US 11,883,902 B2
Friction stir welding using a PCBN-based tool
Teresa Rodriguez Suarez, Oxfordshire (GB); Geoffrey Alan Scarsbrook, Oxfordshire (GB); Maria Louise Cann, Oxfordshire (GB); and Josquin Pfaff, Bellach (CH)
Assigned to Element Six (UK) Limited
Appl. No. 17/635,911
Filed by Element Six (UK) Limited, Oxfordshire (GB)
PCT Filed Dec. 19, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/087346
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Feb. 16, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/123398, PCT Pub. Date Jun. 24, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 1918891 (GB), filed on Dec. 19, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2023/0143286 A1, May 11, 2023
Int. Cl. B23K 20/00 (2006.01); B23K 20/12 (2006.01)
CPC B23K 20/1255 (2013.01) 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A friction stir welding tool insert comprising a polycrystalline cubic boron nitride, PCBN, composite material with a textured surface layer, as determined by optical microscopy or scanning electron microscopy, characterised in that the textured surface layer has a depth of between 0.5 and 50 μm, and wherein the textured surface layer comprises a pre-defined repeating pattern, wherein the PCBN composite material comprises cBN particles dispersed in a matrix material comprising a tungsten-rhenium matrix.