Eliminating keyholes in friction welding.

Jeff Ding, a welding engineer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and Peter Oelgoetz of the Boeing Co in Huntsville, have designed a revolutionary automatic retractable pin tool for use in friction stir welding.
Friction stir welding uses high rotational make hastes and the resulting frictional heat created from contact to "stir" together and forge a cord between two metal alloys. This welding technique is more reliable and maintains higher material properties than other courses however, the process relies upon the single-piece pin tool.