Laser vision based adaptive fill control system for TIG welding

The variation of joint groove size during tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding will result in the non-uniform fill of deposited metal. To solve this problem, an adaptive fill control system was developed based on laser vision sensing. The system hardware consists of a modular development kit (MDK) as the real-time image capturing system, a computer as the controller, a D/A conversion card as the interface of controlled variable output, and a DC TIG welding system as the controlled device. The system software is developed and the developed feature extraction algorithm and control strategy are of good accuracy and robustness. Experimental results show that the system can implement adaptive fill of melting metal with high stability, reliability and accuracy. The groove is filled well and the quality of the weld formation satisfies the relevant industry criteria.