A friction stir spot welding apparatus including a controller that (A) operates a rotary driver and a tool driver such that a pin and a shoulder are brought into contact with a welded workpiece; (B) operates, after the (A), the rotary driver and the tool driver such that the pin separates from the welded workpiece; and (C) operates, after the (B), the rotary driver and the tool driver such that the pin advances toward the welded workpiece. The controller controls the tool driver such that pressing force applied to the welded workpiece from the pin and the shoulder in the (C) is smaller than that in the (B) and/or controls the rotary driver such that rotational frequencies of the pin and the shoulder in the (C) are lower than those in the (B).

A method for producing an electrical line arrangement with an electrical conductor and an electrical contact element to be connected thereto includes preparation of the exposed conductor, affixing of a casing open on its two front sides up to the exposed conductor, and forming of a first firmly bonded connection between the exposed conductor and an interior perimeter section of the casing by friction stir welding, by introducing a reaming tool from one front side into the casing and rotating the tool relative to the casing and to the conductor. Additionally, the method includes forming of a second firmly bonded connection between the casing and the contact element.

An aircraft control structure includes first and second outer surfaced joined to a side wall. Stiffening webs extends between the first and second outer surfaces, each stiffening web at least partially surrounding an associated aperture formed in either the first or second outer surface and defining a stiffening recess. Skin plates are sized to extend over an associated stiffening recess and are shaped to conform to an associated aperture. Each skin plate is joined to an associated stiffening web by a friction stir welded seam.

A joined body includes: a main body section including a wall section forming a passage along which a medium for accelerating heat exchange flows; and a cover configured to cover a surface of the main body section, the cover including: a covering section provided on a side facing the main body section and configured to cover the surface; a groove section provided on the side facing the main body section and configured to accommodate an end portion of the wall section; and a stirred joint section provided on a side opposite to a side where the covering section and the groove section are provided, the stirred joint section being at least partly frictionally stirred by a depth reaching a bottom of the groove section from a surface on a side opposite to the side facing the main body section and bonded to the end portion of the wall section.

A method for determining a quality of a friction stir welded seam is described. The method involves applying an impact to a welded plate and comparing its damping capacity with the damping capacity of a geometrically equivalent defect-free plate. Damping capacities that differ by a small percent difference indicate that the welded plate is also defect-free. This method is particularly advantageous when dealing with small defects, which produce miniscule changes in natural frequency which may not be measureable.

The invention relates to tooling for holding parts in position to enable them to be friction welded together in order to construct a hollow structure, the tooling comprises: a framework made up of two frames for receiving the parts for welding together in their positions for forming the hollow structure, said parts comprising preformed parts and an intermediate section; shape-holder members for holding the hollow structure, associating backing thrust members and lateral grip members for gripping the outsides of the preformed parts; anvils suitable for being placed inside the set of preformed parts beside the section; and clamping means operable to take up a clamping position in which they cause opposing thrust to be applied against the anvil and the inside face of a preformed part, its part itself bears against the shape-holder members.

A double-action friction stir joining system, which includes a double-action friction stir joining device, a cleaning mechanism having a dressing member, a robot, and a control device. The double-action friction stir joining device includes a first rotary driver configured to rotate a pin member and a shoulder member, and a tool driver configured to reciprocate the pin member and the shoulder member. The control device is adapted to (A) operate the tool driver so that the pin member is thrusted into the shoulder member, (B) operate the first rotary driver so that the shoulder member rotates, and (C) operate the robot so that the robot holds the double-action friction stir joining device and the dressing member contacts an inner circumferential surface of the shoulder member.

A method for determining a quality of a friction stir welded seam is described. The method involves applying an impact to a welded plate and comparing its damping capacity with the damping capacity of a geometrically equivalent defect-free plate. Damping capacities that differ by a small percent difference indicate that the welded plate is also defect-free. This method is particularly advantageous when dealing with small defects, which produce miniscule changes in natural frequency which may not be measureable.

A method for selecting optimum operation performance criteria for a metal working process. The method includes the step of developing a process model relating process parameters for the operation with performance variables for said operation, wherein the process parameters and performance variables are retrievable via integrated multiple data sources, and selecting at least one optimization technique to define a function, said function including process parameters. Moreover, the method includes generating the function for optimization by using acceptable tolerances of a product to be machined as a basis to define ranges for performance variables along with ranges for process parameters, and applying the at least one optimization technique to said function, whereby optimum operation performance criteria are calculated for the process model including process parameters and performance variables to obtain a set of requirements to be used for controlling the metal working process.

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 sensor, and the torque sensor. The communication node may be in Bluetooth communication with a computing device.