Abstract
The growth of the automated welding sector and emerging technological requirements of Industry 4.0 have driven demand and research into intelligent sensor-enabled robotic systems. The higher production rates of automated welding have increased the need for fast, robotically deployed Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE), replacing current time-consuming manually deployed inspection. This paper presents the development and deployment of a novel multi-robot system for automated welding and in-process NDE. Full external positional control is achieved in real time allowing for on-the-fly motion correction, based on multi-sensory input. The inspection capabilities of the system are demonstrated at three different stages of the manufacturing process: after all welding passes are complete; between individual welding passes; and during live-arc welding deposition. The specific advantages and challenges of each approach are outlined, and the defect detection capability is demonstrated through inspection of artificially induced defects. The developed system offers an early defect detection opportunity compared to current inspection methods, drastically reducing the delay between defect formation and discovery. This approach would enable in-process weld repair, leading to higher production efficiency, reduced rework rates and lower production costs.
Highlights
Accepted: 21 July 2021The automated welding industry has been valued at USD 5.5 billion in 2018 and is expected to double by 2026, reaching USD 10.8 billion [1] with industrial articulated robots predicted to replace current traditional column and boom systems and manual operations.This growth has been driven by key high-value manufacturing sectors including automotive, marine, nuclear, petrochemical and defence
This paper presents the development of a sensor-enabled multi-robot system for automated welding and in-process ultrasonic Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE)
More sophisticated data can be included as additional columns, for example, to choose the welding parameters through a lookup table containing the settings for root, hot, filling and cap passes, allowing the user to enter the parameters from a relevant Welding Procedure Specification (WPS) document alongside the robotic path
Summary
The automated welding industry has been valued at USD 5.5 billion in 2018 and is expected to double by 2026, reaching USD 10.8 billion [1] with industrial articulated robots predicted to replace current traditional column and boom systems and manual operations. The developed system has enabled the real-time control of the welding process through live-arc ultrasonic methods. The work presented has directly supported and enabled further research into in-process weld inspection, across sectors, with the aim of producing right-first-time ultrasonic phased array controller, allowing for the enabled use of advanced image processing alve an increased component ponents quality, will process have ponents an efficiency, increased will have and component anherein reduced increased quality, recomponent process quality, efficiency, process and efficiency, reduced and reduced. Automated robotic ultrasonic phased array controller, allowing for the use of advanced image processing alindependent from ponents will have an increased component quality, process efficiency, and reduced reReal-time trajectory capture.
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