Multi-piece golf ball

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9687697-B2
Application number	US-201414314460-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 25, 2014
Priority date	Jun 26, 2013
Publication date	Jun 27, 2017
Grant date	Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

Provided is a golf ball showing a low spin rate on driver shots and a high spin rate on approach shots. Also provided is a multi-piece golf ball comprising a center and n (n is a natural number of 3 or more) envelope layers covering the center, wherein material hardness of the envelope layers satisfies H2<H0<Hn−1; where the envelope layers formed in order from the center side are referred to as a first envelope layer, a second envelope layer, a third envelope layer, a fourth envelope layer, . . . an n−1th envelope layer and an nth envelope layer (the outmost layer), respectively and H0 is a material hardness (Shore D hardness) of the center, and H1, H2, H3, H4, . . . Hn−1 and Hn are material hardness (Shore D hardness) of the first envelope layer, the second envelope layer, the third envelope layer, the fourth envelope layer, . . . the n−1th envelope layer and the nth envelope layer (the outmost layer), respectively; and the center is formed from a thermoplastic resin composition, and the second envelope layer is formed from a thermoplastic resin composition or a rubber composition.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A multi-piece golf ball comprising a center and n (n is a natural number of 4 or more) envelope layers covering the center, wherein
material hardness of the envelope layers satisfies H2<H0<Hn−1;
the envelope layers formed in order from the center side are referred to as a first envelope layer, a second envelope layer, . . . an n−1th envelope layer and an nth envelope layer (the outmost layer), respectively, and H0 is a material hardness (Shore D hardness) of the center, and H1, H2 . . . Hn−1 and Hn are material hardness (Shore D hardness) of the first envelope layer, the second envelope layer, . . . the n−1th envelope layer and the nth envelope layer (the outmost layer), respectively;
the center is formed from a thermoplastic resin composition;
the second envelope layer is formed from a thermoplastic resin composition or a rubber composition;
the second envelope layer has a lowest hardness (Shore D hardness) among the envelope layers from the first envelope layer to the n−1th envelope layer;
a hardness difference ((Hn−1)−H0) between the material hardness Hn−1 (Shore D hardness) of the n−1th envelope layer and the material hardness H0 (Shore D hardness) of the center ranges from 36 to 75; and
the second envelope layer has material hardness H2 (Shore D hardness) ranging from 3 to 35.

2. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein the center has a material hardness H0 (Shore D hardness) ranging from 5 to 60.

3. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein the center has a diameter ranging from 5 mm to 25 mm.

4. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein a hardness difference (H0−H2) between the material hardness H0 (Shore D hardness) of the center and the material hardness H2 (Shore D hardness) of the second envelope layer ranges from 1 to 57.

5. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein the second envelope layer is formed from the thermoplastic resin composition, and
the thermoplastic resin composition forming the second envelope layer contains, as a resin component, at least one kind selected from the group consisting of an ionomer resin, a thermoplastic olefin copolymer, a thermoplastic styrene-based elastomer, a thermoplastic polyester elastomer, a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer, a thermoplastic polyamide elastomer, and a thermoplastic acrylic-based elastomer.

6. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 5 , wherein the thermoplastic resin composition forming the second envelope layer contains the ionomer resin, and the ionomer resin is a ternary ionomer resin.

7. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein the nth envelope layer (the outmost layer) has a material hardness Hn (Shore D hardness) ranging from 5 to 55.

8. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein the first envelope layer has a material hardness H1 (Shore D hardness) ranging from 3 to 45.

9. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein the n−1th envelope layer has a material hardness Hn−1 (Shore D hardness) ranging from 45 to 80.

10. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein a hardness difference ((Hn−1)−H2) between the material hardness Hn−1 (Shore D hardness) of the n−1th envelope layer and the material hardness H2 (Shore D hardness) of the second envelope layer ranges from 5 to 77.

11. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein n is a natural number of 10 or less.

12. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein the material hardness satisfies H1>H2<H3<H4 . . . <Hn−3<Hn−2<Hn−1, wherein H3 corresponds to a third envelope layer and H4 corresponds to a fourth envelope layer.

13. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein
surface hardness (Shore D hardness) of the envelope layers satisfies S1>S2<S3<S4< . . . <Sn−3<Sn−2<Sn−1,
where S1, S2, S3, S4, . . . and, Sn−1 are surface hardness (Shore D hardness) of the first envelope layer, the second envelope layer, the third envelope layer, the fourth envelope layer, . . . the n−1th envelope layer, respectively.

14. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein each layer from the first envelope layer to the n−1th envelope layer has a thickness of 15 mm or less.

15. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein the nth envelope layer (the outmost layer) has a thickness of 2.0 mm or less.

16. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein the thermoplastic resin composition forming the center contains an ionomer resin, a thermoplastic olefin copolymer, a thermoplastic styrene-based elastomer or a mixture thereof.

17. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 16 , wherein the thermoplastic resin composition forming the center contains the thermoplastic styrene-based elastomer, and
the thermoplastic styrene-based elastomer is an alloy of a polyolefin with one kind or two or more kinds selected from the group consisting of a styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer (SBS), a styrene-isoprene-styrene block copolymer (SIS), a styrene-isoprene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer (SIBS), a styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene block copolymer (SEBS), a styrene-ethylene-propylene-styrene block copolymer (SEPS), a styrene-ethylene-ethylene-propylene-styrene block copolymer (SEEPS) and hydrogenated products thereof.

18. The multi-piece golf ball according to claim 1 , wherein the second envelope layer has a lowest hardness (Shore D hardness) among the envelope layers from the first envelope layer to the n−1th envelope layer,
a hardness difference (H0−H2) between the material hardness H0 (Shore D hardness) of the center and the material hardness H2 (Shore D hardness) of the second envelope layer ranges from 1 to 57,
a hardness difference ((Hn−1)−H0) between the material hardness Hn−1 (Shore D hardness) of the n−1th envelope layer and the material hardness H0 ranges from 36 to 75,
a hardness difference (H0−H1) between the material hardness H0 and the material hardness H1 (Shore D hardness) of the first envelope layer ranges from 2 to 40, and

a hardness difference ((Hn−1)−H2) between the material hardness Hn−1 and the material hardness H2 ranges from 5 to 77.

Assignees

• Dunlop Sports Co Ltd

Inventors

• Shigemitsu Takahiro

Classifications

• A63B45/00

  Apparatus or methods for manufacturing balls (working of plastics or substances in a plastic state B29) · CPC title

• A63B37/0045

  Thickness · CPC title

• A63B37/06

  Elastic cores · CPC title

• A63B37/0051

  Materials other than polybutadienes; Constructional details · CPC title

• A63B37/0039

  characterised by the material · CPC title