Study on the simultaneous control of the seam tracking and leg length in a horizontal fillet welding, Part 1: Analysis and measurement of the weld bead geometry

Abstract

Among the various welding conditions, the welding current that is inversely proportional to the tip-to-work-piece distance is an essential parameter as to monitor the GMAW process and to implement the welding automation. Considering the weld pool surface geometry including weld defects, it should modify the signal processing method for automatic seam tracking in horizontal fillet welding. To meet the above necessities, a mathematical model related with the weld pool geometry was proposed as in a conjunction with the two-dimensional heat flow analysis of the horizontal fillet welding. The signal processing method based on the artificial neural network (Adaptive Resonance Theory) was proposed for discriminating the sound weld pool surface from that with the weld defects. The reliability of the numerical model and the signal processing method proposed were evaluated through the experiments of which showed that they are effective for predicting the weld bead shape with or without the weld defects in a horizontal fillet welding.