Real time monitoring and quality control of resistance spot welds using voltage, current, and force data

The real time monitoring and control of resistance spot welds is a problem of critical importance in automotive and many other manufacturing industries. However, till this date, there are no reliable, low-cost, non-destructive techniques for predicting the size and strength of the weld nuggets in real time. This paper investigates the usage of voltage, current, and force data for the above tasks. A promising technique for estimation of nugget size and strength is described and some experimental results are presented.