Golf balls containing layers made from transparent polyamide and plasticizer compositions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10814181-B2
Application number	US-201916562579-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 6, 2019
Priority date	Feb 29, 2012
Publication date	Oct 27, 2020
Grant date	Oct 27, 2020

Abstract

Multi-layered golf balls having at least one layer made of a polyamide composition containing a plasticized polyamide are provided. In one preferred version, the polyamide composition consists essentially of a polyamide and plasticizer selected from the group consisting of polytrimethylene ether glycol and polytrimethylene ether glycol benzoate and monomers, oligomers, copolymers and blends thereof. Blends of plasticized polyamides and ethylene acid copolymer ionomers also can be prepared. The golf ball includes a core having at least one layer and a cover having at least one layer. The polyamide composition may be used to form any core, cover, or other layer in the golf ball. The polyamide compositions have a good combination of properties including Coefficient of Restitution (COR) and compression.

First claim

We claim:

1. A golf ball, comprising:
a) core having at least one layer;
b) an inner cover layer consisting essentially of a plasticized polyamide composition, the inner cover layer being disposed about the core and having a material hardness in the range of about 35 to about 95 Shore D; and
c) an outer cover layer disposed about the inner cover layer and having a material hardness in the range of about 10 to about 65 Shore D, wherein the hardness of the outer cover layer is softer than the hardness of the inner cover layer.

2. The golf ball of claim 1 , wherein the plasticized polyamide comprises a plasticizer selected from the group consisting of polytrimethylene ether glycol and polytrimethylene ether glycol benzoate and monomers, oligomers, copolymers and blends thereof.

3. The golf ball of claim 1 , wherein the inner cover layer has a thickness in the range of about 0.025 to about 0.070 inches and the outer cover layer has a thickness in the range of about 0.015 to about 0.055 inches.

4. The golf ball of claim 1 , wherein the core comprises an inner core and surrounding outer core layer, the center of the inner core and surface of the outer core layer each having a hardness, and wherein the surface hardness of the outer core layer is greater than the center hardness of the inner core.

5. The golf ball of claim 1 , wherein the polyamide is selected from the group consisting of polyether-amide block polymers, polyamide 6; polyamide 6,6; polyamide 6,10; polyamide 6,12; polyamide 11; polyamide 12; polyamide 6,9; and polyamide 4,6, and copolymers and blends thereof.

6. The golf ball of claim 5 , wherein the polyamide is a polyether-amide block copolymer.

Assignees

• Acushnet Co

Inventors

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

Classifications

• A63B37/00622 Primary

  Surface hardness · CPC title

• A63B37/00922

  whereby hardness of the cover is lower than hardness of the intermediate layers · CPC title

• A63B37/00621

  Centre hardness · CPC title

• C08L77/06

  Polyamides derived from polyamines and polycarboxylic acids (C08L77/10 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A63B37/0063

  Hardness gradient · CPC title