Automated welding inspection using an intelligent robot
Company
Navantia is an international benchmark in shipbuilding and advanced systems for defense and maritime security.
The company needed to ensure the quality of its welds in critical industrial processes, guaranteeing that every weld bead met design and safety standards.
It was looking for a system capable of performing both visual and in-depth inspections automatically, reducing human error and increasing the reliability of results.
Challenge
To design and implement a robotic system capable of inspecting weld beads both visually and structurally, identifying surface and internal defects.
The solution had to combine advanced technologies, including phased-array ultrasonics, magnetic excitation, and AI-based analysis, to provide accurate, real-time diagnostics.
Problem
- Slow and error-prone manual inspection: Quality control was traditionally carried out manually, making it difficult to guarantee uniformity and precision across all welds.
- Limited detection of internal defects: Traditional visual techniques could not identify internal flaws such as lack of fusion, porosity, or impurities within the weld.
- Lack of technological integration: There was no system combining multiple technologies (acoustic echo, magnetic vibration, and ultrasonics) with intelligent analysis, limiting predictive capabilities.
- Production and safety risk: The absence of precise supervision increased the likelihood of defects in the final component, impacting both safety and production efficiency.
Solution
How we do it?
A robotic system was developed to scan the weld profile, compare it with the expected pattern, and assess weld bead quality, identifying deformations, porosity, and lack of fusion in real time.
- Continuous monitoring and visualization: Dashboards display the status of each weld, results from visual and depth inspections, and AI-generated alerts for potential defects.
- Advanced multidimensional inspection: The robot performs phased acoustic echo analysis to examine weld depth and uses magnetic vibration combined with ultrasonics to detect internal anomalies, ensuring full weld coverage.
- Centralized alert management: The system automatically classifies and displays detected defects, enabling the production team to make fast and accurate decisions.
- Integration with quality processes: The solution integrates with quality management and traceability systems, enabling historical tracking and comparative analysis of inspected welds.
Results
- Comprehensive high-precision weld inspection
- Advanced detection of internal and surface defects
- Significant reduction in manual inspections
- Increased safety and production reliability
- Unified platform for weld monitoring, analysis, and quality management