Experimental sensing of the keyhole exit deviation from the torch axis in plasma arc welding

Sensing the dynamic behavior of the keyhole is of great significance to control and ensure the process quality and the resultant weld quality in plasma arc welding (PAW). Usually, the keyhole size is used as the geometric features describing the keyhole status. In this study, it is first found that the keyhole exit is displaced in the direction opposite to the welding direction even at the low welding speed during the PAW process. To examine the correlation of the keyhole exit deviation and the process parameters, the developed cost-effective vision sensor is used to observe the keyhole exit at the backside of the stainless steel workpieces with medium thickness. Based on the pre-processing and calibration of the captured sequential images of the keyhole, both the keyhole geometry and its position relative to the torch axis are determined under different test conditions. It is found that the deviation distance of the keyhole exit from the torch axis takes a larger value at first, then drops, and finally gets a fixed level, as the keyhole undergoes the initial blind stage, the unstable stage, and the quasi-steady stage. The effects of the main process parameters (welding current, welding speed, and plasma gas flow rate) on the deviation distance and the sizes of the keyhole exit are quantitatively analyzed. It is found that the deviation distance of the keyhole exit varies more obviously than the keyhole size as the welding process parameters changes within the appropriate ranges. The distortion of the thermal field on the workpiece due to the motion of the plasma arc and the inclination of the front keyhole wall are the main reason of the deviation occurrence.