Patent ID: 9468988
Filing Date: 2016-10-18
CPC Classification: B23K

Claim Text:
1. A method of determining a quality of a weld by monitoring a welder as the welder performs a welding process by creating actual welding parameters between an advancing wire and a workpiece, the welding process being defined by a series of rapidly repeating wave shapes controlled by command signals to a power supply of the welder, said method comprising: segmenting a wave shape, having a weld cycle with a cycle time, into a series of time-segmented states; selecting a non-adaptive state from the series of time-segmented states, wherein the non-adaptive state represents a segment of the wave shape where the command signals remain invariable under different weld conditions; measuring a plurality of weld parameters generated between the advancing wire and the workpiece during the non-adaptive state at an interrogation rate over an interval of time; and calculating a plurality of quality parameters for the non-adaptive state based on measurements of the plurality of weld parameters acquired during the interval of time within the non-adaptive state, the step of calculating comprising: