X-Ray and optical videography for 3D measurement of capillary and melt pool geometry in laser welding

This paper describes a method to reconstruct the 3D shape of the melt pool and the capillary of a laser keyhole welding process. Three different diagnostic methods, including X-Ray and optical videography as well as metallographic cross sections are combined to gain the three dimensional data of the solidus-liquidus-surface. A detailed description of the experimental setup and a discussion of different methods to combine the 2D data sets of the three different diagnostic methods to a 3D-model will be given. The result will be a static 3D description of the welding process. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the German Scientific Laser Society (WLT e.V.)