Titanium, beryllium, tungsten, nickel alloys, composites, advanced ceramics and even diamonds are emerging as possible materials for various sports equipment, in particular golf club components. These materials, due to their unique properties such as weight, strength to weight ratio’s, stiffness, toughness, hardness, and modulus, have the potential to increase the performance of various clubs. In particular, low club weights, localized weighting, high stiffness and high modulus are increasing the use of titanium and opening the possibility for the use of beryllium alloys. These alloys plus the need for assembly and wear resistant ball striking surfaces, make the joining of a combination of materials essential. Many times mechanical or epoxy bonding limits design flexibility, appearance and lowers reliability due to poor epoxy strengths. Thus, metallic joining compounds are needed that can wet and bond a variety of very difficult to join materials. Simultaneously, the joining process must be economical while producing high reliability and quality.

MRi’s S-Bond® is a versatile, ductile bonding process which bond any of the materials an/or any materials combinations, now being considered for golf clubs.

· Stainless steel to titanium/beryllium

· Tungsten to titanium

· Carbides to steel and/or titanium

· Diamonds composites

Its characteristics make S-Bond® suitable for economic processing since the joining can be done in air and without the use of flux. Low temperature processing reduces discoloration and distortion. This minimizes post braze working and clean up operations, which are typically time consuming manual operations. Short heating cycle times, especially using MRi’s induction heating systems, make S-Bond® joining fast. Long furnace brazing or curing times can be eliminated. Additionally, without lead and without the use of chemical fluxes, S-Bond® is an environmentally friendly manufacturing method. It is a metallic joining compound, hence, the performance of the joining is superior to epoxy and mechanical fastened joints. The ultraviolet from the sun, heat damage and stresses from rough handling and cold club storage can degrade epoxies. These circumstances won’t degrade S-Bond® since it is a metallic alloy. Alternatively, mechanical joints can loosen and fracture with use. The metallic S-Bond® braze joint assures the toughness needed to withstand the high striking forces imposed on clubs.

Problem: Inserts for Wear Protection for Surfaces

(Moving Parts and Cutting Surfaces)

Many times moving components in abrasive or erosive environments need to be protected. Examples include slideways, mixers, dies, mandrels, molds, knife blades, conveyor components, etc…The materials that are typically used to protect these metal components are either carbides (e.g. cemented tungsten carbides) or ceramics (e.g. alumina, silicon nitride, even diamond), These materials are typically molded then brazed to the metal surfaces. The current metal/ceramic joining techniques are multi-step, expose the base component to high temperature and require vacuum. Thus, the processes to apply such wear surfaces can be too expensive and/or cannot be easily used in the field. Brazing inserts into blade edges normally exposes the rest of the cutting tools and blades to high temperatures. This can distort the tool and thus create considerable rework or in the worst case render the tool unusable. Additionally, the current vacuum braze processes are expensive and not easy to do in house.

Solution: S-Bond® Joining

The S-Bond® joining processes is a low temperature joining material, which can be heated in air and by design is active and thus readily bond ceramics to metals. These characteristics greatly simplify the joining process for metals to ceramics. This flexibility lowers the processing costs and enables most shops to join previously difficult to join materials. The lower processing temperatures reduce tool discoloration and distortion, thus reducing post joining operations. Provided the cutting interfaces will not exceed 400⁰C (750⁰F), S-Bond® can be a solution for many cutting tool and wear surface applications.

For additional case histories of how MRi’s S-Bond® has solved bonding or joining problems, e-mail: rsmith@materialsresources.com