WELDING SYSTEM AND WELDING METHOD

• US 20110284508A1
• Filed: 05/19/2011
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Setsu, Ochiai, Makoto, Nagai, Satoshi, Ogawa, Tsuyoshi, Yoshida, Masahiro, Miura, Takahiro, Fujita, Yoshihiro, Semboshi, Jun, Hoshi, Takeshi, Watanabe, Kazumi, Hirano, Shozo, Asai, Satoru
• Application Number:
  US13/111,211
• Publication Number:
  US 20110284508A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 219/121.64
• CPC Class Codes: B23K 31/125 Weld quality monitoring

Abstract

A welding system has: a welding mechanism, a reception laser light source, a reception optical mechanism, an interferometer, a data recording/analysis mechanism and a data recording/analysis mechanism. The reception laser light source generates reception laser light so as to irradiate the object to be welded with the reception laser light for the purpose of detecting a reflected ultrasonic wave obtained as a result of reflection of a transmission ultrasonic wave. The reception optical mechanism transmits, during or after welding operation, the reception laser light generated from the reception laser light source to the surface of the object to be welded for irradiation while moving, together with the welding mechanism, relative to the object to be welded and collects laser light scattered/reflected at the surface of the object to be welded.

Claims

1. A welding system comprising:

a welding mechanism that welds an object to be welded while moving along a welding line relative to the object to be welded;

a transmission laser light source that generates transmission laser light;

a transmission optical mechanism that transmits, during or after welding operation, the transmission laser light generated from the transmission laser light source to surface of the object to be welded for irradiation while moving, together with the welding mechanism, relative to the object to be welded so as to generate a transmission ultrasonic wave;

a reception laser light source that generates reception laser light so as to irradiate the object to be welded with the reception laser light for the purpose of detecting a reflected ultrasonic wave obtained as a result of reflection of the transmission ultrasonic wave;

a reception optical mechanism that transmits, during or after welding operation, the reception laser light generated from the reception laser light source to the surface of the object to be welded for irradiation while moving, together with the welding mechanism, relative to the object to be welded and collects laser light scattered/reflected at the surface of the object to be welded;

an interferometer that performs interference measurement of the scattered/reflected laser light; and

a data recording/analysis mechanism that measures and analyzes an ultrasonic signal obtained by the interferometer.

2. The welding system according to claim 1, further comprising a surface modification mechanism that enhances sensitivity to at least one of the ultrasonic signal generated on the surface of the object to be welded onto which the transmission laser light is irradiated and ultrasonic signal generated on the surface of the object to be welded onto which the reception laser light is irradiated.

3. The welding system according to claim 2, wherein

the surface modification mechanism can move, together with the welding mechanism, relative to the object to be welded and is disposed on the moving direction front side of at least part of the surface of the object to be welded onto which the transmission laser light is irradiated and part of the surface of the object to be welded onto which the reception laser light is irradiated.

4. The welding system according to claim 2, wherein

the surface modification mechanism grinds at least part of the surface of the object to be welded onto which the transmission laser light is irradiated and part of the surface of the object to be welded onto which the reception laser light is irradiated.

5. The welding system according to claim 2, wherein

the surface modification mechanism applies a high temperature resistant material onto at least part of the surface of the object to be welded onto which the transmission laser light is irradiated and part of the surface of the object to be welded onto which the reception laser light is irradiated.

6. The welding system according to claim 1, wherein

the data recording/analysis mechanism determines occurrence of a welding defect based on an analysis result on an ultrasonic signal, and

when the data recording/analysis mechanism determines that the welding defect has occurred, welding conditions are changed.

7. The welding system according to claim 1, wherein

the data recording/analysis mechanism determines occurrence of a welding defect based on an analysis result on an ultrasonic signal, and

when the data recording/analysis mechanism determines that the welding defect has occurred, partial welding for maintenance and repair is made for a location at which the welding defect has occurred.

8. The welding system according to claim 1, further comprising an optical system driver that drives the transmission optical mechanism and the reception optical mechanism such that at least one of the transmission optical mechanism and the reception optical mechanism move along part of the surface of the object to be welded onto which the transmission laser light is irradiated and part of the surface of the object to be welded onto which the reception laser light is irradiated, respectively, relative to the welding mechanism while moving relative to the object to be welded together with the welding mechanism.

9. The welding system according to claim 1, wherein

the data recording/analysis mechanism performs aperture synthesis processing based on the ultrasonic signals at a plurality of positions of the transmission optical mechanism and the reception optical mechanism.

10. The welding system according to claim 1, further comprising a temperature measurement mechanism that measures the temperature of the object to be welded, wherein

the data recording/analysis mechanism corrects the velocity of an ultrasonic wave in the object to be welded based on the temperature of the object to be welded obtained by the temperature measurement mechanism.

11. The welding system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a distance measurement mechanism that measures a distance between the transmission optical mechanism and the object to be welded and a distance between the reception optical mechanism and the object to be welded; and

a distance adjustment mechanism that adjusts the distance between the transmission optical mechanism and the object to be welded and the distance between the reception optical mechanism and the object to be welded based on the distances measured by the distance measurement mechanism.

12. The welding system according to claim 1, further comprising a pattern projection mechanism that projects a predetermined pattern that can be directly or indirectly visually recognized on the surface of the object to be welded within a predetermined range including position of the object to be welded onto which the transmission laser light or the reception laser light are irradiated.

13. The welding system according to claim 1, further comprising a display mechanism that displays in real time a result obtained as a result of recording/analysis performed by the data recording/analysis mechanism.

14. The welding system according to claim 1, wherein

the transmission optical mechanism and the reception optical mechanism are covered by a heat-resistant protection mechanism except for a portion through which laser light to be irradiated onto the object to be welded passes and a portion through which laser light to be reflected at the object to be welded passes.

15. The welding system according to claim 1, further comprising an optical mechanism for reference signal that transmits for irradiation laser light for reference signal to a laser light irradiation position for reference signal on part of the surface of the object to be welded which is different from a transmission laser light irradiation position to which the transmission laser light is irradiated and a reception laser light irradiation position to which the reception laser light is irradiated while moving, together with the welding mechanism, relative to the object to be welded so as to generate an ultrasonic wave for reference signal, wherein

the laser light to be collected by the reception optical mechanism is laser light that has been subjected to both the modulation given by a reflected ultrasonic wave obtained as a result of scattering/reflection of the transmission ultrasonic wave and modulation given by a reflected ultrasonic wave obtained as a result of scattering/reflection of the ultrasonic wave for reference signal.

16. The welding system according to claim 15, wherein

the optical mechanism for reference signal has a function of generating the laser light for reference signal from a part of the transmission laser light.

17. The welding system according to claim 15, wherein

the reception laser light irradiation position and the laser irradiation position for reference signal are disposed on the same side with respect to the welding line and the transmission laser light irradiation position is disposed on a different side with respect to the welding line from the reception laser light irradiation position and the laser irradiation position for reference signal.

18. A welding method that welds an object to be welded while moving a welding mechanism along a welding line relative to the object to be welded, the method comprising:

a transmission ultrasonic wave generation step of irradiating, during or after welding operation, part of the surface of the object to be welded with transmission laser light generated from a transmission laser light source while moving a transmission optical mechanism, together with the welding mechanism, relative to the object to be welded so as to generate a transmission ultrasonic wave;

a reflected ultrasonic wave detection step of irradiating, during or after welding operation, part of the surface of the object to be welded with reception laser light generated from a reception laser light source while moving a reception optical mechanism, together with the welding mechanism, relative to the object to be welded and collecting laser light scattered/reflected at the surface of the object to be welded so as to detect reflected ultrasonic wave obtained as a result of reflection of the transmission ultrasonic wave; and

an interference measurement step of performing interference measurement of the scattered/reflected laser light.

19. The welding method according to claim 18, further comprising, before the transmission ultrasonic wave generation step, a surface modification processing step of performing surface modification processing for enhancing the sensitivity to at least one of the ultrasonic signal generated on part of the surface of the object to be welded onto which the transmission laser light is irradiated and ultrasonic signal generated on part of the surface of the object to be welded onto which the reception laser light is irradiated.

20. The welding method according to claim 18, further comprising:

a simulation calculation step of performing simulation calculation on welding operation for the object to be welded; and

a display step of displaying a comparison between a result obtained in the simulation calculation step and a result obtained in the interference measurement step.

21. The welding method according to claim 18, wherein

the transmission ultrasonic wave generation step includes a reference signal generation step of irradiating with laser light for reference signal, during or after welding operation, a laser light irradiation position for reference signal on the surface of the object to be welded which is different from a transmission laser light irradiation position to which the transmission laser light is irradiated and a reception laser light irradiation position to which the reception laser light is irradiated while moving an optical mechanism for reference signal, together with the welding mechanism, relative to the object to be welded so as to generate a reference signal, and

the reflected ultrasonic detection step includes a step of collecting laser light that has been subjected to both modulation given by a reflected ultrasonic wave obtained as a result of scattering/reflection of the transmission ultrasonic wave and modulation given by a reflected ultrasonic wave obtained as a result of scattering/reflection of the ultrasonic wave for reference signal so as to detect reflected ultrasonic wave obtained as a result of reflection of the transmission ultrasonic wave.

22. The welding method according to claim 21, wherein

the reference signal generation step includes a step of generating the laser light for reference signal from a part of the transmission laser light generated from a transmission laser light source.

23. The welding method according to claim 21, wherein

the reception laser light irradiation position and the laser irradiation position for reference signal are disposed on a same side with respect to the welding line, and transmission laser light irradiation position is disposed on a different side with respect to the welding line from the reception laser light irradiation position and the laser irradiation position for reference signal.