With the creation of a pattern recognition system for metal transfer mode, this article has collected five kinds of spectrum signals in gas metal arc welding (MIG, MAG and CO2) and take them as training samples. These samples have been pretreated by computer, several key characteristic parameters of the spectrum signal have been creatively extracted, and a corresponding recognition function and a minimum-distance-classifier have been constructed. The results show that the pattern recognition of several kinds of metal transfer modes for the metal gas arc welding can be done successfully, and relative important parameters in welding process, such as the frequency of droplet transfer and the approximate diameter of each droplet, can also be obtained. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.