Evaluation system and evaluation method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11724332-B2
Application number	US-201916645804-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2019
Priority date	Mar 15, 2018
Publication date	Aug 15, 2023
Grant date	Aug 15, 2023

Abstract

Provided is an evaluation system including: an analog-to-digital converting section comprised of a programmable circuit and configured to convert an analog signal, the analog signal being acquired by a physical quantity acquiring section and indicative of a time-series change of at least one of (i) welding current, welding voltage, or load applied to pieces to be welded and (ii) a displacement, during welding, of a welding head; and an evaluating section configured to determine, based on a digital signal, whether or not the time-series change satisfies a predetermined condition, wherein configuration data for configuring the programmable circuit is arranged to be changeable by a user.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An evaluation system comprising:
an analog-to-digital converting section including:
an AD converter configured to convert an analog signal to a digital signal, the analog signal being acquired by a physical quantity acquiring section and indicative of a time-series change of at least one of (i) welding current, welding voltage, or load applied to pieces to be welded during welding and (ii) a displacement, during welding, of a welding head of a welding apparatus that is configured to apply the welding current, welding voltage, or load to the pieces to be welded;
a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) that is a programmable circuit for carrying out arithmetic processing on the digital signal outputted by the A-D converter,
a memory for storing configuration data for the FPGA; and
a processor configured to read the configuration data stored in the memory, cause the FPGA to acquire the configuration data, and cause the FPGA to be configured as a circuit for carrying out the arithmetic processing based on the configuration data; and

a digital signal processing apparatus including:
an evaluating section configured to acquire the digital signal having been subjected to the arithmetic processing and determine, based on the digital signal having been subjected to the arithmetic processing, whether or not at least one of (i) the welding current, welding voltage or load applied during welding and (ii) the displacement satisfies a predetermined condition;
a communication module configured to communicate with an external apparatus;
an auxiliary storage device for storing information;
a storing section configured to store, in the auxiliary storage device, the configuration data inputted by a user to the communication module via the external apparatus; and
a data transmission controlling section configured to transmit, to the analog-to-digital converting section, the configuration data stored in the auxiliary storage device,
wherein

the processor of the analog-to-digital converting section is configured to store, in the memory, the configuration data transmitted from the digital signal processing apparatus, and
the arithmetic processing, based on the configuration data stored in the memory, to be carried out by the FPGA changeable by the user.

Assignees

• Omron Tateisi Electronics Co

Inventors

• Oba Hitoshi

Classifications

• B23K11/251 Primary

  using analogue means · CPC title

• B23K11/241

  Electric supplies (B23K11/248 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B23K11/252

  using digital means · CPC title

• B23K11/115 Primary

  by means of two electrodes placed opposite one another on both sides of the welded parts · CPC title

• B23K31/125

  Weld quality monitoring · CPC title