Weld Data Acquisition System for High-Frequency Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Monitoring complex arc welding processes is challenging due to the need for high-frequency monitoring of voltage and current variations, and existing external sensing hardware faces interference and inability to detect target values, making it difficult to collect reliable data, especially in remote welding environments.
Innovation Solution
A weld data acquisition system that directly accesses data from the weld controller, allowing user-configurable data collection and transmission of voltage, current, and algorithm component values at high frequency, using a user interface to select and sample data channels, and an Ethernet streaming output engine for efficient data transmission, minimizing bit requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If external sensing hardware is used to monitor welding processes, then data collection is possible, but electrical interference reduces measurement reliability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses the weld controller as an intermediary to obtain welding data. Instead of directly measuring voltage and current with external sensors that are susceptible to electrical interference, the system accesses already-processed welding parameters (voltage, current, wire feed rate) through the weld controller's data channels. This intermediary approach eliminates the harmful electrical interference effect while maintaining data reliability.
2Measurement precision
If high-frequency monitoring is implemented to capture voltage and current variations, then measurement accuracy improves, but data transmission complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary welding parameters (voltage, current, wire feed rate) from the weld controller at high frequency, rather than transmitting all possible data channels. The input selector allows users to choose specific data channels, and the system transmits only the selected parameters. This extraction approach maintains measurement precision for critical parameters while reducing overall data transmission complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the data transmission system into modular components: data channels are individually selectable, sampling can be configured per channel, and transmission is handled separately from data collection. This segmentation allows high-frequency monitoring of specific parameters without requiring the entire system to operate at maximum complexity.
3Loss of information
If all available weld data channels are transmitted, then complete data availability is achieved, but data transmission bandwidth requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic data channel selection where the user can configure which data channels are actively transmitted based on specific needs. The input selector and sampling configuration allow the system to adaptively transmit only the necessary subset of data channels. This dynamic approach ensures complete data availability when needed while reducing data volume during normal operation, optimizing bandwidth utilization.
Data Source
AI summary
A weld data acquisition system collects data from the weld controller according to user selected collection parameters. The weld data acquisition system is able to transmit the data at high frequency to a weld data software utility that provides a user interface.