An inspection system is configured to inspect the condition of a braze joint formed within a structure, wherein the braze joint is formed from a braze filler material having a tracer material disposed therein. The inspection system includes an energy source for directing energy towards the structure, an energy detector for detecting information regarding the structure following interaction with the energy directed from the energy source, and a data analysis system for analyzing the information detected by the energy detector. The data analysis system is configured to distinguish the tracer material from the remaining materials forming the structure in order to determine a suitability of the braze joint.

A welding method for welding a first metal member to a second metal member, where the first metal member is plate-shaped, includes: bringing the first metal member into contact with the second metal member; and radiating a laser beam along a spiral scanning pattern straddling an interface line between the first metal member and the second metal member.

Embodiments of systems and methods for supporting weld quality across a manufacturing environment are disclosed. One embodiment includes a manufacturing cell supporting welding of a sequence of welds to manufacture a workpiece. The manufacturing cell includes robotic welding equipment to make robotic welds as at least a portion of manufacturing a workpiece. The manufacturing cell also includes non-robotic welding equipment configured to allow a human operator to make non-robotic welds as at least a portion of manufacturing the workpiece. The manufacturing cell further includes a weld sequence controller configured to control timing associated with making the robotic welds and the non-robotic welds as a sequence of welds to manufacture the workpiece.

A one-side submerged arc welding method, includes joining two steel plates butted against each other by submerged arc welding from one side using a plurality of electrode. During the submerged arc welding, at least one of electrode distances between adjacent electrodes in an end part region of the steel plates is reduced to be smaller than the at least one of electrode distances in a region in front of the end part region. In reducing the at least one of electrode distances, an increasing section of change rate from when a change of the at least one of electrode distances starts to when the change rate of the at least one of electrode distances reaches its maximum has a time of 2 seconds or more.

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 displacement/stress computation unit computes residual stress and deformation by conducting a thermal-elastic-plastic analysis using idealized explicit FEM. A temperature increment is set in magnitude to have a value larger in magnitude than a temperature increment used in a thermal-elastic-plastic analysis using static implicit FEM. Heating is performed for each plurality of blocks according to a heating pattern in which blocks that are not adjacent to one another are simultaneously heated. Each block is heated with a surface heat source having a heat input quantity adjusted with respect to a heat input quantity applied when a moving heat source is used to heat the block.

A beam structure includes a lower cover plate, an upper cover plate and two side web plates jointed between the upper cover plate and the lower cover plate; wherein the two side web plates are arranged perpendicularly to the upper cover plate and the lower cover plate, respectively, to form a hollow box-shaped structure; rib plates protruding outwardly with a plurality of plug heads are welded within the box-shaped structure; the plug heads are respectively plugged in the upper cover plate, the two side web plates and the lower cover plate, and each plugging joint is fixed by laser-MAG hybrid welding from outside of the box-shaped structure. The method includes: assembling two side web plates, rib plates and a lower cover plate on an upper cover plate to form a box-shaped structure; and welding each of joints from outside of the box-shaped structure by laser-MAG hybrid welding.

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 structural member includes a body having a first surface, a second surface, and an end surface at an end portion of the structural member. The end portion of the structural member includes a root protrusion extending radially outward from the second surface of the structural member along a root protrusion radius to an outer end of the root protrusion to define a root protrusion height extending from the second surface of the structural member to the outer end of the root protrusion. The root protrusion further includes a root protrusion width extending between an inner edge and an outer edge of the outer end of the root protrusion. The root protrusion radius, the root protrusion height, and the root protrusion width are configured to define a stress protected weld root region isolated beyond and away from a root stress flow path propagated through the body of the structural member.

The present invention provides a method for detecting a shape of a butt joint of a welded steel pipe. A specific detection range including a butt joint of a welded steel pipe is scanned with a non-contact means to obtain geometric coordinate data. Coordinates of a start point and an end point of the specific detection range, a first selected point located between the start point and the butt joint, and a second selected point located between the butt joint and the end point are selected from the geometric coordinate data. A first approximate circle including the start point, the end point, and the first selected point, and a second approximate circle including the start point, the end point, and the second selected point are calculated. A deviation between the first and the second approximate circles is used as an index representing the shape of the butt joint.