Control of Metal Transfer at Given Arc Variables

本研究的目的是(1)证实在气体保护焊中引入辅助力在保持所需电弧稳定性的同时分离熔丝熔滴是可能的，(2)证实通过调整辅助力的功率和作用时间，可以完全控制熔滴质量/直径、冲击速度和轨迹等熔滴过渡变量。该方法是(1)瞄准两台功率相对较低的激光器从相反的方向施加辅助力，(2)建立金属转移变量与激光功率、电弧变量和熔滴状态之间的关联模型，(3)应用该模型根据熔滴状态和电弧变量自适应地确定激光器的功率和点火时机，以实现所需的金属转移变量，以及(4)监控所产生的金属转移变量以改进模型。气体保护焊是自动焊接中应用最广泛的一种焊接工艺。这项研究的完成将有助于更好地理解和控制这一复杂但重要的过程。这项技术的可能转让将有助于我们的行业保持其制造技术的领先地位，并与劳动力成本相对较低的国家竞争。拟议的研究具有多学科性质，并可能与国家实验室、行业和国际机构合作，这将提供各种机会，通过实践设计课程、本科研究经验、论文/论文研究、面向应用的案例研究、知识传播以及可能与行业合作伙伴进行的商业化，在各种水平上培训下一代学术和制造专家/研究人员。

The objective of this research is to (1) confirm that it is possible to introduce auxiliary forces to detach the droplet of melted wire in gas metal arc welding while still maintaining the required arc stability, and (2) confirm that metal transfer variables, including droplet mass/diameter, impact speed, and trajectory, can be fully controlled by adjusting the power and application time of the auxiliary forces. The approach is to (1) aim two lasers of relatively low power to the droplet to apply auxiliary forces from opposite directions, (2) establish a model to correlate metal transfer variables with laser powers, arc variables, and droplet state, (3) apply the model to adaptively determine the power and firing timing of the lasers based on droplet state and arc variables to achieve the desired metal transfer variables, and (4) monitor the resultant metal transfer variables to improve the model. Gas metal arc welding is the most widely used process in automatic welding. The completion of the research will be of significant help in better understanding and controlling this complex but important process. Possible transfer of this technology will help our industry maintain its manufacturing technology leadership and compete with countries where the labor cost is relatively low. The multi-disciplinary nature of the proposed research and possible collaboration with national lab, industry and international institution will provide a variety of opportunities to train next generation academic and manufacturing experts/researchers in a wide range of levels in forms of hands-on design course, undergraduate research experience, thesis/dissertation research, application-oriented case study, knowledge dissemination and possible commercialization with industry partners.