Oxford Lasers

View what's happening inside a welding process whilst it's happening. The VisiWeld range of systems capture images of processes that you've never seen before. Use these systems for welding process development, weld problem diagnosis and remote welding inspection and control.

Laser illumination

In a VisiWeld system the fireball is illuminated using a special laser and the camera is fitted with a special filter that only allows the illuminating wavelenght through. This means that most of the light from the weld fireball (which emits a broad range of wavelengths) is blocked. Using this technique the light from the fireball can be reduced by a factor of 100 or more.

When imaging some bright subjects this technique can often allow good images to be obtained. However, welding processes tend to be too bright and a second technique must be used in combination with the narrow band illumination so that good quality images to be obtained.

Short pulse illumination

The weld fireball emits light continuously whilst lasers can be configured to deliver short pulses of light. Fitting the camera with a fast shutter that is only open during the laser pulse, allows the light from the fireball to again be minimised without reducing the amount of laser light seen. In this way the light from the fireball can be decreased by a factor of 100 or more. Combining the two techniques can reduce the effective brightness of the fireball by a factor of over 10,000 allowing welding processes to be imaged with remarkable clarity.

Three standard VisiWeld systems are offered.

The VisiWeld 30 is designed for system monitoring and applications which require a human operator to control the process. The 60 fps system is suited to studies where time resolution is not essential. Where a time resolved view is needed, the 1,000 fps system allows time resolved imaging. Frame rates up to 5,000 fps are possible with a reduced field of view.

Other configurations are available - for more information Contact Us, or see the detailed applications brief.