Laser weld process monitoring and control using chromatic filtering of thermal radiation from a weld pool

The application of high power Nd: YAG lasers for precision welding in industry has been growing quite fast these days in diverse areas such as the automobile, the electronics and the aerospace industries. These diverse applications also require the new developments for the precise control and the reliable process monitoring. Due to the hostile environment in laser welding, a remote monitoring is required. The present development relates in general to weld process monitoring techniques, and more particularly to improved methods and apparatus for real-time monitoring of thermal radiation of a weld pool to monitor a size variation and a focus shift of the weld pool for weld process control, utilizing the chromatic aberration of focusing lens or lenses. The monitoring technique of the size variation and the focus shift of a weld pool is developed by using the chromatic filtering of the thermal radiation from a weld pool. The monitoring of weld pool size variation can also be used to monitor the weld depth in a laser welding. Furthermore, the monitoring of the size variation of a weld pool is independent of the focus shift of a weld pool and the monitoring of the focus shift of a weld pool is independent of the size variation of a weld pool