New compact monitor for process design and quality control

MONROVIA, CA - AMADA WELD TECH, Inc., a leading manufacturer of resistance welding, laser welding, marking, cutting, and micromachining equipment and systems, announces the new MM-L300A Laser Weld Monitor. The high-resolution, compact MM-L300A is designed to detect production errors such as gaps between parts, missing parts, over-penetration, incorrect focus, and cover gas absence, providing operators feedback on laser weld quality. The compact, lightweight unit supports laser welding technologies for spot or seam welds.

This high-accuracy monitor is ideal for process development and quality control applications of laser welding. The MM-L300A determines weld success by detecting and recording a thermal signal from the area of laser interaction and provides an output waveform around which limits (max/min or envelope) can be set. Once the limits are set, the unit compares a new weld waveform in real time to identify good or bad weld. Providing high temporal resolution—down to 1 microsecond—the MM-L300A with the SU-N300A dedicated thermal sensor enables precision monitoring of both CW and pulsed lasers.

The MM-L300A features easy-to-use software for simple sensor configuration, waveform envelope limit set-up, and real-time or saved waveform analysis on Windows® PCs. Plus, with machine-selectable setup schedules, the unit can monitor different welding conditions. For process design flexibility, this approximately 7 lb (3 kg) system reduces set-up space when integrated into a production line, and the sensor mounts either on the optical axis of the laser or in an off-axis position.