Pulse?

[SteveY]

If I understand this correctly! Welding 1/8(.125 ALum)if I set the welding amps (max) to 200 amps, set the time to 50%, set the low amps to 50% then the average per cycle is 150 amps at full pedal, I can use pedal to regulate if 150 is too hot?

[performance]

I'm not a math guru, so you are on your own figuring the math, but yes, you can use the pedal to regulate the heat.

[Blaster]

Not sure what welder you're using (at the time I made these notes to myself I had a PP256 with "knobs" . I was experimenting with .22ga Alum, you'd just have to increase the #'s to do 1/8th (I never pulse on 1/8" I'm not sure why you'd need to).



"Main Amps have to be adjusted for the pulse settings. If you would need 50A normally and had a 50% background it should be set to 75A and the pulse would go from 35-75A giving you an 50A "effect". The lower the background the longer the puddle has to cool so, if the BG was at 60% everything stays hotter then if it were 30% (it put less heat into the metal during the "deeper" cycle). THEN, the Time On also makes it MUCH Hotter/Colder too. The longer you're ON, the Hotter the weld so, a 50% Time On would be a Hotter "effect" than 30% but Colder than 60% (ie. with Main Amps @75 and change from 50% to only 30% background and you'd need to raise the Main to 100A, set 65% background and it might need only to be 60A). Mixed together (BG & ON) changes the Main Amps in Many ways with Many variables. I think you could find MANY combinations that would weld with the same "feel" at different settings...

The slow pulse (knob says (10) but I think it's really like 2) is OK for the outside corner but Impossible on the Inside or lap. It's too Hot and too Cold at the same time. Burns in a 'C" then won't flow the rod to fill it. Not sure that slow is right for much in thin Alum. Works better on the Outside corner but, I can get the 30pps to work too.

Fast(er) pulse 20-30ppm, when all else is set right, is Amazing in the inside corner & lap. Really makes a difference. The outside corner is always a challenge, more about proper angle, & correction of angle to compensate, than anything else...

The two Amperage controls (Background & Time On) RADICALLY change the Main Amps setting. Too little Background or too much Time On and the puddle stays HOT. You're really only "welding" during the Time On so the rest is recovering from the pulse and giving time to solidify. I'm not sure HOW but this is Very evident even at 30pps, you wouldn't think so but it is a big change.

Some surprises;

I was welding at 150Hz and tacking at 225Hz but if I welded at 225 the bead was actually wider. I would have thought the more "focused" 225 would have kept the beam more narrow.
Then there's the Pulse Knob which I can't make sense of the graduations. It's supposed to be .2-20 on low and 20-500 on High. But it doesn't feel that way. The .2 I count as being about every 1.5sec and dialed up 1/4 of the way (between 50-100 on the scale) looks to be about the 1PPS. Where it says (10) looks like maybe 2PPS.
When happy with the 75A and 50-40 (50% BG & 40% Time On) at the .2 (knob all-the-way Down on LOW) IF switched to HIGH (20PPS) it goes COLD and I Boost the Time ON to 50% and solve the colding with just that change. 10% more TIME ON makes it that much hotter.
I would have also thought that the effect of the heat/cool pulse gives you would be negated by having to pulse Fast but at 30pps you can see the difference clearly and I think even faster will still do a lot.

This is, of course, all on Aluminum I don't know how well these Numbers are going to Transfer to Steel or SS."

[performance]

Your older models weren't exactly linear.