System and method of whitening used golf balls via artificial light
AssigneeAcushnet Company
InventorRobert Blink
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An artificial light whitening treatment for golf balls is disclosed herein. The whitening treatment can be used for golf balls recovered from water hazards, in one aspect. The whitening treatment can be an artificial light treatment comprised of a xenon arc lamp, in one example. The treatment can be configured to whiten golf balls while avoiding using known synthetic chemical based whitening techniques or solutions.
Claims18
A method of whitening a used golf ball, the method comprising:
- applying an artificial light treatment to the golf ball at an irradiance range for a treatment period such that the golf ball is whitened.
A method of whitening a used golf ball recovered from a water hazard, the method comprising:
- applying an artificial light treatment to the golf ball at an irradiance range for a treatment period such that the golf ball is whitened,
- wherein the irradiance range is at least 0.50 W/m2/nm at 340 nanometers, and the treatment period is at least one hour and no greater than 80 hours;
- wherein the golf ball has a cover formed from ionomer, polyurethane, polyurea, or hybrid of polyurethane-polyurea;
- and
- the golf ball is whitened from an initial state to a final state, such that a ΔE* value of the CIELAB color space shows a color shift of at least 2 units.
A method of whitening a used golf ball recovered from a water hazard, the method comprising:
- applying an artificial light treatment to the golf ball at an irradiance for a treatment period such that the golf ball is whitened, wherein the artificial light treatment comprises a xenon arc lamp,
- wherein the irradiance is at least 0.68 W/m2/nm-1.10 W/m2/nm at 340 nanometers, and the treatment period is at least one hour;
- and
- the golf ball is whitened from an initial state to a final state, such that a ΔE* value of the CIELAB color space shows a color shift of at least 2 units.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.