Weld seam inspection on pipes

The pipe material is joined to a pipe using the spiral welding technique. The positioning of the metal sheets for this process was previously carried out manually. However, the difficulties in aligning the pipes accurately resulted in continual problems.

Using Micro-Epsilon’s scanCONTROL 2710 laser profile scanner, the positioning process is now performed automatically at Metco. The calculated profile information is used to directly control the positioning process. The optional output unit performs the conversion of this data via FireWire.

The measuring object rotates at a speed of 1.5 m/min. The ambient temperature at the sensor reaches a maximum of 40°C. The scanner is positioned in such a way that no special cooling is required.

The 2710 is part of Micro-Epsilon’s SMART series of scanCONTROL laser profile scanners. The SMART series has been developed to internally process the measurement profile data and calculate common parameters. For example, step height, gap, width, relative position, etc.

The sensors will not only derive multiple parameters from a common library in parallel, but also multiple pass/fail switch outputs. This enables the user to configure the sensor once, and then allow the sensor to operate in standalone mode without any additional PC or PLC. Both digital and analogue outputs are available directly from the sensor. The scanCONTROL 2710 offers all this functionality in a single integrated solution.

System design:
scanCONTROL 2710-100
20m sensor cable SC2700-20
output unit - basic output unit
4-channel digital output
2-channel analogue output

Measuring Object:
water pipes with diameters from 600-2,032mm
gas pipes with diameters up to 1,422mm

Benefits for the customer:
Very large stand-off distance (300-600mm)
Plug&Play software
Precise measurements through protection glass
Simultaneous profile display and result calculation