Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus to control and verify weld-quality in a homopolar pulsed weld by measuring in-process parameters. Methods are disclosed for real-time weld-quality control in a weld-quality control system for homopolar pulsed welding, including measuring at least one in-process parameters that correlates to a resulting weld-quality of a weld. Further, methods are disclosed for post-process weld-quality verification for homopolar pulsed welding, including identifying at least one in-process parameter that may be used as a post-process weld-quality verification parameter and utilizing such a post-process weld-quality verification parameter to verify the weld-quality after a homopolar pulsed welding process.

Abstract: The system of the present invention includes a homopolar generator, a hydraulic uniaxial press to hold the metal alloys to be welded, and electrical connections set at selected distances from the weld interface to provide a desired cooling rate for metal alloys being welded. A method is disclosed for determining a cooling rate for a metal alloy pipe in an electrical resistance welding process in a homopolar welding system following the resistive heating of a weld interface by discharging energy from a homopolar generator through electrodes attached to each of first and second pipes to form a welded pipe segment. The temperature of the welded pipe segment is measured at periodic time intervals to determine a cooling rate for the welded pipe segment. A desired range for the cooling rate may be determined by adjusting the electrode gap for repeated samples and analyzing the resulting metallurgical properties for each sample.