Systems, methods, and apparatuses for monitoring weld quality

摘要

An arc welding system and methods. The system is capable of monitoring variables during a welding process, according to wave shape states, and weighting the variables accordingly, detecting defects of a weld, diagnosing possible causes of the defects, quantifying overall quality of a weld, obtaining and using data indicative of a good weld, improving production and quality control for an automated welding process, teaching proper welding techniques, identifying cost savings for a welding process, and deriving optimal welding settings to be used as pre-sets for different welding processes or applications.

主权项

1. A method of determining a quality of a weld by monitoring a welder as the welder performs a welding process by creating actual welding parameters between an advancing wire and a workpiece, the welding process being defined by a series of rapidly repeating wave shapes controlled by command signals to a power supply of the welder, said method comprising:
segmenting a wave shape, having a weld cycle with a cycle time, into a series of time-segmented states; selecting a non-adaptive state from the series of time-segmented states, wherein the non-adaptive state represents a segment of the wave shape where the command signals remain invariable under different weld conditions; measuring a plurality of weld parameters generated between the advancing wire and the workpiece during the non-adaptive state at an interrogation rate over an interval of time; and calculating a plurality of quality parameters for the non-adaptive state based on measurements of the plurality of weld parameters acquired during the interval of time within the non-adaptive state, the step of calculating comprising:
comparing a value of each of the quality parameter calculated for the interval of time to a corresponding expected quality parameter value to determine if a difference between the value of the quality parameter calculated and the expected quality parameter value exceeds a predetermined threshold; and when the difference exceeds the predetermined threshold,
weighting the value of the quality parameter calculated with a magnitude weight based on the difference, andweighting the value of the quality parameter calculated with a time contribution weight based on a time contribution of the interval of time to the wave shape including the interval of time.