A friction stir welding tool and method, by which influence on durability of the tool is suppressed even when resistance force generated when the tool moves for joining acts on facing end portions of workpieces which are located close to an attachment side of the tool. The tool includes: a stirring shaft; a first shoulder portion provided to be unrotatable relative to the shaft and configured to rotate together with the shaft when it rotates; a second shoulder portion provided to be unrotatable relative to the shaft and configured to rotate together with the shaft when it rotates; and a third shoulder portion attached around the shaft located between the first and second shoulder portions, and includes an inclination preventing portion to prevent inclination of the shaft by contacting the workpieces to receive reaction force from the workpieces when the shaft is made to move along joining lines.

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, the 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 friction stir welding tool (1) has a shoulder portion (2) and a probe portion (6) provided on a bottom surface of the shoulder portion (2). The probe portion (6) has a length of 5.5 mm or more. In the friction stir welding tool (1), a ceramic material whose main phase is silicon nitride or sialon is used as a base material.

Provided is a double-side friction stir welding method of metal sheets or metal plates to each other, and a double-side friction stir device for performing the double-side friction stir welding. According to the present invention, a pair of rotating tools facing each other is respectively arranged on a top-surface side and a bottom-surface side of a butted portion or an overlapping portion, which comprises a joint portion of two metal sheets or two metal plates, the pair of rotating tools is moved in a welding direction while being rotated at the butted portion or the overlapping portion, and while the metal sheets or the metal plates are softened by frictional heat generated between the rotating tools and the metal sheets or the metal plates, softened parts are stirred by the rotating tools to produce a plastic flow to join the metal sheets or the metal plates to each other.

A friction stir welding device includes: a probe capable of pressing a welding target part of a workpiece while rotating; a shoulder externally surrounding an outside of the probe, on a plane intersecting a rotation axis of the probe; a shoulder attachment member provided with the shoulder; and a flow path formed at a contact part between the shoulder and the shoulder attachment member and adapted to allow a cooling medium to flow therethrough.

Device for machining an end of an elementary panel for its subsequent friction stir welding, the elementary panel comprising a metal body defining two opposite faces, the machining device comprising a chassis, at least two guiding members configured to guide a first face of the elementary panel, at least one machining tool mounted on the chassis, the machining tool being positioned between the two guiding members and at least one pressure member mounted on the chassis and configured to exert a pressure on a second face of the elementary panel so as to press the elementary panel against the guiding members along the horizontal reference direction.

A method for manufacturing a liquid-cooling jacket (1) where heat transfer fluid flows in a hollow part (14) defined by a jacket body (2) and a sealing body (3) includes: an overlapping process in which the sealing body (3) is placed on an end surface (11a) of a peripheral wall part (11) in such a way that the end surface (11a) and a back surface of the sealing body (3) are overlapped each other to form a first overlapped part (H1); and a primary joining process in which primary joining is performed by friction stirring in such a way that a rotary tool (FD) is moved once around a recessed part (13) along the first overlapped part (H1). In the primary joining process, in a state where a base side pin of the rotary tool (FD) is in contact with the sealing body (3), a flat surface of the base (tip) side pin is brought in contact with only the sealing body (3), and a tip of a projection projecting from the flat surface is inserted more deeply than the first overlapped part (H1) to join the first overlapped part (H1).

In a double-acting friction stir spot welding device or a double-acting friction stir spot welding method, a pin member and a cylindrical shoulder member that rotates around the axis of the pin member are used as rotary tools, and a clamp member that has a cylindrical shape positioned so as to surround the outside of the shoulder member and is configured to press a workpiece from an obverse surface with an annular pressing surface of the distal end is used as a holding jig. The clamp member has an inclined surface that is adjacent to the inner edge portion of the pressing surface and inclined so as to reduce the inner diameter of the clamp member toward the back side as viewed from the pressing surface.

The invention relates to a connecting element (10) having a hollow-cylindrical shaft (12) and a drive (16), via which the shaft (12) can be driven in a direction of rotation, wherein the hollow-cylindrical shaft (12) has at least one free end, wherein the drive (16) is arranged opposite the free end, wherein a hollow space is formed by the hollow-cylindrical shaft (12). The invention is characterized in that driver structures (22) acting in the circumferential direction of the hollow-cylindrical shaft (12) are arranged in the hollow space, which, projected on the lateral surface, are arranged to extend in the setting direction on the lateral surface, rectilinearly parallel to the element mid-axis (M) or with an angular deviation of at most 20° with respect to the element mid-axis (M), and/or are arranged at the end on the drive side.

A method for manufacturing a liquid-cooling jacket (1) where heat transfer fluid flows in a hollow part (14) defined by a jacket body (2) and a sealing body (3) includes: an overlapping process in which the sealing body (3) is placed on an end surface (11a) of a peripheral wall part (11) in such a way that the end surface (11a) and a back surface of the sealing body (3) are overlapped each other to form a first overlapped part (H1); and a primary joining process in which primary joining is performed by friction stirring in such a way that a rotary tool (F1) is moved once around a recessed part (13) along the first overlapped part (H1). In the primary joining process, the first overlapped part (H1) is joined in a state where the tip side pin is in contact with only the sealing body (3) or with the jacket body (2) and the sealing body (3) while the base side pin is in contact with the sealing body (3).