Friction stir welding was invented by Wayne Thomas at TWI in December 1991. TWI obtained patents for this in Europe, USA, Japan and a number of other countries (EP0615480, US5460317 & others). The patents cover the friction stir welding process, so anyone using the process needs permission (licence) from TWI. TWI also holds all the rights on a second patent on the process which was filed by Midling et al. in January 1995 (EP0752926, US5813592 & others).
TWI is pleased to offer non-exclusive licences to any potential users on reasonable commercial terms. Special arrangements are available for machine manufacturers, research institutes and universities. More than 230 organisations world-wide currently hold licences.
For further information concerning licensing, please e-mail ipr@twi.co.uk
Known friction stir welding patents and patent applications
TWI collects information on patent and patent applications that involve
friction stir welding.
The database is updated monthly. If you know of any patent applications that have been missed, please send details to
ipr@twi.co.uk TWI cannot supply copies of any of the listed applications. There are a number of web sites providing patent information and copies of patents, including
Espacenet, which provides access to documents from a wide range of countries. Please note that TWI does not endorse or recommend any particular patent information web site and cannot be held responsible from information provided on such sites.
A MS-Excel file containing the latest report on FSW patents from the database is available for download below.
