TWI843651B - Plates for golf club heads - Google Patents

Abstract

Plates for golf club heads are made of an alloy used to make golf club heads, the alloy is used to solve the problem of insufficient strength of conventional titanium alloys used to make golf club heads. The alloy includes: 6.5 to 7.5% aluminum, 1.6 to 2% iron, 0.12 to 0.16% silicon, 0.05 to 0.4% boron, 0.05% or less but not 0 nitrogen, 0.11 to 0.15% by weight of oxygen and a balancing amount of titanium. The plates have a tensile strength of greater than or equal to 191 ksi, a yield strength of greater than or equal to 179 ksi, and a modulus of elasticity (Young's modulus) of greater than or equal to 102 GPa. This can achieve the effect of improving the strength of the golf club head alloy, and clubfaces made of the plates have excellent feel upon impact.

Description

Golf club head board

The present invention relates to an alloy, in particular an alloy for manufacturing golf club heads, and a plate material for golf club heads made of the alloy.

Titanium alloys are widely used as alloys for making golf club heads because of their good strength and toughness. However, in order to pursue a better hitting feel, users are hitting the ball with more and more force, and golf club heads made of titanium alloys are beginning to face the problem of insufficient strength. In view of this, it is known that the alloys used to make golf club heads still need to be improved.

In order to solve the above problems, the purpose of the present invention is to provide an alloy for manufacturing a golf club head, which can make the golf club head made of the alloy have better strength.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a plate material for a golf club head, wherein the golf club head striking panel made therefrom has a better hitting feel.

The plate material for the golf club head of the present invention is formed of an alloy for manufacturing golf club heads, and the alloy for manufacturing golf club heads includes: by weight percentage, 6.5-7.5% aluminum, 1.6-2% iron, 0.12-0.16% silicon, 0.05-0.4% boron, 0.05% or less and not 0 nitrogen, 0.11-0.15% oxygen, and a balance of titanium. The golf club head plate material has a tensile strength of greater than or equal to 191 ksi, a yield strength of greater than or equal to 179 ksi, and a Young's modulus of greater than or equal to 102 GPa.

Accordingly, the alloy used to manufacture golf club heads of the present invention increases the iron content and adds boron to form a specific composition ratio of the alloy, thereby achieving the effect of improving the strength of the golf club head alloy, and the golf club head has the effect of better mechanical strength.

The alloy used to manufacture the golf club head contains 0.05-0.3% boron by weight. In this way, the alloy used to manufacture the golf club head can have tensile strength, yield strength and appropriate plasticity.

In order to make the above and other purposes, features and advantages of the present invention more clearly understood, the following is a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

A preferred embodiment of the alloy used to manufacture golf club heads of the present invention includes aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), silicon (Si), boron (B), nitrogen (N), oxygen (O) and a balanced amount of titanium (Ti). In this way, the golf club head alloy can form a titanium alloy, and the golf club head alloy can be formed into a club head body or a striking panel of a golf club head, which is not limited by the present invention.

Specifically, the alloy contains 6.5-7.5% aluminum, 1.6-2% iron, 0.12-0.16% silicon, 0.05-0.4% boron, 0.05% or less but not 0% nitrogen, 0.11-0.15% oxygen, and the balance of titanium in weight percentage.

Furthermore, aluminum metal can stabilize the α phase of titanium alloy and improve the forming rate of golf club head alloy. However, too much aluminum will cause the embrittlement of the club head, and too little aluminum will result in poor forming rate. Therefore, the alloy preferably contains no more than 7.5% aluminum, so that the alloy used to make golf club heads has a better forming rate and better strength when the club head is made.

In addition, the atoms in the alloy crystal will cause the dislocation of the crystal lattice arrangement due to the local irregular arrangement, which is called dislocation slip. Dislocation slip is regarded as a defect in the alloy and will cause metal deformation. If dislocation slip can be avoided, the metal can be hardened. Iron atoms can form a barrier to the above dislocation slip, so adding iron can improve the tensile strength of the alloy. In addition, adding silicon can make the club head formed by the alloy have a predetermined strength.

It is particularly noted that boron can effectively refine the grains of titanium alloys, thereby making titanium alloys have better forming ability. In addition, the TiB phase formed by adding boron to titanium alloys can improve the strength of titanium alloys. However, too high a TiB phase may lead to an increase in the brittleness of titanium alloys, that is, a decrease in the plasticity of the titanium alloy. Therefore, the alloy preferably contains no more than 0.4% boron. In another embodiment, the alloy contains 0.05-0.3% boron. In this way, the alloy used to manufacture golf club heads can have tensile strength, yield strength and appropriate plasticity.

In addition, oxygen is a stabilizing element of the α phase, which can improve the forming rate of the golf club head alloy. In addition, the oxygen element can occupy the interstitial position of the titanium crystal lattice. Furthermore, the strength of the alloy is the alloy's ability to resist deformation, and the dislocation slip of the alloy will cause the alloy to deform. Therefore, when the oxygen element occupies the interstitial position of the lattice, it can prevent the dislocation slip and make the alloy less likely to deform, thereby achieving the effect of improving the strength. In addition, in the process of forming the alloy, the oxygen element is usually an unavoidable impurity and only occupies a very small amount. In contrast, by adding oxygen to 0.11~0.15% in the golf club head alloy of the present invention, the alloy can have better strength.

In order to prove that the alloy composition used to manufacture golf club heads of the present invention does have good strength, six golf club head plates were made of the known titanium alloy (Group 1) shown in Table 1 and the titanium alloy of the present invention (Group 2), and the mechanical properties of each golf club head plate were measured after aging treatment at 600℃ for 1 hour. The results are shown in Table 2.

According to the above test results, the tensile strength, yield strength and Young's modulus of the golf club head alloy (Group 2) of the present invention are all higher than those of the conventional titanium alloy (Group 1). Furthermore, compared with the conventional titanium alloy, the golf club head alloy of the present invention can enhance the strength of the golf club head made of the alloy by adding boron and increasing the iron content.

In summary, the alloy used to manufacture golf club heads of the present invention increases the iron content and adds boron to form a specific composition ratio of the alloy, thereby achieving the effect of improving the strength of the golf club head alloy. In addition, the plate material used for golf club heads manufactured by the alloy of the present invention has better mechanical properties, which can make the golf club head striking panel have the effect of having a good hitting feel.

Although the present invention has been disclosed using the above preferred embodiments, they are not intended to limit the present invention. Any person skilled in the art may make various changes and modifications to the above embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, and these changes and modifications are still within the technical scope protected by the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall include all changes within the meaning and equivalent scope recorded in the attached patent application scope.

Claims (2)

A plate material for a golf club head is formed from an alloy for making a golf club head. The alloy for making a golf club head comprises: by weight percentage, 6.5-7.5% aluminum, 1.6-2% iron, 0.12-0.16% silicon, 0.05-0.4% boron, 0.05% or less but not 0 nitrogen, 0.11-0.15% oxygen, and a balance of titanium. The plate material for a golf club head has a tensile strength of greater than or equal to 191 ksi, a yield strength of greater than or equal to 179 ksi, and a Young's modulus of greater than or equal to 102 GPa. As in claim 1, the plate material for golf club heads, wherein the alloy used to make the golf club heads contains 0.05-0.3% boron by weight.