Method and apparatus for tracking weld data

A method of tracking welded seam data comprising the steps of:

• moving a seam welding machine along an overlapping region defined by adjacent overlapped strips of sheet material;
• welding the overlapping region to create a welded seam as the machine moves therealong and simultaneously sensing data associated with the welded seam with one or more sensors carried by the machine, wherein the sensed data includes coordinate-based location data for each data point;
• determining if the sensed data varies from a data threshold set, and if so, then alerting an operator of a potential weld failure at the coordinated-based location of that data point associated where the data varied from the data threshold set;
• and
• effecting the manual and physical spot checking of the welded seam integrity at the coordinated-based location of that data point associated with where the data point varied from the data threshold set.