Industrial Laser Solutions

TWI acquires laser scanner to help improve weld analysis services

Dec. 17, 2015

TWI has added a weld inspection tool to its offering, which could reduce the duration and cost of projects requiring the analysis of weld properties.

TWI (Great Abington, Cambridge, England) has added a WiKi-SCAN weld inspection tool from Servo-Robot (St-Bruno, QC, Canada) to its technology offerings, which has the potential to reduce the duration and cost of projects requiring the analysis of weld properties.

WiKi-SCAN uses a laser and advanced calibration to take weld root mismatch measurements along with other important parameters, including weld bead width or leg length and weld bead height. The measured weld profile can also be used to measure weld toe angle.

The external properties of a weld can control aspects of the weld’s mechanical properties. The size of a weld affects its load-carrying capacity, and the weld bead profile, weld root mismatch, and shape of the weld bead at the weld toe can have an influence on fatigue strength.

Taking manual measurements of weld root mismatch can be time-consuming, and once the measurement has been taken and recorded, there is no permanent record of what has been measured.

Weld bead toe angle is usually obtained by cutting a slice from the weld, mounting and polishing the slice and then photographing it. This destroys the area of interest, takes time, and can add significant cost to projects if multiple measurements are required.

WiKi-SCAN records weld profile information and takes an accompanying photograph of the weld at each measurement position. It can be used to measure weld profiles on many types of welds, including butt, girth, and fillet, and measurements can be taken at specific locations or in continuous mode, which records a profile and photograph at a user-specified intervals along the weld length.

The quick and user-friendly method provides a permanent record of the weld profile and appearance of the weld at the measurement locations.

TWI has carried out trials, and found that the measurements are repeatable and correlate with other methods of taking these measurements within acceptable limits.

For more information, please visit www.twi-global.com.