Chapter 4 – Gas Metal Arc Welding: Automatic Control

This chapter analyzes the automatic control techniques that have been used in the Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) process. It provides a brief discussion of manual control and many automatic control techniques. Automatic welding simply means that some aspects of the welding operation are performed without the intervention of human such as welder or welding operator. Closed-loop control strategies have several forms such as optimal control, adaptive control, robust control, and learning or intelligent control. Statistical quality control (SQC) is the application of statistical methods for the purpose of determining if a given component of production (input) is within acceptable statistical limits and if there is some result of production (output) that can be shown to be statistically acceptable to required specifications. On the other hand, statistical process control (SPC) is the application of statistical methods for the purpose of determining if a given process is within the operating control parameters established by statistical procedures. A number of different hazards present in electric arc welding and their effective control are achieved by conventional environmental engineering solutions.

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