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Welding Journal | January 2014

tells the robot if the weld is acceptable or not. Conclusions Ultrasonic in-process characterization of resistance spot welds has many advantages over off-line methods, particularly adding the ability to inspect more than 99% of the parts that would otherwise go unchecked. In addition, real-time monitoring of the process can identify problems that occur and allow control engineers to correct these problems before additional bad parts are produced. An example of a damaged watercooling pipe is illustrated in this article. Use of the RIWA system provides an opportunity to automatically correct bad welds and prevent them in the future product. The inline ultrasound inspection system installed in the Windsor Assembly Plant provides the capability to observe the process of weld formation as well as identify expulsion. Parameters such as the moment of melting, liquid metal penetration depth, solidification, and cooling rates are used for quality characterization of every weld done at the installed unit. In addition, statistics of weld quality over time are monitored from which data regarding electrode wear and process degradation can be inferred. Such a tool is proving to be effective in the harsh industrial environments of the automotive assembly plant, and the benefits of such thorough quality inspection are immediately clear.♦ Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for support of this research together with Chrysler Canada, through the NSERC/Chrysler Canada, Inc./ University of Windsor Industrial Research Chair IRCPJ 260901-07 in Applied Physics and Material Characterization. References 1. Gould, J. E. 2012. Joining aluminum sheet in the automotive industry – A 30 year history. Welding Journal 91(1): 23-s to 34-s. 2. Sutter, J. E. 2004. In-process ultrasonic weld inspection and adaptive control. Sheet Metal Welding Conf. XI, Sterling Heights, Mich. 3. Rokhlin, S. I., Meng, S., and Adler, L. 1989. In-process ultrasonic evaluation 62 JANUARY 2014 Fig. 11 — Improvement in cap cooling after tip dressing, more greens. of spot welds. Mater. Eval. 47: 935–943. 4. Hurlebaus, R. P. 1970. Method of monitoring a welding operation. U.S. Patent 3,726,130. 5. Okuda, T., and Inada, M. 1976. Ultrasonic testing method and apparatus for resistance welding. U.S. Patent 4,099,045. 6. Gr. Maev, R., and Ptchelintsev, A. 2000. Monitoring of pulsed ultrasonic waves’ interaction with metal continuously heated to the melting point. Rev. Prog. Quant. Nondestr. Eval. 20: 1517–1524. 7. Ptchelintsev, A., and Gr. Maev, R. 2000. Method of quantitative evaluation of elastic properties of metals at elevated temperatures. Rev. Prog. Quant. Nondestr. Eval. 20: 1509–1516. 8. Chertov, A. M., and Gr. Maev, R. 2005. A one-dimensional numerical model of acoustic wave propagation in a multilayered structure of a resistance spot weld. IEEE Trans. on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control 52(10). 9. Chertov, A. M., and Gr. Maev, R. 2003. Inverse problem solution to find real-time temperature distribution inside the spot weld medium using ultrasound time of flight methods. Rev. Prog. Quant. Nondestr. Eval. (7). 10. Karloff, A. C., Chertov, A. M., and Gr. Maev, R. 2009. Real-time ultrasonic expulsion detection and indentation measurement in resistance spot welds. Rev. Prog. Quant. Nondestr. Eval. 29(7): 1609–1614. 11. Regalado, W. P., Chertov, A. M., and Gr. Maev, R. 2009. Real-time ultrasonic aluminum spot weld monitoring system. Rev. Prog. Quant. Nondestr. Eval. 29(7). 12. Chertov, A. M., and Gr. Maev, R. 2005. Extraction of straight line segments from noisy images as a part of pattern recognition procedure. Advances in Signal Processing for NDE of Materials. 13. Chertov, A. M., and Gr. Maev, R. 2011. New algorithm for pattern recognition in noisy ultrasonic B-scans. 12th International Symposium on Nondestructive Characterization of Materials (NDCM-XII). Bring Brand Awareness to Your our Company By Placing Your Product uct Video Vid on on the AWS Website For more information visit our website at http://videos.aws.org or please contact: Rob Saltzstein salty@aws.org / (800) 443-9353, ext. 243 Lea Paneca lea@aws.org / (800) 443-9353, ext. 220 Sandra Jorgensen sjorgensen@aws.org / (800) 443-9353, ext. 254


Welding Journal | January 2014
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