TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 872/2007
By S J Mulligan
Background
Adaptive process control during arc welding is the automatic adjustment of process parameters to achieve consistent weld quality at optimum productivity. In most mechanised or automatic production applications, the welding parameters are pre-set prior to welding. The weld quality is therefore heavily reliant on the tolerance of the pre-set welding process condition to the variations in part fit-up experienced in production. In this work, the aim in adaptive process control is to measure the variation in part fit-up or weld geometry using a sensor and optimise the welding condition accordingly. There is a wide range of control strategies.
This report describes work carried out to evaluate laser vision systems for adaptive process control in robotic MAG welding. The work takes advantage of a high level of integration between the vision system, the robot used to manipulate the torch and the welding power source, which was developed in a previous project (Mulligan, 2005).
Objective
To develop an adaptive process control strategy for robotic MAG welding of multipass weld joints using a laser vision system.