JPH05277213A - Golf club head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a golf club head which prevents the carry of a ball from becoming inaccurate because of water droplets attached to the face of the head when the golf club is swung in rainy weather. CONSTITUTION:A number of micro through holes 9 passing through backward from a face 2 are formed in the face portion 4 of a golf club head 1, and when the golf club 8 is swung, water droplets attached to the face 2 are pushed backward through the through holes 9 so that a ball is hit by the golf club 8 with the water droplets removed therefrom.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a golf club head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various improvements have been made in the prior art for golf club heads so that an accurate flight distance can be obtained when playing golf, but it is hard to say that sufficient results have been obtained yet.

From this point of view, the present inventor has conducted various studies on problems of conventional golf clubs, and as a result,
It was clarified that one of the reasons why accurate flight distance was not obtained was as follows.

As is well known, when a golf club is swung down and a ball is hit by the face portion of the club head, the coefficient of dynamic friction between the two depends on the speed of the golf club head. FIG. 13 is a graph in which the horizontal axis represents the speed v of the golf club head, and the vertical axis represents the coefficient of dynamic friction μ between the ball and the face surface when the ball is hit. As can be seen from this figure, the higher the club head speed v, the greater the dynamic friction coefficient μ. Therefore, the player
An accurate flight distance of the ball can be obtained by grasping the characteristics of the dynamic friction coefficient μ of the golf club used by the player himself and by knowing the swing-down motion of the club suitable for this.

However, the characteristics as shown in FIG.
When the face surface of the golf club head is in a dry state with no water attached, and when water is attached to the face surface, the relationship between the speed v of the golf club head and the dynamic friction coefficient μ is It greatly deviates from the characteristics shown in FIG.
It's totally unpredictable. In particular, when the amount of water adhering to the face surface increases, the water film formed here causes a hydroplane phenomenon at the time of hitting the ball, resulting in an extremely unstable ball hitting operation.

For these reasons, it is clear that hitting the ball in rainy weather will result in inaccurate flight distance of the ball even by a fairly skilled person.

The above-mentioned point is one of the reasons why the accurate flight distance of the ball cannot be obtained by the conventional golf club head.
However, the present inventor was able to clarify another reason described below.

The inventor of the present invention has taken a photograph of a state in which a golf club head hits a ball with a high speed camera and examined the details.

FIG. 14 is a photograph actually taken of the state where the ball 3 leaves the face surface 2a immediately after hitting the ball 3 with the face surface 2a of the golf club head 1a and starts to fly in the direction of arrow A. It is shown schematically based on. As can be seen from this figure, when the ball 3 separates from the face surface 2a, an air flow as indicated by the symbol B was observed. This indicates that the pressure in the area S between the ball 3 and the face surface 2a is significantly lower than the atmospheric pressure and is negative. Such a phenomenon occurs when the face surface 2a is dry and when it is wet with water.

Immediately after hitting the ball 3 with the club head 1a in this way, the pressure between the two greatly decreases. As a result, the ball 3 flying in the direction of arrow A is subjected to the attraction force C in the direction opposite to the direction of flight A, and the ball 3
The braking force is applied to the. Therefore, the initial velocity of the ball 3 is reduced, and the flight distance of the ball 3 is reduced.
Moreover, since the degree of the negative pressure is not constant, the flight distance of the ball becomes inaccurate.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made based on the above-mentioned novel recognition, and an object of the present invention is to make a face surface wet with water or dry. It is an object of the present invention to provide a golf club head capable of achieving a more accurate and longer flight distance than ever before.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention proposes a structure in which a face portion forming a ball striking surface has air permeability and water permeability.

At this time, it is desirable to form a large number of through holes in the face portion so as to penetrate rearward from the face surface side.

It is also advantageous to construct the face portion from a hard continuous foam.

Further, it is desirable that the face portion having air permeability and water permeability is constituted by a face plate fixed to the head body.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an iron type head 1 which is an example of a golf club head, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II thereof. In these figures, reference numeral 4
Indicates a face portion forming a ball striking surface, and reference numeral 5 indicates a sole portion which is a bottom portion of the head 1. The tip of a shaft 7 is fixed to the hosel portion 6 of the head 1.

The golf club 8 having the above-described club head 1 is swung down in the direction indicated by the arrow X in FIG. 2 at the time of swinging, and the face surface 2 of the face portion 4 hits the ball. FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C are explanatory views showing the state at the time of hitting such a ball, and FIG. 3A shows the state immediately before the face portion 4 hits the ball 3, (b) shows the state at the time of hitting the ball, and (c) shows the state when the ball 3 separates from the face surface 2 and starts to fly in the direction of arrow A immediately after the hit.

Here, the feature of this embodiment is that
The point is that a large number of conduction holes 9 are formed in the face portion 4 so as to penetrate rearward from the face surface 2 side.
It is desirable that these through holes 9 extend in a direction orthogonal to the face surface 2. As described above, the face portion 4 forming the ball striking surface has air permeability and water permeability due to the large number of conduction holes 9.

When the golf club 8 is swung and the face portion 4 of the head 1 approaches the ball 3 as shown in FIG. 3A, the pressure in the area S between the face portion 4 and the ball 3 is increased. Rises significantly because the air present there is compressed by the face portion 4 and the balls 3.

If a large amount of water droplets W adhere to the face surface 2 of the head 1 before the golf club 8 is swung down, the club head 1 approaches the ball 3 as shown in FIG. 3 (a). When the water drops W on the face 2
Due to the above-mentioned high pressure, it is pushed out to the rear side of the head 1 through the conduction hole 9 formed in the face portion 4 as shown by an arrow Y. Therefore, as shown in FIG.
When the ball 3 hits the face surface 2, there is almost no water droplet between them.

As described above, even if a large amount of water droplets W are attached to the face surface 2 at the start of the swing of the golf club 8, there is substantially no water droplet on the face surface 2 at the time of hitting the ball. For this reason, even when playing in the rain, the face surface 2 hits the ball 3 in a state similar to that in the dry state, whereby not only the occurrence of the hydroplane phenomenon can be prevented but also the face surface 2 can be prevented. Two
The relationship between the dynamic friction coefficient between the ball 3 and the ball 3 and the speed of the golf club head 1 can be maintained in a predetermined relationship as illustrated in FIG. In this way, it is possible to always obtain an accurate flight distance of the ball regardless of whether the weather is good or bad.

Further, when a large number of conducting holes 9 are formed in the face portion 4, a sound absorbing effect for alleviating a sharp impact sound generated at the time of hitting a ball can be obtained, and an advantage of improving a hit feeling can also be obtained.

After the face portion 4 hits the ball 3, the ball 3 separates from the face surface 2 and starts flying in the direction of arrow A as shown in FIG. 3 (c). At this time, in the conventional golf club head. As described above, the pressure in the region S between the ball and the face surface is significantly reduced,
There was a problem that the ball 3 was attracted (brake force) in the direction opposite to its flight direction. However, in the club head 1 according to the present invention, since a large number of conducting holes 9 are formed in the face portion 4, as shown by arrow Z in FIG. Air flows in through the conduction hole 9 and increases the pressure in this region S. For this reason,
Unlike the conventional case, a large suction force does not act on the ball 3. As a result, the initial velocity of the ball 3 can be increased, the flight distance of the ball can be extended, and an accurate flight distance can be obtained.

The number of the conductive holes 9 and the pitch thereof are appropriately set so that the above-mentioned various effects can be best obtained. The diameter of each of the through holes 9 can also be set appropriately, but if this diameter is made too large, the strength of the face portion 4 will decrease due to the so-called notch effect, and if the diameter is made too small, the flowability of water and air will decrease. Therefore, the diameter of the through hole 9 should be set in consideration of these factors. According to the experiment, when the diameter of the through hole 9 is set to 50 to 70 μ, good air permeability and water permeability are obtained, and further, the strength of the face portion 4 can be prevented from being remarkably reduced.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show an embodiment in which a window hole 11 is formed in the central portion of the head body 10 and a face plate 12 constituting the face portion 4 is fitted and fixed therein. The face plate 12 is also provided with a large number of conducting holes 9 just as in the previous embodiment.

In this embodiment, since the face plate 12 is a member separate from the head body 10, the head body 10
The through hole 9 can be easily processed in the face plate 12 before being fixed to the.

As a method for fixing the face plate 12 to the head main body 10, an appropriate method such as welding, screwing or press fitting can be adopted. As a method of forming the conduction hole 9 in the face portion 4, a method such as wire discharge, etching, casting, or drilling with a cone can be appropriately adopted.

FIG. 6 shows a face plate 1 having a large number of through holes 9 penetrating rearward from the face surface 2 side.
2 shows an embodiment of an iron type golf club head 1 in which 2 is fitted and fixed to the head body 10 from above in the figure. Face plate 12 forming the face portion 4
A gap 9a having an open upper portion is formed on the back side of the. As a result, water or air can be circulated through the through hole 9, and the same effect as that of the previous embodiment can be obtained.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, instead of obtaining the air permeability and the water permeability by forming the conduction hole 9 in the face plate 12, as the face plate 12 constituting the face portion 4, a hard continuous material is used. It is also possible to use a foam (a so-called porous plate). For example, a continuous foam made of metal or ceramic is used as the face plate 12. Since such a foam has air permeability and water permeability, it is possible to obtain the same operational effect as when the face portion 4 is provided with the conduction hole 9.

The structure relating to the air permeability and water permeability of the face portion in each of the above-described embodiments can be applied to a head other than the iron type, for example, a wood type golf club head. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, a large number of conducting holes 9 are formed in the face portion 4 of the wood type golf club head 1, or a face plate formed with conducting holes or a face plate made of a hard continuous foam is used. By fitting and fixing in the window hole formed in the face portion of the golf club head 1 and forming the exhaust hole 13 in an appropriate place of the head 1, for example, the back portion, it is possible to obtain exactly the same action and effect as in the previous embodiment. it can.

By the way, it is generally inevitable that the strength of the face portion 4 will be somewhat reduced due to the notch effect when the face portion 4 is provided with the through hole 9. In order to compensate for such a decrease in strength, it is desirable to form a face plate fixed to the head body or a face portion integrally formed with the head body in advance as illustrated in FIG. 8 or 9. FIG. 8 shows an example in which the thickness of the peripheral portion of the face plate 12 is increased to increase its strength, and FIG. 9 is an example in which a large number of ribs 14 are provided on the back surface of the face plate 12 to increase its strength. Is shown. Such a configuration can be advantageously applied even when the face portion is formed of a continuous foam.

Further, it is particularly advantageous to dispose a reinforcing plate on the back side of the face portion 4 in order to reinforce the face portion 4 and prevent its plastic deformation. For example, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a reinforcing plate 15 having high strength such as metal is provided on the back surface of the face plate 12, and the reinforcing plate 15 is integrally fixed to the head main body 10. When a hard continuous foam is used as the face plate 12, since the foam generally has relatively low strength, the structure of the reinforcing plate 15 can be particularly advantageously adopted.

The reinforcing plate 15 shown in FIG. 10 has a large number of bridging members 16 fixed to the peripheral portion, straddling the central hole, and the reinforcing plate 15 shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 has a peripheral portion. A large number of ribs 17 are projected. According to such a reinforcing plate 15, its rigidity can be particularly enhanced, and a more reliable reinforcing effect can be obtained.

[0035]

According to the golf club head of the present invention, the water adhering to the face surface of the golf club head can be removed through the through hole, and the negative pressure in the area between the ball and the face surface immediately after the ball is hit. Since the occurrence can be suppressed, the flight distance of the ball can be extended and the accurate flight distance can be obtained.

Particularly, according to the golf club head of the second aspect, it is possible to surely obtain the above-mentioned effects while suppressing the strength reduction of the face portion.

According to the structure described in claim 4, it is possible to easily form the conductive hole in the face portion.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an iron type golf club head.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining the action of a conduction hole.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a golf club head whose face portion is formed of a face plate.

5 is an exploded perspective view of the golf club head shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing another embodiment of the golf club head in which the face portion is composed of a face plate.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a wood type golf club.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the face plate.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing still another embodiment of the face plate.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the reinforcing plate.

FIG. 11 is a view of still another reinforcing plate as viewed from the back side.

12 is a sectional view taken along line XII-XII in FIG.

FIG. 13 is a graph showing an example of the relationship between the speed of the golf club head and the coefficient of dynamic friction.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a problem of a conventional golf club head.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 face surface 4 face portion 9 conduction hole 12 face plate

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A golf club head, wherein a face portion forming a ball striking surface has air permeability and water permeability. 2. The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the face portion is provided with a large number of conductive holes penetrating rearward from the face surface side. 3. The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the face portion is made of a hard continuous foam. 4. A face portion having breathability and water permeability,
4. The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the golf club head is composed of a face plate fixed to the head body.