Golf ball

• US 20040106736A1
• Filed: 11/25/2003
• Published: 06/03/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bridgestone Sports Co Limited (Bridgestone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Bridgestone Sports Co Limited (Bridgestone Corporation)
• Inventors: Ichikawa, Yasushi, Nagasawa, Hiroyuki, Takesue, Rinya
• Granted Patent: US 7,037,963 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 525/196
• CPC Class Codes: C08F 8/44 Preparation of metal salts or ammonium salts

Abstract

A golf ball comprising a core and two or more outer layers covering said core, wherein the first outer layer is formed mainly from a mixture of a non-ionomer thermoplastic elastomer and an isocyanate compound and the second outer layer is formed mainly from a mixture composed of a resin component consisting of an ionomer resin and a non-ionomer thermoplastic elastomer, a fatty acid and/or a derivative thereof, a metal ion source capable of neutralizing unneutralized acid radicals in the above-mentioned components, and a compound having two or more reactive functional groups and a molecular weight no larger than 20,000, with the first outer layer being contiguous to the second outer layer, which exhibits superior in durability and rebound resilience.

Claims

1. A golf ball comprising a core and two or more outer layers covering said core, wherein:

the first outer layer is formed mainly from (a) a non-ionomer thermoplastic elastomer and (b) a mixture of (b-1) an isocyanate compound and (b-2) a thermoplastic resin which does not substantially react with isocyanate;

the second outer layer is formed mainly from a mixture composed of a resin component consisting of (in a ratio of from 100;

0 to 50;

50 by weight) (c) a base resin of one kind or more selected from (c-1) an olefin-unsaturated carboxylic acid binary random copolymer and a metal-ion neutralized product of an olefin-unsaturated carboxylic acid binary random copolymer and (c-2) an olefin-unsaturated carboxylic acid-unsaturated carboxylic ester ternary random copolymer and a metal-ion neutralized product of an olefin-unsaturated carboxylic acid-unsaturated carboxylic ester ternary random copolymer and (d) a non-ionomer thermoplastic elastomer, (e) a fatty acid and/or a derivative thereof having a carbon number of 18-80, (f) a metal ion source to neutralize unneutralized acid radicals in components (c) and (e) mentioned above, and (g) a compound having a molecular weight no larger than 20,000 and having two or more reactive functional groups, with the first outer layer being contiguous to the second outer layer.

2. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the first outer layer is the outermost layer.

3. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the non-ionomer thermoplastic elastomer as component (a) is a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer.

4. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein component (b-1) is 4,4′

-diphenylmethanediisocyanate and component (b-2) is a thermoplastic polyester elastomer.

5. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the non-ionomer thermoplastic elastomer as component (d) is an olefinic thermoplastic elastomer.

6. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the fatty acid as component (e) is behenic acid.

7. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the amount of component (e) is 5-80 parts by weight for 100 parts by weight of the base resin [component (c) plus component (d)].

8. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the metal ion source as component (f) is calcium hydroxide.

9. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the amount of component (f) is 0.1-10 parts by weight for 100 parts by weight of the base resin [component (c) plus component (d)].

10. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the compound as component (g) is a low-molecular-weight polyolefin polyol.

11. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the amount of component (8) is 0.1-100 parts by weight for 100 parts by weight of the base resin [component (c) plus component (d)].