Determining penetration from topside weld bead and weld pool geometry in PGMAW

Abstract

Finding suitable characteristic parameters of topside weld pool to reflect the penetration is a key work in weld shape control. In this paper, by analysing the molten metal volume, the relationship between topside weld bead shape and penetration in pulsed gas metal arc welding (PGMAW) is revealed, and then several weld bead characteristic parameters (WBCPs) are proposed to determine the penetration. However, these WBCPs are difficult to be obtained in real time, because continuous solidifying of weld pool forms the weld bead, and the WBCPs can be reflected by the weld pool geometry. Therefore, some weld pool characteristic parameters (WPCPs) are proposed to replace the WBCPs. Furthermore, a visual system is established and a series of image processing arithmetics are developed to extract the WPCPs.