Patent ID: 7896216

Claim:
A sticking pad incorporated into a friction stir welding machine including a vehicle and capable of welding plural workpieces together by friction stir welding with a welding tool while traveling along the workpieces, and capable of being brought into contact with an object to keep the welding tool in contact with the workpieces by attraction and of being selectively set in either of an operative state in which the sticking pad is in contact with the object to make attraction effective and an inoperative state in which the sticking pad is separated from the object to make attraction ineffective, wherein the sticking pad further includes: an elastic, annular sealing member capable of surrounding a suction space and sealing the suction space; and a slippery member attached to a surface of the sealing member facing the object, and made of a material that makes the slippery member contact the object with a friction coefficient lower than that with which the sealing member can be in contact with the object.