Quality analysis for condition monitoring of a manufacturing process integrating acoustic processing based on three distinct ML algorithms

Abstract

Abstract Over the years, it has been proven that all machines that run continuously or even for a short period of time experiences breakdowns, reduced efficiency and damage to the parts. Considering one such manufacturing process is welding process where strip welding is studied for condition monitoring and prediction of online quality of the weld. The proposed embodiment discusses a predictive condition monitoring of a welding process, using acoustic sensors and processing their data. Converting the processed data to a predictive model, comparing different Machine Learning (ML) algorithms like Decision Tree (DT), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) based on the validation and training results, selecting the suitable algorithm for online or real-time weld quality prediction is the objective of the proposed embodiment. According to the research, effectively executing the proposed solution can improve its life, efficiency, and utilization. The training accuracy is observed to be 97 % for DT, 50 % for ANN and 67 % for CNN. DT, on the other hand, has a validation accuracy of 94.7 %, ANN has 47.65 % and CNN has 65.8 %. DT produced the best results in the study, initially DT prediction model is used in offline testing of the new data-set for individual weld class and the system produced 97 % accuracy. Furthermore the DT prediction model is implemented in online weld quality prediction in three classes: Bad weld, OK weld and Good weld where the system produced 90 % accuracy in real-time prediction.