How to choose the inverter welding machine

The home craftsman simply needs a welding machine to work. It is needed to repair the gate, to weld the hinges to them. Without it, it is difficult to repair the car body. Connecting metal pipes without welding machine is impossible. You can bring to the work of a professional welder, this will result in a significant additional cost of effort, time and money. Independent possession of welding has many advantages. It remains to decide the question of how to choose for your own workshop inverter welding machine.

Independent work with a welding machine provides many advantages, such as saving on the call of a master, repair work at any time, but for this you need to choose the right welding machine.

Any welding machine costs a lot of money. In the shops you can find different types of equipment for welding. These are transformer units, welding rectifiers, modern inverter equipment.

Features of the welding inverter

Image 1. The welding inverter for home use does not consume much energy, it is not large in size and does not weigh much.

The welding inverter is a modern equipment for welding (image No. 1). The device circuits are designed in such a way that during operation the frequency of the alternating current in the inverter is converted to a frequency with a much larger value. As a result, the device spends about half the amount of electricity compared to other welding installations. For the home such a device can be a very profitable acquisition. When buying it, do not need to fear the term "household". This means only that the device can operate continuously for 10-20 minutes, after which it needs to be given time to rest. This does not affect the quality of the seam.

On the market of welding equipment, many samples of cheap machines appeared. In many ways, this fact is associated with the emergence of units produced in China. Choosing the type of welding machine, you should never dwell on particularly cheap and miniature models. They usually have rather weak schemes and a very small resource. Chinese vehicles break down quickly. Their repair is hampered by the lack of spare parts and diagrams. Excessively expensive models related to professional technology, too, should not be chosen for a home workshop. Choose a middle ground.

Disadvantages and advantages of the inverter

Scheme welding inverter.

Inverter apparatus is 2-3 times more transformer installation. Repair it, too, can result in much higher prices. Inverter is afraid of dust. His schemes and fees need to be periodically purged and cleaned, especially in production. When stored in a cold garage, the boards of the device may become covered with condensate, therefore, before working, the device needs time to dry in the room where welding will take place. It takes about 2 hours.

All these disadvantages are compensated by such advantages as:

• half the power consumption;
• low weight (5-10 times less) compared to other devices;
• the ability to boil any metals with any electrodes;
• possibility of smooth adjustment of current up to 15 A;
• saving of electrodes due to the absence of splashing effect;
• the ability to work at reduced voltage.

Usually such installations are capable of operating at temperatures up to + 40 ° C. At low temperatures, the light comes on, indicating that the circuits are overloaded. The device may simply not turn on.

The Anti-Sticking, Hot start and Arc-Force functions should be taken simply as an advertisement. All these functions are required to be present in such equipment.

What to look for when choosing a device?

The Power Man welding machines are lightweight and compact, distinguished by their cost-effectiveness, designed for manual welding with electrodes.

A device operating at a current of up to 160 A is sufficient for welding by an electrode with a diameter of 4 mm. In this case, there is still some power in reserve. At lower voltage, you will have to use an electrode of smaller diameter. Professional welding machine is better to choose 200 A.

Particularly popular devices POWER MAN, manufactured by the South Korean company ROYAKS. They are in no way inferior to installations of other foreign manufacturers, but they are much cheaper. This is a lightweight and compact inverter unit, characterized by its efficiency. It is intended for manual welding with electrodes. Such welding in the documentation is indicated by the letters MMA. The devices can be used at ambient temperatures from -20 to + 40 ° C with a relative humidity level of 80%. Possess high quality seam and long service life.

The peculiarities include the ability to operate from the mains with a voltage of 176-264 V. With a significant decrease in voltage (up to 180 V), a warning light comes on, then the protection circuit is activated and the device is disconnected from the mains. The weight of the device, depending on the model is 9-12 kg.

Redius, Kemppi, Rilon, Esab, Fronius, Svarog devices are popular among consumers. It is better to buy appliances on which panel sockets are installed vertically. These devices rarely fail. Well, if the installation is adapted to work in tandem with the generator. All products must have a warranty period of at least 6 months. Many models have it for 2 and even 5 years.

Welding electrodes are marked with different colors for different metals.

Gysmi 165 (France), Welder 4, Wallius Wameta Blueline, FUBAG 160 (Finland), ProHelper, Stanley, TopMachine, Telwin, Blueweld, Resanta are distinguished by high quality. But any of these devices should be bought only in a specialized store. In other places there is an opportunity to buy a fake.

So, choosing an inverter, you should evaluate:

• type of current;
• line voltage;
• initial current strength;
• power;
• the diameter of the electrodes;
• current adjustment limits;
• dimensions of the device;
• weight of the device.

Example 1 of the choice of welding installation depending on the objects of welding:

• welding household on the site, in the garage;
• angle and tube with wall thickness up to 3 mm;
• the network is normal with normal voltage;
• welding current of about 100 A;
• electrodes with a diameter up to 3 mm.

To perform such work, you can choose inverters:

• "Bars" ECO ARC-164;
• Bars Mini ARC-200D;
• ARC-165 "Svarog";
• PEGAS-160E.

Example 2:

The device "Fast and Furious 161" is suitable for welding on the street, farm, cottage, where there is a low voltage in the network.

• welding on the farm, in the cottage;
• corner welding, pipes with wall thickness up to 5 mm, strip steel up to 3 mm thick;
• network is common in rural areas;
• network voltage is low;
• a cable longer than 30 m is used;
• welding current - up to 140 A;
• electrodes with a diameter of 3-4 mm.

In such conditions more suitable devices will be:

• "Fast and Furious-161";
• "Fast and Furious-180";
• PRO ARC-160 PFC "Svarog".

Example 3:

• repair work in housing and public utilities;
• pipes, angle, sheet metal, fittings, rods;
• network with possible voltage drops;
• welding current up to 160 A;
• electrodes with a diameter of 3-4 mm.

Inverters are better suited for such work:

• "Bars" Profi ARC-207D;
• Neon VD-201;
• ARC-205B Svarog;
• "Fast and Furious-200".

Example 4:

• pipe repair and installation work in the field of energy;
• powered by autonomous generator;
• welding current 120-150 A;
• electrodes with a diameter of 3-4 mm.

Recommended devices:

• "Fast and Furious-200M";
• ASEA-200D;
• WEGA-200 PFC.

The welding inverter is an excellent acquisition for the home workshop, for the production workshop, for the construction site.

It is used for manual welding (MMA), for argon-arc (TIG) welding, when operating in semi-automatic mode (MIG / MAG), and for plasma-arc cutting (RAS). The device has several protection systems, allows to get even seams even when unskilled welder is working. There are features to facilitate the work with the use of welding machine.