending on shrinkage. In this case, a rubber-like elastic body such as a polyurethane resin, a styrene resin elastomer, or natural rubber is used as the material, and the material is fixed to the shaft using the elasticity of the material.
[0024]
In the case of the sleeve with a slit shown in FIG. 3, the slit can be pushed open and attached to the shaft portion of the completed golf club after assembly. Although it is suitable for the method of pinching and fixing, it is preferable to use the elastic body having high elasticity as described above.
[0025]
In addition, the sleeves of the heat shrink type shrink material were manufactured with three types of vinyl chloride materials of 0.1 mm, 0.5 mm and 1.0 mm in a tube shape with an inner diameter of 10 mm and a length of 150 mm. The tube was manufactured in a straight shape instead of a tapered shape, but when the tube was attached to the tube and heated, the vinyl chloride material contracted and was formed along the tapered shape of the shaft. The length of the sleeve is 150 mm, but it can be increased to match the shaft dimensions.
[0026]
Note that the thickness of the sleeve is not limited to the above 0.1 mm, 0.5 mm, and 1.0 mm, and can be increased. However, as the thickness increases, the sleeve itself becomes heavier and the attached portion is heavier. Therefore, the club performance is affected, so 2.0 mm is preferable. In the case of the 0.5 mm-thick sleeve in the example, it was about 1 g.
[0027]
Further, in this embodiment, the hole provided in the perforated sleeve has a diameter of 3 mm, but the hole is not limited to 3 mm, and is preferably in the range of 1 mm to 10 mm. In addition, the shape is not limited to be circular, and may be elliptical, polygonal, or indefinite.
[0028]
According to the sleeve mounting method of the present invention, it is not necessary to bond and fix the sleeve itself to the shaft, and the effect can be easily obtained with less man-hours, and it is also easy to remove the sleeve, for example, by removing the perforated sleeve, It is also possible to replace the spiral ridge sleeve.
[0029]
A golf club equipped with a sleeve has a large number of holes and ridges provided in the sleeve, which generates turbulent flow around the shaft during the swing and reduces the low part of the pressure behind, reducing air resistance. I can do it. For this reason, the club can be swung faster by the amount of less air resistance, and the head speed can be increased.
[0030]
The length of the sleeve can be attached to the length of the entire shaft part of the golf club, but the swing speed is higher at the tip of the club, so it is more effective to attach it to the part near the head of the shaft. In the embodiment, a length of 150 mm is attached to the portion of the shaft closer to the head. However, if the length of the entire shaft is increased, the weight of the sleeve itself is increased. Therefore, it is preferable to set the length to 300 mm. .
[0031]
The perforated sleeves created in this example were checked for trials when mounted and when not mounted, but the wind noise during swing was reduced when mounted compared to when not mounted. confirmed. The degree of reduction is small when the thickness is 0.1 mm, but is almost halved when the thickness is 0.5 mm, and almost no sound can be detected at 1.0 mm.
[0032]
Wind noise generated during swinging increases as the air resistance increases. Therefore, when the 0.1 mm sleeve is attached, the degree of decrease in air resistance is less than when the sleeve is not attached. However, when the 0.5 mm sleeve and 1.0 mm sleeve are attached, the air resistance decreases compared to when the sleeve is not attached. I found out.
[0033]
The sleeve or tape made of the resin according to the present invention is lightweight and has little influence on the performance specifications of the shaft such as torque, bending condition, i.e., bending rigidity, and local concentrated stress that causes breakage of the shaft. It is possible to effectively reduce the air resistance without causing occurrence and thus without reducing the shaft strength.
[0034]
In the embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the sleeve hole is provided with a plurality of holes having an equal size of 3 mm at equal intervals. However, the size or position of the hole can be changed with regularity. . For example, as shown in FIG. 6, holes may be provided at the front and rear positions of the shaft, and holes may not be provided at the left and right positions. In the shaft to which this sleeve is attached, the magnitude of the air resistance around the shaft during a swing differs depending on two directions that differ by 90 ° around the shaft axis, and can give directionality to the degree of deflection of the shaft.
[0035]
Further, the mounted sleeve or tape can also serve to protect the outer surface of the shaft that is easily damaged. In particular, the elastic expansion / contraction type sleeve has the effect of preventing the scuffing and scratching of the golf club that is likely to occur during transport in the caddy bag.
[0036]
Sleeves or tapes made of resin can be easily colored and patterned, and can be used to identify clubs, align and change colors according to the number, and make use of resin properties to make them transparent. It is also possible to make the design of the shaft itself visible.
[0037]
In addition, although not the original purpose of the sleeve of the present invention, when the sleeve is attached to the top of the neck where the shaft is most likely to be broken, the sleeve may be separated and fly when the shaft is broken. It is also possible to play the role of securing.
[0038]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the shaft mounted with the perforated sleeve or tape according to the method of mounting on the shaft according to claims 1 to 4 of the present invention, the flight distance is reduced by reducing the air resistance of the shaft during golf swing. It is cheap and easy to increase.
[Brief description of the drawings]
1 is a golf club equipped with a perforated sleeve according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a perforated sleeve. FIG. 3 is another perforated sleeve with a slit. [Fig. 5] Enlarged view of spiral ridge sleeve [Fig. 6] Another embodiment of perforated sleeve [Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Golf club equipped with perforated sleeve 1-1 Head 1-2 Shaft 1-3 Grip 1-4 Perforated sleeve 2 Enlarged perforated sleeve 2-1 Perforated hole 3 Perforated sleeve 3-1 Slit 4 Helical convex Golf club 4-1 spiral ridge sleeve 5 fitted with strip sleeve Enlarged spiral ridge sleeve 5-1 Spiral ridge 6 Perforated sleeve of another embodiment

Claims (4)

A golf club characterized in that a sleeve or tape having a plurality of holes is attached to a golf club shaft. A golf club characterized in that a sleeve or tape provided with a plurality of protrusions, spirals or straight ridges is mounted on a golf club shaft. The sleeve or tape according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the sleeve or tape is made of any one of vinyl chloride resin, polyolefin resin, silicone resin, natural rubber, polyurethane resin, and styrene resin elastomer. Golf club to be. 4. A golf club comprising the sleeve or tape according to claim 1, wherein the sleeve or tape has a thickness of 0.1 mm to 2.0 mm and a length of 100 mm to 300 mm.

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