• International Journal of Korean Welding Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.51-56
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• 2002

The weld seam tracking system for arc welding process uses various kinds of sensors such as arc sensor, vision sensor, laser displacement sensor and so on. Among the variety of sensors available, electro-magnetic sensor is one of the most useful methods especially in sheet metal butt-joint arc welding, primarily because it is hardly affected by the intense arc light and fume generated during the welding process, and also by the surface condition of weldments. In this study, a dual-electromagnetic sensor, which utilizes the induced current variation in the sensing coil due to the eddy current variation of the metal near the sensor, was developed for arc welding of sheet metal I-butt joints. The dual-electromagnetic sensor thus detects the offset displacement of weld line from the center of sensor head even though there's no clearance in the joint. A set of design variables of the sensor was determined far the maximum sensing capability through the repeated experiments. Seam tracking is performed by correcting the position of sensor to the amount of offset displacement every sampling period. From the experimental results, the developed sensor showed the excellent capability of weld seam detection when the sensor to workpiece distance is near less than 5 ㎜, and it was revealed that the system has excellent seam tracking ability for the I-butt joint of sheet metal.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1856-1863
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• 2005

In this study, a visual sensor system for weld seam tracking the I-butt weld joints in GMA welding was constructed. The sensor system consists of a CCD camera, a diode laser with a cylindrical lens and a band-pass-filter to overcome the degrading of image due to spatters and arc light. In order to obtain the enhanced image, quantitative relationship between laser intensity and iris opening was investigated. Throughout the repeated experiments, the shutter speed was set at 1/1000 second for minimizing the effect of spatters on the image, and therefore the image without the spatter traces could be obtained. Region of interest was defined from the entire image and gray level of the searched laser stripe was compared to that of weld line. The differences between these gray levels lead to spot the position of weld joint using central difference method. The results showed that, as long as weld line is within $\pm15^{o}$ from the longitudinal straight line, the system constructed in this study could track the weld line successfully. Since the processing time is no longer than 0.05 sec, it is expected that the developed method could be adopted to high speed welding such as laser welding.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.79-88
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• 1996

For improvement in productivity and weld quality, weld seam tracking and welding parameter control are very essential in the welding of a structure which can not be cxactly fit-up due to mismatch, discontinous gap, deflection, etc.. In this study, an automatic weld seam tracking system is developed for I-butt joint structure, and the system consists of XYZ working table, vision sensor and user interface program. In the developed vision sensor system, an image projection algorithm for weld-line detection and an adaptive current control algorithm for gap variation were implemented. The user interface program developed in this study by basing on the objct oriented concept could provide very convenient way to utilize the tracking system with the pull-down menu driven structure. The developed system showed a good seam tracking and weld quality control capability corresponding to deflected weld lines and gap variations.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.43-49
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• 2004

In this study, a visual sensor system which can detect I-butt weld joint with height variation and includes a seam tracking algorithm was investigated. Three-dimensional position of an object can be acquired by using the method of distance measurement, i.e., an optical trigonometry which results from the spatial relations between the camera, the object and the structured light by a visible laser. Effects of laser intensity and iris number for the image quality as well as object material were investigated for the optical system design. For the image processing, a region of interest is defined from the whole image and a line image of laser is drew by using the gray level difference in the image. From the drew laser line, the weld joint can be recognized in searching the biggest point position calculated from the central difference method. Through a series of welding experiments, a good tracking performance was confirmed under GMA welding.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.21-23
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• 2000

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.179-185
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• 2001

In this study, a visual sensor system for weld seam tracking the I-butt weld joints in GMA welding was constructed. The sensor system consists of a CCD camera, a diode laser with a cylindrical lens and a band-pass-filter to overcome the degrading of image due to spatters and arc light. In order to obtain the enhanced image, quantitative relationship between laser intensity and iris number was investigated. Throughout the repeated experiments, the shutter speed was set at 1-milisecond for minimizing the effect of spatters on the image, and therefore most of the spatter trace in the image have been found to be reduced. Region of interest was defined from the entire image and gray level of searched laser line was compared to that of weld line. The differences between these gray levels lead to spot the position of weld joint using central difference method. The results showed that, as long as weld line was within $^\pm$15$^\circ$from the longitudinal straight fine, the system constructed in this study could track the weld line successful1y. Since the processing time reduced to 0.05 sec, it is expected that the developed method could be adopted to high speed welding such as laser welding.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.461-466
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• 2013

This paper examines the characteristics of butt welding joint shrinkage for shipbuilding and marine structures main plate. The shrinkage strain of butt welding joint which is caused by the process of heat input and cooling, results in the difference between dimensions of the actual parent metal and the dimensions of design. This, in turn, leads to poor quality in the production of ship blocks and reworking through period of correction brings about impediment on improvement of productivity. Through experiments on butt welding joint's shrinkage strain on large structures main plate, the deformation of welding residual stress in the form of I, Y, V was obtained. In addition, the results of experiments indicate that there is limited range of shrinkage in the range of 1 ~ 2 mm in 11t ~ 21.5t thickness and the effect of heat transfer of weld appears to be limited within 1000mm based on one side of seam line so there was limited impact of weight of parent metal on the shrinkage. Finally, it has been learned that Shrinkage margin needs to be applied differently based on groove phenomenon in the design phase in order to minimize shrinkage.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.21-24
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• 2008

Hybrid laser welding technology is a good process to reduce a thermal distortion and increase the productivity. However, it requires a high investment and a massive modification of the fabrication line such as a gantry system, milling machine for the edge preparation, high power laser system and weld machine. Therefore the development of an economical laser welding system is a crucial point to apply this system in shipbuilding yard. In this study, a portable hybrid laser welding carriage was developed for I-butt joint without edge milling. It is expected that the carriage type system could reduce investment cost.