JPH06285189A - Manufacture of golf club head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a manufacturing method of a golf club head in which a weight can be fixed to a sole member strongly and easily. CONSTITUTION:A weight 7 comprising ultra-plastic metal is preliminarily fixed on a material 8 comprising ultra-plastic metal similarly, this material 8 is held between an upper die 11 and a lower die 10, and a high-temperature and high- pressure gas is introduced from a supply passage 12 of the upper die 11 to mould the material 8 and the weight 7 integrally by ultra-plasticity of these materials for providing a sole member.

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 golf club head in which a plurality of head members are separately molded and then these head members are integrally fixed.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is well known in the prior art to manufacture wood type or iron type golf club heads by the methods described above. A weight body is generally fixed to such a golf club head so as to adjust the depth of the center of gravity or obtain a large moment of inertia.
Conventionally, such a golf club head has been manufactured as follows.

First, a plurality of head members are formed by, for example, a casting method. Then, the weight body is fixed to at least one of the head members by welding. Alternatively, the head member may be provided with a screw hole, and the weight body may be screwed into the head member to fix the weight member. The plurality of head members thus obtained are fixed to each other by, for example, welding to manufacture a golf club head.

Although the golf club head is completed as described above, in the conventional manufacturing method, the work of fixing the weight body to the head member is very complicated, and this work requires a lot of trouble. That is, in the method of forming a screw hole in the head member and screwing the weight body into the screw hole, a step of forming a screw hole in the head member after molding and a step of forming a male screw corresponding to this screw hole in the weight body And a step of screwing these together, the number of working steps is wide, and a great deal of labor is required.

Further, since a curved surface is formed on the head member after molding, it is not easy to bring the weight body into close contact with such a surface and weld it to the head member. If these are welded together without the head member and the weight body in close contact,
Since the welding strength is reduced, these must be welded while closely contacting each other, which requires a great deal of time and labor.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, to firmly fix a weight body to a head member, and to simplify the working process thereof. To provide.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides at least a method for manufacturing a golf club head in which a plurality of head members are separately molded, and then these head members are integrally fixed. A plate material made of superplastic metal is used as a material for one head member, and a weight body made of superplastic metal is fixed to a predetermined position of the material,
Next, a method for manufacturing a golf club head is proposed, in which the material and the weight body are superplastically formed to form a head member, and the head member is integrally fixed to another head member.

In order to achieve the same object, in a method for manufacturing a golf club head, in which a plurality of head members are separately molded, and then these head members are integrally fixed, at least one head member is used as a material. Using a plate material made of superplastic metal, a weight body is placed on the forming surface of the superplastic forming device, the material is superplastically formed by the superplastic forming device, and the weight body is wrapped with the material at the same time. A method for manufacturing a golf club head is proposed, in which a head member is integrally formed and the head member is integrally fixed to another head member.

Further, in order to achieve the same purpose, in a method of manufacturing a golf club head, in which a plurality of head members are separately molded, and then these head members are integrally fixed, at least two head members are respectively superposed. A golf club which is formed by superplastic forming a material made of a plastic metal, and when these head members are fixed, the margins produced during the superplastic forming are aligned with each other, and the entire mating surface is fixed by brazing. A head manufacturing method is proposed.

[0010]

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

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a wood type golf club head 1 manufactured by the method according to the present invention. The head 1 has a hollow interior, and a shaft 3 is inserted into a hosel portion 2 of the head 1. It is firmly fixed. The golf club head 1 is composed of a plurality of head members, and in this example, it is composed of a face member 4, a top member 5, and a sole member 6 as shown in FIG. These head members are separately molded, and thereafter, they are integrally fixed by welding or screwing as shown in FIG. 1 to form the golf club head 1.

A weight body 7 is integrally fixed to at least one head member, which is a sole member 6 in this example. A head member having such a weight 7 is manufactured according to the present invention as follows.

First, as shown in FIG. 3, a raw material 8 for a sole member is prepared, and a weight body 7 is fixed to a predetermined position thereof by welding or diffusion bonding. As the material 8, a plate material made of a superplastic metal such as titanium alloy, aluminum alloy, stainless steel, or copper alloy is used, and as the weight body 7, a material made of a superplastic metal of the same metal as the material 8 is used. . At this time, it is desirable to use the weight 7 and the material 8 made of a titanium alloy.

Next, the material 8 to which the weight body 7 is fixed as described above is placed on the lower die 10 of the superplastic forming apparatus 9 as shown in FIG. 4, and the upper die 11 is placed thereon. Upper and lower molds 11,
The peripheral portion of the material 8 is sandwiched by 10. In this state, the high temperature gas pressurized through the supply passage 12 provided in the upper mold 11 is introduced into the upper mold 11, and the material 8 is moved to the lower mold 10 by the pressure and heat of the gas as shown in FIG. Forming surface 1
It is pressed onto 3 and is superplastically deformed. At this time,
The weight body 7 is firmly integrated with the material 8 in a state of being fused with the material 8.

Next, after removing this molded product from the lower mold 10, the unnecessary margin 14 around the molded product is cut to complete the sole member 6 shown in FIG. Thus, in this example, the sole member 6 is formed by superplastically forming the material 8 and the weight body 7. Here, the superplasticity refers to the property that the above-mentioned superplastic metal exhibits a large elongation without breaking in a specific temperature range.

According to the above-described method, the weight body 7 is first fixed to the raw material 8 before molding by welding or diffusion bonding, so that both can be easily brought into close contact with each other and firmly fixed. Then, these are superplastically formed to integrate them, so that the sole member 6 in which the weight body 7 is firmly fixed to the material 8 can be easily manufactured.

A head member not provided with a weight body, in this example, a face member 4 and a top member 5 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
Is molded by an appropriate method such as casting, press molding or superplastic molding, and as described above, these members 4 and 5 and the sole member 6 formed by superplastic molding are integrally fixed, The golf club head 1 shown in FIG. 1 is manufactured.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are explanatory views showing another method of manufacturing at least one of a plurality of head members constituting a golf club head by superplastic forming, and this embodiment also manufactures a sole member. An example is shown. As the material 8a of the sole member, the plate material made of the superplastic metal exemplified above is used. The peripheral portion of the material 8a is sandwiched between the upper die 11a and the lower die 10a of the superplastic forming apparatus 9a as shown in FIG. 6, but prior to this, the lower die 1
The weight 7a is placed on the molding surface 13a of 0a. As the weight body 7a, not only a superplastic metal but also another appropriate metal may be used, and the weight body 7a and the material 8a may be the same kind of metal or different metals.

The weight body 7a shown in FIG. 6 is formed in an inverted frustum shape having a wide upper end and a narrow lower end, and the narrow lower end is formed on the molding surface 13a of the lower mold 10a. It is placed in a state of being fitted in the formed groove 15a.

Then, the material 8a is superplastically formed in the same manner as in the above-described embodiment. That is, the upper mold 11a
The pressurized high-temperature gas is introduced from the supply path 12a of the above, and the pressure and heat of the high-temperature gas cause the material 8a to move to the molding surface 13a of the lower mold 10a.
Then, it is superplastically deformed. At this time,
As shown in FIG. 7, the weight body 7a is wrapped by the deformed material 8a, and both are integrated.

At this time, in this example, since the weight body 7a is formed in an inverted truncated cone shape as described above, the wide upper end side is wrapped in the material 8a. In other words, the weight body 7a
A recessed portion 16a is formed in the portion of the material 8a that wraps the material, the wide portion of the weight body 7a is fitted to the portion of the wide bottom 17a thereof, and the weight portion 7a is fitted to the portion of the narrow opening 18a of the recessed portion 16a. The narrow portion of is fitted.

Thereafter, in the same manner as in the previous embodiment, the molded product was removed from the lower mold 10a, and unnecessary margins 14 around it were removed.
By cutting a, the sole member 6a shown in FIG. 8 is completed. At this time, since the weight body 7a is wrapped and fixed in the recessed portion 16a of the sole member 6a as described above, the weight body 7a is firmly fixed and prevented from coming out of the recessed portion 16a.

Next, the sole member 6a described above is integrally fixed to another head member, that is, a face member and a top member, which are separately molded by an appropriate method.
A hollow golf club head similar to the head 1 shown in FIG.

The method of manufacturing the sole member shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 is basically the same as the method shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, and is different only in the following point.

In the example shown in FIG. 6, the molding surface 13a of the lower mold 11a is a concave surface, whereas the molding surface 13a of the lower mold 10a shown in FIG. 9 is a convex surface. The inverted frustum-shaped weight 7a is placed in the groove 15a formed in the convex molding surface 13a. Then, as shown in FIG. 10, after the material 8a is superplastically molded, the weight body 7a is wrapped and fixed in the recess 16a of the material 8a.
At that time, in the previous embodiment shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, as can be seen from FIG. 8, the weight body 7a is located on the outer surface side of the sole member 6a. On the other hand, in the sole member 6a manufactured by the method shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, as shown in FIG. 11, the weight body 7a is located inside the sole member 6a. Therefore, when the golf club head is manufactured by integrally fixing the sole member 6a shown in FIG. 11 and the top member and the face member molded by an appropriate method, the weight body 7a is not exposed to the outside.

Golf club head 1b shown in FIG.
Also, the face member 4b, the top member 5b, and the sole member 6
This is manufactured by separately molding a plurality of head members (b) and then integrally fixing these head members.
At least two of the head members, in this example, the top member 5b and the sole member 6b are formed by superplastic forming a material made of superplastic metal.

As can be seen from the description of the previous embodiment, there is a margin when the material is superplastically formed. However, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 12, this occurs when the top member 5b and the sole member 6b are superplastically formed. The remaining margins 14b and 114b are left uncut. When the top member 5b and the sole member 6b are fixed, flux is applied to the mating surfaces of the margins 14b and 114b facing each other as shown in FIG. 12, and a tape-shaped brazing material is sandwiched between them. The two margins 14b and 114b are aligned with each other, and by heating this, the entire mating surface is brazed, and these are fixed together. The other parts of the top member 5b and the sole member 6b are fixed to each other by welding, screwing or the like, and the face member 4b molded by an appropriate method is also fixed to the top member 5b and the sole member 6b in the same manner. In this way, the golf club head 1b is completed. At this time, the margins 14b and 114b are projected, and the protruding portion constitutes the weight body of the club head 1b.

According to the above-described manufacturing method, the weight body can be constructed by utilizing the margins produced during superplastic forming without using an independent weight body. Therefore, the golf club head 1b with the weight body can be easily manufactured. Not only that, but there is an advantage that the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

Further, since the entire mating surfaces of both the margins 14b and 114b are integrally fixed by brazing, the joint strength is increased, and there is no fear that they will separate during use of the golf club.

When the top member 5 and the sole member 6 are made of a titanium alloy, a titanium-copper-nickel-based scale material may be used, and the top member 5 and the sole member 6b are used.
When one is made of stainless steel and the other is made of titanium alloy, a silver brazing material may be used. In this way, both head members can be firmly brazed by appropriately selecting the brazing material according to the material of each head member.

Although the case where the golf club head is composed of three head members has been described above, the present invention can be applied when the club head is composed of two head members or four or more head members. . Further, the present invention can be applied to a method for manufacturing an iron type golf club head.

[0032]

According to the method of manufacturing the golf club head of the first or second aspect, the weight body can be firmly and extremely easily fixed to the head member.

According to the method of the third aspect, it is possible to easily and economically manufacture a golf club head with a weight body without using an independent weight body.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an example of a golf club head manufactured by a method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state before the head members of the golf club head shown in FIG. 1 are integrally fixed.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a material of a sole member.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view at the time of superplastic forming this material.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a state after superplastic forming.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing another example of the superplastic forming method.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a state after forming a material by the superplastic forming apparatus shown in FIG.

8 is a cross-sectional view showing a state after the molded product shown in FIG. 7 is removed from a molding die and a margin is cut.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view showing still another superplastic forming method.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view showing a state after forming a material by the superplastic forming apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view showing a state after the molded product shown in FIG. 10 is removed from the molding die and a margin is cut.

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of a golf club head manufactured by still another method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Golf Club Head 1b Golf Club Head 7 Weight 7a Weight 8 Material 8a Material 9a Superplastic Forming Machine 13a Molding Surface 14b Margin 114b Margin

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A method for manufacturing a golf club head in which a plurality of head members are separately molded, and then these head members are integrally fixed to each other, wherein a plate material made of a superplastic metal is used as a material for at least one head member. A weight body made of a superplastic metal is fixed to a predetermined position of the material, and then the material and the weight body are superplastically molded to form a head member, and the head member is integrated with another head member. A method for manufacturing a golf club head, which comprises fixing the golf club head. 2. A method for manufacturing a golf club head, in which a plurality of head members are separately molded, and then these head members are integrally fixed, wherein a plate material made of a superplastic metal is used as a material for at least one head member. Using the superplastic forming device, the weight body is placed on the forming surface of the superplastic forming device, and the material is superplastically formed by the superplastic forming device. At that time, the weight body is wrapped with the material to form the head member by integrating the two. Then, the method for manufacturing a golf club head, wherein the head member is integrally fixed to another head member. 3. A method for manufacturing a golf club head in which a plurality of head members are separately molded, and then these head members are integrally fixed, wherein at least two head members are made of a superplastic metal material. The golf club head is formed by plastic molding, and when these head members are fixed, the margins produced at the time of superplastic forming are matched with each other, and the entire mating surface is fixed by brazing. Production method.