Study on the Simultaneous Control of the Seam Tracking and Leg Length in a Horizontal Fillet Welding Part 2: Seam Tracking

For the horizontal fillet welding with one plate in a vertical position, there will be a higher tendency of weld metal falling down rather than for the butt-welding in flat position. Such phenomenon could bring about the overlap or deflection of weld pool, and consequently induce the poor mechanical strength of weldments. Therefore, a precise position control of welding torch in conjunction with the weld qualify plays an important role in welding robot applications. In the present study, an experimental method was proposed for deriving a mathematical model between the leg length and the welding conditions. Finally, an algorithm was proposed for weld seam tracking and improvement of the weld quality. The reliability of the proposed algorithm was evaluated through various experiments, which showed that the proposed algorithm can be very effective for tracking the weld line and simultaneously achieving the sound weld bead.