• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.82-86
• /
• 2000

Gas metal arc welding(GMAW) is regarded as one of the best candidate for welding automation in industrial joining application. It is important to monitor the weld quality for the high performance weld automation. In GMAW, weld quality is closely related to arc stability especially. In this paper, arc light signal is measured and spectrum analyzed to the detect the variation of the weld quality. The FFT of the signal showed that the amplitude variance of FFT power spectrum was very large in poor weld process such as the decrease of weld bead width and height. The results show that it is possible to detect the weld defect position in weld process.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• 1999.10a
• /
• pp.43-46
• /
• 1999

It has been suggested that the motivation for automation of welding processes ncludes the replacement and extension of the functions of human operators. Among these types of the welding automation, SAW(Submerged Arc Welding) was prevalently used, because it is highly suited to a wide range of application, especially for the high speed welding. A Significant portion of the total manufacturing time for a pipe fabrication process is spent on the welding following primary machining and fit-up processes. To achieve the reliable weld bead appearance, the automatic seam tracking and adaptive control to fill the groove are urgently needed. This paper proposed the mechanical functions of multi-torches welding system, flux supply and recovery system in conjunction with the complex air pulsing method and various types of methodologies. It was shown that the multi-torches welding system revealed the high welding qualities for the circular and rectangular pipes. In conclusion, the multi-torches welding system developed will contribute the advanced welding technology, welding automation and increment of the market in these areas.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 1987.10b
• /
• pp.329-334
• /
• 1987

The purpose of this study is to monitor and control the back bead width in arc welding with consumable electrode for reduction of the occurrence of weld defect. The temperature of a point on the weldment surface is selected, as a monitoring parameter, and measured by an optical infra-red sensor. The correlation between the back bead width and the surface temperature is experimentally obtained for various thicknesses of the weldment. The welding travel speed and the surface temperature are taken, respectively, as an input and an output of the welding process under the stable condition of arc. A PI control scheme to maintain the surface temperature at the desired level is proposed by the experimental study.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.64-68
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study is to develop the control technology of global distortion in the deck of superstructures during manufacturing processes. The behavior of global distortion in the deck was evaluated by FEA and verified through comparing with the measured results by 3D measuring instrument. It was seen from the results that the principal factor inducing the global distortion is to be the bending moment associated with the longitudinal shrinkage force and transverse shrinkage caused by welding of stiffeners and flame heating to correct the excessive local out-of-plane distortion. Based on the results, the amount of reverse distortion in the thin deck plate was determined to control the global distortion in the deck plate. The proposed distortion control technology was verified by applying it to the actual structure.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.88-98
• /
• 2005

This paper considers a six sigma project for improving the TIP life time in a spot welding process. The project follows a disciplined process of five phases: define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. A process map is used to identify process input and output variables. Nine key process input variables are selected by using C&E matrix and FMEA, and finally four vital few input variables are selected from analyze phase. The optimum process conditions of the vital few input variables are jointly obtained by maximizing TIP life time using DOE and alternative selection method.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.7 no.6
• /
• pp.1001-1008
• /
• 2012

Non-destructive testing (NDT) is a technique used in science and industry to evaluate the properties of a material without causing damage. In this paper we propose a method for segmenting radiographic images of welding in order to extract the welding defects which may occur during the welding process. We study different methods of level set and choose the model adapted to our application. The methods presented here take the property of local segmentation geodesic active contours and have the ability to change the topology automatically. The computation time is considerably reduced after taking into account a new level set function which eliminates the re-initialization procedure. Satisfactory results are obtained after applying this algorithm both on synthetic and real images.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.23-30
• /
• 1990

The robotic welding has been adapted positively in many welding shops forthe purpose of improving the welding efficiency and liberating operators from the severe working atmosphere. But for a large-size structure with thick plates like ship-building and every kind of plants manufacturing, the application of the arc welding robots is not established yet. The reason is assumed that the conventional arc welding robots are not adaptive for multi-pass welding of thick plates whose grooves are not so accurate. As one solution to this problem, a guidance system which uses the welding arc itself as a sensor is largely used. In this study the velocity controller which changes the tip to workpiece distance for regulating the weld proposed. The proportional and integral gain of velocity controller were determined by using the computer simulation of the control system, and the simulation results compared with the experimental ones. It was revealed that the developed control system using the arc sensor principle has a good capability of tracking the weld joint, although some more studies will be needed to refine the model of arc current.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
• /
• v.63 no.8
• /
• pp.1098-1103
• /
• 2014

This study deals with the development of an electrofusion welding machine that is capable of joining plastic pipes using a recently developed electrofusion fitting. This fitting has built-in conductive plastics that are used to weld the joint together as a heating element. In order to explain the mechanism of the new machine, 1) the resistance characteristics of the heating element were explained, 2) the method of electric welding that uses the electrofusion fitting was described, and 3) the method of power supply based on controlling the firing angle was explained. A control system for an intelligent electrofusion welding machine was proposed. This system has the ability to recognize the diameter of an electrofusion fitting using a lookup-table based on the difference of resistance curves according to fitting types, and it is able to weld the fittings regardless of the ambient temperature. A new algorithm was developed to control the power of electric welding through the recognition of feature points from the resistance curve of the heating element. In order to evaluate the performance of the developed welding machine, tests involving the welding of 16 mm- and 20 mm-type fittings were carried out. Examining the welding results, we concluded that the proposed welding machine will offer high productivity and reliability in the field of electrofusion welding.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.77-82
• /
• 1999

Resistance spot welding process is completed in very short time and there are many factors affecting on the generation of heat. It is difficult to control these experimental factors and monitor distribution of the temperature and stresses in the experimental analysis case. and too much time and expense are required for the experimental trials to fine proper welding condition. So numerical analyses have been attempted steadily, but most numerical analyses on the resistance spot welding are mainly focused on thermal behavior. Therefore, in this paper, the numerical analysis of mechanical behavior as well as heat conduction is carried out for the spot welding process. For this numerical analysis, axial symmetric computer program for the spot welding analysis by F.E.M. has been developed considering heat conduction and thermal elastic-plastic theory. Material properties depending on temperature such as density, heat conductivity, heat expansion coefficient, specific heat, yield stress, elastic modulus, and specific resistance are considered. Using the results of temperature distribution obtained from heat conduction analysis, the thermal elastic-plastic analysis is carried out to clarify mechanical behavior of spot welded specimen. In order to evaluate the effect of residual stresses, numerical analyses are carried out under tension-shear load in two cases respectively; one with residual stress, the other without residual stresses.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.506-512
• /
• 2007

This study was conducted to describe the exposure levels of welding fumes by the type of manufacturers, work process, welding type and the size of manufacturers, and to find out the trend of chronological changes of airborne welding fume levels. The subjects of this study were 509 manufacturers, consisting of 11 types of manufacturers, 3 work processes, 7 welding types, in Busan from January, 1997 to December, 2005. Airborne concentration of welding fume was determined by manual of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and the data were analyzed by using SPSS 10.0 for Windows program. The mean concentration of airborne welding fume in all manufacturers was $1.29\;mg/m^3$ (Range: $0.01{\sim}3.00\;mg/m^3)$. The level of welding fume was the highest, as $1.96\;mg/m^3$, for manufactures of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, which was lower than $5.0\;mg/m^3$ of 8 hr-TWA in Korean permissible exposure limit for welding fume. There was a significant difference in the mean levels of welding fumes by work process, showing the highest in welding workshop ($1.39\;mg/m^3$), followed by pipeline welding workshop ($1.26\;mg/m^3$) and engineering workshop ($1.20\;mg/m^3$). Among welding types, the mean level of welding fume was the highest in the type of $CO_2$ & arc welding, as $1.46\;mg/m^3$, followed by $CO_2$ welding ($1.40\;mg/m^3$), shielded metal arc welding ($1.31\;mg/m^3$), spot welding ($1.27\;mg/m^3$), and so on. The highest mean level of welding fume was $1.58\;mg/m^3$ in work process of pipe line welding workshop for the manufacturers of basic iron and steel, and $2.27\;mg/m^3$ in the type of arc welding for the manufactures building ship and boats. By the size of manufacturers, the mean concentration of welding fume for manufactures in small scale with less than 50 workers was the highest as $1.45\;mg/m^3$ (Range: $0.07{\sim}3.00\;mg/m^3)$. The mean level of welding fume was the highest as $1.39\;mg/m^3$ both in 1997 and in 2005, showing a trend of fluctuating periodically within a range of $1.10{\sim}1.39\;mg/m^3$. The above results suggested that more effective control program for work environment producing welding fumes should be developed and applied since there were significant variations in welding fume levels by the type of manufacturers, work processes, welding types, the size of manufactures, and by year.