US Patent Issued to NIPPON LIGHT METAL on Sept. 23 for "Rotary tool, joining device, and joining method" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,420,354, issued on Sept. 23, was assigned to NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).

"Rotary tool, joining device, and joining method" was invented by Nobushiro Seo (Shizuoka, Japan), Ryo Yoshida (Shizuoka, Japan), Shingo Koizumi (Shizuoka, Japan) and Keita Oikawa (Shizuoka, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A rotary tool includes: a main body having a fixed unit and a rotary shaft; a stirring pin rotatable and movable relative to an axial direction of the rotary shaft, and inserted into a joint member to perform friction stirring; and a shoulder that is arranged on the main body so as not to receive a rotary force from the main bod...