Weld Metal Revelation for Machine Vision

Applications
S. H. Hashemi, Kh. Khalili, M. A. Moradpour, M. Salimi
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Birjand
Birjand, Iran
moradpour.mamad@yahoo.com

Abstract— Modeling and optimization of welding processes is
one of the important topics for welding researches. In such
research, it is necessary to measure the weld bead geometry.
Nowadays, machine vision has a widespread use in measurement
applications. In order to use machine vision in weld bead
geometry measurement, it is necessary to acquire the desired
images of cross section of welded plates with desirable separation
of weld and base metal regions. This separation is performed by
suitable solution to etch cross section of welded plates. In this
paper, it has been tried to determine suitable solution to etch
cross section of welded plates (made from API X56 steel) for
obtaining the best revelation of weld metal regions. This solution
can be utilized to obtain desired image of welded plate’s cross
section for machine vision measurement of weld bead geometry.
Keywords—weld bead geometry; machine vision; API X65
steel; submerged arc welding.
I. INTRODUCTION
One of the main methods to control the welding quality is
to investigate the weld bead geometry. This means that the
desired weld bead geometry guarantees the quality of welding.
Weld bead geometry parameters include width and height of
weld bead and the weld penetration, see Fig.1. In recent years,
several studies about predicting and optimizing different
welding processes have been conducted to achieve the desired
welding geometry on various materials [1-5]. What is common
in all of these studies is to perform the welding processes with
different conditions and then to measure the weld bead
parameters to be used in the designing and testing different
models, for modeling the welding processes. Among these
methods is machine vision (MV), which has a widespread use
in a variety of applications. The main use of MV in
manufacturing is in inspection, robot guidance, process control,
and metrology. The use of MV in metrology has many
advantages over traditional methods. These include the high
speed of the measurements, flexibility, being non-contact, low
cost, and ease of seamless integration [6-10].
The existing difficulties in the measurement of the weld
bead geometry through common instruments such as caliper,
contributed to introduce the machine vision system for
measuring the weld bead geometry. The key stage in measuring
the weld bead geometry parameters by machine vision system
is to provide a desired image of the welding cross section that
relates directly to the revelation of the weld metal. In fact,
providing a desired image can eliminate subsequent processing
complexities. This study intends to determine the appropriate
solution for etching the cross section of welded API X65 steel
plates for revealing weld metal and separating it from the base
metal by performing practical experiments.
II. SUBMERGED ARC WELDING OF PLATES
The Submerged Arc Welding (SAW) is one of the oldest
methods of automated welding which has been introduced in
1930. The vast area of applying this method has been made it
as one of the most important methods in industrial welding
[11]. In this study API X65 steel plates were welded using
submerged arc welding. For performing the experiments, 50
steel plates with the dimensions of 100 mm in width, 200 mm
in length and 14.3 mm in height have been provided and
welded with SAW under different welding conditions. Fig.2
illustrates some of the welded plates. The employed welding
wire for welding the plates is an SAW wire with commercial
name of S2MO and 3.2 mm diameter. The welding flux is a
standard flux of AWS (A5.17 & A5.23), DIN32522&DIN EN
760 with the commercial name of AMA OP 139.
III. WELD METAL REVELATION PROCESS
For measuring weld bead geometry, it is required to cut the
plates after the welding process. Fig.3 shows the cross section
of a plate. The cut plate is then polished. Fig.4 shows the
polished cross section of the plate. Then, for revealing welding
metal in cross section of plates, several acidic solutions were
applied for etching the plate’s cross section. In etching process,
the corrosion manner, changes the color of weld metal in
comparison with the base metal.
Fig. 1. Weld Bead Geometry
J

978-1-4673-6206-1/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE


Fig. 2. Welded Plates
Fig. 3. Cross Section of A Cutted Plate Before Polishing
Fig. 4. Polished Cross Section of A Plate
Therefore, the selected solution should cause the most
visible contrast between both of the weld metal and the base
metal areas. For achieving the best plate etching solution in this
study, 8 different acidic solutions were produced and applied
on some plates for getting the best results. The produced
solutions are as follows:
A. Nital Solution
This solution has been widely used for steel etching. For
producing Nital, a solution of 1-5% of nitric acid and 95-99%
of Ethanol should be provided [12]. Hence, 5 different types of
solution with variation of 1%-5% of Nitric acid have been
prepared.
B. Picral Solution
Another solution that has been suggested for steel etching is
the Picral solution [12]. An appropriate picral solution for
etching the steels includes 4% of picric acid solvent in 96% of
ethanol.
C. Picral + Nital Solution
By mixing the 4% Picral and 2% Nital solutions, an
appropriate steel etching solution is being prepared [12].
D. Diluted Acidic Solutions
Hydrochloric acid, Sulphuric acid and Nitric acid, are the
three well known acids with high acidic property that cause the
corrosion over the steel area. These acids are solving quickly in
water and can be diluted easily. For producing water- acid
solution with different densities, each of the mentioned acids
has been solved in 10 different quantity of 0.1, 0.2, … , 1 cm3
with 10 cm3 of distilled water.
E. Water + salt Solution
Producing acid, is one of the main products of acid salts in
water solution. In this study, Ammonium Phosphate
(PO4(NH4)3) and Potassium Iodide + Iodine were utilized for
producing acidic solutions. In one of the solutions, 1 gram of
Ammonium Phosphate was solved in 9 cm3 of water and
leading to the production of Phosphoric acid. In another
solution, 1 gram of Potassium Iodide was mixed with 0.5 gram
of Iodine solved in 15 cm3 of distilled water and consequently
KI3 was produced.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
After producing the mentioned solutions, each product has
been employed in etching the cross section of welded plates.
The considered etching time for different solutions is given in
Table I. Also in Figs.5 to 18, the etched cross sections of some
plates are demonstrated.
Fig. 5. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By Nital (%3)
Fig. 6. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By Nital (%5)
Fig. 7. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By Picral
Fig. 12. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By HCL Solution (0.2 cm3 of
Acid + 10 cm3 of H2O)

Fig. 8. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By Nital+Picral

Fig. 13. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By HCL Solution (0.5 cm3 of
Acid + 10 cm3 of H2O)

Fig. 9. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By H2SO4 Solution (0.1 cm3 of
Acid + 10 cm3 of H20)
Fig. 14. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By HCL Solution (1 cm3 of
Acid + 10 cm3 of H2O)

Fig. 10. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By H2SO4 Solution (0.4 cm3 of
Acid + 10 cm3 of H2O) Fig. 15. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By HNO3 Solution (0.1 cm3 of
Acid + 10 cm3 of H2O)

Fig. 11. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By H2SO4 Solution (0.9 cm3 of Fig. 16. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By HNO3 Solutio (0.9 cm3 of
Acid + 10 cm3 of H2O) Acid + 10 cm3 of H2O)
 TABLE II. DIFFERENCE VALUE BETWEEN MEAN OF GRAY-LEVELS OF
BASE METAL PIXELS AND MEAN OF GRAY-LEVELS OF WELD METAL PIXELS
BY USING D IFFERENT SOLUTIONS

Difference of Gray-Levels
No. Solution Between Weld Metal And
Base Metal Pixels
1 HCL (0.1 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 3
2 HCL (0.2 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 1
3 HCL (0.3 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 1
4 HCL (0.4 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 6
Fig. 17. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By KI+I2 Solution
5 HCL (0.5 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 6
6 HCL (0.6 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 0
7 HCL (0.7 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 8
8 HCL (0.8 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 4
9 HCL (0.9 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 8
10 HCL (1 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 7
11 H2SO4 (0.1 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 9
12 H2SO4 (0.2 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 34
13 H2SO4 (0.3 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 27
14 H2SO4 (0.4 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 43
15 H2SO4 (0.5 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 40
16 H2SO4 (0.6 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 32
17 H2SO4 (0.7 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 12
18 H2SO4 (0.8 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 17
Fig. 18. Cross Section of A Plate That Etched By PO4(NH4)3 Solution 19 H2SO4 (0.9 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 22
20 H2SO4 (1 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 21
21 HNO3 (0.1 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 3
TABLE I. ETCHING TIME OF EACH SOLUTION 22 HNO3 (0.2 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 0
23 HNO3 (0.3 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 9
Etching 24 HNO3 (0.4 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 11
No. Solution
Time
25 HNO3 (0.5 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 12
1 Nital 20 sec
26 HNO3 (0.6 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 15
2 Picral 20 sec
27 HNO3 (0.7 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 2
3 Nital+Picral 20 sec
28 HNO3 (0.8 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 1
4 Diluted Sulphuric Acid 18 min
29 HNO3 (0.9 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 21
5 Diluted Hydrochloric Acid 18 min
30 HNO3 (1 cm3)+ H20 (10 cm3) 16
6 Diluted Nitric Acid 18 min
31 Nital (%1) 9
7 Water+ Ammonium Phosphate 30 min
32 Nital (%2) 5
8 Water+ Iodide Potassium+Iodine 30 min
33 Nital (%3) 7
34 Nital (%4) 15
35 Nital (%5) 9
36 Picral 6
After etching the cross sections of plates, the considered 37 Nital+Picral 7
standard for evaluating different solutions, is the difference 38 KI+I2 3
39 PO4(NH4)3 1
value between mean of gray-levels of base metal pixels and
mean of gray-levels of weld metal pixels in image of all of
plate’s cross sections. After measuring the mean of gray-levels
of base metal pixels and weld metal pixels, the difference
between means was calculated in each image. The final results
are demonstrated in table II.
According to Tables II, the Sulphuric acid solution with the
density of 0.4 cm3 of acid in 10 cm3 of water, caused the
greatest difference between mean of gray-level of weld metal
pixels and base metal pixels. By defining the proper solution,
the cross sections of all plates were etched by the solution. Fig.
19, demonstrates the mean of gray-levels for weld metal pixels
and base metal pixels in 50 different etched plates.

Fig. 19. Results of Etching All the Plates by H2SO4 Solution (0.4 cm3 of Acid
+ 10 cm3 of H2O)
 V. CONCLUSION
According to Table II, the greatest difference between the
mean of gray-levels for weld metal pixels and base metal
pixels, was resulted by applying the diluted sulphuric acid
solution, with density of .4 cm3 of sulphuric acid in 10 cm3 of
water. Furthermore, the Fig. 19 indicated by applying this
solution for plate’s cross section etching, the maximum
difference between the mean of gray-levels for weld metal
pixels and base metal pixels is 52 and the minimum value is
16. This distinction value between the mean of gray-levels for
weld metal pixels and base metal pixels results into formation a
proper image of API X65 steel plates cross section which is
appropriate for employing in machine vision application that
separating of the weld metal pixels from the base metal pixels
is followed by minimum image processing. As a result,
applying diluted sulphuric acid with the ratio of .4 units of
sulphuric acid in 10 units of water, simplified the weld bead
geometry measurement by machine vision systems
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