Science and Technology of Welding and Joining

ISSN: 1362-1718 (Print) 1743-2936 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ystw20

Real-time heat input monitoring towards robust

GMA brazing

Pinaac Makwana, Sven-F Goecke & Amitava De

To cite this article: Pinaac Makwana, Sven-F Goecke & Amitava De (2018): Real-time heat input
monitoring towards robust GMA brazing, Science and Technology of Welding and Joining, DOI:
10.1080/13621718.2018.1470290

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13621718.2018.1470290

Published online: 07 May 2018.

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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF WELDING AND JOINING, 2018
https://doi.org/10.1080/13621718.2018.1470290

Real-time heat input monitoring towards robust GMA brazing

Pinaac Makwanaa , Sven-F Goecke b and Amitava De a

a Mechanical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India; b Mechanical Engineering Department,
Technical University of Applied Science, Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Gas metal arc (GMA) brazing of thin sheets requires active control of heat input, filler alloy depo- Received 22 February 2018
sition and temperature field on sheet surface. A novel attempt is presented here for a rapid Accepted 22 April 2018
synchronous real-time monitoring of current and voltage transients, filler alloy depositions and KEYWORDS
temperature field using, respectively, a high-frequency recorder, high-speed videography and Gas metal arc brazing;
two thermal infrared cameras during GMA brazing of galvanized steel sheets. For heat inputs real-time monitoring; heat
from 100 to 200 J mm−1 , the peak temperature varied from 1500 to 1700 K. The high-speed input; temperature
videography showed consistent filler deposition and bead profile. The methodology and results measurement; metal
presented here depict a promising resource for real-time monitoring and feedback control of transfer; thermal profile; IR
GMA brazing. camera

Introduction
Gas metal arc (GMA) brazing involves melting and
deposition of a filler wire under a focused electric arc
to join thin metallic sheets. An accurate control of the
arc heat input, deposition rate of filler alloy and top sur-
face temperature field is required to ensure a defect-free
joint with sound bead profile and limit thermal dam-
age of the brazed joint and the adjacent area. Reliable
techniques to monitor vital process signatures such as
current and voltage transients and top surface temper-
ature field in real-time are required but are not normally
used for GMA brazing. In recent times, real-time non-
contact thermometry has been applied to capture the
temperature fields of the melt pool in arc welding pro-
cesses enabling rapid detection, monitoring and control
of joint quality and defects [1,2]. Filtering of the unde-
sirable high-intensity radiations from the arc and melt
pool region, that result in overexposed recorded signals
has however been difficult [1,2]. With increasing oppor-
tunities for joining of similar and dissimilar sheets,
similar approaches are also needed for GMA brazing.
IR thermal cameras are traditionally used as efficient
tools for monitoring temperature fields based on the
intensity of radiation from the arc or workpiece sur-
faces in arc welding [3,4]. As the emissivity coefficient
is a function of both temperature and physical state of
the radiating surface, mono-colour IR thermal cam-
eras tend to provide erroneous measurements when the
radiating source includes both solid and liquid states in
a given frame as in arc welding and brazing [2,4]. An
exponential decay in emissivity coefficient from 0.7 to
0.2 with rise in temperature was reported while moni-
toring weld pool temperatures with an optical emission
spectrometer in pulsed GMA welding of S235 steel
[5]. The authors reported that the change in emis-
sivity coefficients resulted in high estimation errors
while the observation angle of the recording sensor
and composition of shielding gas had a negligible influ-
ence [5]. These challenges may be overcome by using
a two-colour thermal imaging system that can cap-
ture the radiation intensities at two different wave-
lengths and provide an estimate of temperature field
irrespective of emissivity coefficients of the radiating
surface [6]. However, two optimum wavelengths and a
large signal-to-noise ratio must be employed to record
accurate thermographs using two-colour IR cameras
[7]. Furthermore, the emissivity coefficients should not
vary significantly between the two selected wavelengths
in two-colour thermometry as suggested by Yamada
et al. [8].
Optical emission spectroscopy coupled with spatial
resolution methods like Abel inversion or tomography
is also used to diagnose temperatures in arc welding
[9]. Early methods such as the flat grating spectro-
scope were used to measure the spectrum of emitted
intensities from the arc in gas tungsten arc (GTA) weld-
ing. The temperature was estimated at various levels
within the arc from the measured intensities of the
plasma spectral lines and their corresponding wave-
lengths. For example, typical arc temperatures in the
range of 8000 K (cathode) to 11,000 K (anode) were
reported for a welding current of 100 A and an arc
gap of 2 mm [10]. Likewise, a filter spectrometer in
the light spectrum range of 690 to 840 nm could cap-
ture the difference in arc plasma temperature between
peak current (200 A) and base current (100 A) phases

CONTACT Amitava De amit@iitb.ac.in, de.amitava1967@gmail.com

© 2018 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Institute.
2 P. MAKWANA ET AL.
in GTA welding with a pulse frequency of 5 Hz and
an arc gap of 5 mm [11]. The later authors used a
sampling frequency of 955 frames per second (fps)
to monitor the arc radiations and reported consis-
tent temperatures when the arc reached a steady-state
[11]. More recently, independent spectral detectors at
490, 520 and 690 nm in conjunction with a tomo-
graphic resolution principle were employed to estimate
the temperature of an arc plasma that contained both
argon shielding gas and metal vapours during pulsed
GMA welding of mild steel [12]. A cooler central metal
vapour core surrounded by a hotter Argon plasma
inside the arc was identified [5,12]. Likewise, an IR
camera capable of recording within the temperature
range of 973–4273 K was employed to measure the ther-
mal history of a molten droplet in pulsed GMA welding
of AISI 1008 steel [13]. The authors used the arc puls-
ing to reduce the radiation disturbances during metal
transfer. The authors also studied the convection cur-
rents within the droplet by tracing the movement of
the hotspot and reported a peak droplet temperature of
3300 K [13].
Real-time IR thermography is also utilised in defect
detection and process control during both welding and
brazing [14–21]. Weld defects such as lack of fusion,
inclusion and burn-through could be identified in real-
time during GMA and GTA welding of 1.6–20 mm
thick steels. These defects were recognised through the
recorded aberrations in the temperature distributions
of the joint region with the recorded peak tempera-
tures ranging from 1400 to 2000 K [1,14–16]. Excessive
hardness in fusion zone and heat-affected zone were
estimated in resistance welding of 1.0 mm steel plates
from recorded peak temperature of around 1800 K and
consequent cooling rate [17]. Real-time analyses of
measured thermal profiles like distance between inflec-
tion points was used to identify the melt pool width
and area and, also the overall heat input in GMA and
GTA welding processes in steels [18,19]. Feedback con-
trol using high-speed optical imaging of the weld sur-
face has been used for seam tracking and correction
of torch offsets in the arc welding of butt joints [20].
Gött et al. obtained a 30% reduction in peak current
with consistent metal deposition when power supply
control was applied based on real-time spectral data
analysis of the arc plasma in pulsed-current welding
and brazing of zinc-coated steel [21]. Measured ther-
mal cycles through IR thermometry during pulsed TIG
and laser-GMA hybrid welding of 2.5–3.0 mm thick
steel plates showed a good agreement with those mea-
sured using thermocouples [22,23]. Real-time temper-
ature fields recorded using IR cameras have also been
used to validate computed results from numerical pro-
cess models of laser-GMA hybrid welding/brazing of
aluminium alloys to zinc-coated steel sheets [24,25].
Non-contact IR thermometry has thus showed an effi-
cient resource for real-time recording of temperature
fields in arc welding and brazing processes for several
alloys and their thicknesses.
The present work was therefore aimed at a real-time
rapid synchronous monitoring of heat input, filler metal
deposition and temperature field during GMA brazing
of thin zinc-coated sheets with CuSi3 filler wires. For
the estimation of heat input, the arc current and voltage
waveforms were recorded simultaneously in real-time
using a high frequency, isolated channel data logger.
The dynamic metal transfer from the molten filler wire
was captured using a high-speed video camera offer-
ing a superior image resolution. The deposit surface
temperature fields were recorded by two independent
IR thermal cameras operating in different wavelength
domains. The measured temperature profile from the
IR cameras was tested for consistency with tempera-
ture measurements from thermocouples and also with
analytically estimated results using the well-established
Rosenthal’s thin plate solution [26].
Experimental set-up
Figure 1(a) shows the experimental set-up for GMA
brazing of zinc-coated steel sheets in a lap joint con-
figuration. A GMA power source (EWM alpha Q551)
with a fast-response current control has been employed
to braze the sheets with a CuSi3 filler wire in short-
circuiting mode of metal transfer that is explained later
with real-time record of current and voltage transients,
and sequences of metal transfer. Table 1 provides the
details of the steel sheets and of the filler wire. Pure
argon at a flow rate of 15 L min−1 was used as the shield-
ing gas. The GMA torch with a nozzle diameter of
18 mm was positioned at an angle of 75° in the direction
of brazing as shown in Figure 1(b). The filler wire was
aligned along the edge of the top sheet with the contact
Figure 1. (a) Experimental set-up for GMA brazing. [(1) TCA-
1, two-colour IR camera, (2) TCA-2, mono-colour IR camera, (3)
Brazing torch, (4) high-speed video camera, (5) spectroscope
fibre optic, (6) fume exhaust intake], (b) Schematic presentation
of GMA brazing as considered in the current study.
Table 1. Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) (in MPa) and chemical
compositions (in wt-%) of sheets and filler wire.
UTS C Mn Si Cu P S Ti
Steel Sheet 325 0.12 0.6 0.5 – 0.1 0.045 0.3
ER CuSi3 350 – 0.9 2.8 Bal. – – –
Sheet thickness: 0.75 mm; GI coating thickness: 7.5 μm; Wire diam.: 0.8 mm

Table 2. Various process conditions considered for GMA braz-
ing.
Sr. no. 1 2 3 4 5 6
Brazing speed (mm s−1 ) 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 12.0
Wire feed rate (m min−1 ) 8.0
tube to work distance (CTWD) as 15 mm for all experi-
ments. The lap joint assembly was clamped to maintain
zero gap between the sheets as shown in Figure 1(b). All
the brazing were carried out at a constant wire feed rate
of 8.0 m min−1 . Table 2 shows the wire feed rates that
are selected after extensive trials to achieve consistent
braze beads.
Figure 2 shows the schematic diagram of the moni-
toring locations for the measurement of thermal cycles
by thermocouples during GMA brazing of galvanized
steel sheets. Two thermocouples (referred to as TC1 and
TC2) were embedded at the bottom of the steel sheet
just below the braze centreline and two (referred to as
TC3 and TC4) were placed at a transverse distance of
4 mm from the braze centreline as shown in Figure 2.
Standard K-type thermocouples, with a sensitivity of
41 μV °C−1 , were used for the measurement of temper-
ature. The hot junctions of the thermocouples were spot
welded at the bottom of the steel sheets. The cold junc-
tions were made by connecting the thermocouple wires
to the positive and negative terminals of a pc-interfaced
data acquisition system (Graphtec GL 900-4). The mea-
surement of temperature through the thermocouples
was recorded at a sampling rate of 1 kHz.
The top surface temperature field was recorded
using two different IR thermal cameras – a HDRC-Q-
PyroCam (TCA-1) and an Optris PI 1M (TCA-2) –
both of which were calibrated employing black body
sources. These cameras, TCA-1 and TCA-2, allowed a
real-time capture of temperature field in the presence
of the arc radiation by means of specific filtering. The
filtering requirements were identified by analyzing the
spectral radiations of the arc monitored by an opti-
cal emission spectroscope (Ocean Optics USB2000+,
Figure 2. Schematic presentation of thermocouple monitoring
locations to record thermal cycles, and, the region of interest
(ROI) as well as the view-port of the two IR cameras (TCA-1 and
TCA-2) used to measure top surface temperature field.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF WELDING AND JOINING 3
(e) in Figure 1) in the wavelength range from 200 to
1100 nm with the integration time of measurement set
to 10 ms (Figure 1).
The TCA-1 is a two-colour camera and set to record
the temperature profile at a frame rate of 60 fps using
one Tamron f 3.9/75 mm lens, a region of interest (RoI)
of 640 × 200 pixels encompassing a field of view of
56 mm × 18 mm (refer blue dotted line in Figure 2).
TCA-1 further included a 625 nm edge filter to stop the
wavelengths in the UV/Visual range and a low pass fil-
ter of 700 nm to restrict the capture of radiation in the
IR range. The TCA-1 could record temperatures in the
range of 900 to 2200 K. In contrast, the TCA-2 cam-
era could record at a frame rate of 80 fps and was fitted
with a f 2.8/50 mm lens with a RoI of 382 × 288 pixels
covering a field of view of 170 mm × 128 mm (refer red
dotted line in Figure 2). TCA-2 also included an edge to
low pass filter allowing capture of radiation in the range
of 850–1100 nm and could record temperatures in the
range of 773–2073 K. Both the IR thermal cameras were
placed just behind the brazing torch in line with the
braze centreline and moved synchronously with the
torch. Furthermore, these cameras were aligned at an
angle of 70° to the sheets enabling the capture the sur-
face temperature of both the melt pool and the trailing
solidified brazed seam [Figure 1(b)]. The IR camera
TCA-2 was able to view a larger area [e.g. PQRS in
Figure 2] than that by the IR camera TCA-1 [e.g. JKLM
in Figure 2] at any instant of time. Thus, TCA-2 moni-
tored the temperature field over a larger area and TCA-1
measured the temperature field within a much smaller
region with higher resolution.
The TCA-1 is a two-colour or ratio pyrometric
device where the temperature is estimated using Plank’s
radiation law irrespective of the emissivity coefficients
or state of the radiating surface, and its composition
as [1].
ch(λ1 − λ2 ) 1
T= . (1)
kB λ1 λ2 ln(I1 λ1 /I2 λ52 )
5
In Equation (1), c refers to the speed of light, kB is the
Boltzmann constant, h is the Plank’s constant, λ1 and λ2
are the two effective wavelengths (e.g. 661 and 677 nm
are provided in the present work), and, I 1 and I 2 are the
corresponding intensities of radiation. A sample calcu-
lation to estimate the temperature from the detector
signal ratio (I 1 /I 2 ) using Equation (1) is presented in
the Appendix.
TCA-2 is a mono-colour IR camera from which
the temperature is estimated based on a pre-selected
emissivity of the source as [27]
 1
U + C[Tan (ε − 1) + Tpn ] n
T= , (2)
Cε
where U is the detector signal, C a device specific con-
stant, Tan and Tpn the temperatures of the background
4 P. MAKWANA ET AL.
radiation and device, n = 4 and ε the source emissivity
coefficient. A mono-colour IR camera utilises only one
value of ε for the entire field of view to convert the digi-
tised record to temperature values. The field of view in
the present case includes deposited filler alloy (CuSi3)
in both liquid and solidified state with indicative emis-
sivity coefficients as 0.17 and 0.38, respectively [27].
Since the camera moves along with the brazing torch,
greater presence of the molten filler is expected in the
field of view. Hence, the emissivity coefficient of liquid
filler ( ∼ 0.17) was considered for the calibration of tem-
perature from TCA-2 that might lead to little error in
estimation of measured temperature for hot solidified
filler deposit and sheet surfaces [27]. A sample calcula-
tion for the estimation of temperature from the TCA-2
detector signal (U) using Equation (2) is presented in
the Appendix.
Figure 3(a,b) shows a comparison of measured tem-
perature – time history at the two monitoring locations
obtained from the IR cameras (TCA-1 and TCA-2) and
the thermocouples during GMA brazing of galvanized
steel sheets with a wire feed rate of 8.0 m min−1 and
brazing speed of 6.0 m min−1 . It should be noted that
the thermocouples were embedded at the bottom of the
sheets while the IR cameras were recording temperature
field on the top surface as shown in Figure 2. Sec-
ond, the measurements from the thermocouples, TC1
and TC2 (in Figure 2), were averaged and plotted in
Figure 3(a) as both TC1 and TC2 were just below the
braze centreline. Likewise, an average of the tempera-
ture – time records from the thermocouples, TC3 and
TC4 (in Figure 2), was plotted in Figure 3(b) as both
TC3 and TC4 were 4 mm away from the braze centre-
line. Correspondingly, the temperature–time history at
these monitoring locations were also obtained from the
IR cameras by considering multiple consecutive frames
recorded by TCA-1 and TCA-2. Furthermore, the view
the region close to the arc remains partly obstructed
to the IR cameras due to obstruction by the brazing
torch. Hence, the measured temperature from the IR
cameras was considered from a distance slightly ahead
of the brazing torch that was equivalent to a time instant
Figure 3. Measured temperature–time history obtained from
the thermocouples (TC), and the two IR cameras, TCA-1 and TCA-
2, at the monitoring locations situated (a) at braze centreline
(average of TC1 and TC2 in Figure 2) and (b) at 4.0 mm away from
the braze centreline (average of TC3 and TC4 in Figure 2).
of 0.5 s. Figure 3 clearly shows that the measured tem-
perature–time history from the two-colour IR camera,
TCA-1, provides a fair agreement with the correspond-
ing measurement from the thermocouples while that
obtained from TCA-2 has showed a little discrepancy.
This has been attributed to the assumption of a constant
emissivity coefficient over the complete range of mea-
surement in TCA-2 as explained earlier. A comparison
of Figure 3(a,b) shows that the IR cameras, in partic-
ular the two-colour camera TCA-1, are able to capture
a wide range of temperature fairly accurately as against
the same recorded by the embedded thermocouples.
Results and discussion
Monitoring of voltage and current transients and
metal transfer
Figure 4(a,b) presents the recorded current and volt-
age transients for two different brazing speeds of 12.0
and 6.0 mm s−1 , respectively, with short-circuiting and
arcing phases in each cycle of metal transfer. The peak
current and time durations of short-circuiting and arc-
ing phases were estimated over 20 current pulses for
each condition. The time-averaged arc power (PAV ) for
short-circuiting and arcing phases was estimated as [28]

τ
Ii Vi ti
i=0
PAV = , (3)
τ
ti
i=0
where Vi , Ii and ti referred to recorded values of voltage,
current and time, respectively, at ith time instant, and
τ was either the arcing or short-circuiting period. The
average arc power over a complete current cycle includ-
ing short-circuiting and arcing phases was estimated
as
τ1 (PAV )SC + τ2 (PAV )AR
P= , (4)
τ1 + τ2
where (PAV )SC and (PAV )AR were the time-averaged arc
powers during the short-circuiting and arcing phases,
respectively [28]. The heat input (q) was estimated as
q = (ηP)/v, where η was the process efficiency and v
was the brazing speed. The value of η was presumed as
0.8 [29]. Table 3 presents the estimated values of q for
all the GMA brazing conditions considered here.
A comparison of Figure 4(a,b) shows that a decrease
in brazing speed from 12.0 to 6.0 mm s−1 has led to
an increase in peak short-circuiting current from 132
A (±5) to 163 A (±8), and in current pulse frequency
from 32 Hz (±2) to 96 Hz (±3). The mean current pulse
frequency was estimated a 1/(τ1 + τ2 ) over 20 current
pulses where τ 1 and τ 2 depicted arcing and short-
circuiting time durations, respectively, in each pulse.
For a constant wire feed rate, the increase in short-
circuiting current and pulse frequency with decrease in
 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF WELDING AND JOINING 5

Figure 4. Measured voltage and current transients (a,b), braze beads (c,d), and bead cross-sections (e,f) for two different brazing
speeds of 12.0 mm s−1 (a,c,e) and 6.0 mm s−1 (b,d,f) at a constant wire feed rate of 8.0 m min−1 . tA and tS refer to arcing and short-
circuiting phases.

Table 3. Values of time-averaged voltage (V AV ), current (IAV ), of the braze beads with smaller brazing speeds that fur-
arc power (P) and heat input (q) as estimated from the current ther confirms greater deposition rate of filler wires at
and voltage transients for different GMA brazing conditions. lower brazing speeds at a constant wire feed rate. Over-
Sr. no. VAV (V) IAV (A) P (kW) q (J mm−1 ) all, Figure 4 shows that a decrease in brazing speed
1 16.6 90.6 1.51 200 from 12.0 to 6.0 mm s−1 at a constant wire feed rate
2
3
16.2
16.8
91.6
90.5
1.48
1.52
169
152
of 8.0 m min−1 has led to greater filler wire deposi-
4 16.4 89.7 1.47 131 tion, higher heat input, and more wetting of the steel
5 16.1 92.8 1.49 120 sheets. Since greater wetting of the joint area by molten
6 16.0 93.8 1.50 100
filler usually improves joint strength in GMA brazing,
the lower brazing speed can be considered favourable
subject to thermal damage such as excessive distor-
brazing speed was attributed to increasing recurrence tion and depletion of zinc coating at higher heat input.
of the short-circuiting phenomenon and greater rate Further quantitative tests are needed to evaluate and
of filler wire deposition. In other words, the process compare the qualities of these braze joints shown in
is controlled actively to adjust the rate of melting and Figure 4(c–f).
metal transfer from the filler wire depending on the The corresponding sequences of metal transfer from
brazing speed thereby avoiding an instability within the the brazing filler wire has been captured employing
range considered in this investigation. Figure 4(c,d) and a high-speed camera and the resulting frames cor-
Figure 4(e,f) show the braze beads and corresponding responding to five time instances (I, II, III, IV and
bead cross-sections, respectively, for the same brazing V) in Figure 4(a,b), are presented in Figure 5. The
conditions. A comparison of Figure 4(c,d) shows wider ‘instance I’ in Figure 4(a,b) indicates the start of the
braze beads with decrease in brazing speeds indicating short-circuiting phase with a drop in voltage that cor-
greater rate of filler wire volume deposition at slower responds to the phenomenon of the droplet touching
brazing speeds. Likewise, a comparison of Figure 4(e,f) the melt pool in Figure 5. A controlled rise in current
shows higher wetting lengths (R) and bead heights (H) follows, ‘instance II’ in Figure 4(a,b), enabling pinching
6 P. MAKWANA ET AL.
Figure 5. High-speed videography images of sequences of
metal transfer from filler wire to the sheets in GMA brazing at
a rate 2615 frames per second (fps).
and smooth detachment of the liquid metal from the
filler wire as noted in the corresponding ‘frame II’ in
Figure 5. An adaptive control forces a rapid drop in
current thereafter to facilitate re-ignition of arc at a
low power minimising the spatter significantly. While
the drop in current is depicted in ‘instance III’ in
Figure 4(a,b), the corresponding small arc is clearly
visible in ‘frame III’ of Figure 5. An intense current
pulse, ‘instance IV’ in Figure 4(a,b), follows to initi-
ate a controlled melting of the filler wire tip resulting
in the growth of the arc, which is visible in ‘frame IV’
of Figure 5. A smooth reduction in current, ‘instance
V’ in Figure 4(a,b), follows again to facilitate a metered
quantity of molten drop for transfer in the subsequent
short-circuiting phase, resulting in a diminishing arc as
depicted in ‘frame V’ in Figure 5. Overall, Figure 4(a,b)
and Figure 5 together provide a real-time vision of
the underlying phenomena occurring during the short-
circuiting and arcing phases.
Monitoring of temperature fields
The measurement of temperature fields using optical
methods in GMA brazing is affected by undesired high-
intensity radiations from the arc plasma that contain the
shielding gas and metal vapour [1]. The wavelengths
of these undesired radiations from the arc needs to
be masked for reliable temperature measurement and
hence, the same are identified in tandem using the opti-
cal emission spectrometer. Figure 6 presents the typical
spectrum of radiations that is recorded from the electric
arc in the wavelength ranges of 550–1100 nm. Wave-
lengths below 550 nm are mostly dominated by the out-
put from metal vapours [10]. The range of wavelengths
visible to each of the thermal cameras, TCA-I and
TCA-II, are superimposed on the radiation spectrum
in Figure 6. The elemental line profiles correspond-
ing to different constituents can be observed within the
presented range.
Figure 6 indicates that the wavelength range of
625–700 nm is visible to TCA-1 and nearly unaffected
Figure 6. Measured arc radiation spectrum in GMA brazing of
hot-dipped galvanized sheets using CuSi3 filler wire and Argon
shielding gas.
by the arc radiations except for two lines: Fe I
(675.01 nm) and Ar I (696.54 nm). As a result, the
measured values of temperature from sheet surface
and molten/solidified filler alloy by TCA-1 can include
possible effects of Iron vapour and Argon gas radia-
tions. Likewise, the presence of a minor line of Ar I
(912.29 nm) in the visible wavelength range of TCA-2,
the IR camera suggests a possible interference of Argon
gas radiation in the measured temperature results from
TCA-2. The remaining radiation as shown in the
hatched area in Figure 6 is blocked by individual edge
and low pass filters on the respective cameras to avoid
interferences in the temperature measurement.
Figure 7(a,f) show the measured temperature fields
at a given time instant from the two IR cameras, TCA-1
and TCA-2 for three different linear heat inputs of 100,
152 and 200 J mm−1 , respectively. The regions viewed
by TCA-1 and TCA-2 are similar to JKLM and PQRS
(Figure 2), respectively. This is also clear from the actual
size of the respective regions as plotted for TCA-2 and
TCA-1 in Figure 7(a,b), Figure 7(c,d) and Figure 7(e,f).
The black line and circular segment in each plot indi-
cate, respectively, the centreline of the braze seam and
part of the gas nozzle, which slightly blocks the camera
field of view. The regions reaching > 1303 K, which is
the liquidus temperature of CuSi3 filler alloy, indicate
the molten filler alloy. The boundary of the melt pool
is identified where the temperature gradient is altered.
The average melt pool length and width were esti-
mated from the measured longitudinal and transverse
temperature profiles, respectively, using five frames for
each process condition. The measured average melt
pool length was corrected further by adding the nozzle
radius (9 mm) of the torch as this always blocked the
front view of the cameras under the arc.
A comparison of the measured temperature fields
between Figure 7(a,c,e) and Figure 7(b,d,f) shows a
smaller area of view by the TCA-1 camera in compar-
ison to that by TCA-2, by design. In turn, the mea-
sured temperature field from TCA-1 could provide a
detailed local representation while that from TCA-2
facilitated an overall view of the sheet adjacent to the
brazed deposit. An increase in molten pool area with

Figure 7. Measured top surface temperature fields from TCA-2 (a,c,e), and TCA-1 (b,d,f) IR cameras at heat inputs of (a,b) 100 J mm−1 ,
(c,d) 152 J mm−1 , and (e,f) 200 J mm−1 .
rise in heat input is clearly visible in Figure 7(a–e). As
expected, the growth of the melt pool at higher heat
inputs is more distinct in Figure 7(b,d,f) i.e. the cap-
tured images from TCA-1. The mean length of the melt
pool increased from 17 to 21 mm and the width from
3 to 6 mm as the heat input was increased from 100
to 200 J mm−1 . With rise in heat input, the temper-
ature distribution showed a noticeable skew towards
the bottom plate. This was attributed to asymmetric
heat transfer through the top surface and braze seam
due to a lap joint configuration. The random coloured
regions especially in Figure 7(b,d,f) were attributed to
the uncontrolled radiation from Argon shielding gas on
either side of the melt pool, near the torch.
It is noteworthy that the assumption of a single
emissivity coefficient to calibrate temperature from the
TCA-2 camera records is expected to exhibit little error
and the field of view includes both liquid filler and hot
solid materials. A comparison of the measured peak
temperature by TCA-1 and TCA-2 in the common areas
of Figure 7(a,b), Figure 7(c,d) and Figure 7(e,f) indi-
cates a maximum variation of around 10%. The order
of variation between measured peak temperature from
TCA-1 and TCA-2 remained nearly the same for other
brazing conditions. It is also noted that a comparison
of the temperature fields from the two-colour IR cam-
era TCA-1 and those from the mono-colour IR camera
TCA-2 can further be utilized in mapping of emissiv-
ity coefficients as function of surface temperature. Such
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF WELDING AND JOINING 7
quantitative information can provide further opportu-
nities towards efficient closed-loop feedback control of
arc welding and brazing process and hence, it is planned
to be considered as an independent extension of this
study.
Figure 8(a,b) and Figure 8(c,d) show the longitudi-
nal and transverse temperature distribution, recorded
by the two IR cameras TCA-1 and TCA-2, respectively,
along and across the braze seams for three linear heat
inputs of 100 and 200 J mm−1 . The average temperature
is extracted from the pixel data of five successive frames
in each case. The average peak temperatures recorded
by TCA-1 and TCA-2 varied from 1590 to 1500 K for
the heat input of 100 J mm−1 as shown in Figure 8(a,c).
At a higher heat input of 200 J mm−1 , both TCA-1
and TCA-2 recorded higher peak temperatures from
1780 to 1610 K as shown in Figure 8(b,d). The higher
peak temperatures recorded by TCA-1 closer to the
gas nozzle was attributed to undesired radiation of
Argon shielding gas picked up by the camera optics. A
comparison of measured peak temperatures by TCA-
1 and TCA-2 at a given heat input indicates a max-
imum variation of 10%, which is also noted earlier
(Figure 7). Figure 8(b) further shows a noticeable small
change in gradient at around 1300 K that is attributed to
absorption of latent heat and the growing extent of the
mushy region in the longitudinal direction with rising
heat input. The disparity in recorded temperature from
TCA-1 and TCA-2 increased with decrease in absolute
8 P. MAKWANA ET AL.

Figure 8. Measured longitudinal (a,b) temperature profiles along braze seam (X–Y in Figure 2) and transverse (c,d) temperature
profiles across braze seam (H–I in Figure 2) recorded by two IR cameras (TCA-1 and TCA-2) during GMA brazing of galvanized steel
sheets at heat inputs of 100 J mm−1 (a,c) and 200 J mm−1 (b,d).

temperature (Figure 8(c,d)) that was attributed to the
assumption of a single emissivity coefficient for TCA-2.
Verification of measured temperatures
Although the measured temperature fields by TCA-1
and TCA-2 are conducted in real-time with all due
care, it is considered rational to examine these using
standard analytical relations for an order of magni-
tude validation. Figure 9(a) presents a comparison of
two measured temperature contours (1303 and 1100 K)
from TCA-1 camera and the corresponding computed
results, obtained using Rosenthal’s analytical solution,
for a heat input of 200 J mm−1 [25]. Both the measured
and estimated temperature contours are shown only on
the top sheet (region XHKY in Figure 2) including the
centreline of the braze seam, which is inherently con-
sidered as the symmetry axis to keep the analytical cal-
culations tractable. The sample calculation to compute
the temperature field analytically following Rosenthal’s
solution; as presented in Appendix. A general agree-
ment between the measured and analytically estimated

Figure 9. Comparison of (a) measured (by TCA-1) and analytically estimated temperature contours, and (b) measured (TCA-1) and
analytically estimated peak temperature along and adjacent to braze seam centreline for a heat input of 200 J mm−1 .

Figure 10. Comparison of measured (by TCA-1) (a, b), and analytically estimated temperature fields (c,d) for two different heat inputs
of (a,b) 120 J mm−1 , and (b,d) 169 J mm−1 .
width and length of the melt pool ( ∼ 1303 K contour
boundary) is observed with slight exception of the mea-
sured profile. A higher extent of spread of filler deposit
closer to the arc is attributed to the typical measured
profile 1303 K temperature contour in Figure 9(a).
Figure 9(b) shows a comparison between the mea-
sured and the corresponding estimated temperature
distribution along the centreline of the braze seam
(along X–Y in Figure 2) and also along a parallel line
1.0 mm away from the centreline for a heat input of
200 J mm−1 . Both the measured and analytically esti-
mated temperature distributions are observed to be in
good agreement. The discrepancies close to the arc cen-
tre along the braze seam centreline is attributed to the
inherent inability of the analytical solution to compute
temperature very close to a heat source. Higher peak
temperatures measured away from the seam centre-
line result from the additional shielding gas radiation
recorded by the camera sensor and have the maximum
impact on the measurements of temperature field in
areas surrounding the arc.
Figure 10(a–d) shows a further comparison between
the measured temperature fields by TCA-1 and the
respective estimated results obtained from Rosenthal’s
analytical solution for heat inputs of 120 (Figures 10a-
c) and 169 J mm−1 (Figure 10b–d) (region JKLM in
Figure 2). An increase in overall area encompassed
by the temperature isotherms is noted with rise in
heat input that is expected. Dissimilar thermal diffu-
sivities of the CuSi3 deposit and the steel sheets cou-
pled with the ability of IR thermal cameras to capture
only surface temperatures as opposed to average bulk
material temperatures can also be attributed to slight
deviations between the measured and analytically esti-
mated molten pool shapes. Nevertheless, the measured
and estimated temperature fields are in fair agreement
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF WELDING AND JOINING 9
that reinforces the assumption of a two-dimensional
heat flow in case of joining of thin sheets and demon-
strates the viability of the measurement system for
further application of real-time close-loop process
control.
Conclusion
An integrated set-up involving real-time capture of cur-
rent and voltage transients and synchronous recording
of metal transfer and top surface temperature profiles
as presented in this investigation promises to be an effi-
cient resource for close-loop feedback control for GMA
brazing of thin sheets where the control of heat input
is a must. High-speed images of the filler alloy depo-
sition exhibits a consistent and robust low heat input
metal transfer for all the brazing conditions consid-
ered in this study. Typical peak temperatures in the
range of 1500–1700 K are noted for the applied heat
input ranges from 100 to 200 J mm−1 . The temperature
distributions recorded by the two-colour IR thermal
camera was found to be more consistent with tempera-
ture measurement from the thermocouples and analyt-
ically estimated results. This is attributed to the fact that
the methodology to estimate the measured temperature
field from the two-colour IR camera is independent of
the emissivity coefficient of source surface. In contrast,
the conformity of a simpler mono-colour IR camera
or similar easy-to-afford devices to capture the com-
plex top surface temperature field can be facilitated
further by constructing a temperature dependent map
of emissivity coefficients.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
10 P. MAKWANA ET AL.
ORCID
Sven-F Goecke http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9248-9645
Amitava De http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3109-261X
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Appendix
Table A1 presents the values of different constants used in
Equations (1) and (2). The temperatures from TCA-1 cam-
era are estimated using Equation (1) for several measured
ratios of radiation intensity as shown in Table A2. Like-
wise, temperatures from TCA-2 camera are obtained using
Equation (2) for measured detector signals U as shown in
Table A3.
Rosenthal’s quasi-steady-state heat conduction solution
for thin plates with a moving heat surface is employed to
estimate the temperature fields in GMA brazing [20].
     
ηPd vξ vR
T − Tamb = exp − K0 , (A1)
2πk 2α 2α
where R is the distance of a point from the arc heat source,
v the brazing speed, d the sheet thickness, ξ the distance
of the point in the direction of brazing speed from the heat
source, K 0 () the modified Bessel function of the second kind
and zero order, and k and α are the thermal conductivity
and diffusivity of steel. A sample estimation of tempera-
ture T at a specific value of R is shown in Table A4. For
a given heat input, T is estimated at several values of R
on the plane of the sheets and represented as contour plots
in Figure 8(c,d).
 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF WELDING AND JOINING 11

Table A1. Values of constants in Equation (1) and (2).

Constant c kB h λ1 λ2 Tan ,Tpn ε n C
Value 3 × 108 1.38 × 10−23 6.63 × 10−34 6.61 × 10−7 6.77 × 10−7 300 0.7 4 2 × 10−13
Unit m s−1 M2 kg s−2 K−1 M2 kg s−1 M m K – – –

Table A2. Temperature estimation for values of (I1 /I2 ) from

Equation (1).
(I1 /I2 ) 1.25 1.30 1.35 1.40 1.45 1.50
T (K) 1725 1560 1429 1322 1233 1158

Table A3. Temperature estimation for values of U from

Equation (2).
U 1.80 1.50 1.20 0.90 0.60 0.30
T (K) 1732 1655 1565 1457 1317 1109

Table A4. Values of variables in Equation (A1).

Variable ηP D v K α R ξ T
Value 1200 0.0008 0.006 25 3.2×10−6 0.002 0.0001 1342
Unit W M M s−1 W m−1 K−1 m2 s−1 m m K