JPH0343951B

PURPOSE:To obtain a laser welding equipment which can execute welding exactly and with high accuracy, by constituting it so that the welding can be executed after having detected a gap width in a butt part of the preceding plate and the following plate which are welded by a laser beam. CONSTITUTION:A gap width of two welding plates, namely, the preceding plate 15a and the following plate 15b is detected as a front image by an optical detecting means (video camera) 18. Subsequently, from this front image, the right side and the left side gap widths of the gap are calculated by an arithmetic means 45, respectively, and a value of the calculated right side and left side gap widths is compared with a reference value of the right side and the left side gap widths, respectively, and decided. Next, based on this decision, welding is started or stopped by a welder controlling circuit 46 in accordance with an output signal of the comparator circuit 44. In this regard, when stopping the welding, driving servomotors 27, 32 for the right side part of a steel plate and the left side part of the steel plate are driven, respectively, and a fine adjustment of the gap width is executed.