JPH054109B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to golf balls, and more particularly to golf balls having a fluorescent appearance.

For the last 40 to 50 years, golf balls have been manufactured by placing a cover around a core. The cover may be applied by compression molding two half shells around the core, or it may be applied by injection molding directly around the core. Until the mid-1960s, most golf ball covers were made of natural resins, particularly balata. However, since the mid-1960s, a synthetic resin sold by DuPont under the trademark ``Surlyn'' has gradually come into use as a cover material, and today it accounts for the majority of sheaths. A cover made of such a synthetic resin is disclosed in, for example, US Pat. No. 3,454,280.
No. 3819768.

Attempts have been made over the years to create solid one-piece balls. However, there is no example of successful production of a first-class one-piece ball. Today's first-class golf balls have a wound or solid core with a cover placed around it.

Regardless of the construction of the golf ball or the composition of the material of the cover, it is common to have a finish on the surface of the cover. This finishing requires expensive and precise techniques. The normal process for printing on Surlyn cover balls is to first sandblast the surface of the ball, wash it, and then
After drying, apply a primer, dry the primer at approximately 37.8°C (100〓), apply a first white coating, and dry it at approximately 37.8°C (100〓).
After drying, apply a second white coating, dry at approximately 37.8°C (100〓), stamp the trademark and number, apply another clear coating, and apply a second white coating at approximately 100ん. dry. Despite these numerous steps, even the highest quality balls suffer from the problem of paint peeling off, especially after long-term use. This problem is especially noticeable with Surlyn covered balls.

The problem of paint peeling off becomes even more of a problem when the colors of the paint and the cover are different, such as when a Balata or Surlyn cover is covered with white paint. Most manufacturers attempt to solve this problem by adding a whitening agent (usually titanium dioxide) into the cover formulation. Although it is possible to make the cover white using this method, the white color is dull white.
There is a considerable difference from the white paint, and when the paint peels off, it is immediately recognizable.

Although the popularity has waned considerably now, so-called colored balls are now on sale. The reason why these colored balls were not used more often is that they are more noticeable than white balls, especially when played in the snow or when there is heavy frost, but the colored paint peels off easily. One reason is that the lower white cover is exposed. This gave the impression that the quality of the ball was poor, and resulted in a reduction in sales growth. There was also an attempt to sell pastel-colored balls for women. However, this too was not very successful, probably due to problems with appearance durability.

Currently, many attempts are being made to create balls coated with fluorescent paint. Fluorescent balls are much more noticeable than traditional white balls! Some believe that these fluorescent balls will soon become obsolete like aluminum shafts, graphite shafts, steel centers, etc., while others believe that they will become a large part of the market in the future.

Fluorescent balls also suffer from the age-old problem of easy paint peeling. Like traditional colored balls and pastel colored balls, fluorescent balls also have the problem of paint peeling.
In particular, the fluorescent balls currently on the market have a particularly poor exterior durability, and not only do the paint peel off in places, but the paint also chips off over large areas, exposing the underlying cover.

In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a fluorescent golf ball with good durability in appearance.

Applicants have discovered that the problem of durability of the fluorescent ball appearance can be solved by directly incorporating the fluorescent material into the composition of the cover. This is by no means simply replacing the titanium dioxide in the white ball with a fluorescent colorant. On the contrary, it has been found that a cover mixed with a fluorescent material can be used as a complete cover on its own. The outermost surface of the fluorescent ball of the present invention may be provided with a conventional transparent coating, but not with an opaque coating.

In the present invention, the cover material is formed from a transparent resin, such as most Surlyn resins. Give distinctiveness to the core. In the present invention, distinctiveness refers to external features that distinguish a golf ball from other golf balls, and are formed, for example, by trademarks, numbers, patterns, coloring, etc. This identification can be imparted to the core surface by stamping or the like. The means for imparting this distinctiveness can be appropriately selected by those skilled in the art depending on the core material, and is not limited in the present invention. Note that in the present invention, it is not necessary to provide all of the elements constituting distinctiveness to the core; for example, it is also possible to provide a number to the core and a trademark to the cover. Further, if a special effect is expected, a thread-wound core may be used, but it is preferable that the core be a one-piece solid core. It is also desirable that the core be substantially white. If the core is white against a transparent cover, you can stamp it directly onto the core and make it visible over the cover. This is the same even when the cover material is colored with a fluorescent material. In this way, by stamping a trademark, number, etc. on the core and making it visible through the transparent cover, the stamp will be maintained semi-permanently. This also solves a major problem in manufacturing high-quality balls, which is poor printability. Additionally, this eliminates the need to use highly durable stamp foils, leading to cost reductions.

A golf ball with fluorescent material added to the cover has a good appearance by itself, but
The gloss can be further enhanced by applying one to several layers of a substantially transparent surface coating on the cover. The surface coating must be transparent to the extent that the underlying cover material is visible through it. Of course, if the surface coating is opaque, the advantages of the invention described above will not be achieved.

As the fluorescent material, commercially available fluorescent pigments and fluorescent dyes can be used. Such fluorescent pigments and dyes are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,809,954;
No. 2938873, No. 2851424, No. 3412036, etc., and is sold, for example, by Dayglo Color Corporation. The amount of fluorescent material to be used depends to a large extent on the desired gloss, but ranges from about 0.01 to about 0.40% by weight of the cover composition for fluorescent dyes and about 0.5% for fluorescent pigments. ~6% by weight.

Because fluorescent pigments and dyes are relatively unstable, and because golf balls are intended for outdoor use, it is desirable to include UV stabilizers in the cover composition. If either the fluorescent material or the cover material already contains sufficient UV stabilizer, there is no benefit to adding more. On the contrary, the amount of UV stabilizer, whether present or added to the cover material, desirably ranges from about 0.1% to about 3.0%, and more preferably from about 0.5% to about 2.0%, by weight of the cover. .

If you want to stamp some of the distinguishing elements, such as trademarks or numbers, on the surface of the cover instead of on the core, you can create a translucent fluorescent cover by using fluorescent pigments instead of fluorescent dyes. can. However, as with the use of fluorescent dyes, there is no opaque coating on the surface; the surface coating is a transparent coating.

Special effects can also be obtained by adding other colorants. In this case too, the surface coating is transparent.

The present invention will be explained in more detail below based on Examples.

Example 1 A golf ball was manufactured using the white solid core used in the commercially available golf ball PINNACLE (trademark). The cover composition contains 99.96% Surlyn by weight and
0.04% by weight of Dyglofluorescent dye
Saturn Yellow (Dayglo Fluorescent Dye
Saturn Yellow (Trademark). This cover composition was molded into a half shell using a standard injection molding machine. At the same time, a trademark and number were stamped on the aforementioned core. A half shell was then placed around the core by compression molding. The compression molding streaks were removed by buffing. At this time, the buffing did not require as much attention as when buffing the cover colored with the titanium dioxide pigment. After buffing, a clear coating was applied using standard methods.

The resulting ball had a shiny, well-fluorescent appearance. The trademark was clearly visible through the cover. We conducted repeated batting tests and found that the ball's exterior durability was considerably superior to that of fluorescently colored balls currently on the market. In addition, 200 yards (approximately 182.9
m) Even after hitting the ball 200 times with enough force to send it flying, its appearance remained almost the same as when it first appeared, and the trademark remained intact and clearly visible.

Example 2 A golf ball was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1 using a wound core. Also, at this time, the trademark was stamped on the surface of the cover instead of the core, and a transparent coating was applied over it. A ball was obtained in which the thread wound around the core was visible.

Example 3 A golf ball was made exactly as in Example 1 except that Lemon Yellow from Rotor Chemical Co., Skokie, Illinois, was used in place of Saturn Yellow. Almost the same results as in Example 1 were obtained.

Example 4 A golf ball was produced in exactly the same manner as in Example 1 except that the amount of Daiglo Saturn Yellow was increased to 0.40%. A ball almost equivalent to the ball obtained in Example 1 was obtained, although the brightness was somewhat low and somewhat less noticeable due to the large amount of dye.

Example 5 A golf ball was produced in exactly the same manner as in Example 1 except that the amount of Dichlo Saturn Yellow was reduced to 0.01%. Although the color of the ball was lighter than that of the ball obtained in Example 1, a ball almost equivalent to that obtained was obtained.

Example 6 A golf ball was made as in Example 1 except that a fluorescent pigment was used in place of the fluorescent dye and the trademark was stamped on the surface of the cover before applying the transparent coating. The pigment used was Daiglo Saturn Yellow A-17-N and its amount was 2.0% by weight. The resulting ball had a very good fluorescent appearance and the cover was translucent.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A golf ball comprising a core provided with distinguishability and a resin cover molded around the core, wherein the cover is substantially transparent and a fluorescent material is contained within the cover. and the fluorescent material comprises 0.01 to 0.40% by weight of the cover material of a fluorescent dye and 0.5 to 6.0% by weight of the cover material.
a fluorescent pigment selected from the group consisting of fluorescent pigments, and a substantially transparent coating is applied directly to the outer surface of the cover, and the distinguishability of the core is determined from the appearance of the golf ball through the cover and coating. A golf ball characterized by being recognizable. 2. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein the material of the cover contains an ultraviolet stabilizer. 3. The ultraviolet stabilizer is approximately
3. The golf ball of claim 2, wherein the golf ball contains 0.1 to about 3.0% by weight. 4. The golf ball according to claim 1, wherein the core is a one-piece solid core.