methods, such as photodiode- based in-process monitoring. Blackbird Robotersysteme has
developed an optical coherence tomography (OCT) monitoring system for its welding head. Here, OCT is used for seam tracking during welding, which is especially useful for on-the- fly welding where the scanner is moving above the workpiece. ‘Seam tracking requires an
edge or geometric feature, which, for fillet welds, is a feature that is seen in the z-direction, a change in the height of the workpiece,’ explained Bautze. Te laser scanner can weld in all directions and over a large volume. Triangulation wouldn’t work as it records a height profile in one direction. OCT is used to scan the
workpiece and pinpoint the edge as the weld is made. In this way, the OCT images feed back to the welding head to steer the laser beam. ‘OCT was developed for remote
laser welding, the most prominent application of which is welding car doors,’ Bautze said. ‘Car doors are huge, which is why you need a robot and scanner to get a good duty cycle.’ Car doors used to be made with
could end up welding into the jigs, or generating back reflections that could damage the machine.’
Questions of quality Quality assurance is a big part of automotive production. Te first step is to document the process – the images of the workpiece, the coordinates of the weld seam, the laser power that was applied, the welding program, etc, all need to be recorded, Bautze said. Inspecting the seam aſter
welding depends on the application. Some welding processes are very robust, and so it makes no sense to inspect the finished part, according to Bautze. Or manufacturers will use different process monitoring
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overlap welds, where it doesn’t matter too much if the position of the seam experiences a small amount of jitter – there’s enough space to position the weld. But with the new generation of vehicles, aluminium is oſten used for car doors, and fillet welds instead of overlap welds – Bautze said switching from overlap to fillet welds could save a couple of hundred grams per door, which improves fuel consumption. ‘If you use fillet welds you need
to hit the edge of the workpiece with the laser exactly,’ Bautze continued. ‘Tis is why you need seam tracking for the 3D scanner, because 3D scanners are needed to weld a door in a short time.’ OCT works in the kilohertz range between 50kHz
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