Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – Longitudinally progressive helical winding means
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-18
2001-02-27
Aftergut, Jeff (Department: 1733)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
Longitudinally progressive helical winding means
C156S430000, C242S444000, C242S445100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06192958
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method of, and an apparatus for, producing a fiber-reinforced resin golf club shaft. More particularly, this invention relates to a method of, and an apparatus, for producing a fiber-reinforced resin golf club shaft which can carry out continuously, and simultaneously and in one process step an operation of winding a tape made of an organic polymer on the full length of a shaft substrate and an operation of winding a tape on only a part of the shaft substrate.
When the shaft weight of golf club shafts in general is reduced for the same shaft length, a moment using a certain point in the proximity of a grip portion as a support point (or a swing balance) becomes small. Therefore, head speed and controllability of a ball's orbit can be improved, flying distance can be increased and directionality can be stabilized. When the shaft weight is decreased for the same swing balance, the club length can be increased and the head weight can be increased, as well. Therefore, an increase in flying distance can be expected.
However, when the shaft weight is decreased, its strength becomes insufficient. To supplement this insufficiency, partial reinforcement of the shaft must be made. Greater reinforcement is necessary particularly for the tip side (the fitting side of the shaft to the head) which receives the greatest impact force when a ball is hit by the club head. In the case of fiber-reinforced resin golf club shafts, for example, the number of laminate layers of a fiber-reinforced resin sheet is increased on the tip side when the shaft is made.
When the reinforcement structure described above is employed, however, the centroid position of the shaft shifts towards the tip side. Therefore, even when the shaft weight is decreased, the swing balance of the shaft can be hardly reduced. Further, the effect of an increase of the head weight and the effect of an increase of the shaft length cannot be expected, either, at the same swing balance by merely reducing the total weight.
An inventor of the present invention previously filed patent application Ser. No. 08/533,748 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,861) for a shaft having the structure of a fiber-reinforced resin golf club shaft which solves the problems described above. In this golf club shaft, a tape made of an organic polymer is wound only on the distal end portion of the shaft by varying a winding pitch.
When such a fiber-reinforced resin golf club shaft is molded, shape retention of an uncured fiber-reinforced resin, discharge of an excessive resin and volume compression of air are carried out at the time of molding of the shaft. Therefore, a tape wrapping step of winding a heat-shrinkable polymer having good mold releasability on the full length of the shaft is necessary.
According to the prior art method, however, at least two steps, that is, a step of wrapping the tape at the distal end portion and the step of wrapping the tape on the shaft throughout its full length, are necessary, and there remains the problem that the work efficiency and productivity are extremely low.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of, and apparatus for, producing a fiber-reinforced resin gold club shaft which can wind continuously and simultaneously two kinds of tapes in one process step when the tapes are wound on a shaft substrate made of a fiber-reinforced resin.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of, and an apparatus for, producing a fiber-reinforced resin golf club shaft which can wind at least one of two kinds of tapes at variable pitches.
To accomplish the object described above, the present invention provides a method for producing a golf club shaft made of a fiber-reinforced resin which comprises the steps of rotating a shaft substrate made of an uncured fiber-reinforced resin about an axis thereof, moving a plurality of creel stands in parallel in the axial direction of the shaft substrate, feeding out tapes from a plurality of the creel stands, and winding and laminating the tapes simultaneously and spirally on the outermost layer of the shaft substrate for integrally molding them while the rotating speed of the shaft substrate and the moving speed of the creel stands are being controlled simultaneously.
When a golf club shaft is produced by such a method, two kinds of tapes can be wound continuously and simultaneously in one process step. According to the method described above, the winding pitch of the tapes can be varied by controlling the moving speed of the creel stands. Therefore, the winding can be carried out efficiently without the necessity for re-setting and exchanging the creel stands that have been necessary in the past.
In the present invention, a reinforcing tape made of an organic polymer and a shape-retaining tape made of a heat-shrinkable polymer are preferably used as the plurality of tapes described above. The combination of such tapes makes it possible to simultaneously carry out the winding step of the tape constituting a reinforcement layer and the winding step of the shape-retaining tape. In this case, the reinforcing tape needs be wound in only the distal end region of the shaft substrate which requires reinforcement, while the shape-retaining tape may be wound on the shaft substrate throughout its full length. When the moving speed of the creel stand for the reinforcing tape is gradually decreased from the rear end side of the shaft substrate towards its distal end, the thickness of the reinforcement layer can be made smaller on the rear end side of the shaft substrate and greater on the distal end side.
On the other hand, a production apparatus for producing a fiber-reinforced resin golf club shaft according to the present invention for accomplishing the objects described above comprises a support shaft for supporting a cylindrical shaft substrate molded from an uncured fiber-reinforced resin, a driving motor for driving and rotating the support shaft, a feed screw disposed in parallel with the support shaft, another driving motor for driving and rotating the feed screw, which motor is different from the driving motor described above, a plurality of nuts meshing with the feed screw, creel stands for tapes made of organic polymers, supported by the nuts, respectively, still another driving motor for driving and rotating a part of a plurality of the nuts, which driving motor is different from the two driving motors described above, and a controller for controlling the rotating speed of each of the driving motors. In this case, it is preferred that the two nuts are provided, one of the nuts supports the creel stand for a shape-retaining tape made of a heat-shrinkable organic polymer, the other nut supports the creel stand for a reinforcing tape made of an organic polymer having high strength and high elastic modulus, and the nut supporting the reinforcing tape is driven and rotated by the driving motor.
Further, a production apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin golf club shaft according to the present invention comprises a support shaft for supporting a cylindrical shaft substrate molded from an uncured fiber-reinforced resin, a driving motor for driving and rotating the support shaft, a plurality of feed screws disposed in parallel with the support shaft, a plurality of driving motors for individually driving and rotating a plurality of feed screws, each being different from the driving motor described above, a plurality of nuts each meshing with each of a plurality of the feed screws, a plurality of creel stands for tapes made of organic polymers, supported by a plurality of the nuts, respectively, and a controller for controlling the rotating speed of each of the driving motors. In this case, it is preferred that two feed screws are provided, the nut meshing with one of the feed screws supports the creel stand for a shape-retaining tape made of a heat-shrinkable organic polymer, and the nut meshing with the other of the feed screws supports the creel stand for a reinforcing tape mad
Ishii Tetsuya
Yamamoto Shinji
Aftergut Jeff
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.
LandOfFree
Apparatus for producing fiber-reinforced resin golf club shaft does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Apparatus for producing fiber-reinforced resin golf club shaft, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Apparatus for producing fiber-reinforced resin golf club shaft will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2583395