Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) is the most widely used manufacturing process for producing high-quality welds in piping for Navy ship construction. The majority of welds in these piping applications must achieve complete penetration of the weld joint. However, in practice, a variety of factors affect the ability to consistently produce complete penetration welds: including variations in material thickness, material chemical composition, joint preparation, and joint fit-up tolerances. It is both costly, and difficult, if not impossible; to adequately control all of the variables that affect weld penetration. WeldQC proposes to evaluate the feasibility of developing a system for monitoring the state of weld penetration and providing feedback to welders. The design of the system would allow easy integration onto existing shipyard welding systems, and would provide information to the welder, allowing them to adjust the welding process as needed to consistently achieve complete penetration.
Benefit: The benefits of developing a system for monitoring weld penetration include: Improved process control; Reduced construction costs; Reduced production cycle times; Reduced rework costs; and Reduced welder skill level. The market opportunity is considered to be significant, particularly since there are no directly competing technologies for weld penetration monitoring on the market. Fundamentally, any industry which that uses GTAW to weld tube, pipe or closure welds for quality-critical applications could benefit from use of the weld penetration monitoring. Several industries that have a large number of such applications include: Shipbuilding; Aerospace; Semiconductor and Medical Equipment Manufactures; and the Petrochemical and Power Generation Industries.
Keywords: Shipbuilding, Shipbuilding, Weld Penetration, PRODUCTION, Joining Technologies, Gas Tungsten Arc Welding, processes, affordability, manufacturing
