Patent Application
20100237136
The present invention relates to a method for connecting a golf club head to a golf club shaft hozel.
When connecting a golf club head to a golf club shaft hozel, the hozel is usually connected to the head by means of welding or gluing, each method possessing certain drawbacks. With welding, the connection is poor if welding club head and the hozel are made of different materials. Welding temperatures higher than the melting point of one of the metals deforms the piece comprised of that metal, and the joint surface between the golf club head and the hozel will not be a flat and smooth surface. In addition, stress fractures and other deformities can be produced by using too high a welding temperature.
Gluing possesses its own drawbacks, primarily lack of strength and long-term durability. While deformation of the materials making up the golf club is minimized, there is a distinct risk that during use, the head will separate from the hozel. A technique of directly bonding and combining the head and hozel with a high strength glue under room temperature is available in the prior art. The upper limit of high-strength bonding glue does not provide enough combining strength to support the stresses of golf club swings and ball striking.
There are several brazing joint processes available in the conventional art. These processes are performed on golf club heads and are used to combine striking plates to heads, and the like.
The present invention applies one of several brazing techniques to the process of joining a golf club head and shaft hozel. The application is applicable to steel and stainless steel head and hozel components, and relies on well-established brazing techniques.
Conventional brazing using steel does not introduce and stress fractures or deformities to the materials via the joining process. The brazing produces a strong join and can be performed without resorting to vacuum or special atmospheres to avoid oxidation problems.
As in
The present invention is the application of brazing to creating the join 103 between hozel 102 and club head 104. The techniques involves using any of a number of brazing metals such as gold, cupric-gold, and nickel and performing the brazing in either a vacuum or an inert atmosphere. The brazed join 103 does not need to be ground down.
The invention can be applied to steel and stainless steel club heads 104, and makes use of any of several well-understood brazing techniques. The join 103 produced is stronger than gluing and does not produce a welding bead not risk deforming the club head 104 or hozel 102. The preferred method is applying cupric-gold alloy using an inert gas brazing technique.
Although the invention has been described and a preferred embodiment has been provided, equivalent features may be employed and substitutions made within this specification without departing from the scope of the invention as recited in the claims.
