• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.62-73
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• 1993

Weld pool oscillation for the full-penetration GTA welding process was investigated for its possible application to weld penetration control through theoretical modeling and experiment. Energy method was used to estimate the natural frequency of the molten pool having the physically-acceptable weld geometry and oscillation modes. An unique experimental system was built which had the data acquisiton and video capabilities so that the pool oscillation signals and molten pool surfaces could be monitored continuously. Pool oscillation was detected through arc voltage and arc light emission simultaneously. The signal from arc light emission showed good coherence with that from arc voltage, and arc light generated the higher quality signal. The molten pool was found to oscillate in different oscillation modes based on the travel speed and weld geometry. The natural frequency estimated from the theoretical model agreed reasonably well with the experimental results.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.119-133
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• 1998

To implement full automation in pipe welding, it si most important to develop special sensors and their related systems which act like human operator when detecting irregular groove conditions. In this study, an automatic pipe Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) system was proposed to full control pipe welding procedure with intelligent sensor systems. A five-axes manipulator was proposed for welding torch to automatically access to exact welding position when pipe size and welding angle were given. Pool status and torch position were measured by using a weld-pool image monitoring and processing technique in root-pass welding for weld seam tracking and weld pool control. To overcome the intensive arc light, pool image was captured at the instance of short circuit of welding power loop. Captured image was processed to determine weld pool shape. For weld seam tracking, the relative distance of a torch position from the pool center was calculated in the extracted pool shape to move torch just onto the groove center. To control penetration of root pas, gap was calculated in the extracted pool image, and then weld conditions were controlled for obtaining appropriate penetration. welding speed was determined with a fuzzy logic, and welding current and voltage were determined from a data base to correspond to the gap. For automatic fill-pass welding, the function of human operator of real time weld seam control can be substituted by a sensor system. In this study, an arc sensor system was proposed based on a fuzzy control logic. Using the proposed automatic system, root-pass welding of pipe which had gap variation was assured to be appropriately controlled in welding conditions and in torch position by showing sound welding result and good seam tracking capability. Fill-pass welding by the proposed system also showed very successful result by tracking along the offset welding line without any control of human operator.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.2760-2769
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• 1996

The feedback control systems of welding process using visual information can improve weld qualities. However, it is very difficult to get the visual information of weld pool since the light intensity of welding arc is much stronger than that of the weld pool. To explore the possibility of extending the capability of automatic welding machines, a study of a closed loop controlled welding system consisted of a GTA welding machine, a vision system, a stepping motor system and a digital computer was undertaken. Particularly, in this system, a CCD camera with a long wavelength pass filter was used to get a better weld pool image. Subsequently, an image analysis technique has been developed to measure the weld pool width. Using this weld pool width measurement, a colsed loop control system adjusted welding speed to maintain a constant weld pool width.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.40-47
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• 1998

In the present study, depressions of the GMA weld pool due to the impact of droplet are numerically investigated. The numerical simulation is conducted on the basis of the Navier-Stokes equation and the volume of fluid(VOF) functions. The kinetic energy of transferring droplet makes a depression of the weld pool surface. The surface active element affects the depression of the weld pool. The droplets transferred efficiently to the bottom of the weld pool, along with electromagnetic force make the finger shape penetration at the high current GMAW.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.575-583
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• 1991

The weld pool convection problem that occurs during the stationary GTA welding has been studied, considering the four driving forces for weld pool convection, i.e., the electromagnetic force, the buoyancy force, the aerodynamic drag force, and the surface tension force at the weld pool surface. In the numerical simulation, the difficulties associated with the irregular moving liquid-solid interface have been successfully overcome by adopting a Boundary-Fitted Coordinate system. In the experiments to show the validity of the numerical analysis, a deep periphery and shallow centerpentrated weld pool shape was observed from the etched specimen. It could be revealed that this type of weld pool shape could be simulated, only when some of aerodynamic drag force distributions are considered. Although slight disagreement arose, the calculated and the observed weld pool shapes were in a reasonable agreement.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1986.10a
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• pp.527-529
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• 1986

Measurement and control system of weld pool is comprised of optical devices, image processor, personal computer and welding machine. Combinations of ND and Infrared filters were used to block the intense arc light and to get the clearer image of weld pool. Smoothing operation and conversion to binary data were performed to eliminate the noises and to decrease the processing time. A simple algorithm for feedback control was developed and weld pool size is controlled by welding current which is adjusted automatically with personal computer.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.18-26
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• 1999

An innovative real-time weld monitoring technique using chromatic filtering of the thermal radiation from a weld pool is developed. The thermal radiation from the weld pool is focused on an aperture and the transmitted thermal radiation is monitored at two wavelengths with high-speed single-element detectors. Due to the chromatic aberration introduced in the focusing optics, the transmittance curve of thermal radiation varies by the wavelength. Owing to this difference in the transmittance, the local variation of thermal radiation from the weld pool can be monitored by processing the two spectroscopic signals from two detectors. In this paper, the algorithms to monitor the laser power on the weld specimen and the focus shift we investigated and the performances of laser power and focus monitoring are shown for a pulsed Nd:YAG laser welding. The monitoring of the weld pool size variation is also discussed.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.76-81
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• 2002

The dramatic increase in the depth of a weld bead penetration has been demonstrated by welding a stainless steel in GTA (Gas-Tungsten-Arc) process with activating flux which consists of oxides and halides. However, there is no commonly agreed mechanism fer the effect of flux on the process. In order to make clear the mechanism, each behavior of the arc md the weld pool in GTA process with activating flux is observed in comparison with a conventional GTA process. A constricted anode root is shown in GTA process with the activating flux, whereas a diffuse anode root is shown in the conventional process. These anode roots are related strongly to metal vapor from the weld pool and the metal vapor is also related to temperature distributions on the weld pool surface. Furthermore, it is suggested that a balance between the Marangoni force and the drag force of the cathode jet should dominate the direction of re-circulatory flow in the weld pool. The electromagnetic force encourages the inward re-circulatory flow due to the constricted anode root in the case with flux. The difference in flow direction in the weld pool changes the geometry or depth/width ratio of weld bead penetration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.89-95
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• 1997

Welding technique is widely applied to general industry such as pressure vessel for chemical plant, pipe system, heavy industry, and automobile. There are some points which must be considered when robot system is used in welding automation process for productivity improvement. Welding quality is governed by heat input, and this quantity can be different according to shape, property, and thick of material . For desired heat input , weld input parameters such as welding voltage, current, and welding velocity must be determined with those consideration. Until now these parameters have been determined mainly by experience of operator. In this study, the size of welding zone was predicted by fuzzy rules were constructed from the relation between welding variables and weld pool size. Inverse model method which welding control input for welder is determined with optimum voltage and current by fuzzy controller is validatied by computer simulation.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1991.10a
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• pp.1028-1033
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• 1991

This paper describes the design of a neural network estimator to estimate weld pool sizes for on-line use of quality monitoring and control in GMA welding processes. The estimator utilizes surface temperatures measured at various points on the top surface of the weldment as its input. The main task of the neural net is to realize the mapping characteristics from the point temperatures to the weld pool sizes through training, A series of bead-on plate welding experiments were performed to assess the performance of the neural estimator.