Closed-Loop Control of Droplet Transfer in Electron-Beam Freeform Fabrication.

In the process of electron-beam freeform fabrication deposition, the surface of the deposit layer becomes rough because of the instability of the feeding wire and the changing of the thermal diffusion condition. This will make the droplet transfer distance change in the deposition process, and the droplet transfer cannot always be stable in the liquid bridge transfer state. It is easy to form a large droplet or make wire and substrate stick together, which makes the deposition quality worsen or even interrupts the deposition process. The current electron-beam freeform fabrication deposition is mostly open-loop control, so it is urgent to realize the real-time and closed-loop control of the droplet transfer and to make it stable in the liquid bridge transfer state. In this paper, a real-time monitoring method based on machine vision is proposed for the droplet transfer of electron-beam freeform fabrication. The detection accuracy is up to ± 0.08 mm. Based on this method, the measured droplet transfer distance is fed back to the platform control system in real time. This closed-loop control system can stabilize the droplet transfer distance within ± 0.14 mm. In order to improve the detection stability of the whole system, a droplet transfer detection algorithm suitable for this scenario has been written, which improves the adaptability of the droplet transfer distance detection method by means of dilatation/erosion, local minimum value suppression, and image segmentation. This algorithm can resist multiple disturbances, such as spatter, large droplet occlusion and so on.

Online Measurement of Deposit Surface in Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication.

In the process of electron beam freeform fabrication (EBF3), due to the continuous change of thermal conditions and variability in wire feeding in the deposition process, geometric deviations are generated in the deposition of each layer. In order to prevent the layer-by-layer accumulation of the deviation, it is necessary to perform online geometry measurement for each deposition layer, based on which the error compensation can be done for the previous deposition layer in the next deposition layer. However, the traditional three-dimensional reconstruction method that employs structured laser cannot meet the requirements of long-term stable operation in the manufacturing process of EBF3. Therefore, this paper proposes a method to measure the deposit surfaces based on the position information of electron beam speckle, in which an electron beam is used to bombard the surface of the deposit to generate the speckle. Based on the structured information of the electron beam in the vacuum chamber, the three-dimensional reconstruction of the surface of the deposited parts is realized without need of additional structured laser sensor. In order to improve the detection accuracy, the detection error is theoretically analyzed and compensated. The absolute error after compensation is smaller than 0.1 mm, and the precision can reach 0.1%, which satisfies the requirements of 3D reconstruction of the deposited parts. An online measurement system is built for the surface of deposited parts in the process of electron beam freeform fabrication, which realizes the online 3D reconstruction of the surface of the deposited layer. In addition, in order to improve the detection stability of the whole system, the image processing algorithm suitable for this scene is designed. The reliability and speed of the algorithm are improved by ROI extraction, threshold segmentation, and expansion corrosion. In addition, the speckle size information can also reflect the thermal conditions of the surface of the deposited parts. Hence, it can be used for online detection of defects such as infusion and voids.

A Weld Position Recognition Method Based on Directional and Structured Light Information Fusion in Multi-Layer/Multi-Pass Welding.

Multi-layer/multi-pass welding (MLMPW) technology is widely used in the energy industry to join thick components. During automatic welding using robots or other actuators, it is very important to recognize the actual weld pass position using visual methods, which can then be used not only to perform reasonable path planning for actuators, but also to correct any deviations between the welding torch and the weld pass position in real time. However, due to the small geometrical differences between adjacent weld passes, existing weld position recognition technologies such as structured light methods are not suitable for weld position detection in MLMPW. This paper proposes a novel method for weld position detection, which fuses various kinds of information in MLMPW. First, a synchronous acquisition method is developed to obtain various kinds of visual information when directional light and structured light sources are on, respectively. Then, interferences are eliminated by fusing adjacent images. Finally, the information from directional and structured light images is fused to obtain the 3D positions of the weld passes. Experiment results show that each process can be done in 30 ms and the deviation is less than 0.6 mm. The proposed method can be used for automatic path planning and seam tracking in the robotic MLMPW process as well as electron beam freeform fabrication process.

A Vision-Aided 3D Path Teaching Method before Narrow Butt Joint Welding.

For better welding quality, accurate path teaching for actuators must be achieved before welding. Due to machining errors, assembly errors, deformations, etc., the actual groove position may be different from the predetermined path. Therefore, it is significant to recognize the actual groove position using machine vision methods and perform an accurate path teaching process. However, during the teaching process of a narrow butt joint, the existing machine vision methods may fail because of poor adaptability, low resolution, and lack of 3D information. This paper proposes a 3D path teaching method for narrow butt joint welding. This method obtains two kinds of visual information nearly at the same time, namely 2D pixel coordinates of the groove in uniform lighting condition and 3D point cloud data of the workpiece surface in cross-line laser lighting condition. The 3D position and pose between the welding torch and groove can be calculated after information fusion. The image resolution can reach 12.5 µm. Experiments are carried out at an actuator speed of 2300 mm/min and groove width of less than 0.1 mm. The results show that this method is suitable for groove recognition before narrow butt joint welding and can be applied in path teaching fields of 3D complex components.

A Precise Visual Method for Narrow Butt Detection in Specular Reflection Workpiece Welding.

During the complex path workpiece welding, it is important to keep the welding torch aligned with the groove center using a visual seam detection method, so that the deviation between the torch and the groove can be corrected automatically. However, when detecting the narrow butt of a specular reflection workpiece, the existing methods may fail because of the extremely small groove width and the poor imaging quality. This paper proposes a novel detection method to solve these issues. We design a uniform surface light source to get high signal-to-noise ratio images against the specular reflection effect, and a double-line laser light source is used to obtain the workpiece surface equation relative to the torch. Two light sources are switched on alternately and the camera is synchronized to capture images when each light is on; then the position and pose between the torch and the groove can be obtained nearly at the same time. Experimental results show that our method can detect the groove effectively and efficiently during the welding process. The image resolution is 12.5 µm and the processing time is less than 10 ms per frame. This indicates our method can be applied to real-time narrow butt detection during high-speed welding process.