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Seam tracking control for weld cladding of boiler tubes in thermal power plants

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Abstract

Welding distortions, assembly errors, and deviation correction between the welding torch and weld beads play a significant role in the automatic welding system of the boiler tube wall cladding. As a result, this paper proposes a seam tracking system comprised of two parts: a contact displacement sensor for data acquisition and an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) controller along with the backpropagation (BP) algorithm for controlling the position and posture of the welding torch. The results showed that the proposed ANFIS controller achieves a faster rise time of up to 0.06 s, settling time of about 0.1 s, overshooting up to 1.5%, and amplitude stability with the lowest training error up to 2 × 10−4 mm. In contrast, the fuzzy logic controller achieves a rise time of up to 0.075 s, a settling time of around 0.3 s, and a 0.5% overshoot. Also, the proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller executes a lower rise time of up to 0.035 s, a settling time of about 0.25 s, and an overshoot of up to 9.34%. According to the results, the ANFIS controller performs better than the PID and fuzzy logic controllers. Thus, the proposed system offers a much-improved functionality in terms of flexibility, consistency, and cladding layer surface finish of the treated components. It fully meets the requirements of the welding torch control motion for seam tracking. It can also be used to create automatic seam tracking systems for other types of surface treatment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the technical assistance provided by the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Hohai University during this work. We also thank the ANSO scholarship for young talents and the UCAS scholarship for international students for their support.

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The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ningbo, 315201, China

    Adnan Saifan & Silu Chen

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100049, China

    Adnan Saifan

  3. Mechanical Engineering Department, Sana’a University, Sana’a, 12544, Yemen

    Adnan Saifan

  4. Electrical Engineering Department, University of 20 August 1955 Skikda, Skikda, Algeria

    Sharaf Saifan

  5. College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Hohai University, Changzhou, 213022, China

    Songya Tian

  6. Electrical Engineering Department, Sana’a University, Sana’a, 12544, Yemen

    Mohammed Alshameri

  7. College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hohai University, Nan**g, 210098, China

    Bassiouny Saleh

  8. Production Engineering Department, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21544, Egypt

    Bassiouny Saleh

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  1. Adnan Saifan
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Correspondence to Adnan Saifan or Bassiouny Saleh.

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Saifan, A., Chen, S., Saifan, S. et al. Seam tracking control for weld cladding of boiler tubes in thermal power plants. Int J Interact Des Manuf 18, 1709–1729 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12008-023-01205-y

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