Assessing Penetration during Fusion Welding: a Survey of Techniques

Although great strides continue to be made in the research community, the flexibility and judgment of a human welder has yet to be transferred successfully to a mechanical system. Automatic and robotic welding systems are capable of preprogrammed control of the welding parameters and manipulation of the welding torch motion and orientation. Recently, vision-based systems designed for tracking the weld joint and assessing the root opening are available for commercial automatic and robotic systems. While depth of penetration is considered a good first order indicator of weld integrity, penetration control has yet to be fully automated. This paper presents a survey of the techniques used for assessing the depth of penetration during fusion welding.