The disclosure relates to a measuring device (1) for automated welding devices, in particular for robot welding tongs with a housing (18); with a holding piece (19); that is affixed inside the housing (18) and insulated against the housing (18) by means of a first insulating ring (2); that has a reception space (22) with a base wall (23) and an affixing appliance (24); and with a load cell (17) that is affixed inside the housing (18) opposite the base wall (23) and that is insulated against the housing (18) by means of a circumferential second insulating ring (5) and an insulating washer appliance (7, 21) located at the front-face side and adjacent to the base wall (23).

The welding operation monitoring system includes an image capturing device that is disposed on a side opposite to a side to which the plasma flow is supplied out of a pipe inside and a pipe outside of the strip-shaped steel sheet formed in a tubular shape, and is configured to capture a color image including a plasma flow over the V-shaped region; and a welding operation monitoring device that is configured to generate a specific color component image obtained by extracting a specific color component from the color image, and specifies a V-shaped display region, which is a region corresponding to the V-shaped region within the color image, on the basis of the V-shaped region shown in the specific color component image, thereby analyzing a state of the welding operation.

A resistance spot welding device for welding at least two overlapping steel sheets held between a pair of welding electrodes is provided. The resistance spot welding device includes the pair of electrodes, an electrode force gauge that measures an electrode force, and a controller that controls an electric current supply to the electrodes according to the electrode force measured by the electrode force gauge. The controller controls the electric current such that the electrode force F measured by the electrode force gauge after the start of the electric current supply is adjusted to a prescribed value.

A resistance spot welding device for welding at least two overlapping steel sheets held between a pair of welding electrodes is provided. The resistance spot welding device includes the pair of electrodes, an electrode force gauge that measures an electrode force, and a controller that controls an electric current supply to the electrodes according to the electrode force measured by the electrode force gauge. The controller controls the electric current such that the electrode force F measured by the electrode force gauge after the start of the electric current supply is adjusted to a prescribed value.

There is described a continuity sensing system that operates with a resistance-welding machine. This sensing system measures continuity between the welding electrodes after the welding machine has been initiated and prevents application of high electrode force between the electrodes if the continuity measured is below a reference level. The result is a fully passive system that prevents serious high electrode force that would cause serious pinch-point injury to the operator of the welder. The present invention also includes methods of controlling pneumatic systems on resistance-welding machines to apply low force between welding electrodes until continuity between the welding electrodes has been detected.

There is described a continuity sensing system that operates with a resistance-welding machine. This sensing system measures continuity between the welding electrodes after the welding machine has been initiated and prevents application of high electrode force between the electrodes if the continuity measured is below a reference level. The result is a fully passive system that prevents serious high electrode force that would cause serious pinch-point injury to the operator of the welder. The present invention also includes methods of controlling pneumatic systems on resistance-welding machines to apply low force between welding electrodes until continuity between the welding electrodes has been detected.

An electrode orientation checking apparatus includes a machine stand attached to a seam welding apparatus from which one roller electrode of a set has been removed, a positioning guide and a set of distance sensors that are provided on the machine stand, and a calculating section. A positioning surface of the positioning guide is fixed at a position corresponding to a portion of an outer circumferential surface of the one roller electrode before being removed, the portion lying on a line segment connecting rotational centers of the roller electrodes. The distance sensors are respectively fixed forward and backward of the positioning surface in a progression direction of the roller electrodes. The calculating section calculates data for acquiring a direction of the line segment relative to the stacked body.

An electronically-controlled electric resistance welding head and method having a support structure and the electrodes located on the same side. The welding head including a ground electrode having an elastic device and a detecting device for detecting a force load on the elastic device on contact with a component to be welded. A welding electrode is movable relative to the ground electrode and the support structure to contact the component to be welded. An electronic control unit is operable to selectively increase the force applied by each electrode when in contact with the component to be welded until respective threshold values are achieved. Current is generated by a transformer for passage to the electrodes.

A computer-implemented method for reducing spot welds in a parameterized workpiece model includes generating a new design space (DS) from an original spot weld DS. The new DS includes a plurality of spot weld locations from the parameterized workpiece model with the original spot weld DS. The new DS is optimized to have a fewer number of spot weld locations than the original DS. The processor identifies a plurality of offending spot weld locations of the remaining spot weld locations in the new DS and a plurality of conforming spot weld locations of the remaining spot weld locations. The processor removes all but one optimized extension candidate from processor-selected groupings of welds while enforcing a minimum distance requirement. The processor outputs an inter-distance constrained parameterized workpiece model with an optimized extension candidate in each of the plurality of extended DSs to an operatively connected output processor.

A computer-implemented method for reducing spot welds in a parameterized workpiece model includes generating a new design space (DS) from an original spot weld DS. The new DS includes a plurality of spot weld locations from the parameterized workpiece model with the original spot weld DS. The new DS is optimized to have a fewer number of spot weld locations than the original DS. The processor identifies a plurality of offending spot weld locations of the remaining spot weld locations in the new DS and a plurality of conforming spot weld locations of the remaining spot weld locations. The processor removes all but one optimized extension candidate from processor-selected groupings of welds while enforcing a minimum distance requirement. The processor outputs an inter-distance constrained parameterized workpiece model with an optimized extension candidate in each of the plurality of extended DSs to an operatively connected output processor.