Golf club head

• US 20050215352A1
• Filed: 02/07/2005
• Published: 09/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SRI Sports Limited (Sumitomo Rubber Industries Limited)
• Original Assignee: Sumitomo Rubber Industries Limited
• Inventors: Oyama, Hitoshi
• Granted Patent: US 7,261,645 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 473/345
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2209/02 with reinforcing fibres, e.g. carbon, polyamide fibres
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2209/023 Long, oriented fibres, e.g. wound filaments, woven fabrics, mats
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0408 characterised by specific dimensions, e.g. thickness
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0412 Volume
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0433 with special sole configurations
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0437 with special crown configurations
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0466 wood-type
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0487 for putters A63B53/065 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 60/00 Details or accessories of golf clubs, bats, rackets or the like

Abstract

A hollow golf club head comprises: a metal member made of at least one kind of metal material having at least one opening in a crown portion thereof; and a FRP member made of a fiber reinforced resin attached to the metal member so as to cover the opening, the fiber reinforced resin formed from a plurality of prepreg plies each having a magnitude covering the opening, and the prepreg plies comprising a plurality of unidirectional plies each having fibers aligned along an unidirection, wherein the unidirectional plies comprise at least “n” kinds of (in this case, “n” is an integral number not less than 3 and not more than 6) plies which are laminated in a state in which directions of the fibers are differentiated, and in a standard condition of being grounded on a horizontal plane at prescribed lie angle and loft angle, the directions of the fibers of the “n” kind of unidirectional plies seeing through a plane intersect at an angle (180/n) degrees obtained by substantially dividing 180 degrees by the integral number n in the crown portion.

Claims

1. A hollow golf club head comprising:

a metal member made of at least one kind of metal material having at least one opening in a crown portion thereof; and

a FRP member made of a fiber reinforced resin attached to the metal member so as to cover the opening,

the fiber reinforced resin formed from a plurality of prepreg plies each having a magnitude covering the opening, and

the prepreg plies comprising a plurality of unidirectional plies each having fibers aligned along an unidirection, wherein

the unidirectional plies comprise at least “

n”

kinds of (in this case, “

n”

is an integral number not less than 3 and not more than

     6) plies which are laminated in a state in which directions of the fibers are differentiated, and

in a standard condition of being grounded on a horizontal plane at prescribed lie angle and loft angle, the directions of the fibers of the “

n”

kind of unidirectional plies seeing through a plane intersect at an angle (180/n) degrees obtained by substantially dividing 180 degrees by the integral number n in the crown portion.

2. The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the prepreg plies comprise at least one cloth ply having woven fibers extending in two directions and arranged on an outermost side thereof.

3. The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the unidirectional plies comprise at least one 0°

direction ply having a fiber orientation of 0 degree with respect to a head longitudinal direction parallel to a normal line drawn from a head gravity point to a club face, in a plan view in the standard condition.

4. The golf club head according to claim 1, wherein the unidirectional plies comprise only non 0°

direction plies having a fiber orientation of larger than 0 degree or smaller than 0 degree with respect to a head longitudinal direction parallel to a normal line drawn from a head gravity point to a club face, in a plan view in the standard condition.