Flexibility and portability in inverter equipment has become a critical factor in welding technology, and there are several trends among fabricators that are driving the technology.

Among the factors that are pushing the demand for flexible and portable inverter equipment are:

• Applications that demand ease of transporting the equipment to the welding site, particularly in the construction and shipbuilding industries.

• The shortage of skilled welding personnel, and the number of welders who have lower skill levels that require equipment that is easy-to-use.

• And the demand for multi-process equipment that meets the needs of a variety of welding applications and removes or reduces variables in welding so that quality is improved.

Peter J. Anderson II, marketing manager for Americas Welding Equipment and Arc Accessories for Thermadyne (www.thermadyne.com), said Thermadyne's Thermal Arc PowerMaster SP and PowerMaster SP Automation range of power equipment is one solution to three challenges that fabrication shops are facing.

First, Anderson noted that there has been a shift in the type of materials being used.

As an example, he pointed out that the automotive industry now is using a variety of alloys, including alloys based on aluminum, light-weight materials and corrosion-resistant materials in place of the standard steel alloys that once were common. With those different materials, fabricators have to make changes quickly and automatically.

Anderson said his company's Thermal Arc PowerMaster SP and PowerMaster SP Automation are digital, microprocessor-based machines that offer weld control through intelligent pulsing and synergic wave designs that provide precise, repeatable welds on nearly any weldable material from thin gauge to plate. The range of materials and material thicknesses require that the welding equipment used on it maintain close-tolerance and consistent parameters that can be carefully controlled, Anderson said.

Secondly, he said quality relies on consistency and repeatability, and that increasing productivity is necessary especially because of the the high cost of steel and alloys.

“What we're seeing in a lot of the fab shops in the Midwest is the need to have a control platform that controls all welding functions in the shop. They can tie welding procedures and specs to the parameters and share that with all the machines in the shop versus having different operators dictate the output of the various machines. Every machine is set up the same way so you eliminate variables caused by human intervention,” Anderson said.

Third, the shortage of skilled welders is contributing to the demand for automatic inverters.

“This technology matches key variables for you so you don't have each welder guessing settings and parameters. You just tell the machine what you want, and it sets it up for you. That means that you can take a lower-skilled welder and produce high-end results, because the machine does it for you. Ultimately you get optimum welding conditions from the Smart MIG power supply, which links the wire feed speed, arc current and voltage delivering perfect welding parameters,” Anderson said.

The company's Thermal Arc PowerMaster SP and PowerMaster SP Automation incorporate a smart touch control on the MIG gun, allowing the welder to make adjustments from the gun rather than having to go back to the power supply. And, its Tweco Pulse Master MIG gun with smart touch control is designed to allow the welder to make process tweaks on the fly, including adjustments to programs, wire feed speed and voltage.

Other technologies from Thermadyne include its TwinPulse welding mode that is designed to provide a TIG-like appearance at speeds that are as much as seven times faster than traditional gas-tungsten arc welding; its High Definition Pulse (HDP) welding that the company said tailors and optimizes parameters for every wire and gas combination to produce spatter-free welding; its High Speed Pulse welding that is designed to provide specialized high speed, high duty cycle welding wave for maximum productivity; and its TipTronic technology that recalls personalized jobs with repeatability from the push of a button on the PulseMaster Smart Gun.

Lincoln Electric (www.lincolnelectric.com) has introduced an addition to its Power Wave family — the C300, a portable, multi-process power source specifically designed with high-end functionality for a wide variety of materials and applications.

The company said the C300 is designed for applications and materials in which arc performance is critical, including aluminum, stainless steel and nickel.

The Power Wave C300 was designed as one machine that can be used on a wide variety of welding jobs, including production welding, construction, aerospace, automotive repair, and general fabrication or in a training environment.

The Power Wave C300 features Lincoln's patent-pending PowerConnect Technology that is designed to allow the user to switch automatically from 200 V to 600 V, 50 hertz or 60 hertz and single-phase or three-phase welding without having to manually reconnect. Lincoln Electric said the technology provides a constant welding output with an input line voltage compensation range from -60 percent to +43 percent on 460V AC input. The C300 also uses Lincoln Electric's patent pending Tribrid Power Module that the company said provides an industry leading 88 percent efficiency at 250 amps, and has a power factor of 0.97 for low operating costs.

The company said the Power Wave C300's high-speed iArc digital controls are more than 90 times faster than previous generation controls, and have Ethernet included as a standard feature. The advanced interface is designed to allow users to customize the machine's processes and settings for multiple operators.

The C300 features eight memory locations for easy and quick recall procedures with the ability to lock in operator limits to ensure quality.

Included with the C300 is the new Production Monitoring 2 software as a standard feature that enables weld data to be monitored and stored. Its Waveform Control Technology provides excellent arc performance focused on high quality and increased productivity and allows users to choose from RapidArc, Power Mode, and future applications that can be downloaded free of charge from www.powerwavesoftware.com.

With the ability to adapt to almost any environment, the Power Wave C300's new compact style and design are IP23 rated and designed to hold up to almost any environment. It weighs 91 lbs., and offers users a portable, easy to transport system for off-site welding applications.

Inverter based means less energy consumption, and the infrastructure doesn't have to be altered. The Power Wave C300 automatically adjusts to the power needs so it reduces the costs associated with adding infrastructure.

“You can move it from shop to shop, and don't have the concerns about power. It can do everything in the shop, it's easy to use, you can get good output and high utilization,” a Lincoln Electric spokesman said.

Miller Electric Manufacturing Company (www.millerwelds.com) said its answer to the multi-process inverter market is its XMT line.

The newest unit in the line is the XMT 350 MPa that has a built-in pulsed MIG.

The XMT 350 MPa is designed to provide easy-to-use pulsed MIG, including programs for both common and exotic alloys such as steel, metal core, stainless, aluminum, nickel, silicon bronze and copper nickel wire. The company said the XMT 350 MPa is as easy-to-use as traditional MIG, and its intuitive programming virtually eliminates the learning curve for experienced MIG operators.

Its built-in pulsed MIG programs eliminate the need for a separate pulse control pendant or other pulse controls. In Pulsed MIG mode, the XMT 350 MPa offers total control over the arc cone shape, puddle fluidity and bead profile.

Miller targets specific markets with each of its machines, and the XMT 350 MPa is targeted to power generation and shipbuilding markets, yet has also found a home in fabrication shops that need the flexibility, Ken Stanzel, product manager for Miller Electric's Industrial Advanced Fabrication markets, said.

Stanzel said that the small size and the light weight of the XMT 350 MPa with its Pulsed MIG capability make it good for power generation markets. The unit weighs 87 lbs., and can be easily moved by two people, he said.

Because power plants emit corrosive gases that can eat through the steel they come in contact with, steel used in power generation applications often is clad with an alloy, such as Inconel, to protect the base metal. In welding, it is critical to maintain the dilution between the two metals.

“If too much heat is applied to the cladding, it loses its corrosion-resistant properties. If too little heat is applied, the cladding will not adequately weld to the steel. The Inconel pulsed MIG program in the XMT 350 MPa provides the precise control necessary to maintain the proper heat input,” Stanzel said.

“Additionally, the current generation of pulsed MIG is easier to use than previous generations. Initially, pulsed MIG required the skill of a rocket scientist to make it work since so many variables were involved,” Stanzel said.

“In the old days, we spent a lot of time working with customers to develop parameters to make pulse MIG work. We decided to have the equipment do it for them. All the user has to do is enter the wire type, gas type, the wire feed speed, and the XMT 350 MPa handles the calculations, allowing the welder to concentrate on welding, not setting parameters,” he said.

Welders can continue to customize the arc through the company's Sharp Arc technology that changes puddle fluidity.

“It's nice for people who want to adapt our equipment to their style so we make it as simple as we possibly can,” Stanzel said.

In addition, because the XMT 350 MPa is a multi-process inverter, it also provides high quality arcs in TIG, MIG and stick processes.