Diagnostics for laser welding

Innovative, reliable and precise working sensor systems for monitoring and controlling the welding process and the weld seam quality are one of the important requirements to broaden the use of lasers in industrial processing. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology, Germany has developed and tested several devices measuring the geometry of the seam (i.e., misalignment, undercut, sinkage, full penetration) as well as the components which can detect process instabilities (i.e., blow outs, shielding plasma). Depending of the specific application, it is mostly necessary to combine those components in a suitable way. Therefore, the devices developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology can be connected by use of an integrated field bus system. Furthermore, each single component is adaptable to the requirements of the process by individual programming of the signal analysis and the communication with the CNC-control system. Thus, it becomes possible to design a sensor packa ge which meets the expectations of the customer in the most sufficient way.