Research On Intellectualized Control System For The Automatic Tracking Of External Weld Seam Of Spiral Weld Pipe

Welding is one of the major processes in the manufacturing industry. In pace with the progress of science and technology, the requirements for welding quality and process are becoming higher and higher. In the production of spiral weld pipe, the quality of the online automatic submerged arc welding is of significant importance to the final steel pipe product. In order to guarantee that the misalignment of the weld seam does not exceed the stipulated deviation in case of possible strip lateral movement, adjustment of forming angle, excess worn welding contact nozzle and other disadvantageous conditions, automatic tracking of weld seam became an urgent issue to be solved in this technical field. For many years, people engaged in welding have carried out a great deal of research work in weld seam tracking by using contact sensors and non-contact sensors, but the practical application was restricted by the low accuracy, complicated composition, inconvenience and other factors. At present, the use of modern high-tech such as laser, optical fiber, CCD sensing, camera shooting, image processing and computer control etc. greatly raised the advanced level and reliability of tracking system.From the weld seam tracking research results both at home and abroad, we can see obviously that the developing trend in the future shall be basically by means of visual sensor. For the advantages that it can collect enormous data and avoid direct contact with work piece, the system is more flexible and intellectualized, therefore it is widely used in the field of welding.This system is composed of software and hardware. The hardware mainly includes image collecting equipment, auxiliary spot light and execution device. The software processing program will carry out the function of dynamic control to the execution device by using the image data. The system obtains data through image collecting equipment, and the initial weld seam images are drawn and processed through image preprocessing calculation, and consequently the weld seam is tracked to create the best state for welding and high quality weld seam is obtained.The system utilizes visual sensor to take welding images, and the software of intellectualized control system for weld seam tracking was successfully developed through research on image processing methods. Meanwhile, P—Fuzzy—PID intellectualized control mode was developed in the deviation monitoring control of weld seam, and this is not only an innovation in control idea, but the practicability of the system is also proved through production operation.