What is Welding?
Welding, also known as fusion or joining, is a process technology for joining metals using heating, high temperatures, or high pressures. There are many modern energy sources for welding, including gas flames, electric arcs, lasers, electron beams, friction, and ultrasonic waves.
Generally, there are three types of welding:
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Fusion Welding - Heating the workpieces to be joined to partially melt and form a molten pool, which solidifies to form a joint. It may involve the addition of filler material and is suitable for welding various metals and alloys without pressure.
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Pressure Welding - Pressure is applied to the welding process, suitable for processing various metal materials and some composite materials.
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Brazing - Using a metal material with a lower melting point than the base metal as the brazing material, the liquid brazing material wets the base metal, fills the gap between the joints, and diffuses with the base metal to achieve the connection of the welded parts. It is suitable for welding various materials and different metal or dissimilar materials.
Why Use Machine Vision in Welding?
The characteristics of welding include complex process factors, high labor intensity, long production cycles, and poor working environments. Its quality depends on the operator's skills, techniques, and experience, as well as the operator's emotions and physical condition. Therefore, welding automation technology is very important for improving joint quality and ensuring stability. Welding robot technology realizes welding automation and flexibility. However, welding robots cannot autonomously obtain information on workpiece positioning, weld seam spatial positioning, weld penetration information, etc., nor can they adapt autonomously to changes in workpieces and joint sets, welding heat deformation, and changes in trajectory and groove size caused by them, and cannot perform online adjustments, meaning they lack intelligence. In reality, changes in trajectory and joint groove geometry are common, and non-intelligent reproducing welding will result in serious forming defects such as welding deviation, incomplete penetration, etc. Therefore, there is an urgent need for vision-based intelligent welding technology. Falcon Vision provides rich cases and solutions, greatly assisting in intelligent welding technology.
In welding applications, metal parts and components are typically joined together by material in the melting connection area. In some applications, especially with thick materials, filler material is added to the joint. Heat is usually generated by electricity (e.g., induction welding, spot welding, and arc welding) or electromagnetic radiation (e.g., lasers and electron beam welding). Due to the high energy impact on small areas, the process emits a large amount of thermal light. Therefore, the welding process is extremely bright, posing a significant challenge to camera-based welding imaging systems.
Use of Machine Vision Technology in Welding
Machine vision cameras with laser illumination are commonly used in welding to achieve clear and visualized welding processes. This is mainly due to the combination of high spectral brightness of laser illumination and efficient filtering of thermal light, which can be applied to all arc and laser welding industries. Through these technologies, Falcon Vision can achieve high-speed welding imaging for research purposes and quality assurance of industrial production line welding processes. It is suitable for all major arc welding processes such as GMAW (MIG, MAG) and TIG, as well as all major beam welding processes such as CO2 lasers, fiber lasers, diode lasers, Nd:YAG lasers, and electron beam applications.
Advantages of Using Machine Vision in Welding
- Welders and operators can adjust processes in real-time based on images.
- Images can be used for analysis and automation.
- Images or videos can be stored for quality records.
- Quick error detection can reduce scrap.
- The system can operate at a safe distance.
- Improved ergonomics for welders.
- Reduced risk of inhaling unhealthy welding fumes.
- Reduced setup time for welding processes.
Directions for Using Machine Vision in Welding
- GMAW Welding (MIG, MAG)
- TIG Welding
- Hybrid Welding (Laser and Arc Welding)
- Laser Welding (e.g., CO2, Nd:YAG, Fiber, and Disk Lasers)
- Electron Beam Welding
- Robotic Welding
- Semi-automatic Welding
- Linear Welding
- Orbital Welding
FALenses Technology specializes in providing machine vision core hardware. You can go to the official website of FALenses Technology at https://www.falenses.com/ for more information.