Golf balls incorporating foamed metallocene catalyzed polymer
First Claim
1. A golf ball comprising a cover and a core, the cover having at least one foamed layer, the foamed layer formed of a metallocene catalyzed polymer blend, comprising at least one metallocene catalyzed polymer and at least one ionomer, wherein the metallocene catalyzed polymer is of the formula:
- ##STR3## wherein R1 is hydrogen, aromatic, heterocyclic, or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, and C4 H9 ;
R2 is hydrogen, aromatic, heterocyclic, or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, C4 H9, and C5 H11 ;
R3 is hydrogen or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, C4 H9, and C5 H11 ;
R4 is selected from the group consisting of H, CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, C4 H9, C5 H11, C6 H13, C7 H15, C8 H17, C9 H19, C10 H21, and phenyl, in which from 0 to 5 H within R4 can be replaced by substituents selected from the group consisting of COOH, SO3 H, NH2, F, Cl, Br, I, OH, SH, silicone, lower alkyl esters and lower alkyl ethers, with the proviso that R3 and R4 can be combined to form a bicyclic ring;
R5 is hydrogen, lower alkyl including C1 -C5, carbocyclic, aromatic or heterocyclic;
R6 is hydrogen, lower alkyl including C1 -C5, carbocyclic, aromatic or heterocyclic; and
wherein x ranges from 99 to 50 weight per cent of the polymer, y ranges from 1 to 50 weight per cent of the polymer and z ranges from 0 to 49 weight per cent of the polymer.
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Abstract
The disclosed invention provides novel golf ball compositions which contain olefinic based ionomers and non-ionic olefinic copolymers produced by use of metallocene catalysts. These compositions exhibit improved mechanical properties such as tensile and flexural properties, and can be foamed or unfoamed. Golf balls that employ at least one layer of these blends in any of the golf ball cover, core, or a mantle situated between the cover and the core provide ball properties and performance similar to and in some cases better than the state of the art ionomer based golf balls.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A golf ball comprising a cover and a core, the cover having at least one foamed layer, the foamed layer formed of a metallocene catalyzed polymer blend, comprising at least one metallocene catalyzed polymer and at least one ionomer, wherein the metallocene catalyzed polymer is of the formula:
- ##STR3## wherein R1 is hydrogen, aromatic, heterocyclic, or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, and C4 H9 ;
R2 is hydrogen, aromatic, heterocyclic, or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, C4 H9, and C5 H11 ; R3 is hydrogen or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, C4 H9, and C5 H11 ; R4 is selected from the group consisting of H, CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, C4 H9, C5 H11, C6 H13, C7 H15, C8 H17, C9 H19, C10 H21, and phenyl, in which from 0 to 5 H within R4 can be replaced by substituents selected from the group consisting of COOH, SO3 H, NH2, F, Cl, Br, I, OH, SH, silicone, lower alkyl esters and lower alkyl ethers, with the proviso that R3 and R4 can be combined to form a bicyclic ring; R5 is hydrogen, lower alkyl including C1 -C5, carbocyclic, aromatic or heterocyclic; R6 is hydrogen, lower alkyl including C1 -C5, carbocyclic, aromatic or heterocyclic; and wherein x ranges from 99 to 50 weight per cent of the polymer, y ranges from 1 to 50 weight per cent of the polymer and z ranges from 0 to 49 weight per cent of the polymer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17)
- ##STR3## wherein R1 is hydrogen, aromatic, heterocyclic, or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, and C4 H9 ;
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14. A golf ball comprising a cover and a core and a mantle situated between the cover and the core, wherein at least one of the cover, the core, and the mantle comprises at least one layer, the layer formed of a metallocene catalyzed polymer blend, comprising from about 1 to about 100 phr of at least one metallocene catalyzed polymer and from about 99 to 0 phr of at least one ionomer, wherein the metallocene catalyzed polymer is of the formula:
- ##STR5## wherein R1 is hydrogen, aromatic, heterocyclic, or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, and C4 H9 ;
R2 is hydrogen, aromatic, heterocyclic, or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, and C4 H9 or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, C4 H9, and C5 H11 ; R3 is hydrogen or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, C4 H9, and C5 H11 ; R4 is selected from the group consisting of H, CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, C4 H9, C5 H11, C6 H13, C7 H15, C8 H17, C9 H19, C10 H21, and phenyl, in which from 0 to 5 H within R4 can be replaced by substituents selected from the group consisting of COOH, SO3 H NH2, F, Cl, Br, I, OH, SH, silicone, lower alkyl esters and lower alkyl ethers, with the proviso that R3 and R4 can be combined to form a bicyclic ring; R5 is hydrogen, lower alkyl including C1 -C5, carbocyclic, aromatic or heterocyclic; R6 is hydrogen, lower alkyl including C1 -C5, carbocyclic, aromatic or heterocyclic; and wherein x ranges from 99 to 50 weight per cent of the polymer, y ranges from 1 to 50 weight per cent of the polymer and z ranges from 0 to 49 weight per cent of the polymer. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 18, 19, 28)
- ##STR5## wherein R1 is hydrogen, aromatic, heterocyclic, or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, and C4 H9 ;
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20. A golf ball comprising a cover and a core, the core having at least one layer, the layer formed of a metallocene catalyzed polymer blend, comprising from about 1 to about 100 phr of at least one metallocene catalyzed polymer and from about 99 to 0 phr of at least one ionomer, wherein the metallocene catalyzed polymer is of the formula:
- ##STR6## wherein R1 is hydrogen, aromatic, heterocyclic, or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, and C4 H9 ;
R2 is hydrogen, aromatic, heterocyclic, or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, and C4 H9 or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, C4 H9, and C5 H11 ; R3 is hydrogen or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, C4 H9, and C5 H11 ; R4 is selected from the group consisting of H, CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, C4 H9, C5 H11, C6 H13, C7 H15, C8 H17, C9 H19, C10 H21, and phenyl, in which from 0 to 5 H within R4 can be replaced by substituents selected from the group consisting of COOH, SO3 H, NH2, F, Cl, Br, I, OH, SH, silicone, lower alkyl esters and lower alkyl ethers, with the proviso that R3 and R4 can be combined to form a bicyclic ring; R5 is hydrogen, lower alkyl including C1 -C5, carbocyclic, aromatic or heterocyclic; R6 is hydrogen, lower alkyl including C1 -C5, carbocyclic, aromatic or heterocyclic; and wherein x ranges from 99 to 50 weight per cent of the polymer, y ranges from 1 to 50 weight per cent of the polymer and z ranges from 0 to 49 weight per cent of the polymer. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
- ##STR6## wherein R1 is hydrogen, aromatic, heterocyclic, or lower alkyl selected from the group consisting of CH3, C2 H5, C3 H7, and C4 H9 ;
- 29. A golf ball comprising at least one layer, the layer formed of a metallocene catalyzed polymer blend, comprising from about 1 to about 100 phr of at least one metallocene catalyzed polymer and from about 99 to 0 phr of at least one ionomer, wherein the metallocene catalyzed polymer comprises a copolymer of ethylene or propylene with butene, hexene, or octene.
Specification