Mig Welder Design

I have been looking over the schematics of the Hobart mig welders found in their user manuals.

I notice that in addition to an inductor, a capacitor is connected across the postive and negative lines leading to the work being welded.

What does it do?

Thanks

TMT

Reply to
Too_Many_Tools
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The capacitor smooths the wave ripple and supports the voltage from collapsing.The result is better arc voltage and stability. Pete

Reply to
Pete

The inductor serves a complementary purpose, it smooths out the current flow in a similar fashion to how the capacitor smooths out the voltage.

Yes, copy the value from the Hobart schematic as a starting point. You don't have to buy this from Hobart, I'm sure you can get it much cheaper from a source such as

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. Be sure to match both the capacitance value and voltage rating. If you get this wrong the capacitor might blow up, but hey, you're experimenting, sometimes you have to make a little smoke.

Its nice not to have to worry about accidental arcs and flashes, once you use a machine with a contactor you won't want to go back.

Yes, if you improve the air flow to the case you can improve the duty cycle. Doing this the right way takes a little research but if you search around the web I'm sure you can find some info on it, first figure out the difference between a fan and a blower and which would be better in this situation.

Good luck-

Paul T.

Reply to
Paul T.

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