Electronics in welding machine question

[woodlandfarms]

So can anyone tell me how the electronics vary from a mig to tig to stick to plasma? Transformer, diode, amp regulator, they are all kinda looking thes same to me as I dig more into poor mans tig welding. I am clearly missing something here.

 

[ironnut]

That is actually a pretty open ended question. I am not sure what a plasma torch requires for a power supply but I suspect a constant current source. Tig requires a constant current source, mig a constant voltage source. Two car batteries and a wire feeder and you got a tig welding setup. A 12 hp gas engine and an 100+ amp alternator with a tig torch plus an argon bottle and you have a Tig welder. Similar amperage output sources for mig and tig using 60 Hz transformers would have similar sized transformers and diode sections. Controlling the output of the transformer gets more interesting. Lincoln buzz boxes use transformer taps. Older Miller Thunderbolts changed the amount of magnetic coupling by moving a metal core in and out of proximity of the windings. You can tig weld with the AC/DC version of the Lincoln and Miller. Then there is use of saturable reactors and of lately inverter based power supplies. The latter will have all kinds of diodes, IGBT (Insulated gate bipolar transistors) micro processors, control circuits, OP amps, toroidal transformers, etc., depending on the bells and whistles of the unit. In one sense the current sources for mig and tig are largely made up of the same components. How those components are configured to control the output of each type of source is significantly different and dependent on the type and sophistication of that control.

This link has some good basic information about welding power supplies.

Welding power supply - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

gordon

 

[woodlandfarms]

Thanks Gordon. Exactly what I was looking for but didn't think of looking at Wiki.