The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-05882-x

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Surface defect detection of aluminum alloy welds with 3D depth

image and 2D gray image
Zhihong Yan 1,2 & Bowei Shi 1,3 & Luping Sun 1,2 & Jun Xiao 1,2

Received: 28 January 2020 / Accepted: 5 August 2020

# Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
Towards the trend and demand of automatic welding inspection in industry, a composite vision system enabling simultaneous
3D-depth and 2D-gray imaging of the bead surface is constructed to detect typical surface defects of aluminum alloy weld beads.
In this vision system, the structured laser light is responsible for obtaining 3D-depth image of the bead surface; meanwhile, the
multi-angle illuminations are used to capture gray images. Then, four methods are proposed to extract the weld bead boundaries
according to its different characters shown in the 3D depth images and 2D gray images. In the 3D depth image, the extraction
algorithms of defects such as collapse, undercut, burning-through, excessive reinforcement, surface porosity, spatter, and poor
forming are studied. In multi-angle gray images, the extraction algorithm of defects such as cracks and surface blackening is also
proposed and studied.

Keywords Aluminum alloy weld . Surface defect extraction . Composite vision . Multi-angle illumination . Depth image and gray
image

1 Introduction
The detection of welding shape and welding defects is the
main task of welding quality control, and there are many re-
lated researches, but most of them focus on the non-
destructive testing (NDT) of the weld defects, especially the
NDT of internal defects [1–3]. In recent years, with the wide
application of automatic welding, there is an urgent demand
for the automatic detection of surface shape and defects of
weld beads.
For detecting of the bead surface shape and defects, there
are two common methods: 3D morphology detection and 2D
image detection. Among the 3D morphology detection
methods, the most commonly used one is structured laser
* Zhihong Yan
zhihongyan@163.com
1
College of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Electronics
Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124,
China
2
Engineering Research Center of Advanced Manufacturing
Technology for Automotive Components, Ministry of Education,
Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
3
Beijing Aerospace Institute of Microsystems, Beijing 100094, China
scanning for its high reliability and real-time response [4].
Chu et al. [5] defined weld bead geometry such as reinforce-
ment and width and welding defects such as undercut and
plate displacement through key points of weld cross-section
surface profile, and then obtained these key points through
processing of laser stripe image, and obtained the parameters
above. Li et al. [6, 7] have done similar works; the difference
is that they divide the welding bead into two types: root-pass
and cap. In root-pass welding bead, the groove width, filling
depth, and misalignment parameters are added. Furthermore,
Han et al. [8] added an automatic recognition algorithm of
root-pass welding or cap welding besides extracting weld
shape parameters and welding defects. The laser structured
light vision was also used in laser welding to extract weld
shape parameters and welding defects [9, 10]. Besides laser
structured light vision, other 3D vision methods are also used
to extract the welding defects. Du et al. [11] used the method
of shape from shading to restore the three-dimensional mor-
phology of aluminum alloy welds. Rodríguezmartín et al. [12]
used multi-angle images to recover the 3D cloud point image
of the welding workpiece and then realized the detection of
the workpiece included angle.
The 2D image of weld pool or weld bead also contains lots
of weld quality information, so it is also used to predict or
detect bead geometry and welding defects. Lots of researchers

were trying to directly process the weld pool image to obtain
the weld bead geometry or welding defects [13–15]. This
method has good real-time performance, but it is an indirect
way, and it will be seriously disturbed by the welding arc, pool
reflection, and other factors. Therefore, another common way
to obtain the weld quality information is to observe the solid-
ified welding bead directly. The common method is to obtain
the features information of the weld bead area, and then use a
machine learning algorithm to grade the quality of the welding
bead. Kumar et al. [16] used four light sources to illuminate
the weld bead, respectively, and then predicted the welding
quality through artificial neural network (ANN) model ac-
cording to the statistical features of image brightness. Li
et al. [17] obtained the perimeter and invariant moment of
defects by processing the high-frequency welding image,
and then scored the welding quality through ANN model.
Always, some expert knowledge is needed to find the correct
features, and to avoid this difficulty, comparison with the
standard welding specimen is also a common method. In the
works of Schreiber et al. [18], a group of training seams se-
lected by an experienced welding engineer is used to train a
vision system. Using the data obtained from training seams
and data measured from the welding process, a mathematical
model is established to give the welding quality. Following
this work, Fronthaler et al. [19] proposed several distance
measures (e.g., dynamic time warping) enabling a comparison
between the currently observed weld bead and a reference,
and they also suggested non-reference-based quality assess-
ment measures. Welding crack is a kind of very serious
welding defect. However, it is difficult to obtain it with struc-
tured light 3D vision. In 2D vision, it is also necessary to
design a suitable illumination to ensure the reliability of image
processing. Zhu et al. [20] designed a special combination of
light sources for welding of chain to evenly illuminate the
workpiece and highlight the cracks. Peng et al. [21] used a
ring light source to illuminate the welded joint surface for
measurement of surface crack growth.
From the review above, it can be seen that it is difficult to
find all defects reliably by using alone 3D or 2D vision. In
addition, 3D vision and 2D vision have their own characteris-
tics in different tasks. One of appropriate mode is to combine
them together. In the 3D vision above, researchers generally
use the method based on a single laser profile to find the key
points, and then get the weld bead geometry and defects. In
this paper, we try to use the two-dimensional depth image to
get the weld bead geometry and defects directly. In order to
achieve satisfied reliability and accuracy both, this paper pro-
posed the method of initial positioning and then accurate po-
sitioning to obtain the welding bead boundary. At the same
time, the gradient direction mutation at the welding bead
boundary and the characteristics of cathode atomization are
combined with multi-angle illumination to obtain the accurate
boundary. In this paper, the welding surface defects are
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
obtained by taking both the base metal and the welding bead
as the reference, especially the spatter and the surface porosity
defects can be effectively obtained by taking the welding bead
as the reference. Multi-angle illumination combined with ex-
posure in different time is used to find the welding crack,
which provides a new method for the extraction of welding
crack.
2 Construction of composite vision system
and characteristics of surface defects
2.1 Construction of composite vision system
The weld bead surface shape and defect detection system con-
sists of a laser structured light 3D vision system, a multi-angle
illumination 2D vision system, a translation mechanism, and a
computer control system, as shown in Fig. 1. The laser struc-
tured light 3D vision system can obtain 3D depth imaging of
the welding bead surface with triangulation principle. The
multi-angle illumination vision system has five sets of LED
light sources. Controlled by a computer, the five sets of light
sources can be turned on separately or simultaneously, and the
welding bead can be illuminated from the top, left, right, front,
and rear angles respectively. Thus, the 3D depth image and
2D gray images can be obtained with determined location.
2.2 The common surface defects of aluminum alloy
welding
The common surface defects of aluminum alloy welding bead
include cracks, surface porosity, undercut, collapse, excessive
reinforcement, burning-through, spatter, poor forming, and
oxidative blackening. Figure 2 is the image of some common
surface defects. Figure 2a gives an example of the surface
crack, which is caused by different reasons, but the surface
cracks are always elongated and deep. For most of the surface
cracks, the opening is small, and most of them will be missed
in the depth image from laser structured light vision. In the
gray images, they are generally shown as dark irregular
stripes. At the left side of Fig. 2b, there are some surface
porosities, which are generally left when the weld pool is
about to solidify, after the porosity overflows but the metal
fails to be backfilled. In the depth image, it is a small concave.
Figure 2c gives an example of undercut defect, undercut is
caused by base metal being ablated by arc, and weld pool
metal is not backfilled due to its poor spreading property. In
the depth image, it shows that the height of the weld bead
boundary is lower than the surface of the base metal, and it
is generally long and thin stripe along the weld boundary.
Figure 2d gives an example of the collapse defect. The col-
lapse is due to the excessive penetration of weld pool. The
depth image shows that the weld surface height is excessively
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 1 System schematic graphic
lower than the base metal surface. Figure 2e gives an example
of burning-through defect, which is caused by excessive heat
input and excessive arc force. If a backside plate is added
during the measurement, in the depth image, the burning-
through height is lower than the workpiece surface about
one plate thickness. If no backside plate is added during the
image acquisition, the depth information of the burning-
through zone would be missed in the image. Figure 2f shows
a poor forming, which is generally caused by unstable welding
parameters. Figure 2g gives an example of spatter. There are
many reasons for spatter, which may be attached to the work-
piece or the weld bead surface. In the depth image, the spatter
is generally round and isolated. Figure 2h shows surface oxi-
dation blackening, which is generally caused by poor protec-
tion and can be only detected in gray image.
3 Extraction of weld boundary in 3D depth
image and 2D gray image
Weld bead boundary is important information to assist the
detection and evaluation of welding defects. Aluminum alloy
may be welded by different welding processes, such as gas
tungsten arc welding, or gas metal arc welding, pulsed or
constant wave, with or without filler wire, which would also
result in a variety of bead features. The image information of
weld boundary is also different, and the applicable visual
method and image processing algorithms need to adapt to
them.
3.1 Boundary extraction of convex or concave weld
bead in 3D depth image
Figure 3 is the depth image of convex welding bead, and the
boundary extraction algorithm is as follows.
1. Calculate the average height ha(x) of two base metal areas,
x is the coordinate of the image column direction.
2. Scan and find weld bead boundary with the condition of
the image height is higher than ha(x)+ε, ε is a small value
determined from the image noise.
The red line in Fig. 3 is the boundary of the welding bead.
The algorithm is also applicable to the concave weld bead
with changed condition that the image height is lower than
ha(x)−ε.
3.2 Extraction of welding bead boundary in 2D gray
image for pulsed welding
For the pulsed welding with neat fish-scale feature, the
fish-scale is important information to distinguish the weld
bead area and the base metal area. Figure 4 is the gray
image collected after the LED illumination in front of the
weld bead, and there are consistent black and white
stripes in it. The boundary extraction algorithm is as
follows.
 Int J Adv Manuf Technol

Fig. 2 Various types of defects. a

Crack. b Surface porosity. c
Undercut. d Collapse. e Burning-
through. f Poor forming. g
Spatter. h Oxidation blackening

(a) Crack (b) Surface porosity

(c)Undercut (d) Collapse

(e˅Burning-through (f˅Poor forming

(g˅Spatter (h˅Oxidation blackening

1. Segment the image into binary image by automatic
threshold method.
2. Carry out morphological open operation to remove noise.
3. Find the connecting region, calculate the area of
connecting region, and remove the small area region.
4. Use morphological closing operation to merge different
fish scales together.
5. Get the largest connecting region to obtain the welding
bead.

Fig. 4 Extraction of weld boundary in gray image for fish-scale weld

Fig. 3 Boundary extraction of convex weld in depth image bead
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
6. Scan and find the welding bead boundary.
The red line in Fig. 4 is the boundary of the welding bead.
3.3 Boundary extraction for convex and concave weld
bead in 2D gray image
For convex or concave welding bead, the gray image method
can also be used to get the boundary. As shown in Fig. 5.
Figure 5a and b are the same convex welding bead, where
Fig. 5a is the image obtained from the left LED illumination
(oriented by torch moving direction), in the figure, the left and
right boundaries are respectively the negative step and the
positive step. Figure 5b is the weld image obtained from the
right LED illumination, in the figure, the characteristics of the
left and right boundaries are exactly opposite to Fig. 5a. Then,
the welding boundary can be extracted through finding the
local gradient extreme value and the result is shown as the
red line in the figures.
3.4 Extraction of weld boundary through cathode
atomization region in 2D gray image
In the welding process of aluminum alloy, in order to break
the oxide film formed on the surface of aluminum alloy, the
AC welding or DC reverse welding method is often used to
form the cathode atomization. The cathode atomization region
generally not only appears in the molten pool zone but also
extends to the base metal zone, and will be kept down in the
(a) Right boundary posioning
(b) Left boundary positioning
Fig. 5 Boundary positioning for convex welding bead. a Right boundary
positioning. b Left boundary positioning
base metal zone after welding. In this paper, the images of the
same welding bead are captured by top light source and rear
light source, as shown in Fig. 6.
The diffuse reflectance of the cathode atomization zone is
higher than that of the weld bead zone, while the specular
reflectance of the weld bead zone is higher than that of the
cathode atomization zone. Therefore, in the image of top illu-
mination, the gray values of the weld bead and base metal
zone are higher than the cathode atomization zone, and the
welding bead boundary shows a step feature. But in the image
of rear illumination, the gray value of weld bead and base
metal zone is lower than cathode atomization zone and the
welding bead boundary also shows step feature. Figure 6a is
the weld boundary obtained by calculating the maximum val-
ue of local gradient change using this feature.
3.5 Discussion of the algorithm
Although there are many kinds of algorithm for extraction of
the weld bead boundary, their performances are different.
Some of them are robust but not accurate, and some of them
are accurate but not robust. Thereby, these methods should be
used in a compounded way.
For example, in gas metal arc welding or wire filling gas
tungsten arc welding, the welding bead is higher than the base
metal, we can use the 3D vision method in Section 3.1 to get
the approximate position of the welding bead boundary, and
then use the multi-angle illumination 2D vision method in
(a) Gray image with top illumination
(b) Gray image with rear illumination
Fig. 6 Extraction of weld boundary by cathode atomization region in
gray image. a Gray image with top illumination. b Gray image with
rear illumination

Section 3.3 or 3.4 to accurately relocate the welding bead
boundary. In pulsed GTAW welding, we can use the method
in Section 3.2 to get the initial position of the welding bead
boundary, and then use the multi-angle illumination 2D vision
in Section 3.4 to get the more accurate position of the welding
bead boundary.
4 Extraction of welding defects
4.1 Extraction of welding defects based on base metal
height in 3D depth image
For different welding defects, the references used to measure
their severity are also different. For example, excessive weld
reinforcement, excessive collapse, burn through, undercut,
and spatter in the base metal zone are based on the base metal
height, while the surface porosity, poor forming, and spatter in
the weld bead are based on the weld bead surface height.
As shown in Fig. 7, Fig. 7a is the original 3D depth image
of the weld bead. In the image, some zones of the welding
bead are lower than the base metal, and some zones are higher
than the base metal. In order to find the welding defects based
on the height of base metal, it is necessary to restore the orig-
inal height of base metal in the weld bead zone. Firstly, we
calculate the height of the weld boundary based on the above
Fig. 7 Relative height image
based on base metal. a Original
3D depth image. b Background
image based on base metal. c
Relative height image. d Region
lower than the base metal. e
Region higher than the base
metal. f Lower and higher regions
in original image
(a) Original 3D depth image
(c) Relative height image
(e) Region higher than the base metal
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
algorithms. In order to avoid the influence of noise in the
image on the reference height, the calculating method is to
find the average height of a certain region outside the weld
boundary, as the following formula.
1  x0 þw 
y0 2h
H b ð x0 ; y0 Þ ¼ ∑x¼x0 −w ∑y¼y f ð x; y Þ ð1Þ
4*w*h 0
where Hb is the height of weld boundary, w is the width of
image window, h is the height of image widow, and x, y, x0,
and y0 are the pixel coordinates. After the smoothed boundary
height is obtained, the reference height of the weld bead zone
can be obtained by interpolation between the two side bound-
aries, and the interpolation formula is shown in formula (2).
ðy2 −yÞ ðy−y2 Þ
H ðx; yÞ ¼ H b ðx; y1 Þ* þ H b ðx; y2 Þ* ð2Þ
y2 −y1 y2 −y1
where H is height after interpolation, y1 is the row number of
the right boundary, and y2 is row number of the left boundary.
The background image fbw based on the base metal obtained
by interpolation is shown in Fig. 7b. By subtracting the back-
ground image fbw from the original image fo, the height image
fw relative to the base metal height can be obtained, as shown
in Fig. 7c. In Fig. 7c, the value at the base metal is 0, while on
the welding bead, the region lower than the base metal is
black, and the region higher than the base metal is white.
Figure 7d is the binary image of the welding bead lower than
(b) Background image based on base metal
(d)Region lower than the base metal
(f) Lower and higher regions in original image
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
the base metal, Fig. 7e is the binary image of the weld bead
higher than the base metal, and Fig. 7f is the display of both
regions in the original image.
In the relative height image fw based on base metal, differ-
ent threshold values can be set to segment different types of
welding defects. Using a negative value T1 as the threshold, of
which absolute value is slightly less than the plate thickness,
the binary image fb1 can be gotten by finding the region lower
than T1. The area contained in fb1 is serious collapse or
burning-through defects. In case of burning-through, if there
is a backing plate on the back side, the relative height value in
fw is slightly less than −δ (δ is the thickness of the plate), and if
there is no backing plate, the relative height value is far less
than −δ or the signal is missed. The detect result of burning-
through is shown in Fig. 8a.
Using a negative value T2 as the threshold, of which abso-
lute value is 0.1δ, the binary image fb2 where height is lower
than T2 can be gotten from fw. After fb1 is removed from fb2,
the undercut or collapse defects can be obtained. The extracted
result of undercut is shown in Fig. 8b, and the extracted result
of collapse is shown in Fig. 8c. In these two defects, the
undercut can be judged according to whether the defect is
close to the welding bead boundary and whether the gradient
of the defect descending on welding bead boundary side is
large.
Using a positive value T3 as the threshold, to get the region
fb3 in fw greater than T3, the excessive reinforcement defect can
be obtained. The quality classification of arc welding of alu-
minum and its alloy products is defined in the international
standard ISO 10042:2018. When the thickness of workpiece
is larger than 0.5 mm, the requirement of weld reinforcement
is shown as formula (3), and the maximum value cannot ex-
ceed 10 mm.
T 3 ¼ 1:5mm þ 0:2B ð3Þ
Fig. 8 Extraction of welding
defects based on base metal
height in 3D depth image. a
Burning-through. b Undercut. c
Collapse. d Excessive
reinforcement
(a) Burning-through
(c) Collapse
where B is weld bead width, and the excessive reinforcement
detecting result is shown in Fig. 8d.
4.2 Extraction of welding defects based on both weld
bead height and base metal height in 3D depth image
For defects such as surface porosity, spatter on the weld bead,
and poor forming, the defect background should be the weld
bead itself. While for the spatter on the base metal, the defect
background should be the base metal. Here, in order to avoid
the cutting of spatter falling on the welding bead boundary, the
welding bead and base metal background are considered as a
whole.
In Fig. 9, Fig. 9a is the original 3D depth image of welding
bead. Figure 9b is the backgrounding image fba extracting
from both welding bead and base metal with an anisotropic
smoothing filter, in which the size in welding direction is large
and the size perpendicular to welding direction is small. By
subtracting fba from fo, the relative height image fa based on
both weld bead and base metal can be obtained, as shown in
Fig. 9c. Figure 9d is the region of fa lower than −ε, and Fig. 9e
is the region of fa higher than ε. These two images can express
the nonstationary information in the original image, and Fig.
9f is the boundary of these two regions in the original image.
In order to get the background image based on both the
weld bead and base metal, two size smoothing filters are used
for different defects. For surface porosity and spatter, a smaller
size filter is used to get the background image fbs, and the
relative height image fas can be gotten by subtracting fbs from
fo. For poor forming, a larger scale filter is used to get the
background image named fbl, and the relative height image
fal can be gotten by subtracting fbl from fo. With the threshold
T4, the region where fal is higher than T4 and the region where
fal is lower than −T4 can be obtained, respectively, and these
(b) Undercut
(d) Excessive reinforcement
 Int J Adv Manuf Technol

Fig. 9 Extraction of welding

defects based on both weld bead
height and base metal height in
3D depth image. a Original 3D
depth image. b Background depth
image fba. c Relative depth image.
d Region lower than background
fba. e Region higher than
background fba. f The boundary of
nonstationary region (a) Original 3D depth image (b) Background depth image fba

(c) Relative depth image (d) Region lower than background fba

(e) Region higher than background fba (f) The boundary of nonstationary region

regions can express the poor forming defects. As shown in
Fig. 10a, the region marked by the blue boundary is the low
reinforcement region, and the region marked by the red
boundary is the high reinforcement region.
Using a negative value T5 as the threshold, the binary
image fb5 can be gotten from fas with finding point that
value is smaller than T5. Then, we get the connecting
region in fb5, and get the area and circularity of each
connecting region, in which the connecting region that
the area is small and the circularity is close to 1 is the
surface porosity. Besides surface porosity, in other
connecting regions, if the boundary gradient is large, it
is poor forming, and the rest is normal shaping.
Extraction of surface porosity is shown in Fig. 10b.

Fig. 10 Extraction of welding

defects based on both weld bead
height and base metal height in
3D depth image. a Poor forming.
b Surface porosity. c Spatter

(a)Poor forming

(b) Surface porosity (c) spatter

Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Using a positive value T6 as the threshold, the binary image
fb6 can be gotten from fas with finding points that value is
larger than T6. Then, we get the connecting region in fb6,
and get the area and circularity of each connecting region, in
which the connecting region that the area is small and the
circularity is close to 1 is the spatter. Besides spatters, in other
connecting regions, if the boundary gradient is large, it is poor
forming, and the rest is normal shaping. The extraction of
surface spatter is shown in Fig. 10c.
4.3 Whole flow chart for defect extraction based on
3D depth image
The whole algorithm flow chart of defect extraction based on
3D depth image is shown in Fig. 11.
4.4 Extraction of welding defects in 2D gray images
captured with multi-angle illumination
Crack is one of the most serious welding bead defects.
However, due to the small crack opening, it is difficult to
obtain its information in 3D depth image. Fortunately, the
crack information can be obtained by 2D vision with multi-
angle illumination. In Fig. 12, we get the gray image of crater
crack by different angle illumination. In the figures, it can be
found that the different regions show different gray value
when the illumination is from a different direction, but in the
crack position, the gray value is always very low. So we can
extract the crack defects with this character.
Fig. 11 Whole flow chart for defect extraction based on 3D depth image
According to the characteristics analysis of the above crack
defects in gray image, the corresponding image processing
algorithm is developed as follows.
1. Get the binary images fcb1~fcb4 obtained by illumination
from different directions using fixed thresholds, as shown
in Fig. 13a–d.
2. Get the fcd1~fcd4 by expanding fcb1~fcb4 with morpholog-
ical dilating operation in order to ensure the cracks in four
images have overlapping portion.
3. Carry out logic and operation of fcd1~fcd4 to obtain the
binary image fca as shown in Fig. 13e.
4. Eliminate the breakpoints of cracks in image fca by mor-
phological closing operation and get image fcc.
5. Get the connecting region of fcc, and delete the small area
connecting region in order to eliminate the flying points,
then get the image fcl.
6. Find the minimum circumscribed rectangle of the
connecting region in fcl, and get the ratio of the short axis
to the long axis. According to the ratio, get the long and
thin type connection region, which is generally welding
crack.
The extracted welding crack boundary is shown in Fig. 13f.
Figure 14 shows the image of oxidation blackening
defects on the surface of aluminum alloy welding bead.
The illumination direction of this image is from the top
side. The part surrounded by red curves in the figure is
the blackened area of the surface obtained by threshold
segmentation.
 Int J Adv Manuf Technol

Fig. 12 2D gray image of crack. a

Left LED illumination. b Right
LED illumination. c Front LED
illumination. d Rear LED
illumination

(a) Left LED illumination (b) Right LED illumination

(c) Front LED illumination (d) Rear LED illumination

Fig. 13 Extraction of crack in 2D

gray images. a Left LED
illumination. b Right LED
illumination. c Front LED
illumination. d Rear LED
illumination. e Original crack
binary image. f Final crack
boundary

(a) Left LED illumination (b) Right LED illumination

(c) Front LED illumination (d) Rear LED illumination

(e) Original crack binary image (f) Final crack boundary

Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 14 Extraction of oxidation blackening defects in 2D gray images
5 Conclusion
In order to detect surface defects in aluminum alloy welding
bead automatically, a compound vision detection system is
constructed with laser structured light 3D vision and multi-
angle time-sharing illumination 2D vision, and corresponding
image processing algorithms are proposed to extract the de-
fects. From the results, we can get the following conclusions:
1. For convex and concave welding bead, with the 3D depth
image features or 2D multi-angle illumination gray image
features, the welding bead boundary can be obtained reli-
ably and accurately. Using the fish-scale feature of pulse
welding and the gray image feature with front or rear
illumination, the image processing algorithm proposed
in this paper can extract the weld bead boundary reliably.
With multi-angle illumination, the accurate welding bead
boundary of aluminum alloy can be highlighted by the
reflection characteristics of the cathode atomization zone.
2. The background of aluminum alloy weld bead based on
base metal is obtained with interpolation algorithm, and
the relative height of welding bead is obtained according
to the background. Then through image processing, the
weld defects such as collapse, undercut, burning-through,
and excessive reinforcement can be obtained.
3. The anisotropic filtering algorithm is used to obtain the
workpiece background based on both the welding bead
and the base metal at the same time. Compared with the
background, the relative height of the welding bead region
and the base metal region are obtained. Then, the corre-
sponding image processing algorithm is designed, and the
defects such as surface porosity, spatter, and poor forming
can be extracted reliably.
4. A group of images which can reflect the information of
weld crack are obtained by using multi-angle time-sharing
illumination and the near non-reflection feature of weld
crack. Using threshold segmentation, morphological di-
lating operation, logic and operation, morphological close
operation, fly point removal operation, and minimum ex-
ternal rectangular defect screening operation, the crack
defects are extracted reliably and accurately.
Funding information This work was supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China, (No. 51975015).
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