Open Access

A modern day light microscope has evolved from a tool devoted to making primarily empirical observations to what is now a sophisticated, quantitative device that is an integral part of both physical and life science research. Nowadays, microscopes are found in nearly every experimental laboratory. However, despite their prevalent use in capturing and quantifying scientific phenomena, neither a thorough understanding of the principles underlying quantitative imaging techniques nor appropriate knowledge of how to calibrate, operate and maintain microscopes can be taken for granted. This is clearly demonstrated by the well-documented and widespread difficulties that are routinely encountered in evaluating acquired data and reproducing scientific experiments. Indeed, studies have shown that more than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to repeat another scientist’s experiments, while more than half have even failed to reproduce their own experiments1. One factor behind the reproducibility crisis of experiments published in scientific journals is the frequent underreporting of imaging methods caused by a lack of awareness and/or a lack of knowledge of the applied technique2,3. Whereas quality control procedures for some methods used in biomedical research, such as genomics (e.g., DNA sequencing, RNA-seq) or cytometry, have been introduced (e.g. ENCODE4), this issue has not been tackled for optical microscopy instrumentation and images. Although many calibration standards and protocols have been published, there is a lack of awareness and agreement on common Standards and guidelines for quality assessment and reproducibility5. In April 2020, the QUality Assessment and REProducibility for instruments and images in Light Microscopy (QUAREP-LiMi) initiative6 was formed. This initiative comprises imaging scientists from academia and industry who share a common interest in achieving a better understanding of the performance and limitations of microscopes and improved quality control (QC) in light microscopy. The ultimate goal of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative is to establish a set of common QC standards, guidelines, metadata models7,8, and tools9,10, including detailed protocols, with the ultimate aim of improving reproducible advances in scientific research. This White Paper 1) summarizes the major obstacles identified in the field that motivated the launch of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative; 2) identifies the urgent need to address these obstacles in a grassroots manner, through a community of Stakeholders including, researchers, imaging scientists11, bioimage analysts, bioimage informatics developers, corporate partners, Funding agencies, standards organizations, scientific publishers, and observers of such; 3) outlines the current actions of the QUAREPLiMi initiative, and 4) proposes future steps that can be taken to improve the dissemination and acceptance of the proposed guidelines to manage QC. To summarize, the principal goal of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative is to improve the overall quality and reproducibility of light microscope image data by introducing broadly accepted standard practices and accurately captured image data metrics.

The laser hybrid welding process offers many advantages regarding deep penetration, increased welding velocity and with the help of the supplied filler wire an improved bridgeability to gap and misalignment tolerances. High power laser systems with a power of approx. 30 kW are already available on the market. Nevertheless, multi-layer technology with an arc process is still used for welding of plates from a thickness from 20 mm. A potential cause is the process instability with increasing laser power. It is inevitable that gravity drop-out due to the high hydrostatic pressure at increasing wall thickness especially at welding in flat position and with a low welding speed. The surface tension decreases with increasing root width resulting from low welding velocities. To prevent such inadmissible defects of the seam a use of weld pool support is required. Usual weld pool support systems such as ceramic or powder supports require a mechanical detachment which is time-consuming. The electromagnetic weld pool support system described in this work shows an alternative weld pool support which works contactless. It is based on generating Lorentz forces in the weld pool due to oscillating magnetic field and induced eddy currents. This innovative technology offers single pass welds up to 28 mm in flat position and reduced welding velocity with a laser power of just 19 kW. It also leads to improved mechanical-technological properties of the seams because of the slow cooling rate. With usage of an electromagnetic weld pool support the limitation of the hybrid laser arc welding process in the thick sheet metal will be extend.

Hybrid laser-arc welding offers many advantages, such as deep penetration, good gap bridge-ability, and low distortion due to reduced heat input. The filler wire which is supplied to the process is used to influence the microstructure and mechanical properties of the weld seam. A typical problem in deep penetration high-power laser beam welding with filler wire and hybrid laser-arc welding is an insufficient mixing of filler material in the weld pool, leading to a non-uniform element distribution in the seam. In this study, oscillating magnetic fields were used to form a non-conservative component of the Lorentz force in the weld pool to improve the element Distribution over the entire thickness of the material. Full penetration hybrid laser-arc welds were performed on 20-mm-thick S355J2 steel plates with a nickel-based wire for different arrangements of the oscillating magnetic field. The Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) data for the distribution of two tracing elements (Ni and Cr) were used to analyze the homogeneity of dilution of the filler wire. With a 30° turn of the magnetic field to the welding direction, a radical improvement in the filler material distribution was demonstrated. This would lead to an improvement of the mechanical properties with the use of a suitable filler wire.