Al remember who you are responding to... I know welding equipment inside out and have repaired many, many pieces of equipment as well as many, many systems when I was a factory authorized welding equipment repairman for Lincoln, Miller, Thermal Dynamics and Back then ESAB was known as "L-Tec"...
With that being said, It's pretty obvious that if one has more than one name brand of power source that produces a pulse spray type output, the parameters will indeed be different.
However, my point was the fact that both of these companies use the same power sources and other necessary equipment to produce repeatability throughout their respective shops. That is a fact as I mentioned in my previous post.
Anyone in their right mind would not populate their welding power sources with a red one here and a blue on there with a yellow one added in the mix so that one could say that they have the primary colors with the exception of black and white because of the fact that unlike the primary colors when mixed, these various power sources would not be able to produce the same results when used with the same parameters on each power source if they are applied to every very different brand power source.
It is an expensive proposition to change over completely to one type of power source from the same manufacturer but, when the situation justifies it, the results are very good both for the customer and the fabricator. Just like a fabricator doesn't always have to purchase a Welding Robot if their current or future needs do not justify the large investment.
With respect to pre-qualified WPS's are concerned, I agree that an SWPS is really not a good place to use as a pre-qualified Aluminum WPS however, nobody said that it couldn't be used... The ANSI/NAMM standard does have some WPS's that are pre-qualified according to sections 1 thru 4 as long as they're not structural joints which would then fall under AWS D1.2, and all one has to do is to review section 5 in the standard... Still Larry, you didn't mention previously that the WPS had to be structural so there are some exceptions out there regarding pre-qualified WPS's for Aluminum...
Al, you know what you can do with your so called "philosophy..."
The same that I can do with mine!
Btw, to answer your questions regarding the customer you referred to... I would hunt around for the same power source as the one they currently have since there are always some "floaters" around to be found to add to their inventory... What do I mean by "floaters" Al? They are power sources that are available for purchase from many different welding equipment suppliers who buy these power sources from fabricators, companies or even welding supply stores that want to lighten up their inventory and sell these either at a loss or for profit depending on who they are. Somebody who knows how equipment moves around from place to place would know where to look.
Lincoln does still produce the "Power Wave" series of power sources that do what you mentioned... The point is that even if the power sources were exactly the same model and make, and produced during the same time frame... The two would still not produce exactly the same output parameters as the other one would, and this is why their respective outputs are listed in the specs of the power source with tolerances - even if the differences between the two are in such a small category of measurement when compared to the differences between name brand power sources or even different model #'s of the same brand.
In other words, I do not disagree with you Al, or Larry... You guys just misunderstood what I was saying... You know - semantics.
Respectfully,
Henry