JPH10201886A - Golf club head - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the rigidity and durability of weld zones and shaft mounting parts and shaft mounting accuracy by forming a face part of a near-β type titanium alloy and joining the rear end peripheral edge of a rising part risen to an annular shape from the peripheral edge of this face part and the peripheral edge at the front end of a hollow member to a butt form. SOLUTION: The face member 11 is integrally molded with a neck part 11a for mounting a shaft S by forging of the near-β type titanium alloy. The annular rising part 11c is extended to the direction opposite to the direction facing the face surface F from the face part 11b and its peripheral edge. A built-up part 11d is formed on the inner side of the face surface 11b in the extension direction of the neck part 11a. The peripheral edge at the front end of the hollow member 12 and the peripheral edge 11f at the rear end of the rising part 11c are welded to the butt form to form the hollow part 12d. The load acting on the face part 11b at the time of impact in this constitution is received by the face member 11 and the hollow member 12, by which the stress concentration of the weld zone is prevented and the deformation is prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a metal golf club head in which a neck portion for attaching a shaft is formed at an end and a hollow portion is formed inside.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, golf clubs such as drivers having a metal or alloy head called metal wood (hereinafter referred to as metal wood) have appeared, and this metal wood has increased the flight distance of hit balls and has improved directionality. It is widely used because it has a feature that it is easy to hit accurately.

[0003] Particularly recently, metal woods having excellent repulsion and corrosion resistance among metals or alloys and having a light titanium or titanium alloy head have been proposed. FIG. 5 shows an example of this type of metal wood (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.
FIG. 3 (given in US Pat. No. 3,154,186). In this head made of titanium or a titanium alloy, the face shell 1, the upper shell 2 and the sole shell 3 are produced by pressing titanium or a titanium alloy, respectively, and a balance weight is applied to the inner surface of the sole shell 3. After mounting 4, the plurality of shell pieces 1, 2, 3 were integrated by welding to produce a titanium or titanium alloy head.

[0004]

However, the above-mentioned conventional golf club head has the following problems to be solved. As shown in FIG. 6, the face peripheral edge 1a of the face shell 1 and the upper peripheral edge 2a and the sole peripheral edge 3a of the upper shell 2 and the sole shell 3 welded to the face peripheral 1a are arranged as shown in FIG. The welding is performed in the state of the corner joint, and the welded portion A is joined in a bent state. For this reason, high rigidity cannot be obtained with respect to the load applied to the welded portion at the time of impact, and the welded portion is deformed due to long-term use. Further, since the neck portion 5 to which the shaft is inserted and attached is formed by joining the half-tubular attachment portions 2b, 3b of the upper surface shell piece 2 and the sole surface shell piece 3, the neck portion 5 has many welded portions and rigidity. In addition to the problem of being low, it was difficult to obtain high accuracy in mounting the shaft.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has as its object to provide a golf club head having high rigidity of a welded portion and a shaft mounting portion, excellent durability, and high mounting accuracy of a shaft. I do.

[0006]

The present invention has the following features to attain the object mentioned above. That is, in the golf club head according to claim 1, in a metal golf club head in which a neck portion for attaching a shaft is formed at an end portion and the inside is a hollow portion, a face member integrally formed with the neck portion, A hollow member which is welded to a peripheral portion of the face member to form the hollow portion.The face member has a face portion having a face surface, and a direction opposite to a direction in which the face surface faces from the peripheral edge of the face portion. A rising portion that rises so as to extend and is formed in an annular shape, and a rear end peripheral portion of the rising portion and a front end peripheral portion of the hollow member are welded in abutting state,
A technique is employed in which the hollow member is formed by casting, and at least the face portion is formed of a near-β type titanium alloy.

[0007] In this golf club head, the load applied to the face portion at the time of impact is reduced by welding the peripheral edge of the rising end to the peripheral edge of the front end of the hollow member in an abutting state. The load is transmitted from the peripheral edge to the front peripheral edge of the hollow member, and the load is received by the entire face member and the hollow member, so that stress concentration does not occur in the welded portion, and therefore, deformation of the welded portion due to long-term use Is reduced. In addition, by forming the face member integrally with the neck portion, the neck portion has higher rigidity as compared with the case where it is formed by welding, and the manufacturing variation of the loft angle is reduced. In addition, the rigidity near the neck portion is increased, and the load applied to the face portion at the time of impact is reliably transmitted to the shaft, so that the shot feeling is improved. Furthermore, when at least the face portion is formed of a near-β type titanium alloy,
Since the structure of the alloy is dense, high strength similar to that of the β-type titanium alloy can be obtained, and since the alloy can be forged at a relatively low temperature (about 750 ° C.), manufacturing equipment is inexpensive.

In this golf club head, a shaft insertion hole with high dimensional accuracy is obtained by forming a shaft insertion hole formed by machining in the neck portion, and the mounting accuracy of the shaft is increased. Therefore, the shaft and the neck portion are reliably integrated.

Further, in these golf club heads, the thickness of the hollow member is set to a thickness in the range of １ ／ to の of the thickness of the face portion, so that the rigidity of the entire golf club head is improved. Thus, a golf club head having a large capacity can be obtained without lowering the golf club head and without increasing the weight. Even if the face is set thin,
By forming at least one ridge extending in the vertical direction on the back surface of the face, the vertical direction of the face is reinforced and the vertical deflection of the face at the time of impact is suppressed.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows a club head A (metal head) to which the present invention is applied. The club head A includes a face member 11 and a hollow member 12.

The face member 11 is made of a near-β type titanium alloy (for example, Ti-10V-2Fe-3Al, Ti
-9V-2Mo-3Al) by forging, and is formed integrally with the neck 11a to which the shaft S is attached. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a face portion 11 b having a front surface as a face surface F
A rising portion 11c which rises from the periphery of the face portion 11b in a direction opposite to the direction in which the face surface F faces, and is formed in an annular shape; and a lower end of the face member 11 along the extension direction of the neck portion 11a. And a raised portion 11d, which is a lump raised inside the face portion 11b.

A shaft insertion hole H is formed in the neck portion 11a by machining.
It is formed from the upper end of the neck portion 11a to the lower end of the face member 11 through the inside of the raised portion 11d, and the shaft S is inserted and fixed by appropriate means.

The rising portion 11c includes a hollow member 12
Is formed as a stepped rear edge peripheral end portion 11f in order to weld.

A plurality of ribs (protrusions) 11e extending linearly in the vertical direction are formed on the back surface of the face portion 11d.

The hollow member 12 is formed by welding a crown portion 12a and a sole portion 12b formed by a casting method and is integrated with the hollow portion. A hollow portion 12d is formed by welding the peripheral edge portion 11f and the front peripheral edge portion 12c of the hollow member 12 in abutting condition.

The thickness of the hollow member 12, ie, the thicknesses t1 and t2 of the crown portion 12a and the sole portion 12b.
Is set to a thickness in the range of 1/3 to 1/2 of the thickness t3 of the face portion 11b.

In the club head A having the above structure,
Since the rear edge 11f of the rising portion 11c and the front edge 12c of the hollow member 12 are welded to each other, the load applied to the face 11b at the time of impact is reduced from the rear edge 11f to the front edge. When the load is transmitted to the face member 11 and the hollow member 12, the load is transmitted to the entire surface of the face member 11 and the hollow member 12, so that stress concentration does not occur in the welded portion. Therefore, deformation of the welded portion due to long-term use is reduced. Further, the face member 11 is connected to the neck 11a.
Since the neck portion 11a is formed integrally with the first portion 11a, the rigidity of the neck portion 11a is increased as compared with the case where the neck portion 11a is formed by welding, and the manufacturing variation of the loft angle (the angle θ shown in FIG. 3) is reduced. Further, a neck portion 11a is provided inside the face portion 11b.
Since the raised portion 11d is formed along the extension direction of
The rigidity in the vicinity of the neck portion 11a is increased, the integration with the shaft S is ensured, and the load applied to the face portion 11b at the time of impact is reliably transmitted to the shaft S.

In this case, the raised portion 11d is
1, the rigidity of the face member 11 is further increased, and the lower end position of the raised portion 11d is located below the graphic center G in the sweet area on the face surface F, so that the entire club head A has a low center of gravity. Has been The face portion 11b is formed of a near-β type titanium alloy. Since the alloy can be forged at a relatively low temperature (about 750 ° C.), manufacturing equipment is inexpensive, manufacturing costs are reduced, and the structure is dense. For this reason, high strength similar to that of the β-type titanium alloy is obtained.

Since the shaft insertion hole H is formed in the neck portion 11a by machining, the dimensional accuracy is high and the mounting accuracy of the shaft S is high. Therefore, the shaft S and the neck 11a are reliably integrated.

In this embodiment, the thickness t3 of the face portion 11b to which a load is directly applied at the time of impact is increased, and the thickness of the hollow member 12, that is, the thickness t1 of the crown portion 12a is increased.
In addition, by reducing the thickness t2 of the sole portion 12b, the capacity of the club head A can be increased, and a wide sweet area can be obtained.
In this case, the thickness t1 of the crown portion 12a and the thickness t2 of the sole portion 12b are in the range of 1/3 to 1/2 of the thickness t3 of the face portion 11b. If the thickness is set close to the thickness t3 of the portion 11b, the overall weight increases, and if the thickness is too small, the strength is reduced.

Further, even if the face portion 11b is set thin, a plurality of ribs 1 extending in the vertical direction are
Since 1e is formed, the vertical direction of the face portion 11b is reinforced, and the vertical deflection of the face portion 11b at the time of impact is suppressed.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In this figure, the same parts as those in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted. The difference between the second embodiment and the first embodiment is that the peripheral edge of the face member 21, that is, the rear peripheral edge 21b of the rising portion 21a and the front peripheral edge 22a of the hollow member 22 are tapered. This is a point that is formed and welded in a butt state so that the inclined surfaces of the two are in contact with each other. With this configuration, when the trailing edge peripheral end portion 21b and the front end peripheral end portion 22a are welded, they can be easily butted against each other even when a slight dimensional error occurs.

[0023]

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. (1) By welding the peripheral edge of the rising end to the peripheral edge of the front end of the hollow member in abutting state, stress concentration at the welded portion at the time of impact is reduced, and the durability of the club head is improved. it can. (2) By forming the neck portion integrally with the face member, the rigidity of the neck portion is increased, and the durability can be improved. (3) Due to the above synergistic effect, the durability of the golf club head is greatly improved, the rigidity of the entire golf club head is increased, and the blur at the time of impact is reduced, so that an accurate and stable hit ball can be obtained. . (4) Since the face member and the neck portion are integrated, manufacturing variation in the loft angle is reduced, and the set loft angle can be easily obtained. (5) Since at least the face portion is formed of the near-β type titanium alloy, the manufacturing equipment becomes inexpensive,
A golf club head having a high strength face portion can be produced at low cost. (6) By forming a shaft insertion hole formed by machining in the neck portion, a shaft insertion hole with high dimensional accuracy is obtained, and the mounting accuracy of the shaft is increased. Therefore, the shaft and the neck portion are surely integrated, and a better shot feeling can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a first embodiment of a golf club head according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a first embodiment of the golf club head according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a first embodiment of the golf club head according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a second embodiment of the golf club head according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing a conventional golf club head according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a main part showing a welded portion of a conventional golf club head according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11, 21 face member 11a neck portion 11b face portion 11c, 21a rising portion 11d raised portion 11e rib (protrusion) 11f, 21b rear end peripheral portion 12, 22 hollow member 12a crown portion 12b sole portion 12c, 22a front end peripheral edge Part 12d Hollow part A Golf club head F Face face G Center of figure on face face H Shaft insertion hole t1 Thickness of crown part t2 Thickness of sole part t3 Thickness of face part

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A metal golf club head having a neck portion to which a shaft is attached at an end portion and a hollow portion inside, wherein a face member integrally formed with the neck portion and a peripheral edge of the face member are provided. A hollow member which is welded to form the hollow portion, wherein the face member has a face portion having a face surface, and stands up from the periphery of the face portion to extend in a direction opposite to a direction in which the face surface faces, and is annular. And a rear end peripheral portion of the rising portion and a front end peripheral portion of the hollow member are welded in abutting state, the hollow member is formed by casting, and at least a face portion is near. -A golf club head formed of a β-type titanium alloy.