United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of Nasa

Josef Benjamin Cobb

Additive manufacturing systems and methods are disclosed. A housing includes a passageway and an inverted trough that is in fluid communication with the passageway and that is open along two faces of the housing. A pin is at least partially disposed in the housing with its circumferential face being adjacent to the passageway such that a volumetric region lies between the inverted trough and the circumferential face of the pin. The pin is operable to be rotated such that material fed through the passageway is plasticized in the volumetric region. With the first face of the housing adjacent to a substrate as the pin is rotated and the material is fed through the passageway, the plasticized material is deposited onto the substrate as shaped by the inverted trough.

Solid-state additive manufacturing system and method

A self-reacting friction stir welding (SR-FSW) tool includes a crown shoulder having a central bore and a pin that extends through the crown shoulder's central bore. The central bore includes a first region at a first axial end of the crown shoulder, a second region axially adjacent to the first region, and a third region axially adjacent to the second region. The first region and third region have a diameter that provides sliding contact with the pin. The pin and crown shoulder have an annular gap there between at the second region of the central bore.

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Huntsville, AL, United States of America

Josef Benjamin Cobb