WELDING WIRE FEEDER WITH A BUS CONTROL SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING A WELDING WIRE FEEDER HAVING A BUS CONTROL SYSTEM

• Main Author: BEISTLE, EDWARD G
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 28.09.2016
• Subjects: CLADDING OR PLATING BY SOLDERING OR WELDING; CUTTING BY APPLYING HEAT LOCALLY, e.g. FLAME CUTTING; MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; SOLDERING OR UNSOLDERING; TRANSPORTING; WELDING; WORKING BY LASER BEAM

A welding wire feeder includes a wire feed drive and wire feed control circuitry coupled to the wire feed drive to control the drive of welding wire towards the welding application. The welding wire feeder further includes power conversion circuitry configured to receive input power and to convert the input power to welding output suitable for a welding application, output voltage sensors configured to measure output voltage, output current sensors configured to measure output current, and control circuitry coupled to the power conversion circuitry and to the output voltage and current sensors. The power conversion circuitry includes power storage circuitry configured to store energy and to discharge at least a portion of the stored energy during an overdraw event. The control circuitry is configured to control the output current during the overdraw event to maintain a stored energy value of the power storage circuitry greater than a desired minimum energy value.