Laser Soldered Seam

The roof-seam in the vehicle manufacturing and other compounds in the body shop are increasingly produced by a laser welding seam. As in welding, there are different criteria for assessing the quality of this connection. Our system was developed with the aim, to accomplish an inspection by using different user-selectable free parameters reliable, clear, fast and inexpensive.

Using a special camera on a robotic system (the system can also be installed on a robot for grinding) the presence and quality of a laser soldered seam will be reviewed. If the system is installed on a grinding robot it can be ensured that a correct assessment is done for the laser soldered seam by the depth of sharpness.

The system determines the vehicle identification number over the process bus (e.g. Profibus or Ethernet) and passes the error kinds with the appropriate seam positions over the bus to a reworking place. The error positions and the stored images of the defects are represented for the worker at the reworking place clearly on a display. Thereby a long manual search of defects is avoided. In addition all inspected images can be specifically stored with the vehicle identification number on a server for archiving.

The following images show potential flaws in a laser soldered seam:

Pore	Fraying / binding error
Wire rest	Seam displacement
Seam abandonment	Waviness

The system is already used successfully at various autmotive manufacturers.

Some statements of our customers:

• "Thereby a 0% error slip before delivery are realizable to the paint shop"
• "Projected a decrease of remachining arises by 3042.62 hours per year as a result of the employment of a laser soldering seam supervise with an effective quality automatic control loop."
• "... low procurement costs ..."

Further information: Report in the Autogramm