ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,429,080, issued on Sept. 30, was assigned to JFE STEEL Corp. (Tokyo).
"Friction joining element" was invented by Naoaki Munemura (Tokyo), Hiroshi Matsuda (Tokyo) and Yoshiaki Murakami (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A friction joining element for mechanically joining a sheet set prepared by stacking two or more metal sheets including a high strength steel sheet as an upper sheet. The friction joining element includes a mandrel having an overall length adjusted to be equal to or less than the total thickness of the sheet set, and a collar disposed at an upper portion of the mandrel. The friction joining element has a screw thread o...