Controlled weld pool volume control of welding processes

Abstract

A new method of process control for fusion welding maintains a controlled weld pool size or volume, for example in some applications a substantially constant weld pool size or volume. The invention comprises a method of linking machine and process variables to the weld pool size or volume in real time, thereby enabling constant weld pool volume control. The invention further comprises a method of using thermal inverse models to rapidly process real-time data and enable models-based control of welding processes so as to implement constant weld pool volume control.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for control of a fusion welding process by maintaining a controlled weld pool volume, comprising:
 (a) generating a weld pool using a welding machine tool having a plurality of process variable settings,   (b) making a thermal measurement of the weld pool using a thermal sensor,   (c) using a thermal inverse model to predict a thermal response of the weld pool to the plurality of process variable settings,   (d) comparing the predicted thermal response of the weld pool to the thermal measurement of the weld pool, and   (e) changing at least one process variable setting of the welding machine tool in response to the comparison of the predicted thermal response and the thermal measurement of the weld pool.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein steps (a) to (e) are performed in real time. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the controlled weld pool volume is a constant weld pool volume control. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the fusion welding process comprises an arc welding process, comprising gas metal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, flux cored arc welding, submerged arc welding, hot wire gas tungsten arc welding, pulsed gas metal arc welding, or orbital tube welding. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the fusion welding process comprises an energy beam welding process, comprising a continuous wave laser beam welding (LBW); a pulsed continuous wave laser beam welding (LBW); a continuous wave electron beam welding (EBW); or a pulsed wave electron beam welding. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the fusion welding process comprises a deposition process or a build-up process. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the fusion welding process comprises at least one of GTAW, VP-GTAW, P-GTAW with wire feed; GMAW, VP-GMAW, P-GMAW; LBW with wire feed; LBW with powder feed; EBW with wire feed. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the thermal sensor comprises at least one non-contact temperature sensor comprising a pyrometer. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the thermal sensor comprises at least one contact temperature sensor comprising a thermocouple. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein steps (c) and (d) are performed using at least one of: a digital signal processor (DSP), or a field programmable gate array (FPGA). 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein steps (c) and (d) are performed by a data processing system, and wherein the thermal sensor comprises at least one sensor that communicates wirelessly to the data processing system. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein step (e) comprises regulating arc current, arc voltage, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein step (e) comprises regulating arc current, arc voltage, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein step (e) comprises regulating work piece travel speed, wire feed rate, rate of material addition, or a combination of any of the preceding. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein step (e) comprises regulating work piece travel speed, wire feed rate, rate of material addition, or a combination of any of the preceding. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein step (e) comprises regulating beam energy, beam focal characteristics, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein step (e) comprises regulating work piece travel speed, wire feed rate, rate of material addition, or a combination of any of the preceding. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein step (e) comprises regulating work piece travel speed, the wire feed rate, the rate of material addition, or a combination of any of the preceding. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising measuring the weld pool frequency, and wherein step (e) is further responsive to the measured weld pool frequency.