Abstract: A friction stir welding tool (1) has a shoulder portion (2) and a probe portion (6) provided on a bottom surface of the shoulder portion (2). The probe portion (6) has a length of 5.5 mm or more. In the friction stir welding tool (1), a ceramic material whose main phase is silicon nitride or sialon is used as a base material.

Abstract: A cutting device includes a cutting tool, a chip guide unit including a hole-shaped chip guiding channel, which includes an inlet and an outlet defined respectively in a vicinity of an area of contact of the cutting tool with a workpiece and at a location remote from the workpiece, and a forced discharge fluid medium supply unit that supplies a fluid medium from a location along the chip guiding channel towards the outlet. The forced discharge fluid medium supply unit includes a fluid supply port defined in an inner wall surface of the chip guiding channel so as to open towards the outlet in a tilted orientation relative to a longitudinal axis of the chip guiding channel. The fluid supply port opens in the inner wall surface of the chip guiding channel over an entire range of circumference thereof.

Abstract: According to the present invention, in a carrying system comprising a carrying vehicle and a manufacturing apparatus the interior of which is kept cleaner than a surrounding environment, manufactured articles to be transferred are prevented from being contaminated by foreign matter or the like attached to transfer ports. A carrying vehicle includes a running unit 14 that runs along a predetermined carrying path, a cleaning unit 12 that supplies cleaned air, a housing section 13 to which the cleaned air is supplied and in which manufactured articles are housed, a transfer port 11 which is formed in a side of a housing and through which a manufactured article is loaded into or unloaded from the housing section 13, and an air injecting section 19A that blows out air toward the transfer port 11.

Abstract: According to the present invention, in a carrying system comprising a carrying vehicle and a manufacturing apparatus the interior of which is kept cleaner than a surrounding environment, manufactured articles to be transferred are prevented from being contaminated by foreign matter or the like attached to transfer ports. A carrying vehicle includes a running unit 14 that runs along a predetermined carrying path, a cleaning unit 12 that supplies cleaned air, a housing section 13 to which the cleaned air is supplied and in which manufactured articles are housed, a transfer port 11 which is formed in a side of a housing and through which a manufactured article is loaded into or unloaded from the housing section 13, and an air injecting section 19A that blows out air toward the transfer port 11.

Abstract: A non-woven fabric for filtering medium having graded packing density. The packing density is the lowest at one surface, and gradually increases towards the other surface at which the packing density becomes the greatest. The gradually increasing packing density and the nearly constant increasing rate of the packing density of the non-woven fabric provide a good filtering efficiency and elongate the life time of a filter.

Abstract: A laminated non-woven fabric for filtering medium, which is composed of a plurality of non-woven fabric layers having different average pore sizes and laminated in the order of the average pore size, and a plurality of entangled regions interposed between any of adjacent two non-woven fabric layers which is formed by causing fibers of one of the adjacent two non-woven fabric layers to penetrate into the other layers to entangle the penetrated fibers with fibers of the other layers. The presence of the entangled regions provide a gradual change of the pore size from a non-woven fabric layer to another non-woven fabric layer to result in a good filtering efficiency and an elongated lifetime of a filter.