Golf ball comprising a very-low melt flow inner cover layer composition

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10478674-B2
Application number	US-201815936500-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 27, 2018
Priority date	May 20, 2009
Publication date	Nov 19, 2019
Grant date	Nov 19, 2019

Abstract

A golf ball including a core; an inner cover layer formed from a thermoplastic composition and having a thickness of about 0.005 inches to 0.40 inches and a surface hardness of about 60 Shore D or greater; and an outer cover layer formed from a thermoset material and having a thickness of about 0.01 inches to 0.05 inches and a surface hardness of about 60 Shore D or less. The thermoplastic composition has a first melt flow index at 280° C. under a 10-kg load of less than about 35 g/10 min and a second melt flow index at 265° C. under a 5-kg load of less than about 10 g/10 min.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A golf ball comprising:
a core;
an inner cover layer comprising a first thermoplastic composition and having a thickness of about 0.005 inches to about 0.40 inches and a surface hardness of about 70 Shore D or less; and
an outer cover layer comprising a thermoplastic polyurethane and having a thickness of about 0.01 inches to about 0.075 inches and a surface hardness of about 20 Shore D to about 60 Shore D;
wherein the first thermoplastic composition comprises a first melt flow index at 280° C. under a 10-kg load of less than about 35 g/10 min and a second melt flow index at 265° C. under a 5-kg load of less than about 10 g/10 min.

2. The golf ball of claim 1 , wherein the first melt flow index is about 20 g/10 min or less.

3. The golf ball of claim 2 , wherein the first melt flow index is about 10 g/10 min or less.

4. The golf ball of claim 3 , wherein the second melt flow index is about 5 g/10 min or less.

5. The golf ball of claim 1 , wherein the first thermoplastic composition has a third melt flow index at 190° C. under a 2.16-kg load of less than about 2 g/10 min.

6. The golf ball of claim 5 , wherein the third melt flow index at is less than about 1 g/10 min.

7. The golf ball of claim 1 , wherein the first thermoplastic composition comprises an ionomer.

8. The golf ball of claim 7 , wherein the first thermoplastic composition comprises a higher-melting-temperature thermoplastic resin.

9. The golf ball of claim 7 , wherein the first thermoplastic composition comprises a reactive polymer.

10. The golf ball of claim 7 , wherein the ionomer is neutralized by a metal cation to 80 wt % or greater.

11. The golf ball of claim 10 , wherein the ionomer is neutralized by a metal cation to 90 wt % or greater.

12. The golf ball of claim 1 , wherein the first thermoplastic composition comprises an amine or a peroxide compound.

13. The golf ball of claim 1 , wherein the core comprises an inner core and an outer core layer.

14. A golf ball comprising:
a core;
an inner cover layer comprising a first thermoplastic composition and having a thickness of about 0.005 inches to about 0.40 inches and a surface hardness of about 70 Shore D or less; and
an outer cover layer comprising a second thermoplastic material and having a thickness of about 0.01 inches to about 0.075 inches and a surface hardness of about 20 Shore D to about 60 Shore D;
wherein the first thermoplastic composition comprises a first melt flow index at 280° C. under a 10-kg load of less than about 35 g/10 min and a second melt flow index at 265° C. under a 5-kg load of less than about 10 g/10 min.

15. The golf ball of claim 14 , wherein the second thermoplastic composition comprises a thermoplastic polyurethane.

16. The golf ball of claim 14 , wherein the core comprises an inner core and an outer core layer.

Assignees

• Acushnet Co

Inventors

• Bulpett David A
• Blink Robert
• Binette Mark L
• Comeau Brian
• Sullivan Michael J

Classifications

• A63B37/0048

  Melt flow rate [MFR] · CPC title

• A63B37/0076

  Multi-piece balls, i.e. having two or more intermediate layers · CPC title

• A63B37/0044

  Hardness gradient · CPC title

• A63B37/0045

  Thickness · CPC title

• A63B37/0043

  Hardness · CPC title