Application And Development Of Titanium Alloy In Sports Equipment

As a high-quality material, titanium alloy has been widely used in a variety of sports equipment, such as bicycles, motorboats, tennis rackets and harness. However, in these applications, the scale and influence of titanium alloy cannot be compared with the application in the field of golf head.

Since the late 1980s, Japan has taken the lead in the research on titanium alloy precision-cast golf heads, and has achieved remarkable results. The small density and high strength of titanium alloy make it possible to produce a ball head with a larger strike surface and volume. This characteristic makes the titanium alloy golf head both accurate and long-range when hitting the ball. More importantly, when the titanium alloy precision-cast ball head hits the ball, the athlete can feel an excellent sense of the ball, and the sound of hitting the ball is pleasant and beautiful. Therefore, investment precision-cast titanium alloy ball heads have been greatly developed. In Japan, 90% of the club ball heads use titanium ball heads. At the same time, mass production of titanium castings for golf head putters (commonly known as iron heads) has also begun.

The development of titanium alloy golf heads is inseparable from the continuous progress of titanium alloy precision casting technology. Although the internal metallurgical quality requirements of the golf head are not strict, and small areas of looseness are allowed, the surface quality requirements are extremely strict, and even exceed the quality standards of aviation titanium alloy precision castings. The wall thickness of the golf head is usually only 1.4 mm, and some even reach 1.0 to 1.2mm, which has exceeded the minimum allowable wall thickness of 1.5 mm stipulated by the international titanium alloy precision castings standard. In addition, the range of the thin-walled area of the ball head often exceeds the area of 50 mm×50 mm, which poses huge challenges to casting technology.