TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 416/1990
By R Birrell and J Weston
Background
This study examined techniques for integrating a geometric model of MIG/MAG multipass fillet welding with a commercial optical sensor and welding robot. The aim being to search for and track automatically the weld joint while stacking the weld beads according to the predictions of a weld geometry model. The geometric model represents the intelligence of the welding system.
In computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) and flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) it will be necessary to have intelligent welding sensor systems, such as that demonstrated, to enable compensation to be made for differences which occur between the design and the shopfloor components.