IGBT in Arc and Tube Welding

The usual usages of Arc and tube welding machines are to build and repair of the infrastructure in industrial environment. Welding power supplies are needed for creating an electric arc between an electrode and the foundation material to soften the metals at the welding point. Either DC or AC current with consumable or non-consumable electrodes may be used to generate the arc. Some type of inert or semi-inert gas is used sometimes to protect the welding region. Low capital and running cost are the main reasons behind the popularity of Arc welding. In case of arc welding, the voltage is involved right away with the length of the arc, and the current is involved with the sum of heat input with typical currents of 50 to 500 amps is conditional on the size of weld. For arc welding with less voltages and large currents, a soft switching PWM DC-DC power converter with IGBT switches in the elementary side of a high frequency transformer is considered to be the most compatible topology for the welding power supply. Power losses in the IGBTs are lessened by applying soft switching leading to a volume reduction of 59% and weight reduction of 47% in comparison to the hard-switching technique. Because of the operation at 40-kHz, progressive welding performance is enhanced in comparison to the 13-kHz with hard-switching.

An induction heating technique with high power and operating frequency is required by tube welding and quenching applications. For lessening switching loss, a multiple frequency converter circuit uses IGBTs with zero-current-switching (ZCS). For this reason, the operating frequency can be increased effortlessly up to 250-kHz which is adequate for quenching and arc welding.