Patent 7703659 was granted and assigned to Kawasaki on April, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
In the friction stir joining apparatus of the present invention, a rotation control unit variably controls a rotational speed of a rotor; and a straight movement control unit controls a straight movement of the rotor so as to control a pressure applied by the rotor to the object. The tip portion of the rotating rotor is pressed against a workpiece, thus spot joining is executed. The apparatus can execute frictional stirring joining without practical trouble under simple control.