Vehicle Wheel Welding Mark Inspection for Durability Screening
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for defective product determination in vehicle wheels require a radial load durability test for all manufactured wheels, making the process inefficient and demanding in terms of resources.
Innovation Solution
A defective product determination method using a controller to locate the lowest point on a laser-welded welding mark within a target range and determine if it meets specific conditions, such as relative distance and continuity, to assess the vehicle wheel's durability without the need for a comprehensive radial load durability test.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a radial load durability test is conducted for all manufactured vehicle wheels, then the reliability of quality inspection is improved, but the productivity and efficiency of the manufacturing process deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The quality inspection process is segmented into two stages: a preliminary visual inspection stage that screens most wheels quickly by checking welding mark characteristics, and a final durability test stage for only those wheels that fail the preliminary inspection. This segmentation allows the majority of wheels to pass through the efficient visual inspection process while maintaining reliability by catching actual defects through the durability test on screened wheels.
Solution Approach 2:
A preliminary visual inspection is performed before the final radial load durability test. This preliminary action uses easily observable characteristics of the welding mark (such as presence, shape, and position) to screen out wheels with obvious welding defects, allowing only wheels with acceptable welding marks to proceed to the time-consuming durability test, thereby improving overall manufacturing efficiency while maintaining quality assurance.
2Measurement precision
If a comprehensive radial load durability test is performed on all vehicle wheels, then the measurement precision of wheel durability is improved, but the loss of time and inspection burden increases
Solution Approach 1:
The essential durability assessment function is extracted from the time-consuming radial load durability test and embodied in the visual inspection of welding mark characteristics. By identifying and measuring specific features of the welding mark (presence, shape, position), the system extracts a surrogate indicator that correlates with wheel durability, allowing rapid assessment without performing the full durability test on every wheel.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of directly testing every wheel's durability through radial load testing, the system creates a visual copy or representation of the welding quality through imaging and analysis of the welding mark. This visual copy serves as a proxy for the actual durability property, enabling rapid screening that correlates with the results of comprehensive durability testing without requiring the time-intensive physical test on each individual wheel.
3Manufacturing precision
If laser welding is used to join the wheel rim and wheel disc, then the manufacturing precision and fatigue strength are improved, but the complexity of quality inspection increases due to the need to evaluate welding mark characteristics
Solution Approach 1:
The inspection system focuses on local quality characteristics of the welding mark rather than attempting to assess the entire wheel structure. By concentrating on specific local features (the presence, shape, and position of the welding mark at the junction of wheel rim and disc), the system achieves effective quality assessment without requiring complex global analysis of the entire wheel assembly.
Solution Approach 2:
The complex mechanical durability testing system is partially replaced with an optical imaging and image processing system. Instead of using mechanical radial load tests to assess welding quality, the system uses optical fields to capture images of the welding mark and employs computational algorithms to analyze welding characteristics, thereby substituting a simpler optical and computational approach for part of the mechanical testing complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method allows for efficient screening of defective vehicle wheels based on the position of the welding mark, reducing the occurrence of erroneous determinations and the overall burden of quality inspection by focusing on the position and continuity of the lowest point on the welding mark.
Implementation Method 1
a wheel rim and a wheel disc joined by radiating a laser beam to a boundary between the wheel rim and the wheel disc
Data Source
AI summary
A defective product determination method for a vehicle wheel includes: locating, as a locating step by a controller, a lowest point on a welding mark due to radiation of a laser beam within a target range from an inner peripheral surface of a wheel rim to a position spaced away by a specified distance inward in a radial direction of the vehicle wheel; and determining, as a determination step by the controller, that the vehicle wheel is a defective product when a defective product determination condition is satisfied. The defective product determination condition includes, as a necessary condition, a condition that a relative distance of the lowest point with respect to the inner peripheral surface of the wheel rim in the radial direction of the vehicle wheel is equal to or smaller than a reference distance.