JPH0576625A - Golf club head and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the surface of a golf club head from being damaged by providing a metallic coating layer or a ceramic coating layer on the surface of the club head using thermoplastic. CONSTITUTION:The outer peripheral surface of a core body 3 placed on a sole plate 2 is coated with an outer shell 4 made of thermoplastic or the like integrally to form a club head 1. A coating layer 5 of a metal having the Rockwell B hardness of 30 or more such as titanium, nickel or the like is formed on the surface of the club head by sputtering method.

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 and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly, it is effective to scratch the surface of a golf club head using a thermoplastic or thermosetting plastic during play. And a method for manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, golf clubs using fiber reinforced plastics such as thermoplastic and thermosetting plastics are
By making the material lighter, stiffer, and increasing the size of the head, the length of the club has been lengthened, the impact of the golf ball has been stabilized, and the flight distance has been greatly increased, making it popular.

[0003]

The golf club head using the fiber reinforced plastic as described above uses a synthetic resin coating material such as epoxy resin or urethane resin as the surface coating material, and these are metal heads. Because it is soft compared to the surface, soil during play,
There is a problem that the surface is easily scratched due to contact with pebbles or vegetation, contact between clubs during transportation of the golf club head, and the like.

The present invention has been devised in view of such conventional problems, and effectively prevents the surface of a golf club head using a thermoplastic or thermosetting plastic from being easily scratched. In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide a golf club head capable of easily forming a metal or ceramic coating layer on the surface of the club head and a method for manufacturing the golf club head.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a golf club head using thermoplastic and thermosetting plastics, wherein the surface of the club head is provided with a metal or ceramic coating layer. That is the summary.

[0006]

The present invention is constructed as described above, and in a method of manufacturing a golf club head integrally molded with a thermoplastic and thermosetting plastic as an outer shell, the surface of the club head is sputtered by a sputtering method. By forming a metal or ceramic coating layer, the scratchability of the club head can be remarkably improved.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of a golf club head 1 using an outer shell made of thermoplastic and thermosetting plastics according to the present invention, which club head 1 has a core body 3 mounted on a sole plate 2. The outer peripheral surface of the club head 1 is integrally formed by coating it with the outer shell 4 as described above, and a metal layer or a ceramic coating layer 5 is formed on the surface of the club head 1 by a conventionally known sputtering method. There is.

The metal or ceramic coating layer 5 used in the present invention has a Rockwell B hardness of 30 or more. This is because when the material hardness is lower than 30, the effect of applying a layer of metal or the like does not appear and the surface of the golf club head is easily scratched. Here, the metal or ceramic material used as the coating layer 5 of the golf club head 1 is
Materials such as titanium, nickel, and tungsten are used as metals, and materials such as alumina, titanium carbide, titanium nitride, zirconium oxide, silicon nitride, and tungsten carbide are used as ceramics. Among them, titanium, titanium carbide and titanium nitride can be preferably used.

These metals or ceramics are deposited and layered on the surface of the golf club head by the sputtering method known in the metal surface technology. That is, the sputtering method is a method of forming a thin film on a substrate by sputtering a target material with argon ions or the like in plasma. As a method of providing a layer of metal or ceramics on a plastic material, there are various methods such as a plating method, a vacuum deposition method, an ion plating method in addition to the above-described sputtering method. However, among these methods, the plating method has problems that it requires a lot of treatment steps and requires waste liquid treatment,
In addition, the vacuum deposition method has a problem that the adhesion between the metal or ceramics layer and the plastic substrate is lacking, and a phenomenon such as peeling of the surface layer occurs. Further, in the ion plating method, the energy of the target material is too high. For,
When the target material collides with the plastic base material, there is a problem that it emits high heat and accelerates the deterioration of the base material plastic.

Therefore, in the present invention, the metal or ceramic coating layer 5 is formed by a sputtering method suitable for a club head made of fiber reinforced plastic. Next, a method of forming the metal or ceramic coating layer 5 on the golf club head 1 having the outer shell 4 made of thermoplastic or thermosetting plastic by the sputtering method will be described.

First, a thin film forming apparatus (sputtering apparatus) for sputter coating will be described with reference to FIG. 2. This sputtering apparatus 6 has a glass-like lid on a supporting base 9 serving as a base via a sealing material 10. 11
Is installed airtightly. The sputtering device 6
A supply port 12 and an exhaust port 13 for a carrier gas used for sputter coating are connected to the side wall 6a and the bottom wall portion 6b. As the carrier gas used here, various kinds of gases such as Ar, NH ₃ , CH _{4 and the} like can be generally used, but it is preferable to properly use them according to the targets 14a and 14b. When the targets 14a and 14b are titanium, Ar gas is used, and the targets 14a and 14b are also used.
Is titanium carbide or titanium nitride, CH ₄ , NH ₃
Is preferably used.

On the support base 9 of the sputtering device 6,
Stands 15a and 15b are erected in parallel at predetermined intervals,
At the tip, electrodes 16a, 16b and a target 14a,
14b is attached and is negatively charged by the high frequency power supply 17. Further, since the electrodes 16a and 16b have a high temperature, they are cooled by the cooling water 18. On the other hand, the golf club head 1 is provided in the middle of the parallel pedestals 15a and 15b.
A support rod 19 for mounting the support rod 1 is provided.
9 is also positively charged by the high frequency power source, plasma is generated between the electrodes, and sputtering is performed. Further, the support rod 19 includes a drive mechanism 20 and a drive motor 2
The rotation speed is 1 and the rotation speed is 1 at a predetermined speed.

Next, the method of sputtering will be described in detail. On the support rod 19 in the sputtering apparatus 6,
Attach golf club head 1 and use vacuum pump 1
After evacuating to 0 ^-7 Torr, carrier gas was introduced and
Adjust to a pressure of 01-0.05 Torr. After that, support rod 1
9 is rotated by a drive mechanism 20 and a drive motor 21 at a predetermined speed to generate plasma with various outputs to perform a sputtering process. The processing time is preferably 10 minutes to 80 minutes.

The coating layer 5 of the golf club head 1 applied by sputtering has a thickness of 1 to 20 μm, preferably 3 to 8 μm. When the thickness is less than 1 μm, the hardness to improve the scratch resistance of the surface cannot be obtained, and when it exceeds 20 μm, the thermal expansion coefficient is different, so that it remains between the plastic substrate and the surface layer during sputtering. This is because a stress is generated, which causes a phenomenon of peeling from the interface when the golf club head is impacted.

The golf club head material to which the coating layer 5 is applied by the sputtering method is a general thermoplastic resin such as polybutylene terephthalate, polycarbonate, polyacetal, nylon 66, or thermosetting epoxy, vinyl ester, polyester or the like. It is a functional resin, and it is possible to sputter it as it is after injection molding and press molding, but it is also possible to polish the surface of the plastic substrate or apply a primer to improve the smoothness and adhesion of the surface layer. ..

Further, in order to improve the adhesiveness between the coating layer 5 of the golf club head 1 and the plastic base material, after the sputtering, heating may be performed below the glass transition temperature of the base material of the golf club head 1. Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described. [Example 1] A vinyl ester SMC was press-molded into a golf club head, and after polishing with No80 polishing paper, the surface was degreased with methyl ethyl ketone and an epoxy primer was applied. After drying at room temperature for 2 hours, 80
It was carried out in an oven at ° C for 1 hour. After that, Figure 2
In the sputtering device 6 shown in (1), titanium was used as a target material, and sputtering was performed for 60 minutes. Ar gas was introduced so that the sputtering conditions would be 6 × 10 ⁻³ Torr,
The output was 100 W.

At this time, the golf club head was rotated at a speed of 20 rpm so as to be uniformly sputtered. Golf club head after sputtering is 120 ℃
And heat treated in an oven for 10 minutes. As the target material, only the material was measured with Rockwell B hardness (1/16 "steel ball indenter, 100 kg load was used). The completed golf club head was attached with a shaft and subjected to a durability test. No. 6 was piled up at a height of 10 cm, and the sand was hit 100 times at a golf club head speed of 40 m / sec to visually observe the abnormality of the golf club head surface. When the club head was cut out and the surface layer thickness was measured with a microscope, the thickness was 7 μm, and Table 1 below shows the hardness and durability test results of the target material used for sputtering.

[0018] [Examples 2 and 3] Using titanium carbide and titanium nitride as target materials and CH ₄ as carrier gas,
Sputtering was carried out to manufacture golf clubs in the same manner as in Example 1, and a durability test was conducted. The test results are shown in Table 1. The thickness of the surface layer formed by sputtering was 4.5 μm and 4.3 μm, respectively. [Comparative Example 1] In the same manner as in Example 1, the epoxy primer was applied and dried, and then a urethane coating was applied to a dry thickness of 20 µm, left at room temperature for 2 hours, cured at 80 ° C for 3 hours, and dried. Let Then, the golf club head was subjected to a durability test in the same manner as in Example 1. The results are shown in Table 1.

From the above results, by providing a metal or ceramic layer having a Rockwell B hardness of 30 or more on the surface layer of the golf club head by a sputtering method, in a sanding durability test assuming soil and pebbles on a golf course,
It was confirmed that the scratchability was extremely good.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the metal or ceramic coating layer is formed on the surface of the club head by the sputtering method as described above, the surface of the golf club head using thermoplastic and thermosetting plastic is simple. It is possible to effectively prevent scratches on the surface of the club head and to easily form a metal or ceramic coating layer on the surface of the club head.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a golf club head using a thermoplastic and thermosetting plastic according to the present invention as an outer shell.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a thin film forming apparatus (sputtering apparatus) for performing sputter coating on the surface of a club head.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 club head 3 core 4 outer shell 5 coating layer 6 sputtering device

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A golf club head using thermoplastic and thermosetting plastics, characterized in that a coating layer of metal or ceramics is provided on the surface of the club head. 2. A method for manufacturing a golf club head, which integrally molds thermoplastic and thermosetting plastics as an outer shell, wherein a metal or ceramic coating layer is formed on the surface of the club head by a sputtering method. A method for manufacturing a golf club head, comprising: