Method Of Making A Golf Ball
AssigneeNIKE, Inc.
InventorsChen-Tai Liu, Ying-Kai Wang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The disclosure provides a method of making a golf ball with a reduced gate defect. The method may include using a mold that has a mold cavity with a mold chamber with a surface and a parting edge disposed along the perimeter of mold chamber. At least one gate may be disposed on the parting edge to provide a path for a cover material to be injected into the mold chamber. The gate may include a flat middle surface connected by a first side surface and a second side surface disposed opposite the first side surface. A round having a radius of curvature ranging from about 0.2 mm to about 0.5 mm may be disposed along a middle gate edge of middle surface and/or a side gate edge of one of the first side surface and the second side surface.
Claims28
A method of making a golf ball, comprising:
- providing a golf ball mold including a first mold cavity and a second mold cavity configured to mate with the first mold cavity, the first mold cavity having a first mold chamber and a first parting edge disposed along the perimeter of first mold chamber, wherein first gate is disposed on the first parting edge, the first gate providing a path for a cover material to be injected into the first mold chamber and having a first edge forming a first round between the first edge and the first mold chamber, forming a golf ball core;
- placing the golf ball core between the first mold cavity and the second mold cavity;
- mating the first mold cavity and the second mold cavity together;
- and
- injecting a golf ball cover material into the first mold cavity and the second mold cavity.
The method of making a golf ball according to 10, wherein the golf ball cover material includes a crosslinked thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer.
A method of making a golf ball, comprising:
- providing a golf ball mold including a first mold cavity having a first mold chamber including a first parting edge disposed along the perimeter of the first mold chamber and a first gate disposed on the first parting edge, the golf ball mold further including a second mold cavity having a second mold chamber including a second parting edge disposed along the perimeter of the second mold chamber and a second gate disposed on the second parting edge, wherein the second parting edge has a shape corresponding to the first parting edge such that the first mold cavity may be mated with the second mold cavity;
- forming a golf ball core, the golf ball core comprising a thermoplastic material;
- placing the golf ball core between the first mold cavity and the second mold cavity;
- mating the first parting edge with the second parting edge such that the first gate aligns with a portion of the second parting edge to provide a first path for a cover material to be injected into the first mold cavity and the second mold cavity and the second gate aligns with a portion of first parting edge to provide a second path for the cover material to be injected into the first mold cavity and the second mold cavity;
- and
- injecting a golf ball cover material having a flexural modulus of from 200 psi to 1,000 psi into the first mold cavity and the second mold cavity.
A method of making a golf ball, comprising:
- providing a golf ball mold including a first mold cavity having a first mold chamber including a first parting edge disposed along the perimeter of the first mold chamber and a first gate disposed on the first parting edge, the golf ball mold further including a second mold cavity having a second mold chamber including a second parting edge disposed along the perimeter of the second mold chamber and a second gate disposed on the second parting edge, wherein the first parting edge and the second parting edge both have wavy surfaces that correspond such that the first mold cavity may be mated with the second mold cavity along the first parting surface and the second parting surface;
- forming a golf ball core;
- placing the golf ball core between the first mold cavity and the second mold cavity;
- mating the first mold cavity and the second mold cavity together;
- and
- injecting a golf ball cover material into the first mold cavity and the second mold cavity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.