JPH0576627A - Manufacture of golf club head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a golf club head which can easily be manufactured and has high performance by completely overcoming problems (welding defect, residual distortion, removal of welding bead) caused by welding. CONSTITUTION:A hollow head main body 12 including a face portion 16 and a neck portion 18 and having an opening portion 13 formed on the base is integrally precision-cast, and on the other hand, a sole cover 19 shaped corresponding to the opening portion 13 of the head main body 12 is manufactured by press working. Then, the sole cover 19 is diffusion-joined to the opening portion 13 of the head main body 12.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a hollow golf club head made of metal such as titanium or titanium alloy.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in golf clubs, the head of a driver or the like is made of wood, and a metal plate is attached to the sole surface of the wooden head and an insert of resin or the like is attached to the face surface to reinforce the head. It was However, in recent years, golf clubs such as drivers having a metal or alloy head called metal wood (hereinafter referred to as “metal wood”) have also appeared, and this metal wood extends the flight distance of the hit ball and strikes with accurate directionality. It is easy and gradually replacing golf clubs such as drivers with wooden heads.

Particularly recently, a metal wood having a head made of titanium or a titanium alloy which is excellent in repulsive force and corrosion resistance among metals or alloys has been proposed (see JP-A-63-154186). As shown in FIG. 4, this titanium or titanium alloy head is produced by pressing a face surface shell piece 1, an upper surface shell piece 2 and a sole surface shell piece 3 respectively with titanium or a titanium alloy, After mounting the balance weight 4 on the inner surface of the piece 3, the plurality of shell pieces 1, 2 and 3 were integrated by welding to manufacture a head made of titanium or a titanium alloy.

It takes skill to cleanly weld a plurality of titanium or titanium alloy shell pieces press-formed in this manner, and the weld beads obtained by welding are ground and polished to make the surface smooth. Therefore, there is a problem that the manufacturing cost increases as the length of the welded portion increases.

Further, when a plurality of press-molded shell pieces having a forged structure are welded, since the forged structure of the shell piece and the welded structure of the weld bead are different in structure, distortion remains in the joint portion and the welding The longer the joint, the greater the amount of residual strain.Furthermore, if minute welding defects such as pinholes remain in the welded joint, cracks will occur from that portion, and the excellent repulsive force of titanium or titanium alloy will be sufficient. There was a problem that it could not be utilized for.

Therefore, the inventors of the present invention have conducted research to produce a metal wood head which does not require manufacturing cost and has less welding defects and residual strain, and as a result, has a small opening and a cavity. Most of the titanium or titanium alloy heads that it has are produced by precision casting, and then a balance weight is fixed in the cavity from the opening, and then the opening is sealed with a titanium or titanium alloy lid manufactured by press working. A head obtained by doing so was proposed (see Japanese Patent Application No. 1-187155). This head is
Since the length of the welding bead for sealing the small opening is extremely short, there are few welding defects and residual strain,
Further, the amount of post-welding treatment for grinding and polishing the above-mentioned weld beads is also small, so that the manufacturing cost can be greatly reduced and the repulsive force of titanium or titanium alloy can be sufficiently exhibited.

[0007]

However, in the above-described conventional metal wood head, the problems caused by welding, that is, the welding defect and residual strain, or the post-welding treatment for removing the weld bead, are also required. The problem of cannot be completely solved.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to solve the problems caused by the above-mentioned conventional welding completely, to easily manufacture and to provide a high performance golf. It is to provide a method of manufacturing a club head.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, according to claim 1 of the present invention, at least a face portion and a neck portion are integrally cast with metal, while portions other than the cast member are metal. It is manufactured by pressing or casting, and these members are diffusion-bonded.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the metal is titanium or a titanium alloy.

Further, according to claim 3 of the present invention, a hollow head main body including a face portion and a neck portion and having an opening formed on the bottom surface is integrally precision-cast, while the opening portion of the head main body is formed. The sole lid having a corresponding shape is manufactured by press working, and the sole lid is diffusion-bonded to the opening of the head body.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the head front portion including the face portion and the neck portion is integrally precision-cast, while the head rear portion facing the head front portion is manufactured by press working or casting. In addition, the front part of the head and the rear part of the head are diffusion-bonded.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the head front portion including the face portion and the neck portion is integrally precision-cast, while the head rear portion facing the head front portion is provided with an upper surface portion,
It is divided into a side surface portion and a bottom surface portion and manufactured by press working, respectively, and the head front portion and the head upper portion, side surface portion and bottom surface portion of the head rear portion are diffusion bonded.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway sectional view of an alumina precision casting mold 10 produced by the lost wax method. Inside the alumina precision casting mold 10, a hollow having the shape of a metal wood head body is provided. No. 11 is formed, and a molten metal of titanium or a titanium alloy [for example, Ti-6% Al-4% V (above wt%)] is injected into the hollow 11 and solidified to produce a metal wood head body.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 12 is a head body prepared by pouring a molten titanium alloy into the hollow 11 of the precision casting mold 10. The head body 12 is a hollow body having an opening 13 formed on the bottom surface. So, in the head front part 14,
A face portion 16 having a face surface 15 and a neck portion 18 having a shaft hole 17 are formed.

On the other hand, the sole lid 19 having a shape and size corresponding to the opening 13 is made of plate-shaped titanium or titanium alloy (pure titanium plate in this embodiment) using a plate punching die and the opening is made. Stamped into a size corresponding to 13, and stamped on the surface of the pure titanium stamped plate obtained by this stamping with letters, patterns and the like, and then
It is manufactured by giving a curved surface using a plate bending mold so that it can be used as a predetermined sole lid.

In this embodiment, the sole lid 19 was manufactured in three steps by using a plate punching die, an engraving die and a plate bending die. However, a pure titanium plate was coined or embossed to form a letter or pattern in one step. The sole lid 19 may be manufactured.

In the sole lid 19 thus manufactured by press working, after the balance weight 4 is attached, the sole lid 19 is fitted to the opening 13 and is placed in vacuum (1
(X10 ⁻³ Torr or less), they are integrated by diffusion bonding and the opening 13 is sealed.

In this case, the diffusion bonding material 21 used for the diffusion bonding is Ni-20Cr or Ti-Ni-B.
Etc. The heat treatment condition for diffusion bonding using this diffusion bonding material 21 is a heating temperature of about 850.
C., heating time, about 2 hours are preferable, and all of them are carried out within a temperature range that does not cause melt reaction with Ti.

The golf club head manufactured in this manner is easier to post-treat than the conventionally used welding, and in the diffusion bonding step, the entire golf club head is in vacuum. Since the heating is performed to a predetermined temperature, thermal distortion does not occur, and the diffusion bonding is smoothly performed at the boundary surface between the head body 12, the sole lid 19 and the diffusion bonding material 21, and the diffusion bonding is performed on both boundary surfaces. Bonding layer 2
2 is formed, and an extremely high bonding strength is obtained.

FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, the head rear portion 2 facing the head front portion 14 including the face portion 16 and the neck portion 18 is shown.
0 indicates the top surface portion 20a, the side surface portion 20b, and the bottom surface portion 20c.
The upper surface portion 20a, the side surface portion 20b, and the bottom surface portion 20c are each manufactured by press working from plate-shaped titanium or titanium alloy.

In the second embodiment as well, similar to the first embodiment, the head front portion 14 and the head rear portion 2 are provided.
The top surface portion 20a, the side surface portion 20b, and the bottom surface portion 20c of No. 0 are integrated by diffusion bonding in vacuum.

Although the head rear portion 20 is divided into three parts in the second embodiment, the head rear portion 20 may be integrally manufactured by precision casting.

[0025]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention.
Since at least the face part and the neck part are integrally cast with metal, the parts other than the cast member are manufactured with metal and by press working or casting, and these members are diffusion bonded, Compared to conventional welding, residual strain can be prevented, the diffusion bonding part can be firmly bonded, and the bonding strength can be improved, and post-treatment after diffusion bonding is easy. The manufacturing cost can be reduced.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the metal is titanium or a titanium alloy, it is excellent in repulsive force and corrosion resistance and is most suitable as a golf club head.

Further, according to claim 3 of the present invention, a hollow head main body having a face portion and a neck portion and having an opening formed on the bottom surface is integrally precision-cast, while the opening portion of the head main body is formed. Since the sole lid having a corresponding shape is manufactured by press working and the sole lid is diffusion-bonded to the opening of the head body, the diffusion-bonded portion can be reduced and the diffusion-bonded portion is less noticeable.

Further, according to claim 4 of the present invention, the head front portion including the face portion and the neck portion is integrally precision-cast, while the head rear portion facing the head front portion is manufactured by press working or casting. Moreover, since the head front part and the head rear part are diffusion-bonded, the head front part that requires high strength and the head rear part that does not require relatively high strength are separately manufactured and diffusion-bonded. This makes it possible to easily manufacture a golf club head having an extremely rational configuration.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, while the head front portion including the face portion and the neck portion is integrally precision-cast, the head rear portion facing the head front portion is provided with the upper surface portion,
It is divided into a side surface portion and a bottom surface portion and manufactured by press working respectively, and since the head front portion and the top surface portion, side surface portion and bottom surface portion of the head rear portion are diffusion-bonded, they can be manufactured by press working. The number of parts can be increased, the manufacturing cost can be reduced, and predetermined performance can be maintained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a golf club head showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway sectional view showing an example of a precision casting mold.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a golf club head showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional golf club head.

[Explanation of symbols]

 12 Head Main Body 13 Opening 14 Head Front 16 Face 18 Neck 19 Sole Lid 20 Head Rear 20a Top 20b Side 20c Bottom 21 Diffusion Bonding Material 22 Diffusion Bonding Layer

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing a golf club head composed of a plurality of divided members, wherein at least a face portion and a neck portion are integrally cast with metal, and a portion other than the cast member is metal. And a method of manufacturing a golf club head, which is manufactured by press working or casting and diffusion-bonding these members. 2. The method for manufacturing a golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the metal is titanium or a titanium alloy. 3. A hollow head body including a face portion and a neck portion and having an opening formed in the bottom surface is integrally precision-cast, and a sole lid having a shape corresponding to the opening portion of the head body is pressed. 3. The method for manufacturing a golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the golf club head is manufactured by processing and a sole lid is diffusion-bonded to the opening of the head body. 4. A head front portion including a face portion and a neck portion is integrally precision-cast, and a head rear portion facing the head front portion is manufactured by press working or casting, and the head front portion and the head rear portion are manufactured. 3. The method for manufacturing a golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the golf club head is diffusion bonded. 5. A head front portion including a face portion and a neck portion is integrally precision-cast, and a head rear portion facing the head front portion is divided into an upper surface portion, a side surface portion, and a bottom surface portion, which are respectively pressed. 3. The method of manufacturing a golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the front part of the head and the upper surface part, the side surface part and the bottom part of the head rear part are diffusion-bonded together.