Welding portion inspection device and inspection method therefore, with extracting portion for extracting evaporation luminescence and thermal radiation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9527166-B2
Application number	US-201414784493-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 11, 2014
Priority date	Apr 15, 2013
Publication date	Dec 27, 2016
Grant date	Dec 27, 2016

Abstract

A welding portion inspection method includes: irradiating welding laser beam along welding trajectories set in works plural times or irradiating inspection laser beam along scanning trajectories set in a molten pool of the works which is melted by the welding laser beam plural times; receiving return light including reflected light from the molten pool of the work, evaporation luminescence generated due to evaporating of the work and thermal radiation light radiated from the molten pool of the work; extracting short wavelength component containing evaporation luminescence and long wavelength component containing thermal radiation light from the return light and inspecting the welding condition of the welding portion of the work based on a ratio between an intensity of the short wavelength component and an intensity of the long wavelength component.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A welding portion inspection device configured to inspect a welding condition of a welding portion formed when a plurality of works are welded together, the welding portion inspection device comprising:
a laser beam irradiation portion configured to irradiate a welding laser beam along a welding trajectory set in works plural times or irradiate an inspection laser beam plural times along a scanning trajectory set in a molten pool of the work melted by the welding laser beam so as to weld together the works;
a laser-receiving sensor configured to receive return light including reflected light from the molten pool in the work by the welding laser beam or the inspection laser beam irradiated by the laser beam irradiation portion, evaporation luminescence which is generated by evaporating of the work and thermal radiation light radiated from the molten pool in the work;
an optical filter configured to extract a first component containing evaporation luminescence and a second component containing thermal radiation light from return light received by the laser-receiving sensor; and
a measuring instrument configured to inspect the welding condition of the welding portion of the work based on a ratio between intensities of the first component and the second component which are extracted by the optical filter wherein
the measuring instrument inspects the welding condition of the welding portion of the work by conducting Fourier transform on a ratio between the intensity of the first component and the intensity of the second component or a power of the ratio between the intensity of the first component and the intensity of the second component.

2. The welding portion inspection device according to claim 1 , wherein
the measuring instrument inspects the welding condition of the welding portion of the work based on an amplitude under a frequency that is plural times as high as a fundamental frequency which is detected by conducting Fourier transform on a ratio between the intensity of the first component and the intensity of the second component or the power of the ratio between the intensity of the first component and the intensity of the second component.

3. The welding portion inspection device according to claim 1 , wherein
the optical filter spectrally disperses the return light received by the laser-receiving sensor to at least the first component containing evaporation luminescence and the second component containing thermal radiation light and extracts the first component containing evaporation luminescence and the second component containing thermal radiation light from the return light.

4. A welding portion inspection method adapted to inspect a welding condition of a welding portion formed when a plurality of works are welded together, the welding portion inspection method comprising:
irradiating welding laser beam along a welding trajectory set in works plural times or irradiating inspection laser beam along a scanning trajectory set in a molten pool of the work melted by the welding laser beam plural times so as to weld together the works;
receiving return light including reflected light from the molten pool in the work by the welding laser beam or the inspection laser beam, evaporation luminescence which is generated by evaporating of the work and thermal radiation light radiated from the molten pool in the work;
extracting a first component containing evaporation luminescence and a second component containing thermal radiation light from return light; and
inspecting the welding condition of the welding portion of the work based on a ratio between an intensity of the first component and an intensity of the second component, wherein
in the inspecting, the welding condition of the welding portion of the work is inspected by conducting Fourier transform on a ratio between the intensity of the first component and the intensity of the second component or a power of the ratio between the intensity of the first component and the intensity of the second component.

5. The welding portion inspection method according to claim 4 , wherein
in the inspecting, the welding condition of the welding portion of the work is inspected based on an amplitude under a frequency that is plural times as high as a fundamental frequency which is detected by conducting Fourier transform on a ratio between the intensity of the first component and the intensity of the second component or the power of the ratio between the intensity of the first component and the intensity of the second component.

6. The welding portion inspection method according to claim 4 , wherein
in the extracting, the first component containing evaporation luminescence and the second component containing thermal radiation light are extracted from the return light by spectrally dispersing the return light to at least the first component containing evaporation luminescence and the second component containing thermal radiation light.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kobayashi Hiroomi
• Furukawa Masashi
• Uchida Keisuke

Classifications

• B23K26/03

  Observing, e.g. monitoring, the workpiece · CPC title

• B23K26/22

  Spot welding · CPC title

• B23K26/21

  by welding · CPC title

• B23K31/125 Primary

  Weld quality monitoring · CPC title

• B23K26/24

  Seam welding · CPC title