Weld bead control on electric motors

In the field of e-mobility, the hairpin process has become established in the development of e-motors and the associated production. The copper wires contained in the electrostator are kept in position by a device and cut to the same length. The ends of equal length are then welded together.

Optical quality control should make it possible to draw conclusions about the connection quality of the welds. To avoid failures in the field, a series of tests is required to guarantee a entire control.

The wire ends (welding beads) are fed to the machine vision system in rotation on one level and sampled by two 3D laser triangulation scanners. One of the scanners is positioned at the rear to compensate for triangulation shadowing. The welding beads are checked for a spherical contour and for insufficient energy input if the weld is too flat. In addition, the positions of the pins in relation to each other are checked and any weld spatter or blowholes and the height offset of the pins are inspected. The analysis is carried out using the aku.visionManager® software, which combines rule-based and deep learning algorithms to achieve precise results.

Automated inspection using an machine vision system and aku.visionManager® enables fast and efficient inspection, saving time and money. It also ensures greater reliability in production and the highest quality of electric motors, as potential faults are detected at an early stage. The effectiveness of the machine is significantly increased by this control process.