Auto-focus Control by Chromatic Filtering in Laser Welding

Optical monitoring using the chromatic aberration of focusing optics is applied to auto-focus control in laser welding. The spectral transmittance of thermal radiation from a weld pool through an aperture depends on the wavelength of the spectral band and on the distance of the weld pool from the focusing optics. Its dependence has been used to monitor the focus shift in laser welding by measuring the spectral band signals filtered by the aperture. The difference between pulsed and continuous laser welding is analyzed. Furthermore, the dependence of the focus shift monitoring on the weld pool size variation is optimized to monitor the focus shift independently from the laser power change at the weld pool. The performance of the auto-focus control with chromatic filtering is presented for pulsed laser welding.