JP2013034522A - Structure of golf club head - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a structure of a golf club head, allowing enhancement of a repulsion of a ball hitting face (a face) and increase of the inertia moment of a head.SOLUTION: In this structure of the golf club head composed of a head body B and a face member F having a higher specific strength (a value obtained by dividing a strength by a specific gravity) than that of the head body B, a top blade To side (or a crown side) and a heel He side of a junction line L between the face member including a face surface and a body member except it are present on a face front surface side (the ball hitting face side), the junction line L between a toe Te side and a sole So side is present on the toe Te side and the sole So side, the sole So side and the toe To side of the face member F have bent shapes, and they are joined and integrated to form the golf club head.

Description

  The present invention relates to a structure of a golf club head, and more specifically, to a divided structure and a joint of a head body portion including a hitting surface of a golf club head excluding a driver and a putter.

  In such a golf club head structure, as a very important factor in the performance of the golf club head, there is a high repulsion of the ball striking face (face) and an expansion of the moment of inertia around the center of gravity of the head.

  Conventionally, attempts have been made to increase the resilience of the hitting surface of a golf club head. The higher the coefficient of restitution of the face of the golf club head, the faster the initial launching speed of the ball at the time of hitting, and the flight distance can be increased.

  Further, since the moment of inertia of the head is increased, the hitting point is a blur in the hitting direction when the hit point is removed from a so-called sweet spot core (a point on the hitting surface obtained by projecting the center of gravity of the head onto the hitting surface). In addition, it is possible to reduce a decrease in the initial velocity of the hit ball and to improve the stability of the directionality and the flight distance.

  In designing a golf club head, as a method for simultaneously improving the above two performance elements (high repulsion and expansion of moment of inertia), a hitting ball surface portion and a head main body portion (hereinafter also referred to as a main body portion) are separately provided. Many methods of manufacturing and integrating with materials are used. This is because the ball striking surface is made of a material with high specific strength (a value obtained by dividing the strength by specific gravity) to reduce the thickness and weight, and the main body is easy to mold, cheaper, or more specific gravity. By using a heavy material, the ball striking face part and the body part are joined and integrated by a method such as welding, so that the ball striking face part is thinned and high resilience performance is obtained. By redistributing the surplus weight twisted out by the conversion to the peripheral part of the main body part (position farther from the center of gravity), the moment of inertia is to be expanded.

However, in the conventional divided structure of the hitting ball surface portion and the main body portion, in a club other than the so-called driver or putter, that is, a fairway wood or iron, a hybrid between the fairway wood and iron (sometimes called a utility) club Has not yet obtained a sufficiently high repulsion effect.
Unlike a driver who can tee up, these clubs are for hitting a ball on the ground directly. In most cases, the ball is hit from the center to the lower side of the hitting surface. For this reason, it is effective for these clubs to have high repulsion particularly on the lower side of the hitting surface portion (hereinafter referred to as the face surface).

  Examples of structures of conventional iron heads (Prior Art Example-1 and Prior Art Example-2) are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 attached to the drawings, respectively.

First, in the case of the prior art example-1 as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, for example, the high strength member of the face member (F) and the face surface (ball striking surface) side of the main body (B). This is a structure to be joined. With such a divided structure and a joining line, welding and fitting are easy and production stability is good. In addition, since the face surface can be ground or ground after welding, the head shape is also stable.
However, as shown in FIG. 1 (c), the main body (B) is made of a material having a lower strength than the face member (F), and therefore, high resilience due to thinning cannot be achieved. Therefore, the area that can be thinned using a high-strength material is small, the face bending effect at the time of hitting the ball is small, and the effect of increasing the resilience is relatively small. Further, since the joining line (L) is present on the face surface, the repulsion effect is inevitably reduced. This is because there is a weld bead, a fitting structure, or the like at the joint, which hinders face deflection caused by a hit ball.

In the case of the prior art example-2 as shown in FIGS. 2A to 2C, the high strength member of the face member (F) and the main body (B) are placed from the top to the sole (generally 90 degrees with the face surface). Method) to form a joining line.
With this structure, the face bending effect at the time of hitting the ball is large, and the effect of increasing the resilience is larger than that of the prior art example-1. However, since most of the joining portions are on a free-form surface (the portion of the top blade (To) shown in FIG. 2C), it is difficult to perform joining such as welding with high accuracy. In addition, when the face member (F) and the main body (B) are joined by welding, the weld bead comes on the top blade (To), so it is necessary to remove the weld bead by polishing, which is important for the appearance of the head. The shape stability of the top blade (To) which is a part is impaired. Further, if the top blade width (W) on the main body (B) side is reduced, deformation due to welding or fitting or deformation during molding of the main body tends to occur. To avoid this problem, the top blade width (W) However, if the top blade width (W) is increased, there is a disadvantage that the weight increases and the center of gravity increases.

  Examples of conventional fairway wood structures include those shown in FIGS.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 3, in the case of the prior art example-3, as in the prior art example-1 described in FIG. 1, there is an area that can be thinned by using a high-strength material for the face member (F). Since it is small, the face bending effect at the time of hitting is small, and the effect of increasing the resilience is relatively small. Furthermore, since there is a joining line (L) on the face surface, the repulsion effect is reduced as in the case of the related art example-1.

  Further, in the case of the prior art example-4 shown in FIG. 4, as in the case of the prior art example-2 described in FIG. 2, the face bending effect at the time of hitting is large, and the effect of increasing the resilience is Greater than Example-3. However, most of the joints are on free-form surfaces, and there is a drawback that it is difficult to perform joining such as welding with high accuracy. Similarly to the above-mentioned prior art example-2, when the face member (F) and the main body (B) are joined by welding, the weld bead is on the crown and the weld bead needs to be removed by polishing or the like. Therefore, it is an important part of the head, and there is a drawback that the stability of the thickness and shape of the portion that must be thinned to lower the center of gravity is impaired.

  Further, in the case of the prior art-5 as shown in FIG. 5, the face bending effect at the time of hitting is large, and the effect of increasing the resilience is larger than the prior art example-4, but similar to the prior art-4. In addition, when the face member (F) and the main body (B) are joined by welding, the weld bead is on the crown, and it is necessary to remove the weld bead by polishing. There is a disadvantage that the stability of the thickness and shape of the crown, which is an important part, is impaired. Further, in the case of this structure, the face member (F) and the main body (B) are displaced from each other in the joining line between the face member (F) and the main body (B) due to differences in shrinkage and deformation due to the difference in material during molding. Is likely to occur. For this reason, it is necessary to provide a design with a sufficient thickness in the joint portion so that this deviation can be absorbed at the time of production, and there is a disadvantage that the thickness cannot be reduced to the limit of strength.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances.
An object of the present invention is to increase the area that can be thinned by using a high-strength material for the ball striking surface, improve the resilience performance on the lower side of the face where the hitting frequency is particularly high, and the top blade and crown that are important parts of the head. It is an object to provide a golf club head structure in which a face member and a main body portion can be joined and integrated without impairing the wall thickness and shape stability.

In order to achieve the above object, the golf club head structure of the present application is composed of a main body part and a face member having a higher specific strength than the main body part.
The joint line between the member including the face surface and the other main body is on the top blade side (or crown side) and the heel side in the face front side direction (ball striking surface side), and the joint line between the toe side and the sole side. Is on the toe side and the sole side, and the toe side to the sole side of the face member is bent, and the above-mentioned joining lines are joined and integrated by a method such as welding. To do.

  As described above, the thickness and shape of the top blade side (or crown side) and heel side can be stabilized by setting the face surface front side direction (ball striking surface side) as a joining line. Furthermore, in the structure of the present invention, since a strong face member is bent on the toe side and the sole side, this portion can be thinned, and the hitting frequency of the iron and fairway wood other than the driver and the putter is high. The side can be repelled efficiently. Therefore, the flight distance and directional stability, which are the basic performance of the golf club head, can be improved.

  In the present invention, in order to increase the bonding strength between the head main body and the face member, the head main body and the face member made of a high-strength material are bonded together by any method of welding, brazing, bonding, or fitting. It is preferable. Further, the thickness of the face surface (ball striking face) portion of the face member made of high strength material is 1 mm to 4 mm, and the thickness of the toe side portion and the sole portion formed so that the face member is bent is 0. It is preferable that it is 4 mm-1.5 mm.

(A) thru | or (c) show the structure of the golf club head of the prior art example-1. (A) thru | or (c) show the structure of the golf club head of the prior art example-2. The structure of the golf club head of the prior art example-3 is shown. The structure of the golf club head of the prior art example-4 is shown. The structure of the golf club head of the prior art example-5 is shown. (A), (b) shows the golf club head which consists of embodiment of this invention. (A) thru | or (e) show the iron club head which is Embodiment-1 of this invention. The fairway wood which is Embodiment-2 of this invention shown to (a) thru | or (e) is shown. The face is divided into four equal parts, and a point with a distance of 14 mm from the leading edge is shown.

  Hereinafter, the configuration of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIGS. 6A and 6B show a golf club head according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the golf club head of the present embodiment using an iron as an example is made of a metal that forms a toe portion (Te), a sole portion (So), and a heel portion (He). The main body member and the face member (F) made of a high strength material are joined and integrated.

  In this embodiment, as shown in Table 1 below, “AM355” is used for the face member as the high-strength material, and 17-4 stainless steel that is relatively inexpensive and has good formability is used for the main body. If the material of the member is a material having a higher specific strength than the material of the head body, the material is not limited to this.

  In the case of the iron club head which is Embodiment-1 of the present invention shown in FIGS. 7A to 7E, and the fairway which is Embodiment-2 of the present invention shown in FIGS. 8A to 8E. In the case of wood, a face member (F) made of a high strength material is joined to a metal head main body (B). The joining line (L) between the face member including the hitting surface and the head body (B) is the top blade (or crown) (To) side and the heel (He) side is the front side direction (hit ball) of the face member (F) The joint line (L) between the toe (Te) side and the sole (So) side is on the toe (Te) side side and the sole (So) side, and the toe (Te) of the face member (F) ) The sole (So) side is bent from the side side, and the above-mentioned members are joined together by the joining line. According to the above-described division and joining mode, the portion extending from the toe (Te) side to the sole (So) side of the face member (F) can be thinned with a high-strength material, so that high repulsion can be obtained.

  In addition, as the material of the face member (F), a material having a higher specific strength (a value obtained by dividing the strength by the specific gravity) than that of the main body and capable of being made thinner can be used.

  In the above embodiment, the head main body (B) and the face member (F) are joined by welding. However, the joining is not limited to welding, but may be performed by brazing, adhesion, fitting, or the like.

  The golf club head of the present invention and the prior art golf club head were actually made, and the resilience performance was compared.

  A characteristic time CT value (Characteristic Time), which is a value measured by a Pendulum measuring instrument defined by R & A and the USGA, which governs golf rules, was used as a method for measuring the coefficient of restitution of the hitting surface. In this method, a metallic pendulum is caused to collide with a golf club hitting surface, and the resilience performance of the hitting surface is measured as a numerical value from the contact time. As shown in FIG. 9, the face lower CT value measurement position was divided into four equal parts and a point at a distance of 14 mm from the leading edge.

  Table 2 shows a comparison of the coefficient of restitution (CT value) between the head of the embodiment of the present invention and the heads of the conventional products-1 and -2.

  As shown in Table 2, it was confirmed that the CT value on the lower side of the face of the golf club head of the present invention was higher than that of the conventional structure, that is, high repulsion.

B Head body part F Face member He Heel part L Joining line Te Toe part To Top blade W Top blade width

Claims (4)

In the structure of a golf club head other than a driver and a putter, comprising a head main body and a face member having a higher specific strength than the head main body,
The joint line between the member including the face surface and the other head main body is on the top blade side (or crown side) and the heel side in the face front side direction (ball striking surface side), and the toe side and the sole side are joined. The golf club is characterized in that the line is on the toe side and the sole side, and the toe side to the sole side of the face member has a bent shape, and the joining lines are joined and integrated. Club head structure.   Both the head main body and the face member are made of a material mainly composed of iron (Fe), and the head main body and the face member are joined together by any method of welding, brazing, adhesion, or fitting. The structure of a golf club head according to claim 1, wherein   The hitting surface thickness of the face member is 1 mm to 4 mm, and the thickness of the toe side portion and the sole portion formed so that the face member is bent is 0.4 mm to 1.5 mm. 2. The structure of the golf club head according to 1.   2. The golf club head structure according to claim 1, wherein the face member and the head main body are both or one of them made by a casting method.