JP5617349B2 - Golf club head - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a golf club head, and more particularly to a cavity type golf club head.

  A so-called cavity type head may be used for a golf club head, particularly an iron head.

  The cavity-type head includes a face portion that forms a ball striking surface and a sole portion that extends rearward from the lower portion of the face portion. The head of a driver or the like usually has a crown portion that extends backward from the upper surface of the face portion and connects to the sole portion in addition to the sole portion. This head has no crown portion. For this reason, the back surface of the face portion and the upper surface of the sole portion are exposed to the outside, and a concave portion (cavity) is formed in which a portion sandwiched between the back surface of the face portion and the upper surface of the sole portion is opened.

  Cavity type heads can change the head weight and depth of gravity center by adjusting the length of the sole part that extends backward from the lower end of the face part (ie, the length in the face back direction). There is an advantage that becomes larger.

  In particular, in an iron, when the depth of the center of gravity (the length in the face back direction from the face surface to the position of the center of gravity of the head) increases, the hit ball easily flies in the height direction. In the cavity type head, the depth of the center of gravity increases as the length of the sole portion in the face back direction increases. Therefore, the length of the sole portion in the face back direction is a major factor that determines the performance of the golf club.

  By the way, as the performance of a golf club, in addition to repulsive force, flight distance, directionality of a hit ball, etc., a sound (ball hitting sound) when a user hits the ball is increasing in importance. This is because the high-quality hitting sound has an effect of generating a refreshing feeling for the user and improving the hitting feeling.

  Generally, high-quality hitting sounds vary depending on the type of golf club. For example, a driver or the like is said to have a high quality sound with high frequency and high sound pressure. On the other hand, on the contrary, in an iron, a sound having a relatively low frequency and a low sound pressure is generally said to be a good hitting sound.

  However, in the cavity type head, when the length of the sole portion in the face back direction is increased in order to increase the depth of the center of gravity, both the frequency and sound pressure of the hitting sound increase, and the hitting sound as an iron club deteriorates. Problems arise.

  For this reason, various attempts have been made to prevent the hitting sound deterioration of the cavity type head.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which an elastic weight adjusting body that is in close contact with the back surface of the face portion is provided on a cavity type golf club head.

  Patent Document 1 provides an elastic weight adjusting body in close contact with the back surface of the face portion, thereby suppressing vibration of the face portion and the sole portion at the time of hitting and improving the hitting sound of the entire golf club head. .

Registration No. 3129489

  As described above, in Patent Document 1, by providing an elastic weight adjusting body that is in close contact with the back surface of the face portion, the vibration of the club head at the time of hitting is suppressed and the hitting sound is improved.

  However, in the configuration in which the elastic weight adjusting body is closely attached to the back surface of the face portion as in Patent Document 1, unfavorable hitting sound generated particularly on the golf club head having a large length in the face back direction of the sole portion and the face back side is sufficiently obtained. In addition to being unable to be suppressed to a high level, the preferable hitting sound generated on the face surface is excessively suppressed, and as a result, the hitting sound may be deteriorated.

  In view of the above-described problems of the prior art, the present invention provides a golf club head capable of suppressing undesirable hitting sound generated on the face back side without excessively suppressing hitting sound generated on the face surface of the golf club head. It is intended to provide.

According to the present invention, a cavity type comprising a face portion forming a ball striking surface and a sole portion extending rearward from the lower portion of the face portion, and a recess formed by the back surface of the face portion and the upper surface of the sole portion is open to the outside. A golf club head, having a length from the back surface of the face portion to the rear end portion of the sole portion of 40 mm or more and having a vibration damping function disposed at a position spaced from the back surface of the face portion on the upper surface of the sole portion A golf club , wherein the damping member has a flat plate shape with a thickness of 1 mm or more and 5 mm or less, and at least the outer periphery of the lower surface of the damping member is bonded to the upper surface of the sole portion. A head is provided.

  That is, in the golf club head of the present invention, the damping member is provided on the upper surface of the sole portion without contacting the back surface of the face portion. For this reason, an unfavorable hitting sound generated at the time of hitting at the sole portion on the face back side is appropriately suppressed by the damping member, while a preferable hitting sound generated on the face surface is hardly suppressed and the hitting sound is improved as a whole. Become so.

  The actual position of the damping member for obtaining the effect of improving the hitting sound varies depending on the shape of the golf club head, the length of the sole portion in the face back direction, the shape of the damping member, the material, and the like. Therefore, in practice, it is preferable that the installation position of the damping member is determined by an experiment using the golf club head and the damping member that are actually used.

  The hitting sound generated at the time of hitting in the sole portion on the face back side increases as the length of the sole portion in the back direction increases. According to the study of the present inventor, particularly when the length of the sole portion in the back direction becomes 40 mm or more. The effect on the overall hitting sound is increased. Therefore, when the present invention is applied to a golf club head having a length in the sole portion face back direction of 40 mm or more, the effect of improving the hitting sound is particularly great.

  The damping member can be used as long as it has elasticity and elastically deforms with the sole portion, and can absorb (convert to thermal energy) the vibration energy of the sole portion by the deformation resistance of the damping member. A resin material, a metal material, or a composite material of a resin and a metal, for example, a metal powder-containing resin in which a metal powder is dispersed in a resin, a laminate of a flat resin and a metal plate, and the like can be used.

  Further, the cavity type golf club head has a structure in which the cavity portion is open, and the back surface of the face portion and the upper surface of the sole portion can be seen from the outside. For this reason, when a damping member is provided on the sole portion for improving the hitting sound, if the damping member is excessively conspicuous, the design (aesthetics) may be affected and the commercial value of the golf club itself may be impaired.

  Therefore, it is preferable that the damping member has a flat plate shape that does not protrude upward from the sole portion as much as possible, and is fixed to the upper surface of the sole portion by adhesion or the like, and the thickness of the damping member is preferably 5 mm or less.

  Further, according to experiments by the inventor, it has been found that when a flat damping member is used, a sufficient hitting sound improvement effect can be obtained even with a minimum of about 1 mm by using an appropriate material.

  Furthermore, when the flat damping member is bonded to the upper surface of the sole portion, if the entire lower surface of the damping member is fixed to the upper surface of the sole portion by bonding, the strength against peeling due to impact or the like can be increased. If only a part, not the entire bottom surface of the damping member, is fixed to the upper surface of the sole portion so that the portion not fixed to the upper surface of the sole portion of the damping member can be freely vibrated away from the sole portion, the vibration suppressing effect can be obtained. The improvement effect of the hitting sound is increased.

  In this case, if only the outer peripheral part of the damping member is fixed to the upper surface of the sole part by adhesion, and the inside is not fixed to the sole part, it is possible to increase the strength against peeling while enhancing the effect of improving the hitting sound. It becomes.

  According to the invention described in each of the claims, in the cavity type golf club head, only an unfavorable hitting sound generated at the face back side sole portion is effectively maintained while maintaining a preferable hitting sound on the face surface at the time of hitting. Therefore, the hitting sound of the golf club head can be improved as a whole.

1 is a plan view of an embodiment of a golf club head of the present invention. It is a front view of the golf club head of FIG. FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the golf club head of the present embodiment as viewed from the direction of arrow III in FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a view showing the back surface of the face portion when the golf club head of the present embodiment is viewed from the direction of arrow IV in FIG. 1. Measures the hitting sound when the golf ball is hit with the golf club head 1 of the example and the comparative example, and (A) depends on the thickness and shape of the face portion 3 when the golf ball is hit with the golf club head 1. The peak power value (peak power A), the peak power value (peak power B) considered to depend on the thickness and shape of the sole portion 5, and the peak power B / peak power A are displayed. FIG. 5B is a diagram showing the measurement result of Example 1 as an example of the measurement result of the hitting sound when the golf ball is hit with the golf club head 1.

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

  1 to 4 are views showing an embodiment of a golf club head to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 1 is a plan view of the golf club head, and FIG. 2 is a front view. 3 is a bottom view seen from the direction of arrow III in FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is a view seen from the direction of arrow IV in FIG.

  1 to 4, reference numeral 1 denotes an entire golf club head (hereinafter referred to as “head”).

  In the figure, 3 is a face portion of the head 1, and 31 is a face surface forming a hitting surface of the face portion.

  In the figure, reference numeral 5 denotes a sole portion extending rearward from the lower portion of the face portion 3 (on the opposite side of the face surface 31, that is, the face back side). The face portion 3 and the sole portion 5 intersect at a certain angle, and a portion sandwiched between the face portion 3 and the sole portion 5 forms a concave cavity. For this reason, the golf club head of this embodiment type is generally referred to as a cavity type golf club head.

  In the cavity type golf club head, since the cavity sandwiched between the face portion 3 and the sole portion 5 is open to the outside, the upper surface 51 ( 1) and the back surface 33 (FIG. 4) of the face portion 3 are exposed to the outside.

  3 indicates the bottom surface of the sole portion 5.

  In the present embodiment, the length of the sole portion 5 in the face back direction, that is, the length indicated by X in FIG. As described above, as the length X of the sole portion 5 in the face back direction increases, the depth of the center of gravity of the entire head increases. However, an unfavorable hitting sound at the sole portion 5 increases accordingly, and the hitting sound of the entire head increases. There is a problem of deterioration.

  On the other hand, the hitting sound generated on the face surface 31 is the original hitting sound. If the hitting sound generated in this portion is suppressed, the hitting sound as the whole head deteriorates.

  In the present embodiment, by attaching a flat plate-shaped damping member shown by 10 in FIG. 1 to the upper surface 51 of the sole portion, a preferable hitting sound generated on the face surface 33 is generated in the sole portion 5 without being excessively suppressed. The above problem is solved by suppressing only an unfavorable hitting sound.

  The damping member 10 is formed by forming a material such as resin or metal having a high vibration damping capacity into a flat plate shape. For example, a rubber material, an elastomer material such as silicon rubber, polyurethane, or thermoplastic polyurethane, or a flat plate material thereof. A metal powder-containing elastic material in which an alloy powder such as tungsten, iron, copper, cobalt, niobium, nickel, molybdenum or stainless steel is dispersed is used as the elastomer material.

  In order to increase the vibration damping capability, a foamed elastomer material in which bubbles are dispersed can be used.

  Furthermore, it is good also as a structure which laminated | stacked and bonded the flat metal material to either of the said elastomer materials.

  In this embodiment, the flat plate-shaped damping member 10 has a structure in which a foamed butyl rubber having a thickness of 0.75 mm is formed in a tape shape, and a stainless steel having a thickness of 0.3 mm is bonded to the upper surface of a butyl rubber tape to which an adhesive is applied. Yes.

  Thus, it was found that by using a composite damping member using a butyl rubber tape and a stainless steel plate, it is possible to sufficiently suppress the hitting sound of the sole portion 5 with a thickness of at least about 1 mm. ing.

  In the present embodiment, the flat plate-like damping member 10 is coated with an adhesive on the entire lower surface thereof and adhered to the sole portion upper surface 51, thereby increasing the strength against peeling due to impact. However, in terms of the effect of suppressing the hitting sound, it may be preferable to leave a part of the lower surface unbonded rather than bonding the entire lower surface of the damping member 10 to the sole portion upper surface 51.

  If a part that is not bonded remains, the damping member of this part can vibrate with a relatively large amplitude independently of the sole part 5, and the vibration energy that can be absorbed increases, improving the vibration damping performance. It is to do.

  For this reason, for example, if an adhesive is applied only to the outer peripheral portion of the lower surface of the flat damping member 10 and adhered to the upper surface 51 of the sole portion, the vibration damping performance is increased while maintaining the strength against peeling to a certain extent. It is also possible to do.

  In general, the greater the thickness of the flat damping member 10, the greater the effect of suppressing the hitting sound. However, in the cavity type golf club head, the flat damping member 10 adhered on the upper surface 51 of the sole portion is exposed to the outside. Since it is exposed, the flat damping member 10 is preferably thin. Generally, a thickness of about 5 mm is said to be the maximum thickness that does not affect the head design (aesthetic appearance).

  As shown in FIG. 1, in the present embodiment, the flat plate-shaped damping member 10 is not in contact with the back surface 35 of the face portion 3 and is disposed on the sole portion upper surface 51 with a distance L from the back surface 33. ing. The distance L is set so as not to excessively suppress the hitting sound generated on the face surface 31 and to suppress the hitting sound generated on the sole portion 5 as much as possible. Since the optimum distance L varies depending on the material and the dimensions and materials of the sole portion 5 and the face portion 3, the distance L is optimally determined experimentally using the golf club head and the damping member 10 that are actually used. It is preferable to set a value.

FIG. 5 shows the measurement results of the example and the comparative example.
A damping member 10 was attached to the golf club head 1 shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, and the hitting sound was measured.
The length X in the face back direction of the sole portion 5 of the golf club head 1 is 42 mm.
The damping member 10 was produced by bonding a thin plate made of stainless steel having a thickness of 0.3 mm to a plate-like foamed butyl rubber having a thickness of 0.75 mm using a butyl rubber tape coated with an adhesive. Therefore, the thickness of the damping member 10 is 1.05 mm.
Comparative Example 1 shows a measurement result obtained by measuring a hitting sound when a golf ball is hit with the golf club head 1 to which the damping member 10 is not attached.
Comparative Example 2 shows a measurement result of measuring a hitting sound when a golf ball is hit with the golf club head 1 having the damping member 10 attached to the back surface of the face portion 3.
Comparative Example 3 is a golf club head 1 in which the entire bottom surface of the damping member 10 is attached to the sole portion upper surface 51 with an adhesive without being separated from the back surface of the face portion, that is, in contact with the back surface of the face portion. The measurement result which measured the hitting sound when hitting a golf ball is shown.
In Example 1, as shown in FIG. 1, a golf ball was hit with a golf club head 1 in which the entire bottom surface of the damping member 10 was attached to the sole portion upper surface 51 with an adhesive while being separated from the back surface of the face portion. The measurement result which measured the hitting sound at the time is shown.
In the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, a golf ball with a golf club head 1 in which only the outer peripheral portion of the lower surface of the damping member 10 is attached to the sole upper surface 51 with an adhesive while being separated from the back surface of the face portion. The measurement result which measured the hitting sound when hitting is shown.

In FIG. 5B, the horizontal axis represents the frequency and the vertical axis represents the sound pressure signal, and the golf ball head 1 is used to analyze the ball hitting sound. As an example, the measurement of Example 1 is performed. Results are shown.
As is clear from FIG. 5B, when a golf ball is hit with the golf club head 1, a peak with high power and a valley with low power appear alternately. At this time, if the peak power value considered to depend on the thickness and shape of the face portion 3 is peak power A, and the peak power value considered to depend on the thickness and shape of the sole portion 5 is peak power B, It has been found that the higher the peak power B / peak power A, the better the hitting sound.
In FIG. 5A, the column of peak power (A) indicates the peak power value that is considered to depend on the thickness and shape of the face portion 3 when the golf ball is hit with the golf club head 1. The column (B) shows the value of the peak power that is considered to depend on the thickness and shape of the sole portion 5, and the column B / A divided the peak power (A) by the peak power (B). Values are given in percent (%).
Therefore, the larger the value, the more favorable the hitting sound, and the undesirable hitting sound generated at the sole portion 5 is suppressed without excessively suppressing the hitting sound generated at the face surface 33.
This value is the largest in Example 2, then the largest in Example 1, followed by Comparative Example 1, Comparative Example 3, and Comparative Example 2.
Therefore, it is clear from these measurement results that according to the present embodiment, it is possible to effectively suppress only the unfavorable hitting sound generated at the face back side sole part while maintaining the preferable hitting sound on the face surface at the time of hitting. It is.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Golf club head 3 Face part 5 Sole part 10 Damping member 31 Face surface 33 Face part back surface 51 Sole part upper surface 53 Sole part bottom surface

Claims (4)

A cavity type golf club head comprising a face portion forming a ball striking surface and a sole portion extending rearward from a lower portion of the face portion, wherein a recess formed by the back surface of the face portion and the upper surface of the sole portion is open to the outside. ,
The length from the back of the face part to the rear end of the sole part is 40 mm or more,
A damping member made of a material having a vibration damping function, disposed at a position separated from the back surface of the face portion on the upper surface of the sole portion ;
The damping member has a flat plate shape with a thickness of 1 mm or more and 5 mm or less, and at least an outer peripheral portion of the lower surface of the damping member is bonded to the upper surface of the sole portion.
A golf club head characterized by that. The damping member is made of a plate-shaped resin ,
The golf club head according to claim 1 . The damping member is a composite plate member adhered to the resin flat plate and the flat plate made of metal, the golf club head of claim 1. The damping member is a metal powder-containing resin plate member obtained by dispersing metal powder in the resin, the golf club head of claim 1.

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