Golf Balls

The majority of modern high-performance golf balls, often referred to as two-piece balls, are composed of a core and a cover. The core consists of a crosslinked rubber which is required to absorb a huge amount of mechanical energy over a short period of time, with limited deformation and no heat generation.

The recommended product to satisfy these requirements is polybutadiene as it is the most resilient rubber. Other rubbers, natural or synthetic, can be used but the initial speed of the ball and the distance covered will be significantly reduced.

Crosslinking is achieved by curing with peroxide and co-agents, which are incorporated by mixing into the rubber. Rubber processability is critical in achieving optimum mixing and thereby good dynamic properties.

The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) produces three polybutadiene types suitable for golf ball core manufacturing. These combine high resilience due to their high stereospecificity in cis 1.4 isomer, and good processability achieved by an optimized adjustment of molecular branching and molecular weight distribution. The polybutadienes are manufactured in solution. They contain non-staining stabilizers which ensure good storage stability without affecting the peroxide curing kinetics. These products are also characterized by low moisture content which allows the easy control of the manufacture of the golf ball cores.

SE BR-1220LA and SE BR-1203M are both produced in a solution process based on cobalt catalyst. SE BR-1220LA has a low Mooney, high branching and medium molecular weight distribution width. It displays a good behavior in extrusion and provides good resilience. SE BR-1203M is characterized by a higher branching and higher Mooney. It is recommended to enhance dynamical properties.

Buna™ cis 132-Schkopau, manufactured by a solution process using a nickel catalyst, can be added in small quantities to the previously described products to enhance processability. Buna cis 132-Schkopau is characterized by a broad molecular weight distribution.