A friction stir welding equipment according to an embodiment includes a spindle unit, a holder, and a moving part; the spindle unit is capable of rotating a tool; the holder is connectable to the tool via a radial bearing and is capable of holding at least one of a side surface of a processing member or a rim of an upper surface of the processing member; and the moving part is capable of changing relative positions of the tool and the holder with respect to the processing member.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, a friction stir processing tip is provided for a friction stir processing device. The friction stir processing tip includes a body having a central longitudinal axis, a friction stir processing portion of the body, and a connecting portion of the body configured to connect to a tip holder of the friction stir processing device. The connecting portion includes splines configured to receive a torque from the tip holder for rotating the body about the central longitudinal axis.

A continuous feed method for friction stir processing includes continuously feeding a tubular material having a first grain microstructure from a bulk source into a processing chamber, and forcing the tubular material between a die and a textured end portion of a mandrel as the tubular material is advanced through the chamber. The continuous feed method further includes rotating the mandrel within the tubular material while forcing the tubular material across the textured end portion to friction stir process the tubular material and transform a structure of the tubular material from the first grain microstructure to a second grain microstructure. The second grain microstructure is a finer equiaxed grain microstructure than the first grain microstructure. The method further includes converting the tubular material having the second grain microstructure into a stiffened sheet form.

A friction stir welding tool includes a rotation-symmetrical shaft having a proximal end, a distal end, and a pin, which is arranged concentrically about the rotation axis and which has a smaller diameter than the shaft at the proximal end thereof, and thus projects as compared to a shoulder region of the shaft. The shaft, at least in the shoulder region, and the pin each consists of a high-temperature-resistant metal or an alloy thereof. The pin and/or the shaft in the shoulder region consist of or are coated by a composite material, which substantially consists of molybdenum, tungsten, niobium or tantalum or an alloy of at least one of these metals, and a reinforcement phase embedded therein and consisting of at least one material having a Mohs hardness >6, a micrometer particle size, and a free enthalpy of formation at 1300 K of less than 350 kJ/mol O.sub.2.

A method for operating a double-action friction stir welding device including a welding tool having a pin member and a shoulder member, a projection/retraction mechanism for causing the pin member to project/retract relative to the shoulder member, a rotation mechanism for rotating a welding tool, and an advancing/retracting mechanism for advancing/retracting the welding tool, the method including cleaning at least one of the outer circumferential surface of the pin member and the inner circumferential surface of a through hole of the shoulder member on the basis of the level of an adhesion parameter correlated with the degree of adhesion of the material of a welding object, caused by friction stir welding, on the outer circumferential surface of the pin member and the inner circumferential surface of the through hole of the shoulder member.

The repair/modification method for metallic substrates according to the present invention includes: a step for preparing a metallic substrate having a first region that is divided in an in-plane direction of the substrate, the first region containing a defect and/or a structurally discontinuous portion; and a step for repairing the defect and/or modifying the structurally discontinuous portion by pressing a friction tool which does not have a probe against a top surface of the first region while rotating the friction tool so as to generate frictional heat while pressing on the top surface.

A liquid cooling jacket is produced by forming a first butted portion where a step side face of a peripheral wall portion and an outer peripheral side face of a sealing body butt each other and a third butted portion where a step side face of a support pillar portion and a hole wall of the hole portion of the sealing body portion butt each other with a gap, and friction-stirring by inserting a tip side pin and a base side pin of a primary joining rotary tool that is rotating into the sealing body and moving the primary joining rotary tool along the third butted portion with an outer circumferential face of the tip side pin being kept off the step side face while having a second aluminum alloy of the sealing body flow into the gap.

A technique for producing tailored metal blanks composed of two pieces having different thickness involves modifying at least one piece to include a transition region. A thickness of a modified piece changes over the transition region so that a substantially similar thickness is provided along a joint of the two pieces. The two pieces, subsequent to modification, are joined via a welding process, which may be a laser welding process or a friction stir welding process.

A friction stir welding method is provided that can prevent defective welding due to a shortage of metal. The friction stir welding method welds metal members (1, 2) using a primary joining rotary tool (F) having a stirring pin (F2), and includes steps of: butting in which the metal members (1, 2) are butted with each other at an angle to form a butted portion (J1); buildup welding in which buildup welding is applied along an inner corner of the metal members (1, 2) formed in the butting step to cover the inner corner by a weld metal (M); and inner corner joining in which only the stirring pin (F2) in rotation is inserted in the inner corner to plastically fluidize the weld metal (M) and the metal members (1, 2) for friction stir welding of the butted portion (J1).

The present invention is characterized by including a heat medium pipe insertion process to insert a heat medium pipe into a concave groove; a lid plate insertion process to insert a lid plate into a lid groove; and a joining process to perform friction stirring while a primary joining rotary tool provided with a base side pin and a tip side pin is moved along a butted portion of a side wall of the lid groove and a side face of the lid plate, wherein in the joining process, friction stirring is performed while the tip side pin of the primary rotary tool which is rotating is inserted into the butted portion and an outer circumferential face of the base side pin is in contact with the base member and the lid plate, and plastically fluidized material fluidized by frictional heat is flowed into a void portion formed adjacent to the heat medium pipe.