• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.595-599
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• 2002

Edge welding of thin sheets is very difficult because of the fit-up problem and small weld area In laser welding, joint fit-up and penetration are critical for sound weld quality, which can be monitored by appropriate methods. Among the various monitoring systems, visual monitoring method is attractive because various kinds of weld pool information can be extracted directly. In this study, a vision sensor was adopted for the weld pool monitoring in pulsed Nd:YAG laser edge welding to monitor whether the penetration is enough and the joint fit-up is within the requirement. Pulsed Nd:YAG laser provides a series of periodic laser pulses, while the shape and brightness of the weld pool change temporally even in one pulse duration. The shutter-triggered and non-interlaced CCD camera was used to acquire a temporally changed weld pool image at the moment representing the weld status well. The information for quality monitoring can be extracted from the monitored weld pool image by an image processing algorithm. Weld pool image contains not only the information about the joint fit-up, but the penetration. The information about the joint fit-up can be extracted from the weld pool shape, and that about a penetration from the brightness. Weld pool parameters that represent the characteristics of the weld pool were selected based on the geometrical appearance and brightness profile. In order to achieve accurate prediction of the weld penetration, which is nonlinear model, neural network with the selected weld pool parameters was applied.

• 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.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.58-64
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• 2004

The control of the weld bead shape is important in laser welding of the small parts. The effects of laser welding parameters on the weld bead shape in the pulsed Nd:YAG laser welding of STS 304L material were investigated. Shielding gas type, flow rate, pumping voltage, pulse frequency, pulse width, focal position and overlap distance were selected as laser welding parameters. Experiments were designed and conducted using the Taguchi method which was a statistical experimental method. The weld bead width, penetration, area and aspect ratio were measured and analysed as the weld bead shape properties and the welding parameters were optimized to maximize the weld aspect ratio. Weld aspect ratio were greatly affected by the pulse width, pumping voltage and pulse frequency, and somewhat by the overlap distance, and little by the shielding gas type, flow rate and focal position. A confirmation experiment were conducted using the optimized welding parameters.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2015

This study was investigated to develop process technology of laser cladding with austenite stainless steel for Weld Inlay repair of dissimilar metal weld in reactor vessel in/outlet nozzles. Weld Inlay experiments were performed by laser cladding repair system consisting of common manipulator, laser apparatus and welding process scheduler, etc. Single pass welding experiments were conducted in order to obtain the optimum welding process parameters for filler wires of ER309L and Alloy 52M before multi-layer laser cladding. Based on the above obtained results, multi-layer laser cladding experiments were carried out, and welding qualities for weld specimens were estimated by PT, OM, SEM and EDS analysis. Consequently, it was revealed that multi-layer laser cladding on austenite stainless steel using filler wires of ER309L and Alloy 52M could be possible to meet ASME Code standard without any weld defect.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.100-110
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• 1998

In this paper, the laser weldability of thin gage steels for automobile application is discussed. Welding was carried out with a high power carbon dioxide laser system, and the laser energy was concentrated through a plano-convex lens. Test results showed that the joint gap in the butt welding proved to be one of the critical conditions for an acceptable weld. In the case where the ratio of the gap clearance to the material thickness was slightly bigger than optimal value, the weld strength was reduced showing weld metal fracture. It was possible to obtained a weld penetration ratio of 0.91 when the vertical offset ratio was controlled to be 0.4 or smaller. Results also demonstrated that the weld strength of the lap joint was influenced by travel speed. At the travel speeds lower than 37 mm/s, the weld strength indicated higher value than that of class A recommendation strength of a resistance spot weld based on the KS code. It was clear that the complicated effect of specimen alignment should be considered so as to make a sound weld with high integrity when the laser process was applied to the long weld line.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.32-35
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• 2008

In the remote welding system using $CO_2$ laser, laser beam can be rapidly transferred to a workpiece by moving mirrors of scanner system. So, it makes reducing the cycle time of welding process. We can also use and apply various patterns of weld beads by linear controlled mirrors. But most of the domestic car makers have usually applied use stitch-shaped weld bead. In that case, we don't have the merit of remote welding system efficiently. Therefore, in this paper, we investigated the characteristic of weld strength according to patterns of weld bead on $CO_2$ laser welding. And we also studied the relationship between shape of weld bead and value of tensile load.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2004

Laser weldability of aluminized steels for deep drawing application has been investigated. Test coupons for Nd:YAG laser welding and $CO_2$ laser welding were prepared trom the commercial steels. According to the test results, total penetration and back bead width of aluminized steels were sensitive to the welding conditions. Bead width at the half thickness of the overlap joint, however, was rather constant. Laser weldability of aluminized steels was superior to that of zinc coated steel. Weld microstructure revealed that overlap zone adjacent to the fusion line was filled with coated materials, which was thought to be desirable to protect weld from crevice corrosion. The aluminum coated materials was also found in the weld metal. Practically no spattering was observed in the laser welding of aluminized steels even when the welding was performed without joint gap. In the welding of zinc coated steel, however, spattering was so severe that it was difficult to get the acceptable weld. Bead quality of aluminized steel laser weld was smooth and stable.

• 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.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.71-76
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• 1999

The real-time holographic interferometer with digital high-speed camera is applied to the experimental study of laser induced plasma/plume in pulsed Nd:YAG laser welding. A pulsed Nd:YAG laser with 1.2 kW average power is applied to generate laser induced plume. The recording speed of the high-speed camera is 3,000 f/s. The high speed photographs of weld plume without another visualization method, are compared with the visualization photographs with holographic interferometer. The radiation intensity from the laser induced plume is recorded by the high speed photographs, which fluctuated during laser radiation and disappeared after laser end. The density distribution of the plume is recorded by the holographic visualization method. The experimental results show the process of generation of the laser induced plasma/plume, and give the feasibility of quantitative measurement of laser induced plume in laser welding.

• 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.