Abstract
With the increased use of lasers in industrial welding applications, techniques for monitoring and controlling these processes become increasingly important. It is very important that we understand the dynamic behaviors of the laser induced Plume in welding, because the laser induced plume has considerable effects on welding efficiency and the quality of materials. As the plume fluctuation was associated with keyhole instability, unstable vapor plume indicated the process was unstable and would result in poor welds. An Infrared Thermal-vision Camera can be utilized compensate for incurracies encountered in real-time monitoring during laser welding. We have results that instabilities of plume are closely related with hot cracking and defect of laser welding.