• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.175-183
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• 2001

Various welding processes are now available for end cap closure of nuclear fuel element such as TG(Tungsten Inert Gas) welding, magnetic resistance welding and laser welding. Even though the resistance and TIG welding processes are widely used for manufacturing commercial fuel elements, they can not be recommended for the remote seal welding of a fuel element at a hot cell facility due to the complexity of electrode alignment, difficulity in the replacement of parts in the remote manner and a large heat input for a thin sheath. Therefore, the Nd:YAG laser system using optical fiber transmission was selected for Zircaloy-4 end cap welding inside hot cell. The laser welding apparatus was developed using a pulsed Nd:YAG laser of 500 watt average power with optical fiber transmission. The weldability of laser welding was satisfactory with respect to the microstructures and mechanical properties comparing with TIG and resistance welding. The optimum operation processes of laser welding and the optical fiber transmission system for hot cell operation in a remote manner have been developed The effects of irradiation on the properties of the laser apparatus were also being studied.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.193-196
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• 2003

We have developed a laser welding monitoring system to monitor laser welding process conditions such as sample feed rate, laser focal position, and laser power. A 2 ㎾ Nd:YAG CW laser beam has been applied to the welding of a stainless steel plate (SUS306) to investigate the welding monitoring. Theradiation signal from the weld pool was guided back through the focusing optics and the laser delivery fiber, and measured by a photo detector. By changing the focus of the laser beam along the z-direction, the penetration depth of the welding material has been measured. That shows the penetration depth depends on the frequency fluctuations of the plume signals which can be used in welding quality control.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.20-25
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• 2003

Various welding methods such as Gas Tungsten Arc Welding(GTAW), magnetic force electrical resistance welding and Laser Beam Welding(LBW) are now available for end cap closure of nuclear fuel rods. Even though the resistance and GTA welding processes are widely used in manufacturing commercial fuel rods, they can not be recommended for the remote seal welding of fuel rods in the hot cell Facility due to the complexity of the electrode alignment, the difficulty in replacing parts in a remote manner and the large heat input for the thin sheath. Therefore, the Nd:YAG laser system using optical fiber transmission was selected for the end cap welding of irradiation fuel rods in the hot cell. The remote laser welding apparatus in the hot cell Facility was developed using a pulsed Nd:YAG laser of 500 watt average power with an optical fiber transmission. The weldment quality such as microstructure and mechanical strength was satisfactory. The optimum conditions of laser welding for encapsulating irradiation fuel rods in the hot cell were obtained.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Laser Processing Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.17-20
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• 2006

In the remote welding system using $CO_2$ laser, laser beam is rapidly deflected by moving mirrors of scanner system and has focusable distance over 1000mm from workpiece. From such arrangement, various advantages and disadvantages arise. Remote welding is a highly efficient laser process. As the mirrors of the scanner system allow positioning speeds exceeding 700m/s, it becomes possible to reduce the welding cycle time. On the other hand, as there no the provision of shielding gas which is normally required for beam powers exceeding 3kW, may become difficult task. Therefore, In this study, the influence of the various penetration of back bead by the different laser welding speed on the weld seam formation without shielding gas was investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.447-457
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• 2019

The intelligent sensory system is required to ensure the accurate welding performance. This paper describes the development of an intelligent vision sensor for the robotic laser welding. The sensor system includes a PC based vision camera and a stripe-type laser diode. A set of robust image processing algorithms are implemented. The laser-stripe sensor can measure the profile of the welding object and obtain the seam line. Moreover, the working distance of the sensor can be changed and other configuration is adjusted accordingly. The robot, the seam tracking system, and CW Nd:YAG laser are used for the laser welding robot system. The simple and efficient control scheme of the whole system is also presented. The profile measurement and the seam tracking experiments were carried out to validate the operation of the system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.103-109
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• 2014

This paper represents the s-cam manufacturing process with the high-carbon steel like S45C using laser welding system. Laser welding of the high-carbon steel is generally difficult because of hardening of the weld zone. Also, existing s-cam manufacturing process, electric resistance welding system, have some problems like increase of production and development cost. To solve those problems, we are introduced the laser welding system with the pre-heating system for precision welding of s-cam with separated shaft and cam part. S-cam manufactured with optimum laser welding conditions is verified the performance like tensile strength, torsional strength and fatigue test. Strength and fatigue test results are described.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2002

A new laser welding system far the appendage of bearing pads of PHWR nuclear fuel elements has been developed. This system consists of laser oscillator, a optical fiber transmission, a monitoring device and a welding controller. The basic welding experiments of the appendage of Zircaloy-4 bearing pads were carried out. The laser welded samples were investigated and made by using the optical fiber of GI $400\mu\textrm{m}$. As a result, the seam welding with the bead width of 1.0mm and the weld penetration of 0.3mm could be accomplished.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.32-39
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• 1991

A 200W pulsed Nd: YAG laser for fine welding was developed. The important laser parameters such as laser peak power, average power, pulse width, and pulse energy for welding were studied. In order to obtain the sufficient laser power density for welding, thermal lensing effects were analyzed and a laser resonator with laser beam divergence was designed. The power supply unit was designed to support up to 7kW input. The pulse control unit was developed using a GTO thyristor and could control over 100kW input power to obtain 3.5kW peak power laser. Also due to the GTO thyristor the pulse width could be varied continuously from 0.1 to 20 msec and maximum repetition rate was as high as 300pps.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.53-61
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• 2000

On the laser weld production line, a slight alteration of the welding condition produces many defects. The defects are monitored in real time, in order to prevent continuous occurrence of defects, reduce the loss of material, and guarantee good quality. The measurement system is produced by using three photo-diodes for detection of the plasma and spatter signal in CO$_2$ laser welding. For high speed CO$_2$ laser welding, laser tailored welded blanks for example, on-line weld quality monitoring system was developed by using fuzzy multi-feature pattern recognition. Weld qualities were classified optimal heat input, a little low heat input, low heat input, and focus misalignment, and final weld quality were classified good and bad.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.791-796
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• 2001

Welding using lasers can be mass-produced in high speed. In the laser welding, performing real-time evaluation of the welding quality is very important in enhancing the efficiency of welding. In this study, the plasma and molten metal which are generated during laser welding were measured using the UV sensor and IR sensor. The results of laser welding were classified into five categories such as optimal heat input, little low heat input, low heat input, focus off, and nozzle change. Also, a system was formulated which uses the measured signals with a fuzzy pattern recognition method which is used to perform real-time evaluation of the welding quality and the defects which can occur in laser welding. Weld quality prediction program was developed using previous weld results and statistical program which could show the trend of weld quality and signal was developed.