US Patent Issued to Kawasaki Jukogyo on Jan. 20 for "Friction stir welding device and maintenance method for same" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,528,138, issued on Jan. 20, was assigned to Kawasaki Jukogyo K.K. (Kobe, Japan).

"Friction stir welding device and maintenance method for same" was invented by Masahiro Miyake (Kobe, Japan), Ryoji Ohashi (Kobe, Japan), Shuhei Yoshikawa (Kobe, Japan) and Naoki Takeoka (Kobe, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A friction stir welding device includes: a pin extending along an axis; a shoulder having a cylindrical shape and coaxially surrounding an outer periphery of the pin; and a driver that allows the pin and the shoulder to rotate about the axis and to advance and retract along the axis individually. The shoulder includes a shoulder ma...