Title :
On real time monitoring and control of resistance spot welds using dynamic resistance signatures
Author :
Garza, Frank ; Das, Manohar
Author_Institution :
Fanuc Robotics, Rochester Hills, MI, USA
Abstract :
The real time monitoring and control of resistance spot welds is a problem of critical importance in automotive and many other manufacturing industries. One of the major problems faced by the process control engineers today is the lack of a reliable, low-cost, nondestructive technique for identifying bad welds and predicting weld strengths in real time. This paper proposes the usage of dynamic weld resistance for the above tasks. A reliable technique for estimating the dynamic resistance profiles is presented, and its usefulness in detecting and identifying a variety of bad welds is demonstrated. Both theoretical and experimental results related to estimation, analysis, and classification of resistance signatures are presented. Furthermore, an outline of the overall monitoring and control scheme is included
Keywords :
automobile industry; electric resistance; fault location; nondestructive testing; process control; process monitoring; real-time systems; welding; automotive manufacturing; bad weld detection; bad weld identification; bad welds; dynamic resistance profiles; dynamic resistance signatures; dynamic weld resistance; manufacturing industries; process control; real time control; real time monitoring; reliable nondestructive technique; resistance signature analysis; resistance signature classification; resistance signature estimation; resistance spot welds; weld strength prediction; Automotive engineering; Electric resistance; Electrical resistance measurement; Electrodes; Monitoring; Spot welding; Surface resistance; Temperature; Vehicle dynamics; Voltage;
Conference_Titel :
Circuits and Systems, 2001. MWSCAS 2001. Proceedings of the 44th IEEE 2001 Midwest Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Dayton, OH
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7150-X
DOI :
10.1109/MWSCAS.2001.986110
