• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.87-92
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• 2012

Alignment of the main plates during the tack welding is essential to block assembly since most of the curved blocks and outfitting parts are assembled on the jigs and fixtures. Tact welding of main plates is the initial process of the curved hull block assembly. Due to the heavy weight of the main plates it is difficult to locate the plate on the accurate position of the jig and fixtures before welding. The conventional masonry process requires much time and manual work in order to achieve the accurate alignment. This labour-intensive process results in relatively high errors and correction works. Due to their larger dimensions and heavier weights, these hull blocks are not ergonomically desirable and, therefore, various mechanical devices such as hydraulic balancers or hydraulic jigs are used for the plate alignment. In this study, the position-sensing scheme implemented by sensors is presented in order to align the main plates on the accurate position during the hull block assembly. Integrating the Infrared photo sensors and micro processor unit, a small scaled prototype of the position-sensing module is developed to determine the alignment of main plates.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.58-69
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• 1990

In conventional arc welding, position error of the weld torch with respect to the weld seam and variation of groove dimension are induced by inaccurate fitup and fixturing. In this study, a vision system has been developed to recognize and compensate the position error and dimensional inaccuracy. The system uses a structured laser light illuminated on the weld groove and perceived by a C.C.D camera. A new algorithm to detect the edge of the reflected laser light is introduced for real time processing. The developed system was applied to arbitarary weld paths with various types of joint in arc welding process. The experimental results show that the proposed system can detect the weld groove parameters within good accuracy and yield good tracking performance.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.30-38
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• 2003

This paper proposed PID controller for torch slider and PD controller for motor right wheel. to control the motion of two-wheeled welding mobile robot with seam tracking sensor touched on welding line. The motion control is realized in the view of keeping constant welding velocity and precise seam tracking even though the target welding line is on straight line or curved line. The position and direction of the body of the mottle robot are controlled by using signal errors between seam tracking sensor and body positioning sensor attached on the end of torch slider and body side of the mobile robot, respectively. In turning motion, the body and the torch slider are controlled by using the kinematic model related with two motions of body turning and torch sliding. The straight locomotion is controlled according to eleven control patterns obtained from displacements between two sensors of the seam tracking sensor and the body positioning sensor. The effectiveness is proven through the experimental results fur lattice type welding line. Through the experimental results, we can see that the position value of the electrode end point and the welding velocity are controlled almost constantly both in straight and turning locomotion.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.59-64
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• 2012

Welding is an essential process in the automotive industry. Most welding processes that are used for auto body are spot welding and $CO_2$ welding are used in a small part. In production field, $CO_2$ welding process is decreased and spot welding process is increased due to welding quality is poor and defects are occurred in $CO_2$ welding process frequently. But $CO_2$ welding process should be used at robot interference parts and closed parts where spot welding couldn't. Because of the 0.65mm ~ 2.0mm thickness steel sheet were used in the automotive industry, poor quality of welding area such as burn through and under fill were happened frequently in $CO_2$ process. In this paper, we will study about the penetration depth which gives a huge impact on burn through changing a degree of base metal, welding position and torch angle. Voltage, current and welding speed were fixed but degree of base metal, welding position and torch angle were changed. And Cold- Rolled(CR) steel sheet was used. Penetration depth was analysed by multiple regression analysis to derive approximate calculations. And reliability of approximate calculations were confirmed through additional experiments. As the results of this research, we confirmed the effect of torch and plate angle to bead shape. And we present a possibility that can simulate more accurate to weld geometry, as deduced the verification equations that has tolerance of less than 21.69%.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.62-68
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• 2008

Effects of gravitational orientation on gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) for 304 stainless steel were studied to determine the critical factors for weld pool formation, such as weld surface deformation and weld pool shape. This study was accomplished through an analytical study of weld pool stability as a function of primary welding parameters (arc current and arc holding time), material properties (surface tension and density), and melting efficiency (cross-sectional area). The stability of weld pool shape and weld surface deformation was confirmed experimentally by changing the welding position. The arc current and translational velocity were the major factors in determining the weld pool stability as a function of the gravitational orientation. A 200A spot GTAW showed a significant variation of the weld pool formation as the arc held longer than 3 seconds, however the weld pool shape and surface morphology for a 165A spot GTAW were 'stable', i.e., constant regardless of the gravitational orientation. The cross-sectional area of the weld (CSA) was one of the critical factors in determining the weld pool stability. The measured CSA ($13.5mm^2$) for the 200A spot GTAW showed a good agreement with the calculated CSA ($14.9mm^2$).

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.40-42
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• 2000

This paper presents a new method of segmenting a one-dimensional signal into a set of features of type(line, Vee-groove, Lap-joint and etc.), A set of requirements for the segmentation process result from the application area, which in this case are laser welding, GMAW(Gas Metal Arc Welding), SAW(Submerged Arc Welding) and high speed tack welding. The algorithm is able to detect an exact welding position in the presence of noise and missing data, yet is reasonably economical to implement

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.10b
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• pp.792-795
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• 1996

In TIG welding of pipe, back bead size monitoring is important for weld quality assurance. Many researches have been performed on estimation of the back bead size by heat conduction analysis. However numerical conduction model based on many uncertain thermal parameters causes remarkable errors and thermomechanical phenomena in molten pool can not be considered. In this paper, filler wire feeding force in addition to weld current, wire feedrate, torch travel speed and orbital position angle is monitored to estimate back bead size in orbital TIG welding. Monitored welding process variables are fed into an artificial neural network estimator which has been trained with the monitored process variables (input patterns) and actual back bead size (output patterns). Experimental verification of the proposed estimation method was performed. The predicted results are in a good agreement with the actual back bead shape. The results are quite promising in that estimation of invisible back bead shape can be achieved by analyzing the welding parameters without any conventional NDT of welds.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.55-63
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• 1998

Among the position sensing methods available, the arc sensor which utilizes the electrical signal obtained from the welding arc itself is one of the most prevalently used methods, because it has an advantage that no particular sensing device is necessary and real-time sensing of a groove position is possible directly under the arc. The authors have already developed a seam tracking system that contains a new arc sensor algorithm, which uses the relative welding current variation according to the tip-to-workpiece distance in GMA welding. In this study a torch height control algorithm for automatic weld seam tracking was proposed for completing the previous system, which uses an on-off control technique. To implement the torch height control algorithm during weld seam tracking the system parameters which include 2nd averaging range, weighting factor for 2nd moving averaging, and Z-directional basic compensation distance were determined by experimental analysis. Finally the two different height control methods, one is simple on-off control and the other on-off control using a reference current value , were compared in their tracking abilities.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.73-80
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• 2004

A dual purpose robot automation system is developed for both arc welding and spot welding by one robot within a cell. The need for automation of both arc welding and spot welding processes is urgent while the production volume is not so big as to accommodate separate station for the two processes. Also, space is too narrow for separate station to be settled down in the factory. A spot welding robot is chosen and the function for arc welding are implemented in-house at cost of advanced functions. For the spot welding, a single pole type gun is used and the robot has to push down the plate to be welded, which causes the robot positioning error. Therefore, position error compensation algorithm is developed. The basic functions for the arc welding processes are implemented using the digital I/O board of robot controller, PLC, and A/D conversion PCB. The weaving pattern is taught in meticulously by manual teach. A fixture unit is also developed for dual purpose. The main aspects of the system is presented in this paper especially in the design and implementation procedure. The signal diagrams and sequence logic diagrams are also included. The outcome of the dual purpose welding cell is the increased productivity and good production stability which is indispensable for production volume prediction. Also, it leads to reduction of manufacturing lead time.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2006

It has been reported that good quality weld beads are not easily obtained during the $CO_2$ CW laser welding of primer coated plate. However, by introducing a small gap clearance in the lap position, the zinc vapor can escape through it and sound weld beads can be acquired. Therefore, this study examines for keyhole behavior by observing the laser-induced plasma and investigates the relation between keyhole behavior and formation of weld defect. Laser-induced plasma has accompanied with the vaporizing pressure of zinc ejecting from keyhole to surface of primer coated plate. This dynamic behavior of plasma was very unstable and this instability was closely related to the unstable motion of keyhole during laser welding. As a result of observing the composition of porosity, much of Zn element was found from inner surface of porosity. But Zn was not found from the dimple structure fractured at the weld metal. By analyzing of vaporizing element in laser welding, a component ratio of Zn was decreased by introducing a small gap clearance. Therefore we can prove that the major cause of porosity is the vaporization of primer in lap position. Mechanism of porosity-formation is that the primer vaporized from the lap position accelerates dynamic behavior of the key hole and the bubble separated from the key hole is trapped in the solidification boundary and romaines as porosity.