ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 7 -- United States Patent no. 12,594,620, issued on April 7, was assigned to Mazak Corp. (Florence, Ky.).
"Instrumented tool handler for friction stir welding" was invented by Rodney Dale Fleck (Draper, Utah) and Russell J. Steel (Salem, Utah).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A friction stir welding (FSW) tool includes a head, a tool holder and a body between the head and the tool holder and attached to the head and the tool holder. The body may include a plurality of cooling fins. An interior of the body may include a pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, a torque sensor, and a communication node in electronic communication with the pressure sensor, the temperature senso...