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:
Jul. 02, 1996
Filed:
Nov. 14, 1994
Takao Iwai, Toyota, JP;
Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha, Toyota, JP;
Abstract
An apparatus for determining quality of a weld bead of an welded assembly of different metal sheets, wherein a slit beam of light is obliquely thrown on the weld bead to make an illuminated band on an upper surface of the welded assembly. A CCD camera disposed above the welded bead photographs the illuminated band to make an image of the illuminated band. The image is treated in an image pretreatment device so that a surface of a transverse cross section of the weld bead can be expressed in the form of one-dimensional data. Characteristics of the cross section of the weld bead are extracted from the one-dimensional data and are compared with predetermined references in a personal computer so that it is determined whether the weld bead is acceptable. Since the speed of data treatment is high, an on-line and real-time determination of the quality of the weld bead is possible.