Solid golf ball
AssigneeBridgestone Sports Co., Ltd.
InventorsAtsushi Nakamura, Hisashi Yamagishi, Takashi Maruko, Yutaka Masutani
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AssigneeBridgestone Sports Co., Ltd.
InventorsAtsushi Nakamura, Hisashi Yamagishi, Takashi Maruko, Yutaka Masutani
Estimating the term…
In a solid golf ball comprising a solid core and a cover, the solid core has a multilayer construction which includes a center core and an outer core that encloses the center core. The center core is composed primarily of a resin and has a diameter of 3-20 mm and a specific gravity of 0.90-1.50. The center core has a surface Shore D hardness of 40-95 which is at least 10 units greater than the Shore D hardness of an innermost layer of the outer core. The ball has an excellent click and feel.
A solid golf ball comprising:
A solid golf ball comprising:
A solid golf ball comprising:
A solid golf ball comprising:
A solid golf ball comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Special cores: rigid cores
Solid balls; Rigid hollow balls; Marbles: golf balls
Hardness: centre hardness
Hardness: surface hardness
Term ended 20 Dec 2019 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
The present invention relates to a multi-piece solid golf ball having an improved “click” and “feel” when hit with a golf club.
A variety of multi-piece golf balls, including three-piece and four-piece balls, have been developed over the past few years in order to improve ball performance.
Most of these golf balls have a center core of about 30 mm in diameter that is made of a rubber-based material to maintain the resilience of the golf ball. The rubber center core exerts a large influence on ball performance when the ball is hit. Balls designed for golfers with a high golf club head speed generally have a hard feel when hit, while balls designed for low head speed golfers have too soft a feel. Hence, there has remained substantial room for improvement. That is, balls containing a soft center core have a soft feel while balls containing a hard center core have a hard feel to the full spectrum of golfers, from players of ordinary skill to skilled amateurs and professional golfers.
The sole figure, FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a solid golf ball according to one embodiment of the invention.
Referring to FIG. 1, the solid golf ball of the invention has a solid core 1 enclosed within a cover 2. The solid core 1 has a center core 3 and an outer core 4 which covers the surface of the center core 3 and is itself enclosed by the cover 2. The solid core 1 shown in FIG. 1 is composed of two layers and the cover 2 is composed of a single layer. However, if necessary, the outer core 4 of the solid core 1 may itself be composed of two or more layers, and the cover 2 may be composed of two, three or more layers.
Unlike prior-art golf balls, the center core 3 in the solid core 1 of the inventive golf ball is not made of a rubber composition, but rather is composed primarily of a resin.
Examples of resins that may be used in the center core 3 include known thermoplastic resins and thermoplastic elastomers, such as nylons, polyarylates, ionomer resins, polypropylene resins, thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers and thermoplastic polyester elastomers. Commercially available resins that are highly suitable for this purpose include Surlyn AD8512 (an ionomer resin manufactured by E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Co.), Himilan 1706 and 1707 (ionomer resins manufactured by DuPont-Mitsui Polychemicals Co., Ltd.), Rilsan BMNO (a nylon resin manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc.) and U-Polymer U-8000 (a polyarylate resin manufactured by Unitika, Ltd.).