Patent Application
20080178458
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a golf club head joining method, particularly to a joining method that enables the golf club head joint by utilizing available soldering metal materials on the market.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional methods for joining a golf club head body with a ball striking surface are employing an adhering method to join the two, or a fitting method wherein a golf club head body and a ball striking surface are designed to be operatively coupled into one body by applying an external force to join or interlock the two.
However, both the adhering method and fitting method have many drawbacks. For example, the adhering method facilitates the joining of a golf club head body and a ball striking surface, nevertheless, the method is unable to realize the appearance of being finished after the golf club head body and the ball striking surface glued into one because of exposed glued area. Therefore cladding is additionally required as the final process, which can only be done once the whole golf club head is composed of conductive metal. If cladding is carried out separately, it will be impossible to address the cladding planarity problem of the whole exterior. Moreover, there will be the disadvantages of a complicated manufacturing process and raised costs. Similarly, the fitting method requires applying putty on the gaps for a more complete appearance. However, the cladding process conceals gaps poorly with all of them remaining visible on the exterior.
Furthermore, a soldering process may be used for joining a golf club head body with a ball striking surface, but a soldering metal material must simultaneously affix to both materials of the body and the ball striking surface. It is time consuming to search for or develop new soldering metal materials that conform to requirements, thus limiting the applications of a soldering process to the joining operation of the golf club head, with the solder material incurring several additional costs.
Consequently, a conventional golf club head joint is restricted by certain soldering metal materials. This lack of a more effective joining method for a golf club head creates a great need for one.
In view of these problems associated with conventional techniques, the present invention for a golf club head joining method is disclosed hereafter to solve the appearance defect problem due to conventional golf club head joining methods without increasing additional costs for finding suitable soldering metal material for the joining process.
To achieve this objective, the present invention provides a golf club head joining method which utilizes a solder joining process comprising the step of providing a first component, the step of providing a second component, the step of applying a coating of active metal or compounds suitable to be affixed with a soldering metal material on the first component and the second component, and finally joining the first component to the second component. First, manufacture the first component from a metal material and give it a joining surface. Next, manufacture the second component also from a metal material and give it a joining surface. Then, apply a coating of active metal or compounds suitable to be affixed with a soldering metal material on the first component and the second component. Finally, attach the first component to the second component, completely affixing the first component to the second component and adding the soldering metal material for the joining of the two. Begin the heating process on the first component and the second component to melt the soldering metal material into the attached surface between the first component and the second component, thereby joining the first component and the second component together.
The present invention of this golf club head joining method achieves the following effects:
To realize the objectives, the present invention discloses a golf club head joining method by utilizing a solder joining process, wherein a coating of active metal or compounds suitable to be affixed with a soldering metal material is applied for a joining operation. Therefore, it is not necessary to spend time searching for or developing new soldering metal materials, thus the joining operation is not restricted by the solder material and significant time and costs are saved. Moreover, the present invention more effectively utilizes materials that have largely varying melting points such that there are no limitations to what kind of materials can be used in golf club heads. In addition, as the work piece is coated by a layer of active metal or compounds for protection, the subsequent golf club head soldering process is therefore only required to be protected by inert gas to avoid high temperatures and oxidation.
A detailed description of the objectives, composition and traits of the present invention is given in the following embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The present invention can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description and examples with references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring to
Referring to
Moreover, the first components 10a and 10c are also able to respectively be a golf club head top or a ball striking surface, where the second components 20a and 20c also able to respectively be the main bodies of each, and where the first component 10b and the second component 20b are respectively a frame border and a frame body.
In addition, a third preferred embodiment of the golf club head joining method S1 shows that the first component 10a is low-melting-point metal and the second component 20a is high-melting-point metal. The method S1 utilizes the steps to join the first component to the second component as the golf club head 1, in which the melting point of the soldering metal material is lower than that of the first component 10a.
The first components 10a, 10b and 10c and the second components 20a, 20b and 20c are heated with a laser, a gas flame gun or an infrared heat gun, or the first components 10a, 10b and 10c and the second components 20a, 20b and 20c are heated in a continuous furnace or a gas furnace by inert gas injection, here the inert gas may be nitrogen, argon or helium. The first components 10a, 10b and 10c and the second components 20a, 20b and 20c are heated by inert gas injection, so that the soldering metal material is able to be melted into the first components 10a, 10b and 10c and the second components 20a, 20b and 20c without causing oxidation during the joining process, thereby enabling the first components 10a, 10b and 10c and the second component 20a, 20b and 20c to be joined together. In addition, the first components 10a, 10b and 10c and the second components 20a, 20b and 20c can be able to be heated in a vacuum furnace under vacuum conditions.
For the application of a coating of active metal or compounds suitable to be affixed with a soldering metal material on the first component and the second component (Step S30), the surfaces of the first components 10a, 10b and 10c and the second components 20a, 20b and 20c are coated via physical vapour deposition (PVD) method, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, electroplating coating method, electroless plating method, and thermal spray method. Moreover, the soldering metal material may be lead, zinc, indium, antimony or tin, where the metals are made of solid-state soldering sheet, soldering rod or semi-liquid solder paste.
While the present invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the present invention is not limited thereto. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements (as would be apparent to those skilled in the art). Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 096103075 | Jan 2007 | TW | national |
