welding power supplies

[bonzouk]

im doing a project on power supplies and need information about what voltage and current is used for various welding types .
ie 3v 200a = spot welding
i need info for all types including plasma , ultrasonic , spot ....
as you can see im not a welder !!!

 

[welding1]

There are two basic types of power supply used for welding: -

Constant current: where the current remains fairly constant and the voltage varies from typically 80v open circuit to 25V when welding. Usually the output from a transformer. It is used for manual welding process such as MMA(SMAW) or TIG(GTAW) etc.

Constant voltage: automatically maintains the arc gap. This is for automatic wire feeds such as MIG/MAG(GMAW) where changes in the wire feed alter the welding current, the welding current is set by the wire feed rate. As the arc gap closes the current reduces. As the arc gap increases the current increases.

A good book is the Lincoln 'welding procedure handbook'. It contains a good section on welding power sources. Its very cheap, and its available from

http://www.jflf.org/

Regards
John

http://www.gowelding.com