Co-forged golf club head and method of manufacture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9616304-B2
Application number	US-201514589079-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 5, 2015
Priority date	Nov 28, 2011
Publication date	Apr 11, 2017
Grant date	Apr 11, 2017

Abstract

A co-forged iron type golf club is disclosed. More specifically, the present invention discloses a co-forged iron type golf club with the body portion made out of a first material and at least one weight adjustment portion monolithically encased within the body portion of the co-forged iron type golf club head without the need for secondary attachment or machining operations. The present invention creates of an iron type golf club head from a pre-form billet that already contains two or more materials before the actual forging process resulting in a multi-material golf club head that doesn't require any post manufacturing operations such as machining, welding, swaging, gluing, and the like.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A forged golf club head comprising:
a body portion having a striking surface made out of a first material; and
at least one weight adjustment portion made out of a second material encased within said body portion;
wherein said at least one weight adjustment portion is encased monolithically within said body portion without any secondary attachment operations, and
wherein said first material has a first flow stress at a first forging temperature, and said second material has a second flow stress at a second forging temperature; said first flow stress and said second flow stress are substantially the same with one another.

2. The forged golf club head of claim 1 , wherein said first forging temperature and said second forging temperature are substantially the same with one another.

3. The forged golf club head of claim 2 , wherein said first forging temperature is about 1,200° C., and said second forging temperature is about 1,100° C.

4. The forged golf club head of claim 1 , wherein said first flow stress and said second flow stress are different from one another.

5. The forged golf club head of claim 4 , wherein said first flow stress is about 10 ksi and said second flow stress is about 12 ksi.

6. The forged golf club head of claim 1 , wherein said first material has a first thermal expansion coefficient, and the second material has a second thermal expansion coefficient;
wherein said first thermal expansion coefficient is greater than or equal to said second thermal expansion coefficient.

7. The forged golf club head of claim 6 , wherein said first thermal expansion coefficient is about 8.0 μin/in ° F., and said second thermal expansion coefficient is about 6.1 μin/in ° F.

8. A forged golf club head comprising:
a body portion having a striking surface made out of a first material; and
at least one weight adjustment portion made out of a second material encased within said body portion;
wherein said at least one weight adjustment portion is encased monolithically within said body portion without any secondary attachment operations,
wherein said first material has a first thermal expansion coefficient, and the second material has a second thermal expansion coefficient; said first thermal expansion coefficient is greater than or equal to said second thermal expansion coefficient
wherein said first material has a first flow stress at a first forging temperature, and said second material has a second flow stress at a second forging temperature, and
wherein said first flow stress and said second flow stress are different from one another.

9. The forged golf club head of claim 8 , wherein said first thermal expansion coefficient is about 8.0 μin/in ° F., and said second thermal expansion coefficient is about 6.1 μin/in ° F.

10. The forged golf club head of claim 8 , wherein said first flow stress is about 10 ksi and said flow stress is about 12 ksi.

11. The forged golf club head of claim 10 , wherein said at least one weight adjustment portion is located near a sole of said golf club head.

12. The forged golf club head of claim 11 , wherein said at least one weight adjustment portion is located near a heel portion of said sole of said golf club head.

13. The forged golf club head of claim 12 , wherein said at least one weight adjustment portion is located near a toe portion of said sole of said golf club head.

14. The forged golf club head of claim 13 , wherein an interface between said body portion and said at least one weight adjustment portion creates an irregular interface.

Assignees

• Acushnet Co

Inventors

• Deshmukh Uday V
• Hettinger Ronald K
• Hebreo Jonathan

Classifications

• A63B2053/0491

  with added weights, e.g. changeable, replaceable · CPC title

• A63B53/047 Primary

  iron-type · CPC title

• B21K17/00

  Making sport articles, e.g. skates · CPC title

• A63B60/02 Primary

  Ballast means for adjusting the centre of mass (A63B60/24, A63B60/54 take precedence) · CPC title