Reconfigurable Measuring System for Quality Control of Cross-Wire Welding Group of Products

Abstract

Quality control of welded joint is an indispensable part of the welding production process. As part of spot resistance welding group, cross-wire welding process showed great application for welding of products for everyday usage. The non-contact quality control checking is fit for purpose due to specific characteristics of welded products that consist of two cross welded wires or a combination of wires and strips. This work proposes a new method for detecting and measuring of required dimensional parameters, but also founds its applicability for other products if required. A crucial parameter of this research is the height of welded joint, which is necessary for calculating the penetration of the wire into the wire. The proposed measuring method with a reconfigurable measuring system is explained in this paper. The main component of this system is using a machine vision system, which has become an indispensable part of industrial metrology and is considered one of the industry 4.0 concepts. The calibration process for such systems could be very complicated. This work shows an elaborated calibration procedure for this kind of measuring system with referenced standards made for this purpose. Measurement results are compared with ones obtained by conventional method. The focus of vision system is a substantial part as it dictates the quality of the system. This research is done within the project in collaboration with the industrial sector and all samples are from real processes. The results of measured penetration on one product group are showing the applicability of a reconfigurable measuring system in the welding sector, and demonstrate that measurement of welding penetration based on machine vision is feasible and can ensure accuracy.

Machine Vision—Moving from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0

“…Machine vision managed to automate quality control in a reliable and effective way. A typical example is its use in the automotive industry in quality control of catalytic converters [37], but also in non-contact quality control of welded joints in welding productions in various industries [38].…”

Optimised projection welding of steel Bars

“…However, the projection welding of crossed bars continues to evolve and the authors of the study indicate a number of factors affecting the welding process and the quality of the welded joint. These factors include (i) compression of the materials to be welded prior to the flow of welding current (cold compression) [5], (ii) need to ensure the repeatability of welding cycle parameters [7] for a constant bar penetration value [8] and (iii) power (energy) of the welding process [9]. Other authors point out other aspects, such as an electrode clamping system [10][11][12], the special shape of electrodes [13], the intensive cooling of both electrodes and parts to be welded [14] and welding sequence [15], aimed to limit welding deformations.…”

Development and Future Trends of Digital Product-Service Systems: A Bibliometric Analysis Approach

“…Industry 4.0 stimulus manufacturing firms involved in research and development activities in the field of Product-Service Systems (PSS) [7]. Furthermore, smart factories and PSS are inextricably linked, since both ideas use digital technology to change traditional manufacturing processes into more efficient, flexible, and customer-centric operations [8,9]. They exchange data, procedures, and goals in order to produce products and services in a smooth and customercentric manner [10].…”