Visualization And Digitization Of Welder Skill For Education And Training

Abstract

In recent years, the shortage of skilled welders became obvious and skill transmission became an important task. In the manufacture of power generation plant apparatus such as nuclear and thermal power, the maintenance of quality has been an important issue as the trouble and accident by welding may be a social concern. Although automation and robotics of welding are promoted for this, there is a limit in replacing all the work. It is still the case that many processes are still undertaken on manual operation. On the other hand, it takes a long time and costs a lot to train or to be a skilled welder. Then, authors promoted efficient training and skill transmission of welding by developing a system which quantifies and digitalizes technique of the skilled welder and know-how based on real image. Numerical representation and digitalization of the skill can be realized by measurement of welder’s motion using visual sensor in this system. Firstly, the training system which carried out the visualization of the GTAW skill to flat plate first layer welding was developed. The system is composed of four visual sensors, computer and display. Features of this system are digitization, visualization and comparison with skillful welder’s motion of welding skill. While displaying time series variation of seven measurement items, it standardizes as a skill index about a total of 14 items of those average values and variations, and an evaluation result is shown in a radar chart. It is possible to evaluate several skill indices for which dimensions differ together, and it helps the intuitive indication. The digitization system was also applied to all welding positions of pipe, tube and tube sheet welding for GTAW semi-automatic GMAW training system and fillet GMAW. Furthermore, visualization and digitization of SMAW for all position pipe welding of 9Cr steel were performed. These systems can visualize and digitize welder’s behaviour with visual sensor. It enables carrying out a quantitative evaluation by image comparison of skilled welder and can be utilized effectively in early training of skilled welder and skill transmission. These systems showed successful results.