技術資料
ゴルフ用強靭β-Ti合金Ti-15V-6Cr-4Alの開発
2004 年 75 巻 2 号 p. 127-131
詳細
2004 年 75 巻 2 号 p. 127-131
Titanium alloys, high strength and low density materials as compared with steels, have been popularly used for golf club heads of drivers and fairway woods. The advantage of titanium alloys is to realize an oversized club head with a large sweet spot without increasing overall weight of a golf club. So far great effort has been made to produce the oversized golf club head. However, the larger the club head become, the thinner the wall of the club head is required. In order to make the wall thin further, the development of a new titanium alloy that has higher strength and toughness than conventional alloys is necessary.
In this study, to develop a new beta-titanium alloy for the golf club heads, optimization of chemical composition of a Ti-V-Cr-Al alloy system was carried out based on a conventional beta titanium alloy Ti-22V-4Al. Chromium, one of the solid solution strengthening elements of the beta phase, was employed to enhance the strength of alloys. Vanadium content was optimized to obtain good ductility and to control age hardening speed.
After the solution and aging treatment, one of the designed alloys, Ti-15V-6Cr-4Al, showed excellent combination of strength and toughness as compared with conventional beta alloy Ti-22V-4Al. Further, the combination between tensile strength and ductility of this alloy was improved by cold working and age-hardening.
The performance test of golf club heads fabricated by this developed alloy Ti-15V-6Cr-4Al revealed good durability as compared with conventional alloy heads made by Ti-22V-4Al and Ti-15V-3Al-3Cr-3Sn.
