Gap and Force Adjustment during Laser Beam Welding by Means of a Closed-Loop Control Utilizing Fixture-Integrated Sensors and Actuators

Gap and Force Adjustment during Laser Beam Welding by Means of a Closed-Loop Control Utilizing Fixture-Integrated Sensors and Actuators

Blog Article

The development of Tumblers adaptive and intelligent clamping devices allows for the reduction of rejects and defects based on weld discontinuities in laser-beam welding.The utilization of fixture-integrated sensors and actuators is a new approach, realizing adaptive clamping devices that enable in-process data acquisition and a time-dependent adjustment of process conditions and workpiece position by means of a closed-loop control.The present work focused on sensor and actuator integration for an adaptive clamping device utilized for laser-beam welding in a butt-joint configuration, in which the position and acting forces of the sheets to be welded can be adjusted during the process (studied welding speeds: 1 m/min, 5 m/min).Therefore, a novel clamping system was designed allowing for the integration of inductive probes and force cells for obtaining time-dependent data of the joint gap and resulting forces during welding due to the displacement of the sheets.

A novel automation engineering concept allowed the communication between different sensors, actuators and the laser-beam welding setup based on an EtherCAT bus.The subsequent development of a position control and a force control and their combination was operated with a real time PC as master in the bus system and proved the feasibility of the approach based on proportional controllers.Finally, the Monitor Risers scalability regarding higher welding speeds was demonstrated.