WELDING METHOD AND APPARATUS

摘要

A welding operation is monitored by causing a formed weld pool to vibrate, directing radiation, and preferably light, into the weld pool and collecting the modulated radiation reflected from the surface thereof, converting the collected radiation into an electrical signal, and processing the electrical signal to obtain details of parameters of the weld pool. Such method has the advantage that only the surface of the weld pool has to be accessible and that there will be no contamination of the weld pool as can occur if a probe is used.