ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,365,046, issued on July 22, was assigned to Kawasaki Jukogyo K.K. (Kobe, Japan).
"Friction stir spot welder and friction stir spot welding method" was invented by Yutaro Konno (Tokyo) and Masahiro Miyake (Kobe, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A friction stir spot welder includes: a pin; a shoulder; a rotary driver; a tool driver; and circuitry that performs an operation of driving the rotary driver and the tool driver such that the pin and the shoulder press a workpiece by a first pressing force while rotating at a first rotational frequency, and after the operation, performs an operation of driving the rotary driver and the tool dr...