Generators - Welder

A welding power supply is a device that provides an electric current to perform welding.

Welding usually requires high current (over 80 amperes) and it can need above 12,000 amps in spot welding. Low current can also be used. A welding power supply can be as simple as a car battery and as sophisticated as a modern machine based on silicon controlled rectifier technology with additional logic to assist in the welding process.

Welding machines are usually classified as constant current (CC) or constant voltage (CV); a constant current machine varies its output voltage to maintain a steady current while a constant voltage machine will fluctuate its output current to maintain a set voltage.

The nature of the CV machine is required by gas metal arc welding and flux-cored arc welding because the welder is not able to control the arc length manually. If a welder attempted to use a CV machine to weld with shielded metal arc welding the small fluctuations in the arc distance would cause wide fluctuations in the machine's output. With a CC machine the welder can count on a fixed number of amps reaching the material to be welded regardless of the arc distance but too much distance will cause poor welding.

Welding machines may also use generators or alternators to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Modern machines of this type are usually driven by an internal combustion enginen but some older machines may also use an electric motor to drive the alternator or generator. In this configuration the utility power is converted first into mechanical energy then back into electrical energy to achieve the step-down effect similar to a transformer. Because the output of the generator can be direct current, these older machines can produce DC from AC without any need for rectifiers of any type.

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