• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.113-121
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• 1996

The arc sensor has been most widely used for weld seam tracking through welding current or voltage variation. In this work, the relation between the arc light intensity and welding condition is investigated using heat balance in the Plasma for its possible application to seam tracking in the GMAW process. The arc light intensity is derived to be the function of the arc length and welding current Experiments are carried out to verify the proposed heat balance model. Performances of least square and integration methods to process the signals for seam tracking are compared experimentally. Predicted arc light intensity shows reasonably good agreement with experimental results. The weld seam is successfully tracked through the arc light intensity. The least square and integration methods demonstrate almost same performance of seam tracking with $CO_2$gas shielding.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.66-80
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• 1997

This paper describes a newly developed arc-sensing algorithm of seam-tracking for FCA W (flux-cored arc welding) horizontal fillet welding. In this algorithm, arc current and the Weighted-Are-Current (WAC) are used to adjust the position of a weld torch in directions of bead throat and weaving, respectively. The WAC, which is newly devised in this study, means that arc current in the vicinity of weaving end is more emphasized than that in the center of weaving. The reason of this is because there usually exists much noise in the center of weaving due to abrupt change of arc length in case some empty gaps exist in a fillet joint Variance analysis was performed in order to check the effect of weld parameters on arc current and the WAC. As a result, the relationships between tip-to-workpiece distance and arc current, and between weaving offset and the WAC were established.To check "the validity of the algorithm, seam-tracking experiments were performed ;mder various welding condition. The result of experiments showed a satisfactory tracking performance in the presence of empty gaps in a horizontal fillet joint.et joint.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.83-90
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• 2000

It was attempted to improve seam-tracking performance by applying a new arc-sensing algorithm for FCAW(flux-cored arc welding) process in fillet joints. For this study the authors have introduced three different weight factors: $\circled1$ arc currents at the weaving end are more weighted, $\circled2$ arc currents are evenly weighted along the weaving, and $\circled3$ arc currents at the weaving center are more weighted. To evaluate the 3 factors the values of signal-to-noise(S/N) ratio has been measured. The values were obtained for various welding conditions with different gaps in horizontal and vertical fillet joints. The test results showed that the S/N ratio of the 1st case was highest which resulted in the best of seam tracking performance. In addition, the comparison between the seam tracking performance in horizontal fillet joints and that in vertical ones has been done, and the result showed that tracking performance in vertical joints was relatively better than that in horizontal joints.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.2701-2706
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• 2003

This paper describes weld seam tracking and error compensation methods of automatic plasma arc welding system designed for the corrugation panel that consists of a linear section and a curved section with various curvatures. Realizing automatic welding system, we are faced with two problems. One is a precise seam tracking and the other is an arc length control. Due to the complexity of the panel shape, it is difficult to find a seam and operate a torch manually in the welding process. So, laser vision sensor for seam tracking is equipped for sensing the seam position and controlling the height of a torch automatically. To attain more precise measurement of an arc length, we measure the 3D shape of the panel and analyze error factors according to the various panel states and caused errors are predicted through the welding process. Using that result, compensation algorithm is added to that of arc length control and real time error compensation is achieved. The result shows that these two methods work effectively.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.190-198
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• 1992

Among the variety of welding processes available, the flux cored arc welding is one of the most frequently used process, because of its wide range of application and high productivity. The weld joint tracking is indispensable to improve the flexibility of the arc welding robot application for the flux cored arc welding (FCAW) process. In this study, an arc sensor which utilizes the electrical signal obtained from the welding arc itself was developed for weld joint tracking in FCAW. Because a model of the welding arc in flux cored arc welding was required to develop the arc sensor, a mathematical model was proposed by analysing the welding arc behaviour, and also an experimental model by using the factorial experiment and least square method. For overcoming the fluctuation in the welding current signal during tracking the weld joint, it was fitted to a curve which is inversely proportional to a trace of tip-to-workpiece distance by using the quadratic curve-fitting method.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.44-54
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• 1998

In this study a new arc sensor algorithm for automatic weld seam tracking was proposed, which uses the relative welding current variation according to the tip-to-workpiece distance in GMA welding. Since the new developed arc sensor algorithm is not sensitive to unstable factors of arc signal, the system is expected to get rid of the problems of already existing arc sensor system which include the difficulty of modeling the process for various welding conditions and limitation of application to thick plate welding. Thus the system is applicable not only to thick plate welding but also to thin plate welding. To implement the new arc sensor algorithm the system parameters which include sampling time, averaging range, weighting factor of moving averaging, basic compensation time, and basic compensation distance were determined by experimental analysis. Consequently this system has shown the successful tracking capability for the various welding conditions.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.131-139
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• 1996

The response of the arc sensor using the welding current and/or welding voltage as its outputs has been obtained by the analysis and/or experiments of the static characteristics of arc sensor. But in order to improve the reliability of arc sensor, it is necessary to know its dynamic characteristics. So in this paper, it is presented the dynamic model of arc sensor including the power source, arc voltage, electrode burnoff rate, and wire feed rate. A numerical simulation of the dynamic model of arc sensor was implemented, computing the welding current with input of CTWD. The results of computer simulations and experiments of $CO_2$arc welding showed that a linear relationship between weaving center - weld line distance and current area difference was established. Additionally, a real-time weld seam tracking system interfaced with industrial welding robot was constructed, the result of the weld seam tracking experiment for weld line with an initial offset error of 5$^{\circ}$was good.

• 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.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers A
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• v.48 no.11
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• pp.1365-1373
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• 1999

In many countries including Korea, in order to transmit the more electric power, the higher transmission line voltage is inevitable. So, a rapid reclosing scheme is important for EHV/UHV transmission lines to ensure requirements for high reliability of main lines. A critical aspect of reclosing operation is the extinction of the secondary arc since it must extinguish before successful reclosure can occur. Therefore the accurate simulation techniques of arcing faults are of importance. And successful reclosing switching can be accomplished by adopting a proper method such as HSGS and hybrid scheme to reduce the secondary arc extinction time. First of all, this paper discusses a suggested arc model, which have time dependent resistance for primary arc and piecewise linear approximated arc model for secondary arc. And this simulation technique is applied to Korean 765 kV transmission lines. Also hybrid scheme is simulated and evaluated for the purpose of shortening dead time. For adaptive reclosing scheme, variable dead time control algorithm is suggested. Two kinds of algorithm are tested. One is max tracking algorithm and the other is rms tracking algorithm. According to simulation results, rms tracking has less errors than max tracking. Therefore rms tracking is applied to Korean 765 kV transmission lines with hybrid scheme.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.917-922
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• 2003

In this paper, a high speed rotating arc sensor for automatic fillet welding is introduced. In order to track the welding seam, The high speed rotating arc sensor is used. The welding tip of a high speed rotating arc sensor rotates about 3000 rpm using DC motor. The rotating torch is driven by gear between welding torch body and wire guide. The welding current is measured by using the current sensor and rot at ing position sensor. To realize the welding seam tracking algorithm with accuracy, a software filter algorithm using the moving average method is applied to the measured welding current in the microprocessor. The welding mobile robot with two wheels and two sliders is developed for fillet welding. The welding mobile robot can control its traveling direction and turn itself around the corner. The effectiveness is proven through the experimental results conducted with varied fillet tracking patterns.