Quality control for a laser beam welding process

Abstract

Device for monitoring a laser beam welding process in which a weld seam (3) is formed by melting material (7) of at least one workpiece (1, 1a, 1b) with a laser beam (2), the device being configured to perform a method comprising the following steps: • the welding process is observed (110) with at least one event-based sensor (4) subdivided into pixels (4a), wherein this sensor (4) outputs an event (5) associated with a pixel (4a) whenever the light intensity incident on a pixel (4a) changes by at least a predetermined percentage; • from the total set (6) of events (5) output by the sensor (4), subsets (6a-6c) of events (5) are determined (120), each originating from different spatters (7a-7c) of the molten material (7) released during the welding process;• From the identified subsets (6a-6c) of events (5), a quality assessment (8) for the welding process and / or for the workpiece (1) is evaluated (130).;