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An image acquisition system for real-time seam tracking

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Abstract

Gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process is one of the most widespread welding processes used in industries for their excellent quality, reliability, productivity, and cost-effectiveness. To develop an automatic GMAW system, vision capability in the system is a necessary component supplying real-time information about weld pool and seam tracking. In this research work, an automatic seam tracking system is presented, where the automatic tracking of welding path and torch positioning are performed by a newly developed image acquisition system. The system aims to add a vision capability to the GMAW system. A CCD camera is configured with a welding torch to acquire real-time images. The acquired images are processed through newly developed software for real-time detection of welding seam location and characteristics. The software encapsulates the acquired image input facility, image filtering technique, strategy to measure the seam gap, strategy to position torch at the starting point of welding, user interface for automatic guide, and the strategy to correct the torch movements. The seam recognition accuracy was verified during several welding experiments on linear weld seam. Real-time measurements of the seam gap and the seam tracking have achieved a high accuracy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical, Materials and Industrial Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

    L. Nele, E. Sarno & A. Keshari

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  1. L. Nele
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  2. E. Sarno
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  3. A. Keshari
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Correspondence to L. Nele.

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Nele, L., Sarno, E. & Keshari, A. An image acquisition system for real-time seam tracking. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 69, 2099–2110 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-013-5167-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-013-5167-7

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