• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.150-157
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• 1997

Uniform weld pool shape is important in determining the weld quality. And weld pool width is one of the most dominant factors of the seld pool shape. In order to control the weld pool width, the fuzzy logic controller, which is well adapted to the complicated nonlinear systems such as welding, was used in this study. The weld pool image was obtained through CCD camera, and the weld pool width was calculated by processing the image. Uaing the calculated width, welding speed, as a control input, was inferred by the fuzzy logic controller. An uniform weld pool width can be successfully obtained regardless of the disturbances in the system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1994.10a
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• pp.499-503
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• 1994

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 welding are is much stronger than light from 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 850nm long pass filter was focused on the weld pool to give a weld pool image. Subsequently, image analysis technique has been developed to measure a weld pool width. Using this weld pool width measurement, a colsed loop control system adjusted welding speed to maintain constant weld pool width.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.307-313
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• 2002

This paper describes a weld pool monitoring technique, which is based on the weld pool image analysis. The proposed image analysis algorithm uses machine vision techniques to extract geometrical information from the weld pool image such as maximum weld pool width, gap width and misalignment between the joint longitudinal axis and the welding wire. These can be related to the welding parameters (welding voltage and current, wire feed speed and standoff) to produce control actions necessary to ensure that the required weld quality will be achieved. The experiments have shown that the algorithm is able to produce good estimates of the weld pool geometry; however, the adjustment of the camera parameters affects the image quality and, consequently, has a great influence over the estimation.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.10b
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• pp.1404-1407
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• 1996

A quality monitoring system in butt welding process is proposed to estimate weld pool sizes. The geometrical parameters of the weld pool such as the top bead width and the penetration depth plus half back width are utilized to prove the integrity of the weld quality. The monitoring variables used are the surface temperatures measured at three points on the top surface of the weldment. The temperature profile is assumed that it has a gaussian distribution in vertical direction of torch movement and verify this assumption through temperature analysis. A neural network estimator is designed to estimate weld pool size from temperature informations. The experimental results show that the proposed neural network estimator which used gaussian distribution as temperature information can estimate the weld pool sizes accurately than used three point temperatures as temperature information. Considering the change of gap size in butt welding, the experiment were performed on various gap size.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.59-72
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• 1994

This paper presents an on-line quality monitoring and control method to obtain a uniform weld quality in gas metal arc welding (GMAW) processes. The geometrical parameters of the weld pool such as the top bead width and the penetration depth plus half back width are utilized to assess the integrity of the weld quality. Since a good quality weld is characterized by a relatively high depth-to-width ratio in its dimensions, the second geometrical parameter is regulated to a desired one. The monitoring variables are the surface temperatures measured at various points on the top surface of the weldment which are strongly related to the formation of the weld pool The relationship between the measured temperatures and the weld pool size is implemented on the multilayer perceptrons which are powerful for realization of complex mapping characteristics through training by samples. For on-line quality monitoring and control, it is prerequisite to estimate the weld pool sizes in the region of transient states. For this purpose, the time history of the surface temperatures is used as the input to the neural estimator. The control purpose is to obtain a uniform weld quality. In this research, the weld pool size is directly regulated to a desired one. The proposed controller is composed of a neural pool size estimator, a neural feedforward controller and a conventional feedback controller. The pool size estimator predicts the weld pool size under growing. The feedforward controller compensates for the nonlinear characteristics of the welding process. A series of simulation studies shows that the proposed control method improves the overall system response in the presence of changes in torch travel speed during GMA welding and guarantees the uniform weld quality.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.1202-1209
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• 2004

In this study, numerical investigation has been performed on the evolution of weld pool geometry with moving free surface during low-energy density laser welding process. The free surface elevates near the weld pool edge and descends at the center of the weld pool if d$\sigma$/dT is dominantly negative. It is shown that the predicted weld pool width and depth with moving free surface are a little greater than those with flat weld pool surface. It is also believed that the weld pool surface oscillation during the melting process augments convective heat transfer rate in the weld pool. The present analysis with moving free surface should be considered when We number is very small compared to 1.0 since the deformation of the weld pool surface is noticeable as We number decreases.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.133-138
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• 2003

In this study, numerical investigation has been performed on the evolution of weld pool geometry with moving free surface during low-energy density laser welding process. The free surface elevates near the weld pool edge if ${\partial}{\sigma}/dT$ is dominantly negative. On the contrary, the free surface rise at the center of weld pool in case of mainly positive ${\partial}{\sigma}/dT$. The predicted weld pool width and depth with moving free surface are 5∼15%$5{\sim}15%$ greater than those with flat weld pool surface. It is considered that weld pool surface oscillation during melting process augments convective heat transfer rate in the weld pool.

• 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 Welding and Joining
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.70-77
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• 1999

Surface depression in the arc welding is calculated numerically to analyze its influence on pool convection and oscillation. The magnitude of surface depression due to arc pressure on the stationary GTA pool surface is relatively small, and fluctuations of the surface and velocity are caused mainly by arc pressure. The inward flow on the surface due to the electromagnetic force and positive surface tension gradient acts to decrease surface depression. Surface depression appears to have minor effects on average flow velocity and thus pool geometry. Pool oscillation occurs due to surface vibration, and oscillation frequencies are affected mainly by the surface tension and pool width. The input parameters such as arc pressure and current have negligible effects on the oscillation frequency, and the surface tension gradient has limited effects. Since the oscillation frequency varies slightly according to penetration, pool oscillation for the partial penetration weld pool is applicable to monitor the pool width.