Tube-to-tubesheet welding is widely used in manufacturing of heat exchangers, steam turbines, condensers, boilers, etc. It has evolved from manual arc welding, automatic welding to digital welding. In the future, it will be toward intelligent welding. However, the key technologies related to tube-to-tubesheet welding are seldom summarized. This paper presents the sensing, positioning, and control methods of tube-to-tubesheet welding in recent decades. The fundamental difference between automatic and digital tube-to-tubesheet welding is whether the operator or the sensors interacts or transmits data with the welding system. The characteristics of tube are obvious and consistent so that vision-aided robotic positioning is the most promising. Moreover, arc length control which is important to tube-to-tubesheet welding has also been reviewed. Three typical sensing methods and five typical control methods are proposed to realize arc length control. The development direction of tubesheet welding is also predicted. This paper has an active influence on the development of pressure vessels and related industries.

管板焊接广泛应用于换热器、汽轮机、冷凝器、锅炉等制造，已从手工电弧焊、自动焊接发展到数字焊接。未来将向智能焊接方向发展。然而，关于管对管板焊接的关键技术却鲜有总结。本文介绍了近几十年来管对管板焊接的传感、定位和控制方法。自动和数码管对管板焊接之间的根本区别在于操作员或传感器是否与焊接系统交互或传输数据。管的特点是明显的和一致的，因此视觉辅助机器人定位是最有前途的。此外，还审查了对管对管板焊接很重要的弧长控制。提出了三种典型的传感方法和五种典型的控制方法来实现弧长控制。也预测了管板焊接的发展方向。该论文对压力容器及相关行业的发展具有积极的影响。