The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 24, 1990
Filed:
May. 08, 1989
Michael H McLaughlin, Scotia, NY (US);
Carl M Penney, Schenectady, NY (US);
Robert E Sundell, Clifton Park, NY (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
The wetting angle of a bead, such as a welding bead, is detected and controlled by a feedback operation. In particular, one or more optical profiler heads are used to detect the wetting angle along the edge of a bead. If the wetting angles differ from a preferred value, a feedback control system adjusts one or more weld parameters in order to bring the wetting angles to a desired value. If the wetting angle obtains a value which makes the weld joint completely unacceptable, an alarm condition may be activated. The detection of the bead wetting angles may be provided by two optical profiler heads, each head tracking a corresponding one of the edges or sides of the bead so as to provide information from which a corresponding wetting angle may be obtained.