Nippon Light Metal Company, Ltd.

Nissan Motor Company Limited

Takeshi Handa

Toshiya Anami

Hisashi Hori

Kosuke Yamanaka

Tomoyuki Hirayama

Kiyomi Tsuchiya

Satoshi Takahashi

Pizhi Zhao

Nobuki Takahashi

Yusuke Nagaishi

Koji Itakura

Tsutomu Hattori

Hirokazu Miyagawa

Shigenori Yoshizawa

Atsushi Oota

Akio Yoshizawa

Fumio Otake

The automatic joining system includes: a fixing device; a friction stir device; a measuring unit; and a controlling device, in which a rotating tool includes a base end side pin and a tip end side pin formed continuously to the base end side pin, the controlling device sets a target moving route along which the rotating tool moves when friction stir joining of a butting portion is performed, based on a ridge line position before the friction stir joining is performed, and also sets a modified moving route at a position displaced toward a first metallic member side in substantially parallel with respect to the target moving route, and the friction stir device controls the rotating tool to move along the modified moving route and thereby performing the friction stir joining along the target moving route.

Automatic joining system

The invention has a feature of comprising a butting process of forming a stepped butted portion and a joining process of performing friction-stir-welding on the stepped butted portion, wherein the rotary tool includes a base side pin having a taper angle larger than a taper angle of a tip side pin, and a pin step portion in a staircase shape is formed on an outer circumferential face of the base side pin, and wherein in the joining process, a rotation direction and a translation method of the rotary tool are set such that the second metal member is on an advancing side, a target angle by which a rotation axis of the rotary tool is inclined toward the second metal member is set such that a burr formed on a front face of the second metal member after the joining process has a thickness between 0 and 130 &#x3bc;m.

Joining method

3000-series aluminum alloy sheet which has a high strength enabling application to automobile body panel and excellent in bendability and shape freezability is provided.

High strength aluminum alloy sheet excellent in bendability and shape freezability and method of production of same

An aluminum alloy sheet which is high in strength and excellent in heat conductivity, and which can be given an anodic oxide coating with a white color and a suitable yellowishness is provided. An aluminum alloy ingot containing Mg: 0.80 to 1.8 mass %, Fe: 0.05 to 0.30 mass %, Si: 0.20 mass % or less, Cu: 0.03 to 0.15 mass %, Mn: 0.05 to 0.20 mass %, and Cr: 0.05 to 0.15 mass %, restricts Zn to less than 0.15 mass %, and balance of Al and unavoidable impurities is treated by holding it at 560 to 620&#xb0; C. for 1 to 5 hours, then hot rolled and, either through or not through process annealing, and cold rolled by a final cold rolling reduction of 15 to 95% to obtain an aluminum alloy sheet which has a 0.2% yield strength of 180 MPa or more and a conductivity of 40 (IACS %) or more.

High strength aluminum alloy sheet for anodic oxide coated material and method of producing same and high strength anodic oxide aluminum alloy sheet

An aluminum alloy sheet includes an aluminum alloy substrate having a composition containing, by mass percentage, 3.0 to 4.0% of magnesium, 0.2 to 0.4% of manganese, 0.1 to 0.5% of iron, not less than 0.03% but less than 0.10% of copper, and less than 0.20% of silicon, with the remainder being aluminum and unavoidable impurities. A peak concentration of a copper concentration distribution in a thickness direction in a region at a depth of 15 nm to 200 nm from the surface of the aluminum alloy substrate is equal to or more than 0.15%, and the aluminum alloy substrate has a recrystallized structure with an average grain size of 15 &#x3bc;m or less.

Aluminum alloy sheet and method for manufacturing same

An aluminum alloy sheet which has high strength enabling application to automobile body sheet and which is excellent in press-formability and shape fixability and a method of production of the same are provided. Aluminum alloy sheet having a composition of ingredients which contains Mg, Fe, and Ti, restricts the impurity Si to less than 0.20 mass %, and has a balance of Al and unavoidable impurities and a metal structure with an average grain size of less than 15 &#x3bc;m and having second phase particles with a circle equivalent diameter of 3 &#x3bc;m or more in a number of less than 300/mmand having a tensile strength of 240 MPa or more, a yield strength of less than 130 MPa, an elongation of 30% or more, and a plane strain fracture limit at a strain rate of 20/sec of 0.20 or more.

Aluminum alloy sheet excellent in press-formability and shape fixability and method of production of same

Growing community of inventors

Shizuoka, Japan

Takeshi Handa