Auto adaptative laser welding

The weld preparation in a laboratory environment for laser welding concerning edge misalignments, edge or gap preparation is no longer valid for industrial configurations where these different parameters are not accurately controlled. Therefore in that case, the achievement of consistent qualities of processing, requires the use of sensors for seam tracking and gap recognition. We discuss here preliminary experiments involving the use of these elements in order to pilot a scanning head in view of strongly reducing the precision requirements for gap preparation. This set-up is the first step in the development of an auto-adaptative device for laser welding which will be composed of seam tracking and recognition sensors, scanning laser head and a filler wire device.