Inspection Trends / Fall 2011 17 occurring after the weld is made and the results are locked in stone. While there have been attempts to use gauges for weld joint fitup checking, their go/no-go nature has made it difficult to get quantifiable data to act on. However, with laser-based measuring tools, you can accurately check fitup (included groove angle, mismatch, etc.) before starting welding, thus giving you the chance to prevent making a bad weld. Even further upstream, you can use this tool during the procedure qualification work so as to accurately determine the robustness of the design and welding process. Documentation and Information Sharing in a 24/7 World: The older practice of using a gauge to measure a weld, writing the results down on a piece of paper, transposing them to a computer spreadsheet or database, and then printing a report is labor intensive, prone to error, and slow. The aroundthe clock world we live in with engineering being done in one country, the product manufactured in another, and the actual use of the product taking place in yet another, means information must be in an electronic format that is easily transmitted. With a laser measuring tool, not only can you automatically do the inspection and get the results entered into an Excel file as noted in the skewed fillet scenario, but then you can add a picture to the record as well as verbal comments and e-mail this to anyone in the world. Imagine being onsite doing a critical weld inspection and being able to immediately send all this information to your manager, the owner of the product being inspected, or anyone else who needs to know the result to make a timely decision. Welder Training and Assessment:Welder training and assessment methodology had remained fairly static for many years until the computer started impacting this field. The computer has made virtual reality (VR) a very useful tool for teaching welding without having to burn as much wire and make as much smoke. Whether VR or conventional training is employed, the techniques used to evaluate the welder’s skills still involve eyeballing and manual weld gauging. Laser vision measurement allows you to precisely measure the weld size and check for defects, thus quantifying the results such that an accurate score can be given. This benchmark can then be used later to determine whether the welder’s skills are improving, degrading, or staying the same. Conclusion Now that the digital era is here for surface profile weld inspection, the possibility for advancements is endless. Useful tools such as a pyrometer for measuring preheat, interpass, and postheat temperatures could be a simple upgrade or attachment. There is even the possibility of such upgrades being available in an “app store” where programs are downloaded from the Internet and installed directly into the device. JEFF NORUK (j.noruk@servorobot. com) is president and BLAKE HOLMES (b.holmes@servorobot.com) is welding engineer, Servo-Robot, Corp., Milwaukee, Wis. BOB BRUSS (rbruss@sbcglobal.net) is president, Fusion Consulting Services LLC, Muskego, Wis. Fig. 6 — The same skewed fillet shown in Fig. 5 being scanned with the handheld laser inspection tool. ������������������������������������������ �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ ������������������������������ See Us At The FABTECH booth #7322
Inspection Trends - October 2011 - Fall
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