System and method for facilitating welding system diagnostics

• US 6,795,778 B2
• Filed: 05/24/2001
• Issued: 09/21/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lincoln Global Incorporated (Lincoln Electric Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Lincoln Global Incorporated (Lincoln Electric Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: Dodge, Robert, Blankenship, George Daryl, Hillen, Edward Dennis
• Primary Examiner(s): Barlow, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): BHAT, ADITYA S
• Application Number:
  US09/864,741
• Publication Number:
  US 20020198667A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,216 Days
• Field of Search: 702/34, 702/182, 707/10, 228/103, 219/110, 307/64
• US Class Current: 702/34
• CPC Class Codes: B23K 9/0953 using computing means
• CPC Class Codes: B23K 9/10 Other electric circuits therefor; Protective circuits; Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/406 characterised by monitoring or safety G05B19/19 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33285 Diagnostic
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/34038 Web, http, ftp, internet, intranet server
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45135 Welding
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2223/06 Remote monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0259 characterized by the response to fault detection

Abstract

A system and method for facilitating welding system diagnostics is provided. The invention includes a welder, a local system, a remote system, and/or an alarm component. The invention further provides for receiving sensor input(s), performing test sequence(s) based, at least in part, upon the sensor input(s) and/or performing internal diagnostics. The invention further provides for determining a health status of the welder and communicating the health status of the welder to the local system, the remote system and/or the alarm component. The health status of the welder can include welder alarm(s) and/or fault(s). Information regarding the health status of the welder can be sent by telephone, voicemail, e-mail and/or beeper. The welder can communicate with the local system and/or remote system to schedule maintenance. The invention further provides for a expert component to facilitate welding diagnostics based, at least in part, upon the health status of the welder, welder data, an expert data store, a local service support data store, a remote expert data store and/or a remote service support data store. The expert component can employ various artificial intelligence technique(s) (e.g., Bayesian model, probability tree network, fuzzy logic and/or neural network) to facilitate welding diagnostics based, at least in part, upon the health status received from the welder. The expert component can adaptively modify its modeling technique(s) based upon historical success (e.g., learn from success of previous welding diagnostics). The invention further provides for the welder, local system and/or remote system to initiate corrective action, at least temporarily, based, at least in part, upon the health status of the welder.

Claims

1. A welding system, comprising:

a sensor component adapted to receive information associated with at least one of operation of a welder and weld characteristics from at least one of test equipment and monitoring equipment, the monitoring equipment being at least one of a digital camera and a streaming video camera;

a control component adapted to receive information from the sensor component and to perform at least one test sequence to facilitate welder diagnostics based at least in part upon information received from the sensor component;

a diagnostic component adapted to perform welder internal diagnostics and to receive information from at least one of the sensor component and the control component, the diagnostic component determining a health status of the welder based at least in part upon information received from at least one of the sensor component, the control component and the welder internal diagnostics, the diagnostic component sending information associated with the health status of the welder to a remote system.

2. The welding system of claim 1, further comprising a communications component facilitating communications between the welder and the remote system via at least one of Dynamic HTML, HTML, SHTML, VB Script, JAVA, CGI Script, JAVA Script, dynamic HTML, PPP, RPC, TELNET, TCP/IP, FTP, ASP, XML, PDF, EDT and WML formats.

3. The system of claim 2, the communications component dynamically creating at least one HTML page associated with the health status of the welder.

4. The welding system of claim 1, the control component further adapted to send information to the at least one of test equipment and monitoring equipment to facilitate welder diagnostics.

5. The welding system of claim 1, the test equipment being at least one of an ohm meter, a voltage meter and a current meter.

6. The welding system of claim 1, further comprising a web pages database storing links to welding diagnostic resources.

7. The welding system of claim 1, further comprising a welder data store storing at least one of welder serial number, welder model number, welder build date, welder software version identifier, component part identifier, component version identifier and component software version identifier.

8. The welding system of claim 1, the welder and the remote system operatively coupled via at least one of a local network, an extranet and the Internet.

9. The welding system of claim 1, the welder further comprising at least one of a web server, an WEEP server and an SMTP server.

10. The welding system of claim 1, the welder sending a message associated with the health stains of the welder to the remote system via at least one of voicemail, e-mail, telephone, and beeper.

11. The welding system of claim 10, further comprising an event component facilitating reporting of an alarm condition, the message further comprising information associated with the alarm condition.

12. The welding system of claim 11, the event component further storing information associated with the alarm condition in an event log.

13. The welding system of claim 10, further comprising a communications data store storing information associated with communicating the message, the communications data store having at least one of telephone number, e-mail address and beeper number.

14. The welding system of claim 1, the welder sending a request to schedule maintenance to the remote system via at least one of voicemail, e-mail, telephone and beeper.

15. A system for facilitating welding system diagnostics, comprising:

a welder having a network interface to facilitate communication between the welder and a local system, the network interface comprising at least one of a web server, an HTTP server and an SMTP server;

a sensor component adapted to receive information associated with at least one of operation of the welder and weld characteristics;

a control component adapted to receive information from the sensor component and to perform at least one test sequence to facilitate welder diagnostics based at least in part upon information received from the sensor component; and

,

a diagnostic component adapted to perform welder internal diagnostics and to receive information from at least one of the sensor component and the control component, the diagnostic component determining a health status of the welder based at least in part upon information received from at least one of the sensor component, the control component and the welder internal diagnostics, the diagnostic component sending information associated with the health status of the welder to the local system via the network interface,

wherein the local system has an expert component, the expert component receiving information associated with the health status of the welder and facilitating welding diagnostics.

16. The system of claim 15, the welder further comprising a communications component facilitating communications between the welder and the local system via at least one of Dynamic HTML, HTML, SMTML, VB Script, JAVA, CGI Script, JAVA Script, dynamic HTML, PPP, RPC, TELNET, TCP/IP, FTP, ASP, XML, PDF, EDI and WML formats via the network interface.

17. The system of claim 16, the communications component dynamically creating at least one HTML page associated with the health status of the welder.

18. The welding system of claim 15, at least one of the sensor component and the local system further adapted to receive information associated with the at least one of operation of the welder and weld characteristics from at least one of test equipment and monitoring equipment.

19. The welding system of claim 15, the welder and the local system operatively coupled via at least one of a local network, an extranet and the Internet.

20. The system of claim 15, the expert component further adapted to facilitate welding diagnostics using at least one of a Bayesian model, a probability tree network, a fuzzy logic model and a neural network.

21. The system of claim 15, the local system further comprising a local service support data store storing information with welders comprising at least one of welder service record, welder pan order information, welder warranty information and welder service information, the expert component utilizing information stored in the local service support data store to facilitate welding diagnostics.

22. The system of claim 15, the local system further comprising expert data store storing information associated with welding diagnostics comprising at least one of expert system rules, diagrams, welder troubleshooting procedures and welder software, the expert component utilizing information stored in the expert data store to facilitate welding diagnostics.

23. The system of claim 15, the local system further operatively coupled via a second network to at least one of a remote service data store and a remote expert data store, the expert component utilizing information stored in the at least one of remote service data store and remote expert data store to facilitate welding diagnostics.

24. A system for facilitating welding system diagnostics, comprising:

a welder having it network interface to facilitate communication between the welder and a remote system;

a sensor component adapted to receive information associated with at least one of operation of the welder and weld characteristics;

a control component adapted to receive information from the sensor component and to perform at least one test sequence to facilitate welder diagnostics based at least in part upon information received from the sensor component; and

,

a diagnostic component adapted to perform welder internal diagnostics and to receive information from at least one of the sensor component and the control component, the diagnostic component determining a health status of the welder based at least in part upon information received from at least one of the sensor component, the control component and the welder internal diagnostics, the diagnostic component sending information associated with the health status of the welder to the remote system via the network interface,

wherein the remote system has an expert component, the expert component receiving information associated with the health status of the welder and facilitating welding diagnostics via at least one of a Bayesian model, a probability tree network, a fuzzy logic model and a neural network.

25. The system of claim 24, the welder further comprising a communications component facilitating communications between the welder and the remote system via at least one of Dynamic HTML, HTML, SHTML, VS Script, JAVA, CGI Script, JAVA Script, dynamic HTML, PPP, RPC, TELNET, TCP/IP, FTP, ASP, XML, PDF, EDT and WML formats via the network interface.

26. The system of claim 25, the communications component dynamically creating at least one HTML page associated with the health status of the welder.

27. The welding system of claim 24, at least one of the sensor component and the local system further adapted to receive information associated with the at least one of operation of the welder and weld characteristics from at least one of test equipment and monitoring equipment.

28. The welding system of claim 24, the welder and the remote system operatively coupled via at least one of a local network, an extranet and the Internet.

29. The system of claim 24, further comprising a remote service support data store storing information associated with welders comprising at least one of welder service record, welder part order information, welder warranty information and welder service information, the remote system operatively coupled to the remote system, the expert component utilizing information stored in the remote service support data store to facilitate welding diagnostics.

30. The system of claim 24, further comprising a remote expert data store storing information associated with welding diagnostics comprising at least one of expert system rules, diagrams, welder troubleshooting procedures and welder software, the remote expert data store operatively coupled to the remote system, the expert component utilizing information stored in the expert data store to facilitate welding diagnostics.

31. The system of claim 24, further comprising at least one of test equipment and monitoring equipment operatively coupled to at least one of the welder and the remote system.