Using Xiris WeldStudio™ Pro with Beckhoff Automation

Xiris has a long history of providing leading edge thermal and visible weld cameras for Metal Additive Manufacturing and critical welding applications.

One of the main challenges with Metal Additive Manufacturing is how to ensure the part quality of the finished product. This can only be done with careful monitoring and adaptive control during the build process. Integration of visual and thermal weld cameras can be used to independently monitor the Metal additive manufacturing process and provide geometric and thermal information in real time that is otherwise not available with alternative sensor technologies. Specifically, measuring features such as the melt pool shape and size, the wire (or powder) feed speed and quality, or the weld bead size and cooling rates.

Fig. 1: Image of WAAM (GMAW) process showing melt pool and cooling bead.

Once such data is collected, the next challenge is to ensure that all measured information can be communicated reliably and with minimal latency to the process controller. This is especially important with welding processes as they are very dynamic and unstable processes with many parameters that need to be carefully coordinated and controlled.

Beckhoff® Automation provides automation systems using proven PC-based control technology that are regularly used with Metal Additive Manufacturing and welding processes. The Beckhoff® TwinCAT modular Architecture is often used in such industrial environments as a stable, reliable communication protocol. To make systems integration easier, Xiris has now made WeldStudio Pro available with the Beckhoff Automation ADS Interface (Automation Device Specification).

With such an interface, high bandwidth communication between the Beckhoff®, TwinCAT® control environment and WeldStudio Pro is possible, using the ADS communication protocol that is core to the control’s architecture.

Fig. 2: Beckhoff Automation. Reference: https://download.beckhoff.com/download/document/automation/twincat3/TwinCAT_3_ADS_INTRO_EN.pdf

This Interface can be easily configured and set up within the WeldStudio Pro software as all temperature measurement data and related machine vision measurements are available via the WeldStudio Data Manager.  

Fig. 3: WeldStudio Pro showing the Data Explorer for Measurements available, via ADS Interface.

Conclusion 

In summary, using WeldStudio® Pro with the Beckhoff® ADS interface forms a great systems control architecture that enables an efficient yet well integrated solution to be able to communicate thermal and visual cameras measurements from WeldStudio to an external device that incorporates a Beckholff HMI system.

Beckhoff®, TwinCAT® and ADS are Trademarks of Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co.

Beckhoff implements open automation systems using proven PC-based control technology.

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