JPH10277182A - Wood club head - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a lightweight and large-sized metal wood club head having high rigidity at the time of impact of each member constituting the head. SOLUTION: In a wood club head in which a face 2 serving as an impact surface and a crown 3 and a sole 4 supporting the face 2 are made of a metal material, at least the face 2, the crown 3 and the sole 4 surround the head. A hollow portion 5 is formed, and in the hollow portion 5, one or a plurality of connected beam-shaped reinforcing members 6 erected from one surface of the inner wall surface to the other surface are provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wood club having a metal head called a metal head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in order to increase the flight distance and stabilize the directionality of wood clubs, heads having a large head volume called a so-called metal head and having a light weight have become mainstream. Therefore, in these heads, the thickness of the head body as a shell of the head tends to be reduced as much as possible, and the thickness of the crown portion in particular tends to be reduced for lowering the center of gravity. Further, various measures have been taken to increase the repulsion at impact by increasing the length of the club and improving the material of the face surface.
The impact force applied to the head, which is said to be in tons or more, tends to increase more and more.

[0003]

Therefore, the head body, which is the shell of the head such as the crown portion and the sole portion, is easily distorted when a strong impact is applied to the face surface.
As a result of the simulation calculation by the inventor's finite element method, it was observed that a complicated vibration is generated at the time of impact, particularly in a thin crown portion. When such a phenomenon occurs, a part of the energy at the time of impact to fly the ball is consumed for the generation of the vibration, and the force to fly the ball decreases. In addition, the head is enlarged, the face, the crown, the sole, etc. are made thin, and the head with the hollow formed inside has a dislike that the impact sound at the time of impact becomes too loud. The hollow portion is filled with a foam material. It is considered that the unusual hitting sound is also amplified by the vibration of the thin hollow wall surface at the time of impact.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a lightweight and large-sized metal wood club head having high rigidity at the time of impact of each part constituting a head body, ie, a head, ie, a shell.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a wood club head in which a face serving as an impact surface and a crown portion and a sole portion supporting the face are made of a metal material. A hollow portion surrounded by at least the face, the crown portion and the sole portion is formed, and one or a plurality of connected beam-like members are provided in the hollow portion from one surface of the inner wall surface to the other surface. Are provided.

[0006]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In a head body 1 shown in FIG. 1, a face 2 serving as an impact surface and a crown 3 and a sole 4 supporting the face 2 are made of a metal material.
Is formed hollow. This hollow part 5 is surrounded by the face 2, the crown part 3, and the sole part 4,
In the hollow portion 5, there are provided a plurality of connected beam-shaped reinforcing members 6 that are bridged from one surface of the inner wall surface to the other surface. An end surface of a portion of the reinforcing member 6 toward the crown portion 3 is fixed to an inner surface of the crown portion 3, and an end surface of a portion toward the sole portion 4 is fixed to an inner surface of the sole portion 4. Further, both ends of the member located at the center of the reinforcing member 6 are spanned from the toe side to the heel side, and are fixed to the inner surface of the peripheral wall portion.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the reinforcing member 6, in which a portion extending from the toe 9 side to the heel 10 side is a main column 6A, and four columns 6B to 6E are respectively formed from the main column 6A. The branch is branched, and the end surfaces of the first column 6B and the third column 6D are fixed to the inner surface of the crown portion 3, and the end surfaces of the second column 6C and the fourth column 6E are fixed to the inner surface of the sole portion 4.

In such a wood club head, the face 2, the crown portion 3, the sole portion 4, and the like are integrally formed into a shell shape by casting of a titanium alloy, and the inside of the head body 1 is hollow. The reinforcing member 6 provided in the hollow part 5 is formed by welding a pipe material having a diameter of 6 mm and a thickness of 1 mm made of the same titanium alloy as that of the head and formed separately from the head in the shape of FIG. is there. From the viewpoint of strength, the dimensions of the pipe material are preferably set in the range of 5 to 10 mm in diameter and 1 to 3 mm in thickness. In addition, as a means for fixing the columns 6B to 6E to the crown portion 3 and the sole portion 4, they are usually fixed by welding. Normally, the shell-shaped head body 1 is
Are separately formed, and the head body 1 excluding the sole portion 4 is formed.
Is integrally molded by a method such as lost wax. Therefore, the welding work of each end surface of the columns 6B to 6E is performed by connecting the end surfaces of the columns 6B, 6D and the main column 6A to the inner surface of the hollow portion 5,
That is, the crown portion 3 is first welded to the inner surface of the toe 9 and the heel 10 side, and then the end surfaces of the columns 6C and 6E are welded to the sole portion 4 and the sole portion 4 is also covered with the bottom of the shell-like material so as to cover. Weld.

FIG. 3 shows a cross section cut from the face 2 toward the back face side at a substantially intermediate portion between the toe 9 and the heel 10, and corresponds to a cross section taken along line BB of FIG. The reinforcing member 6 is formed and arranged so that the height h of the main column 6A from the sole portion 4 and the height H to the crown portion 3 satisfy h <H. By doing so, the center of gravity of the head main body 1 can be lowered. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 7 denotes a hosel, and reference numeral 8 denotes a shaft mounted on the hosel.

FIG. 4 shows a cross section of the head main body 1 taken along the line AA in FIG. The columns 6B and 6C are arranged near the heel 10, and the columns 6D and 6E are arranged near the toe 9.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, a pipe material is used for the reinforcing member 6 in the form of a beam.
It may be of various shapes, such as a round bar having a width of 5 mm, a plate member having a width of 5 to 10 mm and a thickness of 2 to 5 mm, or a beam having an H-shaped cross section. In addition, the beam-shaped reinforcing member 6 is formed by welding a pipe, but the entire main column 6A and the columns 6B to 6E can be integrally manufactured by casting. Further, as the material of the reinforcing member 6, in addition to the titanium alloy, various metals such as pure titanium, stainless steel, aluminum, aluminum alloy, iron, and copper, and alloys thereof can be used. It is also possible to use a separate material from the above.

In another embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a titanium alloy round bar having a diameter of 8 mm is used as the reinforcing member 6, and when viewed from the front of the head body 1, the crown portion 3 is formed.
Column 6 consisting of two round bars connecting the sole 4
F and 6G are welded to both ends of the support 6H at the center to form an X-shape, and when viewed from a side view (see FIG. 6), the X, which is disposed in front and behind in the hollow portion 5, is formed. It has a structure in which one main column 6H connecting the character-shaped columns 6F and 6G is arranged at the center.

In another embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, five main pillars 6I made of round bars are formed in an H shape when viewed from the crown portion 3 side, and the pillars 6J and 6K are formed as main pillars 6I. Welded to. The columns 6J and 6K are located substantially at the center between the toe 9 and the heel 10 in the hollow portion 5, and are provided near the face 2 and the back face. The ends of the columns 6J and 6K are spaced apart from each other at fixed intervals by the crown 3 and the sole 4.
Are fixed by welding or other means.
Heel 10 from the main pillar 6I and toe 9 connecting the front and back of J and 6K
And two main pillars 6I provided in the horizontal direction are provided, and the end faces of the two parallel main pillars 6I are fixed to the toe 9 side and fixed to the columns 6J and 6K. The tip is fixed to the columns 6J and 6K and is fixed to the heel 10 side.

The beam-shaped reinforcing member 6 is not limited to the shape of the embodiment shown in the above-mentioned drawings, and various other shapes can be considered. For example, one main pillar 6A is towed 9
It may be one that is only erected horizontally between the heel 10 and the heel 10. Further, the beam-shaped reinforcing member 6 may be formed of a pipe material, and the inside thereof may be filled with a foam material that functions as a vibration absorbing material. Further, as the material for forming the head body 1, various metal materials other than the titanium alloy can be adopted.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, a hollow portion surrounded by at least the face, the crown portion, and the sole portion is formed in the head, and the inside of the hollow portion is formed from one side of the inner wall surface. Since one or a plurality of connected beam-like reinforcing members are provided over the surface, the bending rigidity of the wall surface of the head main body 1 is increased, and the vibration displacement at impact can be reduced. it can. In addition, the beam-shaped reinforcing member has a main portion isolated from the wall surface and only an end portion thereof is fixedly attached to the wall surface, so that the beam-like reinforcing member functions as a kind of damping material (damper) and has an excessive amplitude. Vibration of the wall surface is suppressed. Furthermore, since vibration of the wall surface at the time of impact is suppressed, energy loss at the time of impact is reduced, the flight distance of the ball is increased, and abnormal noise due to the impact is reduced. Furthermore, the wall thickness, particularly the crown portion, can be made thinner than the conventional head, and the weight and the center of gravity of the head can be reduced, and the performance of the wood club can be improved. Further, since the reinforcing member is disposed behind the face surface, the center of gravity shifts to the rear, and the depth of the center of gravity of the head can be set deep.

In the case where at least one end of the reinforcing member is fixed to the crown portion and at least one of the other ends is fixed to the sole portion, the center of gravity and the weight of the head are reduced. In the case where the crown portion is made thinner and the sole portion is made thicker, since these are connected and integrated by the reinforcing member, the rigidity of the entire head is increased, and particularly, the rigidity of the crown portion is reduced. Nevertheless, it can increase.

Further, in the case where at least one of the reinforcing members is provided from the toe side to the heel side, the toe portion which is easily impacted toward the rear in the flight direction of the ball at the time of impact and which is likely to generate vibration has a rigid toe portion. Since the heel portion near the high hosel portion is connected to and integrated with the reinforcing member, the rigidity of the entire head is increased, and in particular, the rigidity of the toe portion is increased and the vibration can be suppressed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a reinforcing member.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 4;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line DD of FIG. 6, showing another embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along line CC of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along line FF of FIG. 8, showing still another embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along line EE of FIG. 7;

[Description of Signs] 1 Head body 2 Face 3 Crown part 4 Sole part 5 Hollow part 6 Reinforcement member

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A wood club head in which a face serving as an impact surface and a crown portion and a sole portion supporting the face are made of a metal material, wherein a hollow portion surrounded by at least the face, the crown portion and the sole portion in the head. A wood club head, wherein one or a plurality of connected beam-shaped reinforcing members are provided in the hollow part from one surface of the inner wall surface to the other surface. . 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least one end of the reinforcing member is fixed to a crown portion of the inner wall surface, and at least one of the other ends is fixed to a sole portion. 2. The wood club head according to 1. 3. The wood club head according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the reinforcing members extends from a toe side of the inner wall surface to a heel side.