About WELDAN

WeldAn is a welding inspection system suitable to inspect the weld quality on small metal pipes; it is an online system and it provides immediately after the wedling process during the froming of the pupe, the quality of the weld. With Weldam system line operators can automatically check-out and validate the welding process directly during the pipe forming, to avoid breakages. The wedling inspection is performed after the welding, so during the forming phase of pipe. WeldAn is a unique system in the Industry. Existing systems like PEC (Pulsed Eddy Current) , magnetic, or visual can identify a surface defect, but not an inner defect. WeldAn is the innovative Welding Inspection Solution equipment which will add a lot of possibilities to your standard way of work.

WeldAn is an online welding analyzer for metals which is capable to recognize defect on welding on flat products, such as strip, slab or plates and on pipes with a small diameter. Our welding inspection systems can be easily incorporated on existing process lines, to provide a validity check of the welding directly after the welding process. It will minimize troubles due to non conformity of the process. WeldAn is a X-ray analyzer for recognize defect on welding for steel strip. The system is based on a micro-focus X-ray source and a high speed Time-Delay-Integration (TDI) camera and give real-time analysis on weld during strip forming process.

WeldAn can:

• IDENTIFY INNER DEFECTS

Just like poor quantity of welding material . no other systems can do that. systems like pec (pulsed eddy current) or magnetic, or visual can identify a surface defect, but not an inner defect.

• IDENTIFY LACK OF MATERIAL

• IDENTIFY ASYMMETRICAL WELDINGS

• IDENTIFY LOCAL DENSITY VARIATIONS

• MINIMIZE STRIP BREAKAGES

A weak welding is a potential source of troubles for the process, not only for the quality of the final product, but mainly for the process itself. Strip breakages, for example, are a big issue for operator's safety and the 75% of strip breakages, on pickling lines, are caused by a weak welding. Defects in welding process are very small and require a magnification to enlarge the vision for data analysis, using a standard X-Ray source the contours of elements appear blur and the recognition is quite difficult. Using a microfocus technology with a very small spot size, it is possible to obtain the best image resolution and defects magnification, in order to identify unconformities. WeldAn can measure some parameter on welding bead as:

• BEAD HEIGHT

• BEAD WIDTH

• BEAD RATIO

• MISMATCH

• DEFECT

• HOLE DETECTION

Other than welding bead measurements the system give an overall quality and hole detection near the welding bead (e.g. Malformed edge, hole in the strip, occlusions). Data Analisys The real-time images captured from TDI camera are submitted to a high-performances data analysis processor that uses image processing and shape recognition algorithms to measure the bead of the weld and the presence of defect :

• GOOD / NO GOOD.

Finally, the results are showed to operator that can immediately check if the welding system is working properly All measure can given to the plant automation using scaled analog output, threshold digital output and via fieldbus protocol. For best accuracy the system can receive line setup from Plant automation/PLC/upper level (line speed, pipe diameter, material thickness etc) through filed bus protocol or setting up manually by operator. The system can works also in full automatic mode without any settings, in this case the precision of recognized shape of hole and defect can be lower than target. The analysis of the weld can be performed on head forward movements (during welding) or on backward movements (when the beam head go to stand-by position) this mode is preferred for thick material where an accurate analysis require a lower speed travelling.

• WELDING ANALYSIS UP TO 10 MT/M

• WELDING SHAPE MEASUREMENTS WITH 50 UM OF RESOLUTION

• HOLE DETECTION >100 UM