JP2003290398A - Golf club head - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a golf club head with high repulsion, superior directionality, easy hitting and a reinforced face plane. <P>SOLUTION: A thick part 3 is formed in a center part of a face plane plate 2. Pluralities of vertical and horizontal ribs 4a and 4b substantially not exceeding a thickness of the thick part are radially formed from the thick part toward a periphery of the face plane plate. Face plane plate portions between the ribs and the thick part are formed as thin parts 5. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hollow golf club head in which a face face plate made of a lightweight metal such as titanium alloy is attached to the front surface of a head body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional golf club head for a driver or a wood is proposed in which the area of the face plate is increased and the volume of the entire golf club head is increased in order to obtain a high repulsive force in the face portion. The total volume of the golf club head is 400
More than cc is also offered.

However, when the area of the face plate is increased and the volume of the entire golf club head is increased, the weight of the face portion is relatively increased.
In order to suppress the increase in the weight of the face plate as much as possible,
The device is designed to reduce the thickness of the face plate.

However, if the wall thickness of the entire face plate is simply thinned, the wall thickness of the sweet spot, which frequently hits the golf ball, cannot be sufficiently secured, and the portion easily breaks and the height of the ball is high. It cannot give repulsive force.

In view of these problems, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-19
As in the invention related to No. 2273, there has been proposed one in which the center portion of the face plate is formed thick and the outer peripheral portion is formed thin so that the repulsive force is improved.

[0006]

However, in this conventional golf club head, it is good to hit the ball at the center portion where the face plate has a thick wall thickness, but the hitting position deviates from the center portion and the wall thickness increases. When the golf ball is hit at the boundary between the thin portion and the thin portion, the ball bends, and when hit at the thin portion, the flight distance is extremely reduced. Further, the conventional golf club head described above has a problem that cracks are likely to occur at the boundary portion between the thick portion and the thin portion during repeated use.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a golf club head having a large repulsive force, excellent directivity, easy to hit, and a strengthened face surface. It is in.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a hollow golf club head in which a face face plate made of a highly repulsive lightweight metal is attached to the front surface of the head body. Forming a thick portion in the center of the face plate, and a plurality of vertically narrow widths that do not substantially exceed the thickness of the thick portion radially from the thick portion toward the periphery of the face plate And a plurality of laterally narrow ribs are formed, and the face face plate portion between the ribs and the thick portion of the central portion is formed as a wide thin portion.

When the golf ball is hit with the thick wall portion at the center of the face plate with the above-mentioned structure, the wide thin wall portion around the golf ball exhibits springiness in addition to the action of the light metal having high resilience. You can give a high repulsive force to the ball and obtain a long flight distance.

Further, even if the golf ball is hit at a position deviated from the thick portion in the center of the face plate, there is a rib in the longitudinal direction or the horizontal direction at that position. It has a high resilience because it has the same thickness, and the ball does not bend as in the case of hitting at the boundary between the conventional thick and thin portions.

Furthermore, since the outer periphery of the thick portion in the center is not a thin portion as a whole, but the thin portion is reinforced by narrow radial ribs, the strength of the entire face face plate is increased, It is possible to prevent a crack from being formed between the thick portion of and the thin portion outside thereof.

The present invention has a structure suitable for a golf club head having a volume of 300 to 460 cc.

Preferably, the number of ribs is 6 to 14.
Further, by adopting the book, the lateral width of the rib extending in the radial direction orthogonal to the radial direction is formed substantially uniformly.

Preferably, among the ribs, the thickness of the rib extending in the lateral direction is substantially the same as the thickness of the central portion, and the thickness of the rib extending in the longitudinal direction is the central portion. Is to be gradually thinned toward the outer circumference.

Preferably, the thin portion is formed so as to be gradually thin from the central portion side to the outer peripheral portion side,
The thin portions sandwiched by the two adjacent ribs are formed so that the radiation angles from the central portion of the face plate are substantially equal.

More preferably, the central thickness portion is substantially rectangular, the lengths of the long sides and the short sides thereof are about 1/3 of the width and length of the head body, and the thickness is about 2.5 mm. It is to be.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view of a golf club head according to the present invention. The golf club head comprises a head body 1 and a face plate 2.
Is a view as seen from the back surface of the face plate, and the unevenness on the back surface of the face plate 2 is shown by a solid line. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the face plate of this golf club head taken along the line AA.

The golf club head of the present invention has excellent effects when applied to a golf club head having a head volume of 300 to 460 cc and a face area of 40 cm ² .

The face plate 1 is made of titanium alloy, and has a rectangular central thick wall portion 3 having a length of about ⅓ of the lateral width and a length of ⅓ of the vertical width at the center of the face plate 1.
Is provided, and two horizontal ribs 4a are radially formed from the left and right sides of the central thick portion 3 to the outer peripheral portion, and three vertical ribs 4b are radially formed from the upper and lower portions thereof to the outer peripheral portion. Has been formed.

The thickness of the central thick portion is 2.5 mm, for example.
The thickness of the rib 4a in the lateral direction is also 2.5 mm, which is the same as this, over the entire length thereof. On the other hand, each of the ribs 4b in the vertical direction has a wall thickness of 2.5 mm at the portion connected to the central thick portion 3, but gradually has a wall thickness of 2.0 mm at the outer peripheral portion. This is because the number of ribs 4b in the vertical direction is larger than the number of ribs 4a in the horizontal direction and the length of the ribs 4b in the vertical direction is shorter than the length of the ribs 4a in the horizontal direction. The wall thickness of the portion is made thinner than that of the horizontal rib so that the flexibility of the vertical rib is larger than that of the horizontal rib.

The portion sandwiched by the central thick portion 3 and the ribs 4a, 4b is formed as a thin portion 5, and this portion is gradually thinned from the portion connected to the central thick portion 3 toward the outer periphery, The outer peripheral portion is formed to have a thickness of about 1.8 mm.

In the present invention, it is preferable that when the golf ball is hit at the central thick portion 3, the face plate 2 can play the ball like a trampoline, to that end, because of this, ribs 4a, It is preferable that the width of the 4b in the direction orthogonal to the radial direction (width in the lateral direction) is made as small as possible, and the thin portion 5 is made thin to increase elasticity of the portion in the direction orthogonal to the face plate. this,
The width of the rib and the thickness of the thin portion are determined from the necessity of maintaining the strength of the face plate at a predetermined strength or higher. However, in the present invention, the presence of the ribs 4a and 4b reduces the thickness of the thin portion to that of a conventional rib. It is quite thin compared to other things, and can be as small as 1.0 mm.

It is preferable that the number of ribs is 6 or more from the viewpoint of the strength and the elasticity of the face plate, and the number of ribs is based on the relationship between the width of the rib in the lateral direction and the area of the face plate. Although it is also determined, it is preferably in the range of 6 to 14. In this case, two adjacent ribs form several thin portions 5, but preferably,
The angle of radiation from the center of the face plate of each thin portion sandwiched by two adjacent ribs should be substantially equal.

Further, the width of the ribs in the lateral direction is related to the number of ribs. If the number of ribs increases, the width of the ribs can be reduced. If the number of ribs is small, the width of the ribs increases. When the number of ribs is 10 as in the embodiment, the number of ribs is 6 by setting 1.0 mm to 2.0 mm.
In the case of books, it is set to 1.5 mm to 2.5 mm, and in the case of 14 books, it is set to 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm.

Further, the shape of the central thick portion 3 is not limited to the rectangular shape of the embodiment, but may be a horizontally long elliptical shape or other polygonal shape. Regarding the dimensions, in the case of the embodiment, the horizontal length and the vertical length passing through the center point of the central thick portion 3 in the rear view of FIG. 2 are about 1/3 of the horizontal length and the vertical length of the face plate, respectively. However, the horizontal length and the vertical length of the central thick portion can be changed within the range of about 1/4 (25%) to 2/5 (40%) of the horizontal length and the vertical length of the face plate, respectively.

The area of the central thick part 3 of the face plate, the number and width of the ribs 4a and 4b, the wall thickness, etc. are the size of the face plate, or the size of the driver, spoon, buffy,
It can be easily changed depending on the type of clique.

[0027]

As described above, in the golf club head of the present invention, when the golf ball is hit with the thick wall portion in the center of the face plate, in addition to the function of the light metal having a high resilience, the peripheral thin wall is wide. Since the portion exerts a spring property, a high repulsive force is applied to the ball and a great flight distance can be obtained.

Further, even if the golf ball is hit at a position deviated from the thick portion in the center of the face plate, there is a vertical or horizontal rib at that position, and this rib is different from the thick portion at the center. It has a high resilience because it has the same thickness, and the ball does not bend as in the case of hitting at the boundary between the conventional thick and thin portions.

Furthermore, the outer periphery of the thick portion at the center is not a thin portion as a whole, but the thin portion is reinforced by narrow radial ribs, so that the strength of the entire face face plate is increased, It is possible to prevent a crack from being formed between the thick portion of and the thin portion outside thereof.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a golf club head according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the golf club head according to the present invention, showing the unevenness on the back side of the face plate by a solid line.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the face plate taken along the line AA.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 head body 2 face plate 3 Central thick part 4a, 4b rib 5 Thin part

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A hollow golf club head in which a face face plate made of a highly repulsive lightweight metal is attached to a front face portion of a head main body, and a thick portion is formed in a central portion of the face face plate and the thickness is increased. A plurality of ribs extending in the longitudinal direction and a plurality of transverse ribs that do not substantially exceed the thickness of the thick portion from the portion toward the periphery of the face plate, and the rib and the thickness are formed. A golf club head, characterized in that a face face plate portion between the head and the portion is formed as a thin portion. 2. The golf club head has a volume of 300.
The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the golf club head is about 460 cc. 3. The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the number of the ribs is 6 to 14. 4. The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the rib extending in the radial direction has a substantially uniform lateral width orthogonal to the radial direction. 5. A wall thickness of a rib extending laterally of the ribs is substantially the same as a wall thickness of the central portion, and a wall thickness of the rib extending longitudinally extends from the central portion to the outer periphery. 5. The thin film is formed so as to be gradually thinned toward the opposite side.
The golf club head according to claim 1. 6. The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the thin portion is formed so as to gradually become thinner from the central portion side to the outer peripheral portion side. 7. The thin portion sandwiched by two adjacent ribs is formed so that the radiation angles from the central portion of the face plate are substantially equal to each other. The golf club head according to item 1. 8. The central thick portion is formed into a substantially rectangular shape, and the lengths of the long sides and the short sides thereof are about ⅓ of the horizontal width and the vertical width passing through the central portion of the head main body, respectively. Item 9. The golf club head according to any one of items 1 to 7. 9. The golf club head according to claim 8, wherein the thickness of the central thick portion is about 2.5 mm.