A New Era in Weld Seam Inspection

When it comes to welded assemblies, the quality of welding is arguably as important as the dimensions of the final part. Still, no comprehensive solution exists for checking the existence and quality of the weld seams. 

Challenges with weld seam inspection 

All weld seam inspection methods in use today have obvious downsides. 

Manual checking is expensive and unreliable. Even the best inspection specialist will get tired after repeating the same task for hours on end, and the subjectiveness of the classification cannot be avoided. 

Scanner systems are limited by their speed. Full inspection of a part, such as a subframe, requires several robots using both serial and parallel configurations. Scanning systems are also slow to learn. Needing six months to get a scanner-based weld seam inspection system into operational status is no exception. The upkeep of the systems is tedious, too, and the systems are often simply bypassed when they cannot keep up with the changes in production. 

Weld seam inspection systems based on voltage/current monitoring do not offer the required level of reliability as they do not inspect the final seam, only the signal produced when creating it. Such a system will not be able to inspect the seam after it has been completed. 

One inspection system for dimensional measurements and weld seam inspection 

Instead of adding a new inspection station to the production line, we at Mapvision decided to approach the weld seam inspection dilemma differently: wouldn't it be great if weld seam inspection could be done reliably and with full coverage in one step at the same time with dimensional inspection? 

Our in-line quality inspection solutions are based on a unique multi-camera technology. When we perform dimensional checks, the measurements are based on images. 

Being image-based gives Mapvision endless opportunities to upgrade the system with software. 

The inspection station is already there doing the dimensional checking with a low-footprint cabin. With the same system, we can also take all the weld seam images we need, and then let the neural networks do their thing for weld seam inspection.  

If you order your Mapvision solution for dimensional measurements with a hardware setup that supports Weld Seam Inspection, the weld seam inspection functionality can be added at any time as a software upgrade. You save a substantial amount of floor space. 

Many ways to apply Weld Seam Inspection 

Weld seam inspection in the industry today can mean many things. Companies approach weld seam quality control in diverse ways and there is a lot of variation in the requirements. Some of our customers, for example, allow sampling inspection, and some already require 100% inspection. 

In some cases, controlling every aspect of the weld seam is on the wish list. In others, only a few criteria of the seams are to be verified. Full automation is the goal for some companies, but many still rely on the human eye for verification. 

While the trend clearly is towards more weld seam quality control and 100% weld seam inspection, the wide spectrum of requirements means that flexibility of the weld seam inspection system is important. 

Given that the Mapvision Weld Seam Inspection solution will be fully digital and software only, we believe we can offer exactly this kind of flexibility.  

Join us for the launch of the new application on December 14th 

The new weld seam inspection application of the Mapvision multi-camera application has been in development for a while now and has been in beta testing with selected customers for over a year. We are now ready for the official launch in December. 

On December 15th, we will release the first version of the solution. It will provide what we call Level 1 Weld Seam Inspection: Anomaly Detection.  

We believe this is the start of something big, both for the automotive industry and us here at Mapvision! 

Join us in the launch webinar on December 14th to hear more about the solution details, such as functionality, performance, availability, and pricing. We will discuss our definitions of the various levels of weld seam inspection, too, as well as our plans for the future of weld seam inspection.