Canadian Patents & Development Ltd.

N Alexandrov

Jean-Luc Fihey

Jean-Paul Boillot

Ghislain Begin

A Di Vincenzo

Denis Villemure

A real time control system and process for controlling predetermined operating characteristics of a welding mechanism movable along a workpiece joint to be welded, the workpiece joint having two opposed edges. A thermal radiation sensing device is responsive to thermal radiation energy emanating from a heated workpiece joint. The sensing device is positioned along a travelling path of a welding element of the welding mechanism, ahead of and in close proximity to the welding element, the sensing device and welding element being disposed on a common side relative to the workpiece joint. The thermal radiation sensing device is caused to scan the workpiece joint along a line transverse to the travelling path so as to allow the sensing device to sense a thermal radiation profile along the transverse scanning line and to provide peak signals representative of the relative position of the edges of the workpiece joint in accordance with the thermal radiation profile sensed, thereby defining the actual width of the joint. Circuitry is provided for processing the peak signals provided by the radiation sensing device to issue command signals for controlling the predetermined operating characteristics of the welding mechanism.

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St. Bruno, Canada

N Alexandrov