Apparatus and a method for forming a metallic component by additive layer manufacturing are provided. The method includes the steps of using a heat source such as a laser to melt the surface of a work piece and form a weld pool; adding wire or powdered metallic material to the weld pool and moving the heat source relative to the work piece so as to progressively form a new layer of metallic material on the work piece; applying forced cooling to the formed layer; stress relieving the cooled layer by applying a peening step, for example with a pulsed laser, and repeating the above steps as required to form the component layer by layer.

The present invention discloses a laser shock forging and laser cutting composite additive manufacturing device and method. The device forms two different light guide systems by splitting an output laser beam of a laser device into two laser beams through a beam splitter system. The first light guide system splits a laser beam into a third laser beam and a fourth laser beam which are respectively applied to laser 3D (3-Dimensional) printing and laser cutting. The second laser beam is applied to laser shock forging. A three dimensional model is built according to individual design requirements of a part. Layer-by-layer slicing treatment is performed to acquire slice contour information, so as to determine a layered contour and internal complex structures such as a cavity, a pipeline and a cold pipe of the part through laser cutting. The third laser beam forms an Nth layer of slice through 3D printing, and the second laser beam performs synchronous laser shock forging in an optimal temperature region. The fourth laser beam works when the thickness of each layer of slice or each slice layer meets the requirements, thereby guaranteeing the dimension accuracy and the surface quality and realizing high-rigidity, high-accuracy and high-efficiency 3D printing. The device has the advantages of high machining efficiency, high quality and long service life.

An arc welding display device is included in a welding apparatus having a weaving function of swinging a torch with respect to a welding direction. The arc welding display device displays, on a screen, at least one of a welding current and a welding voltage during the arc welding with a range sectioned by each fixed period including at least one weaving period.

A method for laser-based deep welding of at least two parts to be joined, in which a laser beam device generates a laser beam with a deep welding laser beam component, which is moved at a feed rate along a joint. The deep welding laser beam component generates a vapor capillary in the material of the parts to be joined, which capillary is surrounded by a melt pool and which moves with the laser beam in the welding direction through the material of the parts to be joined, forming a capillary flow, in which a metal melt located at the capillary front flows via melt pool channels formed on both sides of the vapor capillary in the direction of the capillary rear side and solidifies there.

Provided is a welding monitoring apparatus that monitors a welding state of a V-convergence region in which a strip-shaped metal sheet is converged in a V-shape, when the metal sheet is cylindrically formed while being conveyed, and both side edges of the metal sheet are heated and melted in a manner of being butted each other while being converged in the V-shape, such that an electric resistance welded steel pipe is manufactured. This welding monitoring apparatus includes an image capturing unit that captures images of a region including the V-convergence region in time series; and an image processing unit that extracts a welding point based on the images captured in time series and detects the presence or absence and a position of irregular arcing at the welding point or on an upstream side of the welding point.

A method for determining a welding sequence including a plurality of welding operations is disclosed. The method includes steps of determining a population of welding sequences based on a set of user-generated constraints, and simulating welding for at least one welding sequence in the population of welding sequences to obtain a multi-objective dependent distortion model of the at least one welding sequence. The method further includes steps of comparing a merit value of the multi-objective dependent distortion model for the at least one welding sequence with one or more predetermined criteria, and outputting a set of welding sequences as potential welding sequences based on the comparison between the merit value and the multi-objective dependent distortion model.

A method for manufacturing a vehicle body member from a joined sheet. The joined sheet is press formed into a vehicle body member with a predetermined shape by: welding a second sheet material to a first sheet material at a plurality of points including a first joint and a second joint separated from each other; press forming the joined sheet so that a ridge crossing an imaginary line segment connecting the first joint and the second joint is formed in a portion where the first sheet material overlaps the second sheet material; and before the joining step, forming a displacement facilitating portion, which facilitates displacement of the second sheet material relative to the first sheet material in a longitudinal direction of the imaginary line segment, in a portion corresponding to between the first joint and the second joint in the second sheet material.

A method includes the following: an incidence step in which ultrasonic waves from an insertion side and the side opposite thereto of a tool are caused to be incident on a joint part when a workpiece is joined by the tool that has a probe and a shoulder which supports the probe and that is for friction stir welding; an image acquisition step for obtaining an ultrasonic wave transmission image of the joint part using the ultrasonic waves; and a determination step for determining that the joint part has been joined if width-dimensions of the joint part obtained from the ultrasonic wave transmission image are equivalent to at least the outer diameter d of the probe and if no defect of a prescribed size or greater is found in a range equivalent to the outer diameter D of the shoulder or less in the ultrasonic wave transmission image.

An automated method for straightening/correcting deformations made to panels when welded to metallic structural components is disclosed. In the train industry, when an aluminum component, such as a vehicle's exterior shell, is welded to hidden structural parts, deformations thereon may occur. Such deformations need to be subsequently corrected, and the present method uses robots and optical measuring of the deformed surfaces to conduct a straightening thereof. The method includes four main steps. First, the deformed surface is scanned with an optical sensor to make physical measures/characterizations thereof. Second, the gathered data are compared with the desired resultant by a software. Third, once the comparison is done, the software performs an analysis to select the proper parameters to be used in the straightening method that will be applied at each area requiring straightening. Finally, a robot executes the operations specified by the software to perform the straightening process.

A system and method of electric arc welding that includes a welding apparatus having an electric arc welder torch with sensors to determine the absolute position of the torch tip and the relative position of the torch tip to the weld joint during automatic welding. Combining absolute and relative positional data can be used to adjust the path of the robot during automated or robotic welding in response to variations in the weld joint.