Abstract
Abstract
The arc sensor has been widely used to detect the weld seam by monitoring welding current or voltage variation during weaving in gas metal arc welding (GMAW). In this work, the arc light intensity and welding resistance are utilized as the seam tracking sensor. Signal characteristics of the arc light intensity and welding resistance are compared when argon and CO2 gas are used for shielding. The performance of signal processing methods such as the least squares and integration methods is evaluated experimentally. It is found that the arc light intensity provides higher quality signals than welding resistance with CO2 gas. While both signal processing methods demonstrate almost equal seam tracking capabilities, the integration method appears to be more efficient because of the short computation time.