JP2003310806A - Golf club having hollow head - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a golf club the head of which can be improved in rigidity without accompanying the increase of a weight. <P>SOLUTION: In the head 10 of a wood golf club, on an inner surface regulating an inner cavity, the adjacent ends of four X-shaped thickened parts 24 to 30 which include the center part of the width direction of a face part 12 that is an intermediate part inserted by the toe and the heel of the face 12 and which are arranged in order in continuous closed cross section areas extending backward from this intermediate part are connected with each other. Thus, skeleton structure 22 extended continuously to the closed cross section areas orthogonal to the face 12 of the head 10 is constituted. <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 golf club, and more particularly to a golf club having a hollow head with an internal cavity.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Golf clubs employ a structure having an internal cavity not only for wood type but also for irons in order to provide a lightweight and large volume head. How to expand the sweet spot for general players lacking in power, and how to generate high repulsion force that promises a certain distance even for slow swing speeds for weak players. It is also an important issue.

In view of these problems, for example, in the head of a wood type golf club, in addition to adopting a hollow structure,
Light weight and high repulsion performance are realized by selecting a lightweight metal material and partially thickening the face while making it thin.

For example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 6-23553 proposes a head of a wood type golf club in which a plurality of ribs extending in the horizontal or vertical direction, that is, between the toe and the heel are provided on the back surface of the face. ing.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-155060 discloses a head of a wood type golf club in which an intermediate region between a toe and a heel is made thicker than a toe side region and a heel side region sandwiching the middle region. Is proposed.

Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 9-64693 proposes to form a thick portion on the back surface of the face of the head, which extends radially in, for example, an X shape around the sweet spot position.

[0007]

In the case of a hollow head, if the rigidity is insufficient due to thinning, the impact force when hitting the ball causes the face to momentarily bend rearward, resulting in energy loss or elasticity. Due to the movement of the face surface pushed back by the return, the problem that the directionality of the hit ball is greatly disturbed is likely to occur depending on the contact position between the ball and the face.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a golf club which can increase the rigidity of the head without increasing the weight.

Another object of the present invention is to efficiently transmit the deflection of the face due to the impact force when hitting the ball to the entire head when the head is made lighter or larger, and maintain the repulsive force against the ball. Another object is to provide a golf club that can be enhanced.

[0010]

According to the present invention, there is provided the above-mentioned technical object, in a golf club having a hollow head having an internal cavity, of a wall surface defining the internal cavity of the hollow head, of a face. To provide a golf club including a middle portion of a toe and a heel, and a skeletal structure continuously extending in a closed cross-sectional area extending rearward from upper and lower ends of the middle portion of the face. Achieved by

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention is typically applied to wood type golf clubs. In particular, it is suitably applied to a large capacity wood-based golf club, but is not limited to this and is also applicable to a hollow iron.

According to the present invention, since the skeleton structure is continuous along the region of the closed cross section that extends along the contour of the longitudinal section of the central portion of the head, when the ball is hit by this three-dimensional skeleton structure. Not only can the rigidity with respect to the impact force of the ball be secured, but also the bending of the face due to the impact force when hitting the ball can be efficiently transmitted to the entire head, and the repulsive force against the ball can be maintained or increased. Therefore, the portion other than this skeleton structure can be thinned. The skeletal structure may also include additional elongated thickened portions extending, for example, along the perimeter of the face of the head.

The above and other objects and effects of the present invention will be apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0014]

EXAMPLE A head 10 of a wood-based golf club to which the present invention is applied has a face 12 and a head main body 14,
The head body 14 is generally made of multiple elements. For example, the head body 14 may be divided into, for example, a crown 16, a sole 18, and a neck 20 as shown in FIG. 1, and these may be individually manufactured by casting or the like.

The head 10 may be made of any suitable metal, such as a stainless steel alloy, an aluminum alloy, a titanium alloy and combinations thereof, as is conventional, or a fiber reinforced plastic such as a carbon head. . For example, it is preferable to make the head body 14 from a lightweight material such as fiber reinforced plastic in order to reduce the overall weight of the wood golf club 10. The metal face 12 may be formed by forging the metal face 12 and then cutting the back face of the face 12, that is, the face back face, or a form described later by a molding die.

The head 10 is formed in a continuous strip-shaped region extending rearward from the upper end and the lower end of the center portion in the width direction of the face 12 on the wall surface defining the internal cavity formed by the face 12 and the head main body 14, A skeleton structure 22 described in detail is provided. That is, the head 10 having the internal cavity has the skeleton structure 22 continuously extending along the inner wall surface thereof.

Referring to FIG. 2 showing the back surface of the face 12, the face 12 will be described first. On the back surface of the face 12, an X-shaped first thick portion 24 intersecting at the sweet spot SP is formed. There is. That is, the first thick portion 24 has four elongated legs radially extending from the sweet spot SP, and the two legs extend upward to reach the upper edge of the face 12 and the other two legs. Extends downward and reaches the lower edge of the face 12.

The crown 16 forming the ceiling wall of the internal cavity of the hollow head has an X-shaped second thick portion 26 formed on the inner surface thereof so as to intersect at the apex of the crown 16, that is, substantially at the center. Of the four legs of the thickened portion 26, two extend forward and the other two extend rearward.

The sole 18 forming the bottom wall and the side wall of the internal cavity of the hollow head has an X-shaped third thick portion which intersects the inner surface of the bottom wall 18a at substantially the center of the bottom wall 18a of the sole 18. 28 is formed, and two of the four legs of the third thick portion 28 extend forward and the other two legs extend rearward. With respect to the sole 18, an X-shaped fourth portion which is formed integrally with the sole 18 and extends upwardly also intersects a rear wall 18a at an intermediate portion in the vertical direction.
A thickened portion 30 may also be provided, with two of the four legs of this fourth thickened portion 30 extending upward and the other two legs extending downward.

3 and 4 show the skeletal structure 22 of the head 10.
In order to explain the main elements of the
The fourth thick portions 24 to 30 are extracted and shown in FIG. 3, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the head 10 as seen from the front.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the arrangement of the first to fourth thick portions 24 to 30.

Referring to FIG. 4, the two upper ends 24a, 24b of the X-shaped first thick portion 24 of the face 12 have two front ends 26a of the X-shaped second thick portion 26 of the crown 16, respectively.
26b, respectively. The two rear ends 26c, 26d of the X-shaped second thick portion 26 of the crown 16 are respectively connected to the two upper ends 30a, 30b of the X-shaped fourth thick portion 30 of the rear wall 18b of the sole 18. ing. The two lower ends 3 of the fourth thickened portion 30 of the rear wall 18b of the sole 18
0c and 30d are respectively connected to two rear ends 28a and 28b of the third thick portion 28 of the bottom wall 18a of the sole 18 extending in the X shape. The two front ends 28c, 28d of the third thick portion 28 extending in the X shape of the bottom wall 18a of the sole 18
Is the X-shaped first thick portion 2 of the face 12 described above.
4 are connected to two lower ends 24c and 24d, respectively.

That is, in the head 10 of the wood-based golf club, the center portion in the width direction of the face 12, that is, the face 12 is defined on the inner surface defining the internal cavity.
Connecting adjacent ends of a plurality of X-shaped thickened portions including a middle portion sandwiched between a toe and a heel and sequentially arranged in a continuous closed cross-sectional area extending rearward from the middle portion. Thus, the skeleton structure 22 that is continuous in the closed cross-sectional area orthogonal to the face 12 is formed. In other words, the skeleton structure 22 has a plurality of intersecting points at intervals in the longitudinal direction of the closed cross-section region, and the ends of the legs radially extending from each intersecting point are connected to each other.

The skeleton structure 22 may also have an additional thick portion continuous with the outer peripheral edge of each piece of the face 12, the crown 16 and the sole 18. That is, referring to FIGS. 1 and 6, the face 12 may have an elongated first additional thickened portion 32 that extends continuously around its entire circumference, and the crown 16 may It may have an elongated second additional thickened portion 34 that extends continuously around its entire circumference.

With respect to the additional thickened portion, the sole 18 may have an elongated third additional thickened portion 36 which extends continuously along its leading edge or edge facing the face 12. , And may have an elongated fourth additional thickened portion 38 extending laterally continuously along its upper edge or edge facing the crown 16. The sole 18 is
It may have a fifth additional thickened portion 40 in the form of a strip extending laterally along the boundary between the bottom wall and the side wall. The head 10 has all of these first to fifth thick portions 32 to 40.
Is additionally provided, the first to fifth additional thickened portions 32 to 40 generally extend along the ridgeline of the substantially hexahedron (FIG. 7).

The first to fifth additional thick portions 32 to 40
Can be selectively omitted as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. 8 shows an example in which the additional fourth thick portion 38 of the sole 18 is omitted, and FIG.
It shows an example in which the fifth additional thick portions 38, 40 are omitted.

Thus, although optional, all or part of the additional thickened portions 32-40 may be X-shaped thickened portions 24-.
By combining with 30, the X-shaped thick portion 24 to
A skeleton stronger than the skeleton structure 22 composed of only 30 can be made, and by providing the skeleton structure 22 illustrated in FIG. 7 in the head 10, the rigidity of the head 10 can be improved, and other Even if the portion is thinned as necessary, the rigidity of the head 10 is maintained, and when a hitting force is applied to the golf ball, the impact force is three-dimensionally present over the entire head 10. It can be received by 22 and the repulsive force can be maintained or improved.

The skeleton structure 22 composed of the X-shaped thick portions 24 to 30 or the skeleton structure 22 composed of a combination of the X-shaped thick portions 24 to 30 and the additional thick portions 32 to 40,
For example, it can be suitably applied to weight reduction of a so-called big head having a large volume of 300 cc to 470 cc.

Referring to FIG. 2, of the substantially triangular region sandwiched between the X-shaped first thick portions 24 of the face 12, upper and lower regions 50 and 52 are respectively defined by the respective regions 50 and 52. You may make it the stepped structure which becomes thin gradually or gradually toward a center (FIG. 10). This stepped structure may be formed by a molding die or may be formed by shaving.

The X-shaped first thick portion 24 of the face 12
With respect to the above, by adjusting the X-shaped sandwiching angle of the first thick portion 24, the X-shaped intersection point, that is, the central portion 54
The center of gravity and the area of the sweet spot SP can be enlarged or reduced by adjusting the area of the.

For example, when the position of the center of gravity is set relatively high, it can be said that it is for advanced users, and the face 12 has a relatively small area of the central portion 54 of the X-shaped first thick portion 24. When the sweet spot is made smaller, a strong trajectory can be realized with less spin.

As another example, if the position of the center of gravity of the face 12 is set relatively low, it can be said that it is suitable for beginners. Also, the area of the central portion 54 of the X-shaped first thick portion 24 is enlarged to increase the sweetness. By enlarging the spot SP, a beginner can experience a great flight distance and good balance.

Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, in the case of a wood type golf club, the sole is often made of a thick member in order to lower the center of gravity. That is, when the bottom wall 18a of the sole 18 of the above-described embodiment has a sufficient thickness, as shown in FIGS. It may be included in the section. In other words, the bottom wall 18a of the sole 18
Therefore, the X-shaped third thick portion 28 may be omitted.

Also, the first thick portion 24 of the face 12
Is not limited to the X shape and may have any shape, for example, a Y shape as long as it has a shape that extends radially outward from the sweet spot SP (FIG. 13) Alternatively, it may have a shape in which two legs extend upward and three legs extend downward from the sweet spot SP (FIG. 14).

An additional thick portion 32 is added to the skeleton structure 22.
˜40 are provided, the first to fourth thick portions 24, such as X-shape and Y-shape, are provided through the additional thick portions 32-40.
The ends of the first to fourth thickened portions 24 to 30 are connected to each other as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, it may be offset. This Figure 1
5 shows, as an example, the end of the X-shaped first thick portion 24,
An example of offsetting from the end of the second thick portion 26 and the end of the fourth thick portion 30 is shown.

Further, instead of the X-shaped first thick portion 24 of the face 12, as shown in FIG. 16, an intermediate portion 56 between the toe and the heel of the face 12 is entirely thick. Alternatively, it may be made of another high rigidity or high resilience material.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the skeleton structure 22 is constituted by the thick portions 24 to 40 provided on the inner surface of the face 12 and the head main body 14, but the thick portions 24 to 4 are formed.
One or more of 0 may be formed in a protruding shape that protrudes inward or outward. To explain this point with a concrete example,
For example, the X-shaped fourth thick portion 40 of the bottom wall 18a of the sole 18 is omitted, and instead, as shown in FIGS. 17 to 19, a projection 60 protruding outward from the bottom wall 18a is used. It may be.

Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above by taking the head 10 of the wood-based golf club as an example, the above-mentioned technical elements can be arbitrarily combined.
Further, the present invention is not limited to wood golf clubs, and as shown in FIGS. 20 to 25, with respect to irons 72 to 76 including an internal cavity 70, similarly to the head 10 of the wood club, All or part of the technical matters described above can be selectively applied.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a wood golf club to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a view of the face of the wood-based golf club of FIG. 1 viewed from the back side.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing a skeleton structure of the wood-based golf club of FIG. 1 as seen through the golf club.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining the skeleton structure shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a front view showing a wood-based golf club in a perspective view for explaining an additional thick portion.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram for explaining a skeleton structure including an additional thick portion.

FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of a modified example of the wood golf club shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective view of another modification of the wood golf club shown in FIG.

9 is a sectional view taken along line IX-IX in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a front view showing another modified example of the wood golf club shown in FIG.

FIG. 11 is a schematic view for explaining the skeleton structure of the wood-based golf club shown in FIG.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram for explaining a modified example of the skeleton structure shown in FIG. 4 or FIG.

13 is a schematic diagram for explaining another modification of the skeleton structure shown in FIG. 4 or FIG.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram for explaining another modification of the skeleton structure shown in FIG. 4 or FIG.

FIG. 15 is a front view showing another modified example of the wood golf club shown in FIG.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of a wood golf club to which a modified example of the skeletal structure according to the present invention is applied, as seen from below.

FIG. 17 is a perspective view of a wood golf club to which another modification of the skeletal structure according to the present invention is applied, as seen from below.

FIG. 18 is a partial cross-sectional view taken along line X18-X18 of FIGS. 16 and 17.

FIG. 19 is a perspective view of an iron to which the present invention can be applied, as seen obliquely from the rear.

20 is a sectional view taken along line X20-X20 of FIG.

FIG. 21 is a perspective view of an iron of another example to which the present invention can be applied, as seen obliquely from the rear.

22 is a sectional view taken along line X22-X22 in FIG. 21.

FIG. 23 is a perspective view of an iron of another example to which the present invention can be applied, as seen obliquely from the rear.

24 is a sectional view taken along line X24-X24 in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Wood golf club heads 12 faces 14 head body 16 crown 18 soles 22 Skeleton structure 24 to 30 Band-like thick part of main element of skeletal structure 32-40 Additional wall thickness SP sweet spot

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A golf club having a hollow head with an internal cavity, the wall defining the internal cavity of the hollow head including an intermediate portion of the toe and heel of the face, and an upper end of the intermediate portion of the face and A golf club, wherein a skeleton structure continuously extending is provided in a closed cross-sectional area extending rearward from the lower end. 2. The golf club according to claim 1, wherein the skeletal structure includes a band-shaped thick portion that continuously extends along the closed cross-section region. 3. The golf club according to claim 2, wherein the skeletal structure includes a plurality of strip-shaped thick portions that extend radially upward and downward around a sweet spot of the face. 4. The skeleton structure has a plurality of intersecting points at intervals in the longitudinal direction of the closed cross-section region, and ends of legs radially extending from each intersecting point are connected to each other. The golf club according to any one of 1 to 3. 5. The golf club according to claim 1, wherein the skeletal structure further includes an additional thickened portion that extends continuously along the peripheral edge of the face. 6. A golf club according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the skeletal structure further comprises an additional thickened portion extending continuously along the perimeter of the ceiling wall of the internal cavity. 7. The golf club according to claim 1, wherein the skeletal structure includes a ridge protruding to the outside of the sole. 8. The golf club according to claim 1, wherein the golf club is a wood-based golf club or an iron. 9. A wood-type golf club having a hollow head having an internal cavity formed by a face and a head body, wherein a midpoint between a toe and a heel of a face among wall surfaces defining the internal cavity of the hollow head. And a skeleton structure continuously extending in a closed cross-sectional area extending rearward from the upper and lower ends of the middle portion of the face, the skeleton structure having a sweet spot centered on the middle portion of the face. Has an X-shaped strip-shaped thick portion having legs extending upward and downward, and is X from an intersection point arranged at intervals along the longitudinal direction of the closed cross-section region.
A wood-based golf club having a plurality of strip-shaped thick portions extending in a radial pattern, and the ends of the thick portions being connected to each other. 10. The wood-based golf club according to claim 9, wherein the face is formed with an additional elongated thick portion extending along a peripheral edge of the face. 11. The wood-based golf club according to claim 10, wherein the head body is formed with an additional elongated thick wall portion extending along a circumference of a crown forming a ceiling wall of the head body.