Review of laser welding monitoring

Abstract

Laser welding, as a highly efficient processing technology, has been widely applied to manufacturing industry. This paper makes an overview on real time monitoring of laser welding. It begins with a detailed introduction to six typical sensors (photodiode, visual, spectrometer, acoustical sensor, pyrometer, plasma charge sensor) in laser welding detection. Then it makes a review on multi-sensor fusion technology in both laser welding monitoring and adaptive control. Last, subjects for future research concerning welding monitoring and control have been proposed. The paper concludes that the real-time monitoring of laser welding can provide a great amount of valid information about welding status to help effectively identify weld defects and realize adaptive control.

Keywords:

• Laser welding
• Monitoring
• Adaptive control
• Optics sensing
• Multiple sensor fusion
• Welded quality inspection

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 51175095), the Guangdong Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 10251009001000001), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (no. 20104420110001) and the State Scholarship Fund from China Scholarship Council (no. 2011844250).