Remote laser welding with in-line adaptive 3D seam tracking

Kos, Matjaž (author), Arko, Erih (author), Kosler, Hubert (author), Jezeršek, Matija (author)

Remote laser welding systems can usually focus a laser beam to diameters of 0.1 mm. Therefore, high quality clamping and precise teaching is needed in order to achieve appropriate process tolerance for a sound weld. This brings reservation in the field of small series and user-customized manufacturing, where product individualization requires flexible and adaptive systems as workpiece geometry is not exact due to manufacturing tolerances and thermal deformations during welding. The preparation for welding is therefore often time-consuming. To solve this, we have developed an innovative system, which enables in-line adaptive 3D seam tracking. The system consists of an industrial robot (Yaskawa MC2000), a scanning head (HighYag RLSK; working area 200 mm x 300 mm x 200 mm) with optical triangulation feedback and a fiber laser (IPG, YRL-400-AC; 400 W). A feed-forward loop was used to achieve positioning accuracy of under 0.05 mm during on-the-fly welding. Experimental results show that between welding speeds of 25 and 150 cm/min, average tracking deviations are 0.043 mm and 0.276 mm in y and z directions, respectively. Moreover, teaching times for a specified seam can be shortened for more than 10 times due to the fact that only rough seam teaching is required. The proposed system configuration could be adapted to other classical welding processes.

• Language: English
• Keywords: remote laser welding, in-line 3D adaptive laser beam positioning, easy teaching, triangulation feedback
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Submitted for review: 12.12.2018
• Article acceptance date: 13.05.2019
• Publication date: 30.05.2019
• Year: 2019
• Number of pages: Str. 4577-4586
• Numbering: Vol. 103, iss. 9/12
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-127283
• UDC: 621.791.725(045)
• ISSN on article: 0268-3768
• DOI: 10.1007/s00170-019-03875-z
• COBISS.SI-ID: 16645659
• Publication date in RUL: 02.06.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of advanced manufacturing technology
• Shortened title: Int. j. adv. manuf. technol.
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• ISSN: 0268-3768
• COBISS.SI-ID: 25636352

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 30.05.2019

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: daljinsko lasersko varjenje, sočasno 3D adaptivno pozicioniranje laserskega snopa, enostavno učenje, triangulacijska zanka