JP2005296204A - Iron head for golf club - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an iron head for golf club which can increase the repellent property to a hit ball, and in addition, can soften the ball hitting sound by adopting a face plate of a multi-layer structure which is formed by piling and integrating a plurality of metal plates. <P>SOLUTION: Between a plurality of the metal plates 12 and 13 comprising metal materials which are the same or different from each other, a sheet-like elastic body 14 made of an FRP is piled, and heat-bonding is performed. Thus, the face plate 11 of an integral article of a laminated structure is prepared, and the face plate 11 is fixed to a frame-like head main body 2 by caulking 9. As the kind of the FRP, a CFRP, a GFRP, an aramid FRP, a boron FRP or a SiCFRP and so forth are preferable. The resin amount of the FRP is preferably approximately 15 to 60%, and the thickness is preferably approximately 0.03 to 2.0 mm. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an iron head for a golf club that is a component of a golf club.

  In a golf club iron head, if a multi-layer face plate is formed by stacking a plurality of metal plates, the metal plates may be displaced from each other at the time of hitting the ball, and the deflection of the face plate may increase. Are known. However, there is no prospect of practical use for laminating a plurality of metal plates by clad technology, and if this is put to practical use, a high-performance faceplate that generates a large repulsive force due to a large flexure will be produced. It becomes possible to create.

  The following Patent Document 1 discloses a technique in which a back-up material made of fiber reinforced plastic or the like is superposed on the back side of a face plate made of a single metal plate. It does not relate to a face plate having a multilayer structure in which a plurality of metal plates are superposed.

JP 2003-225332 A

  In view of the above points, the present invention proposes a multi-layer face plate in which a plurality of metal plates are integrated and integrated, and can improve the resilience to the hit ball and improve the hit ball sound more softly. An object is to provide an iron head for a golf club.

  In order to achieve the above object, a golf club iron head according to claim 1 of the present invention has a sheet-like elastic body made of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) between a plurality of metal plates made of the same or different metal materials. A face plate made of a laminated structure is produced by superposing and thermocompression bonding, and the face plate is fixed to a frame-shaped head body by caulking. In addition to various metals, the above metal materials include these alloys.

  When a sheet-like elastic body made of fiber-reinforced plastic is stacked and heat-pressed between a plurality of metal plates made of the same or different kinds of metal materials, a plurality of sheet-like elastic bodies made of fiber-reinforced plastic are used as adhesive binders. A molded product of a laminate structure in which metal plates are integrated is created. When the ball is hit, the molded product is bent due to displacement between metal plates and elastic due to the elasticity of a sheet-like elastic body made of fiber-reinforced plastic. Rito occurs at the same time. In other words, a sheet-like elastic body made of fiber-reinforced plastic has both a function as a binder for connecting a plurality of metal plates and a function as an elastic layer disposed between the plurality of metal plates. It is possible to increase the bending and repulsion force that sometimes occurs.

  As the material of the elastic body having a plurality of functions as described above, fiber reinforced plastic, in particular, carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP), aramid fiber reinforced plastic (aramid FRP), boron, etc. A fiber reinforced plastic (boron FRP) or a silicon carbide fiber reinforced plastic (SiCFRP) or the like is preferable. The resin amount of these fiber reinforced plastics is preferably 15 to 60% and the thickness is preferably 0.03 to 2.0 mm. Further, the fiber reinforced plastic is specifically formed by a laminated body of a unidirectional prepreg, a laminated body of a woven prepreg or a laminated body of a unidirectional prepreg and a woven prepreg, etc., and this is overlapped between a plurality of metal plates. They are integrated by thermocompression bonding.

In addition, when the face plate has a three-layer structure including a metal plate on the front side of the face, a metal plate on the back side, and an elastic body disposed between the two metal plates, the metal plate on the front side of the face is Because the impact of the ball directly acts on the metal plate on the front side, it is required to have strength along with the bending. Compared with this, the impact on the metal plate on the back side does not act directly on the ball. Bending is more important than strength. Since the intermediate elastic body is made of fiber reinforced plastic, even if it is thin, it exhibits a sufficient binder function and elastic function. Therefore, regarding the relationship between the thicknesses of these three layers, (A) when the back side metal plate is made of a material having a specific gravity equal to or larger than that of the face front side metal plate, The thickness of the entire face plate is t, the thickness of the metal plate on the front side of the face is t ₁ , and the thickness of the metal plate on the back side is t ₂ .
When _{t 1> t / 2 ···· (} a) expression and _{t 2> (t-t 1} ) / 4 to satisfy · · · · (b) formula, finished good moldings balanced on each function (B) When the metal plate on the back side is made of a material having a specific gravity smaller than that of the metal plate on the front side of the face,
t _1> t / 3 When · · · · (c) expression and _{t 2> t} 1/3 to satisfy the · · · · (d) type, also can be finished in a good molded product balanced on each function It becomes. In the case of the (B) pattern consisting of the formulas (c) and (d), the metal plate on the back side has a specific gravity as compared with the case of the (A) pattern consisting of the formulas (a) and (b). Since a small and light one is used, a relatively thick one is set.

  As an example of a combination of face metals, the metal plate on the front side of the face is made of a titanium alloy and the metal plate on the back side is made of high-strength stainless steel or spring steel as the pattern (A). In the pattern (B), the metal plate on the front side of the face is made of spring steel, and the metal plate on the back side is made of titanium alloy or aluminum alloy.

  The present invention has the following effects.

  That is, in the iron head for a golf club according to each claim of the present invention having the above-described configuration, a laminate formed by stacking and heat-pressing a sheet-like elastic body made of fiber-reinforced plastic between a plurality of metal plates. When hitting a face plate of an integral structure, a large amount of bending occurs due to the deflection caused by the displacement between the metal plates and the elasticity of the elastic body made of fiber reinforced plastic. The initial velocity of the hit ball can be increased. In addition, the ball hitting sound can be given a soft feeling due to a large amount of bending. Therefore, according to the intended purpose, a multi-layer face plate is proposed in which a plurality of metal plates are integrated and integrated, and the golf club capable of improving the resilience to the hit ball and improving the hit ball sound more softly. An iron head can be provided.

(1) An object of the present invention is to provide an iron golf club head in which the resilience performance to the hit ball and the hitting sound are improved more softly. In order to achieve this purpose, the iron golf club head is integrally formed with a metal or alloy. And a plate-like face material is provided in the face opening of the head frame. The face material is a multi-layer face made of metal or alloy, and FRP is laminated between the face layers. The face material is fixed to the head frame by caulking.
(2) Provided is an iron golf club head in which a multi-layer face made of metal or alloy and a face plate material in which FRP is integrally formed by thermocompression bonding between the faces are fixed by caulking.
(3) The present invention relates to an iron golf club head that uses a face material composed of a plurality of members and has improved resilience, strength, durability, and hitting sound to the hit ball. It is characterized in that a metal or an alloy is integrally formed by thermocompression bonding with an FRP prepreg. It is generally known that when the face plate material is made of a metal or an alloy, the plate material is displaced between the layers to increase the amount of bending. However, there is no prospect of industrialization of laminating the same kind of metal or alloy or different kind of metal or alloy by the clad technique. This time, the FRP prepreg is overlapped between face plates made of the same kind of metal or alloy or different kind of metal or alloy, and is integrally formed by thermocompression bonding to produce a multi-layer face plate. FRP, especially CFRP, has a higher specific strength than that of metal or alloy and a large vibration damping rate, so that it is possible to obtain a lot of flexing on the face plate material, improving the initial velocity of the ball and providing a soft feeling of hitting sound. It is done.
(4) When there are two or more metal plates, an elastic body is interposed between them, and the face plate has a three-layer structure. When there are three metal plates, an elastic body is interposed between them, and the face plate has a five-layer structure. When there are four metal plates, an elastic body is interposed between them, and the face plate has a seven-layer structure. The same applies hereinafter, and the number of the plurality of metal plates is not particularly limited.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a longitudinal section of a golf club iron head 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows a partially enlarged section of a face plate 11 in the iron head 1.

  The golf club iron head 1 according to this embodiment has a head body 2 made of a predetermined metal material. A face plate generally indicated by reference numeral 11 is fixed to the front face portion of the head body 2. Yes.

  The head main body 2 has a shape in which the periphery of the through window portion 3 penetrating from the front side F to the back side R of the head 1 is surrounded by the frame portion 4 over the entire circumference. A hosel portion 5 for inserting and fixing the tip of a shaft (not shown) is integrally formed with a frame portion 4 having a shape. A stepped face plate mounting portion 6 for positioning and fixing the face plate 11 is provided on the peripheral edge of the opening of the through window portion 3 on the front side F of the head over the entire circumference. A weight adjusting portion 8 for adjusting the weight and the center of gravity of the head 1 is provided on the upper surface portion of the sole surface 7 in the window portion 3.

On the other hand, the face plate 11 is formed as a laminated structure by stacking and heat-pressing a sheet-like elastic body 14 made of fiber reinforced plastic between a plurality of metal plates 12 and 13 made of the same or different metal materials. The face plate 11 is fixed to the frame-shaped head body 2 by caulking 9. The plurality of metal plates 12 and 13 and the sheet-like elastic body 14 having the same surface shape (front shape) are joined over the entire surface. In this embodiment, the face plate 11 of the laminated structure is composed of a metal plate 12 on the face front side made of 6-4 titanium (6-4Ti) having a thickness t ₁ : 1.8 mm, and a thickness t ₂ : A combination of a metal plate 13 on the back side made of 0.7 mm high strength stainless steel (high strength SUS) and a sheet-like elastic body 14 made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) having a thickness t ₃ : 0.4 mm. The three-layer structure face plate 11 is fixed to the frame-shaped head body 2 by caulking 9. A stepped caulking concave portion 15 is formed over the entire periphery of the metal plate 12 on the front side of the face.

  As a manufacturing procedure of the head 1, first, the face plate 11 of the laminated structure is produced by thermocompression bonding, the face plate 11 is fitted into the face plate mounting portion 6 of the head main body 2, and the head main body is used by a caulking device (not shown). 2 is pressed and plastically deformed and meshed with the caulking recess 15 to integrate the head body 2 and the face plate 11, and the front surface of the head 1 including the surface portion of the caulking 9 is finished by polishing or the like. The through window 3 of the head body 2 is closed by the face plate 11.

  According to the iron head 1 having the above-described configuration, the face plate-side metal plate 12 made of 6-4 titanium, the back-side metal plate 13 made of high-strength stainless steel, and the elastic body 14 made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic are used. By stacking and thermocompression bonding, a molded product of an integrated laminated structure in which two metal plates 12 and 13 are integrated using an elastic body 14 made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic as an adhesive binder is created. At the time of hitting, both the bending due to the displacement between the metal plates 12 and 13 and the bending due to the elasticity of the elastic body 14 made of the carbon fiber reinforced plastic are simultaneously generated. Therefore, it is possible to increase the flexure and repulsive force generated at the time of hitting the ball, thereby increasing the initial velocity of the hit ball.

In this regard, the inventors of the present application conducted a comparative test of the initial hit velocity, and the contents thereof will be described below.
Test sample
A. Example Face Plate Laminated Product Metal plate 12 on the face side: 6-4Ti (1.8 mm)
Intermediate layer elastic body 14: CFRP elastic modulus 24t (0.4 mm)
Back side metal plate 13: high strength SUS (0.7 mm)
B. Comparative example Face plate single-layer product: 6-4Ti (2.5 mm)
Test method
The samples A and B were attached to irons of the same standard with a loft angle of 21 ° and a head mass of 240 g, respectively, and the head speed and the initial ball speed when the ball was hit under the same conditions were measured. I took.
Test results
The test results are as shown in Table 1 of FIG. 3. As shown in Table 1, although the head speed is almost the same in both the examples and the comparative examples, the average initial ball speed of the comparative examples is shown. Was 55.05 m / sec, whereas the average initial ball speed of the example was 55.45 m / sec. Therefore, it was confirmed that the initial ball speed increased according to the example.

  In addition, according to the iron head 1 configured as described above, the ball hitting sound can be given a soft feeling in response to the large deflection of the face plate 11 of the laminated structure.

In this regard, the inventors of the present invention have conducted a comparative test for hitting sound and ball separation, and the contents thereof will be described below.
Test sample
A. Example Face Plate Laminated Product Metal plate 12 on the face side: 6-4Ti (1.8 mm)
Intermediate layer elastic body 14: CFRP elastic modulus 24t (0.4 mm)
Back side metal plate 13: high strength SUS (0.7 mm)
B. Comparative example Face plate single-layer product: 6-4Ti (2.5 mm)
Test method
Attach the above A and B samples to irons of the same standard, and request comparisons from 10 external monitors. For the hammering test, “soft”, “normal”, and “high”, and for the ball separation test, “ Answers were obtained by selecting from "slow", "normal", and "fast".
Test results
The test results are as shown in Table 2 and Table 3 of FIG. 4. Regarding the hammering test of Table 2, in the comparative example, 7 out of 10 monitors were “high”, while the example was monitored. Eight out of 10 people answered “soft”. Further, regarding the ball separation test of Table 3, in the comparative example, 8 out of 10 monitors were “fast”, while in the example, 7 out of 10 monitors were “slow”. Therefore, according to the results of this comparative test, according to the embodiment, it was confirmed that the hitting sound was soft and the ball separation was felt slowly because the face plate 11 was greatly bent.

In addition to the carbon fiber reinforced plastic, the material of the elastic body 14 is preferably glass fiber reinforced plastic, aramid fiber reinforced plastic, boron fiber reinforced plastic, silicon carbide fiber reinforced plastic, or the like. The resin amount of these fiber reinforced plastics Is preferably about 15 to 60%, the thickness is about 0.03 to 2.0 mm, and the fiber elastic modulus is preferably about 5 to 80 tf / mm ² . Specifically, the fiber reinforced plastic is specifically a laminate of unidirectional prepregs (a. One layer at an arbitrary angle or a combination of b. 0 to ± 90 ° arbitrary angles), a laminate of woven prepregs (a 1 layer of woven prepregs or b. Multilayer combination of woven prepregs) or a laminate of unidirectional prepregs and woven prepregs, etc., and these are integrated by stacking them between a plurality of metal plates and thermocompression bonding.

Furthermore, in the iron head 1 having the above configuration, the thickness t ₁ of the metal plate 12 on the front side of the face is 1.8 mm, the thickness t ₂ of the metal plate 13 on the back side is 0.7 mm, and the thickness t of the elastic body 14. ₃ is 0.4 mm, and the total thickness t of the face plate 11 is 2.9 mm. Therefore, both the above formulas (a) and (b) are satisfied. Therefore, according to the above, it can be produced as a well-balanced molded product on each layer function.

  In this embodiment, the metal plate 12 on the front side of the face is made of 6-4 titanium, the metal plate 13 on the back side is made of high-strength stainless steel, and the metal plate 13 on the back side is made of metal on the front side of the face. Since it is made of a material having a specific gravity greater than that of the plate 12, the thickness relationship is set based on the formulas (a) and (b) of the pattern (A). 12 is made of spring steel and the like, and the metal plate 13 on the back side is made of titanium alloy or aluminum alloy, and the metal plate 13 on the back side is made of a material having a specific gravity smaller than that of the metal plate 12 on the front side of the face. Is similarly balanced by setting the thickness relationship based on the formulas (c) and (d) of the pattern (B). It can be created as a molded component (see, for example, cross-sectional view of FIG. 5).

1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an iron head for a golf club according to an embodiment of the present invention. Partial enlarged sectional view of the face plate in the iron head Table showing comparative test results for the initial hit velocity (A) is a table showing comparative test results for hitting sound, (B) is a table showing comparative test results for ball separation. The partially expanded sectional view of the face plate in the iron head for golf clubs concerning the other Example of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Iron head for golf clubs 2 Head main body 3 Through-window part 4 Frame part 5 Hosel part 6 Faceplate attachment part 7 Sole surface 8 Weight adjustment part 9 Caulking 11 Faceplate 12, 13 Metal plate 14 Elastic body 15 Caulking recessed part

Claims (7)

  The sheet-like elastic body (14) made of fiber-reinforced plastic is overlapped between a plurality of metal plates (12) (13) made of the same or different kinds of metal materials and heat-pressed to form a face of a laminated structure integrated body. An iron head for a golf club, wherein a plate (11) is prepared and the face plate (11) is fixed to a frame-like head body (2) by caulking (9). The iron head for a golf club according to claim 1,
An iron head for a golf club, wherein the fiber reinforced plastic is made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, glass fiber reinforced plastic, aramid fiber reinforced plastic, boron fiber reinforced plastic, or silicon carbide fiber reinforced plastic. The iron head for a golf club according to claim 1,
An iron head for a golf club, wherein the amount of resin of the fiber reinforced plastic is 15 to 60%. The iron head for a golf club according to claim 1,
A golf club iron head characterized in that the thickness of the fiber reinforced plastic is 0.03 to 2.0 mm. The iron head for a golf club according to claim 1,
An iron head for a golf club, wherein the fiber reinforced plastic comprises a laminate of a unidirectional prepreg, a laminate of a woven prepreg, or a laminate of a unidirectional prepreg and a woven prepreg. The iron head for a golf club according to claim 1,
The face plate (11) has a three-layer structure of a metal plate (12) on the front side of the face, a metal plate (13) on the back side, and an elastic body (14) between the metal plates (12) and (13). The metal plate (13) on the back side is made of a material having a specific gravity equal to or larger than that of the metal plate (12) on the front side of the face, and the thickness of the entire face plate (11). the t, the thickness of the face front side of the metal plate (12) _{t 1,} the thickness of the back surface side of the metal plate (13) as _{t 2,}
t ₁ > t / 2
And t ₂ > (t−t ₁ ) / 4
A golf club iron head characterized by satisfying The iron head for a golf club according to claim 1,
The face plate (11) has a three-layer structure of a metal plate (12) on the front side of the face, a metal plate (13) on the back side, and an elastic body (14) between the metal plates (12) and (13). The metal plate (13) on the back side is made of a material having a specific gravity smaller than that of the metal plate (12) on the front side of the face. The thickness of the entire face plate (11) is t, and the thickness of the metal plate (12) on the front side of the face. T ₁ and the thickness of the back side metal plate (13) as t ₂
t ₁ > t / 3
And _{t 2> t} 1/3
A golf club iron head characterized by satisfying

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