PORTABLE WELDING SYSTEM AND METHOD WITH TECHNIQUES FOR PROVIDING EITHER AC OR DC AS WELDING CURRENT

摘要

A multi-process welding machine (100) provides an intuitive user interface (150) to enable a user to select among different welding processes, and to select parameters for a given selected welding process. The multi-process welding machine (100) also provides an arrangement by which a switching module, or DC to AC converter, of an AC TIG unit (200) can be controlled to alternatively supply AC or DC welding voltages or current. Further, a configuration of switches can be leveraged to automatically (or manually) control the polarity of welding cables (201, 202) for different processes and to engage or disengage a wire feeder when, e.g., a MIG welding process is selected, or not selected, respectively. Finally, in an embodiment, the ferrite or magnetic materials used for a main output inductor and an high frequency starting inductor of the welding machine (100) can be combined.