Low compression, resilient golf balls including a cis-to-trans catalyst and method for making same

• US 6,417,278 B1
• Filed: 05/22/2000
• Issued: 07/09/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Acushnet Company (FILA Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Acushnet Company (FILA Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Bulpett, David A., Bissonnette, Laurent, Ladd, Derek A., Wrigley, Mark N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Buttner, David J.
• Application Number:
  US09/575,238
• Time in Patent Office: 778 Days
• Field of Search: 525/193, 525/245, 525/261, 525/274, 525/236, 473/373, 473/374
• US Class Current: 525/193
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/30 Maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0003 Golf balls
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/003 Coefficient of restitution
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0031 Hardness
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0033 Thickness
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0034 Deflection or compression
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0037 Flexural modulus; Bending stiffness
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/00621 Centre hardness
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0064 Diameter
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0074 Two piece balls, i.e. cover and core
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0075 Three piece balls, i.e. cover, intermediate layer and core
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 37/0076 Multi-piece balls, i.e. having two or more intermediate layers
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 43/18 incorporating preformed parts or layers, e.g. compression moulding around inserts or for coating articles B29C43/206 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B29D 99/0042 Producing plain balls hollow balls B29D22/04
• CPC Class Codes: B29L 2031/54 Balls
• CPC Class Codes: B29L 2031/545 Football balls
• CPC Class Codes: C08F 285/00 Macromolecular compounds obtained by polymerising monomers on to preformed graft polymers
• CPC Class Codes: C08K 3/30 Sulfur-, selenium- or tellurium-containing compounds
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 2666/02 Organic macromolecular compounds, natural resins, waxes or and bituminous materials
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 51/04 grafted on to rubbers
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 53/00 : Compositions of block copolymers containing at least one sequence of a polymer obtained by reactions only involving carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bonds; Compositions of derivatives of such polymers
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 53/02 : of vinyl-aromatic monomers and conjugated dienes
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 9/00 : Compositions of homopolymers or copolymers of conjugated diene hydrocarbons

Abstract

A low compression, resilient golf ball having a center including a material formed from the conversion reaction of sufficient amounts of polybutadiene, a free radical source, and a cis-to-trans catalyst to convert a portion of cis-isomer to trans-isomer in the polybutadiene, which reaction occurs at a sufficient temperature to form the material that contains trans-isomer and cis-isomer, wherein said material has an amount of trans-isomer greater than the amount of trans-isomer present before the conversion reaction, at least one intermediate layer disposed about the center and including a resilient polymer component and a reinforcing polymer component present in an amount sufficient to provide an uncrosslinked first mixture having a rigidity as determined by a flexural modulus greater than about 3.5 MPa, wherein the center and each intermediate layer together form the core, and a cover being disposed about the core, wherein the golf ball has a diameter of at least about 1.68 inches. In particular, the cis-to-trans catalyst includes an organosulfur compound, a Group VIA component, an inorganic sulfide, or a combination thereof, and the reinforcing polymer includes trans-polyisoprene. The invention also relates to golf balls formed from a conversion between various combinations of polybutadiene, cis-to-trans catalyst, free radical source, and optional filler and/or crosslinking agent, to produce a desired golf ball or golf ball component, such as those that are resilient (fast) and have low compression (soft).

Claims

1. A golf ball comprising:

a center comprising a reaction product material formed from the conversion reaction of sufficient amounts of polybutadiene, a free radical source, and a cis-to-trans catalyst to convert a portion of cis-isomer to trans-isomer in the polybutadiene, which reaction occurs at a sufficient temperature to form the material that contains trans-isomer and cis-isomer, wherein said material has an amount of trans-isomer greater than the amount of trans-isomer present before the conversion reaction;

at least one intermediate layer disposed about the center and comprising a resilient polymer component and a reinforcing polymer component present in an amount sufficient to provide an uncrosslinked first mixture having a rigidity as determined by a flexural modulus greater than about 3.5 MPa, wherein the center and each intermediate layer together form the core; and

a cover being disposed about the core.

2. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the cover has at least one of a dimple coverage of greater than about 60 percent, a hardness from about 35 to 80 Shore D, or a cover material flexural modulus of greater than about 500 psi, and wherein the golf ball has at least one of a compression from about 50 to 120 or a coefficient of restitution of greater than about 0.7.

3. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein the cis-to-trans catalyst comprises an organosulfur compound, an inorganic sulfide, a Group VIA component, or a combination thereof.

4. The golf ball of claim 3 wherein the cis-to-trans catalyst includes the organosulfur compound which comprises ditolyl disulfide.

5. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the center including the material has a first point having a first hardness and a second point having a second hardness that is at least about 10 percent greater than the first hardness.

6. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein the center has a diameter from about 0.85 inches to 1.4 inches.

7. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the core has a diameter from about 1.5 inches to 1.62 inches.

8. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein the core has a diameter from about 1.51 inches to 1.6 inches.

9. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein the reaction product material formed from the conversion reaction has a first amount of trans-isomer at a first point in the center and a second amount of trans-isomer at a second point in the center, and wherein the first amount of trans-isomer is at least about 6 percent less than the second amount of trans-isomer.

10. The golf ball of claim 9 wherein the first amount of trans-isomer is at least about 10 percent less than the second amount of trans-isomer.

11. The golf ball of claim 9 wherein the second point has from about 35 percent to 60 percent of trans-isomer polybutadiene.

12. The golf ball of claim 11 wherein the second point has from about 40 percent to 50 percent of trans-isomer polybutadiene.

13. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the reinforcing polymer component is present in an amount of about 1 to 40 weight percent of the at least one intermediate layer and comprises at least one of a block copolymer ether/ester, an acrylic polyol, a transpolyisoprene, a trans-polybutadiene, a 1,2-polybutadiene, an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, a polyethylene or copolymer thereof, a trans-polycyclooctenamer, or a combination thereof.

14. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein the at least one intermediate layer has a rigidity as measured by a flexural modulus greater than about 7 MPa.

15. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein all of the intermediate layers together have a total thickness of about 0.08 inches to 0.6 inches.

16. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein at least one intermediate layer comprises a tensioned elastomeric material wound about the center.

17. The golf ball of claim 16, wherein the tensioned elastomeric material comprises the reaction product material.

18. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein the cover has a thickness of at least about 0.03 inches.

19. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein the cover has a thickness of about 0.03 to 0.125 inches.

20. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein the cover has a Shore D hardness of about 58 to 68.

21. The golf ball of claim 1 wherein the cover comprises at least two layers.

29. The golf ball of claim 1, wherein the center has a diameter from about 1.45 inches to 1.55 inches.

30. The golf ball of claim 21, wherein the at least two layers comprise an outermost layer formed of polyurethane.

22. A golf ball comprising:

a center comprising a reaction product material formed from the conversion reaction of sufficient amounts of polybutadiene, a free radical source, and a cis-to-trans catalyst comprising an organosulfur compound to convert a portion of cis-isomer to trans-isomer isomer in the polybutadiene, which reaction occurs at a sufficient temperature to form the material that contains trans-isomer and cis-isomer, wherein said material has an amount of trans-isomer greater than the amount of trans-isomer present before the conversion reaction,

at least one intermediate layer disposed about the center and comprising a resilient polymer component and a reinforcing polymer component present in an amount sufficient to provide an uncrosslinked first mixture having a rigidity as determined by a flexural modulus greater than about 7 MPa, wherein the center and each intermediate layer together form the core; and

a cover being disposed about the core.

23. The golf ball of claim 22, wherein the organosulfur component comprises ditolyl disulfide.

24. The golf ball of claim 22, wherein the reinforcing polymer component comprises trans-polyisoprene.

25. A golf ball comprising:

a center comprising a reaction product material formed from the conversion reaction of sufficient amounts of polybutadiene, a free radical source, and a cis-to-trans catalyst to convert a portion of cis-isomer to trans-isomer in the polybutadiene, which reaction occurs at a sufficient temperature to form the material that contains trans-isomer and cis-isomer, wherein said material has an amount of trans-isomer greater than the amount of trans-isomer present before the conversion reaction;

at least one intermediate layer disposed about the center and comprising a resilient polymer component and a trans-polyisoprene component present in an amount of at least about 10 percent based on the total polymer content of the intermediate layer; and

a cover being disposed about the core.

26. The golf ball of claim 25, wherein the trans-polyisoprene component is present in an amount of about 10 percent to 40 percent.

27. A golf ball comprising:

a center comprising a reaction product material formed from the conversion reaction of sufficient amounts of polybutadiene, a free radical source, and a cis-to-trans catalyst to convert a portion of cis-isomer to trans-isomer in the polybutadiene, which reaction occurs at a sufficient temperature to form the material that contains trans-isomer and cis-isomer, wherein said material has an amount of trans-isomer greater than the amount of trans-isomer present before the conversion reaction;

at least one intermediate layer disposed about the center and comprising a resilient polymer component and a trans-polybutadiene component present in an amount of at least about 15 percent based on the total polymer content of the intermediate layer; and

a cover being disposed about the core.

28. The golf ball of claim 27, wherein the trans-polybutadiene component is present in an amount of about 15 percent to 40 percent.