Bullit Proof Inverters?

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 10-30-2005 00:39

XMT is bulletproof as a powersource. Problem is the it's High tech. companion the D64M wire feeder, which provides it's poor to outright bad pulsation and gmaw performance. It is sensitive to EMF and difficult to program manual pulsed welds that will run out of position. But if your just looking for Stick, Lift arc Tig, and regular short circuit and spray mig with a garden variety feeder (other than D64M) than XMT is a good way to go.

Lincoln Powerwave is one generation ahead in pulsation and has the best drive roll system currently available. (millers D74 feeder is out but nobody has given feedback to back it's claims). The drawback with Powerwave is its rather bulkey size.

If your looking for a pure SMAW, GTAW inverter than Dynasty 300 leads the pack.

If your looking for a strict GMAW inverter I like Miller Axcess)

By SA-200

Date 10-30-2005 12:51

I would say the XMT is as reliable as a Toshiba TV. :)

By tool_man (*)

Date 10-30-2005 16:19

Then it has to be good.My Toshiba TV is over 15 years old and has worked flawlessly.LOL

By Brand X (*)

Date 11-01-2005 06:43

I would add the esab 350 mpi
It was built with some interesting
input voltages from all over the country.
I got a chance to talk to a engineer that
worked with Linde/Ltec/Esab. He knew
the engineer that designed that unit.
What I find interesting is Esab does
not allow more then 250 amps output
on single phase. Unless you are pulsing
(600 amps) I happen to have the built in
pulse/dual schedule/meter option on my
Duradrive 4-30 feeder. It allows synergic
pulsing for a extra cost of $520.00
It beats the stand alone pulse controls
in cost by a bunch. I wanted to try mine
against the top Esab AristoMig pulse unit
but they could not get it to work. :)

I did let them try mine though.

By 357max

Date 11-02-2005 14:36

What and why did the $850 repairs take place? What repairs were made? What componenets were replaced? What process was being used when failure occured? How old was the machine? How much had it been used? What measured primary voltage was the machine connected to? Was there a fluctuating or spike in the primary power? Did the machine fail while welding or while powering up/down? Were switches turned while under welding load (monkey business)? Components overheated? Components failed because of .....? What did the repair person say? Inquiring minds want to know, thanx

By supermechanic (**)

Date 11-03-2005 00:15

Voltage sampling circuit on main board went away.
Was short arc on c.v. when control was lost.
Machine went full OCV,about 80 volts.
CC still worked.
Had this about 6 years only used hard last year, maybe 16 months.
480 v 3 ph. input.
Got a small pile of Ic's transistors and such back from the shop, not one looked bad externally .
Never abused with carbon gouging, I've got a monster engine drive for that.
"Just went away in middle of weld"
Repair tech said "Sometimes they just do that".

By SA-200

Date 11-03-2005 00:35

Ive been walking through my local welding supplys shop for years and there is always XMT and other inverter machines tore apart. They sold 4 pipe-pro machines and 2 come back and they were tore apart. 20yrs ago welder power supplys were built like a rock. Times have changed, what can i say.

By 357max

Date 11-03-2005 14:56

I like what some shops are doing with new equipment. The IRS allows total depreciation in 3 years. Most welding equipment have 3 years warranty. So they purchase and 3 years change out equipment, always keeping the machine in the warranty window. Say a system costs $6000 and only one shift of welding (2000 hours per year) that translates into $1.00 per hour for equipment cost. If there are two shifts, that is 50 cents per hour! These shops want the best arc to get the most from a $15-20 per hour welder. New Technology, better electrical efficiency easier arc control, higher deposition rates, increased weld integrity.
Let's say the shop rate is $60-75, in the 3 years with one shift the $6000 investment earns $360,000-450,000. Why should a welding machine last forever? Why do computers get junked out and yet still work. Speed, Efficiency! Inverter arcs are fantastic. Like one old (50+), former SA200 generator field pipe welder is quoted, with the inverter PipePro generator "I can't make a bad weld with this machine!" and "...this is too easy" and "I can plug it in the wall outlet and use no fuel". I have two inverters and I won't go back to the mechanical and electrically controlled machines. That is behind me.

By pjseaman (**)

Date 11-03-2005 02:33

The XMT and ALT's have a very good track recordi have a friend that has an Alt 304 with several thousand hours on it when it got dunked by Katrina in the flood. He never had a single service on it in something like 5000 hours. That is solid service for any machine.

By SA-200

Date 11-03-2005 02:50

I really wish you could of been at the welding supply house last week when a i seen a guy get told his just out of warranty xmt would cost $1200 to fix.......

By Arcandflash (**)

Date 11-03-2005 04:33

I bet you learned some new words!

By SA-200

Date 11-04-2005 02:19

Update: I walked through the shop at my local welding supply today and what did I see,,,, 4- XMT304 power supplys tore apart....... Ive never seen a CP302 tore apart there yet and probley never will.

By SA-200

Date 11-05-2005 14:26

THE BIRTH OF PULSED BOVINE FECAL MATTER
AT MILLER. In the nineteen eighties, the largest technical college in Vancouver Canada purchased Miller's first pulsed MIG power source, the Miller PulsedStar. This pulsed equipment cost 400% more than a traditional CV. MIG power source.

The technical college was exited about it's investment in new weld technology. For many weeks the instructors at the college tried to get the Miller pulsed power source to produce a vertical up fillet weld with an 045 MIG steel wire on a 6 mm steel plate. As the weld process control training manger for Linde, Western Canada, I was considered by a few as an expert on the MIG process. The college asked if I would visit and see what I could do with their costly MIG package. I set that Miller power source at every possible wire feed and pulsed frequency combination possible. The PulseStar simply could not provide a suitable wire feed / parameter combination for welding vert up and the pulsed welds made in the flat and horizontal weld positions were inferior to a much lower cost CV power source.

After the PulseStar came the pulsed Miller Maxtron and that excuse for an unstable MIG power source does not deserve one line in this web site. One thing you can say about Miller is they don't give up.

After the Miller Maxtron they provided the pulsed Invision which went through more E Prom changes than I have had pints of Guinness. Finally the Miller Accupulse. If you are using this equipment on a robot, using pulsed and the adaptive arc mode you may be getting arc instability, arc ignition issues, arc outage or wire burn back issues to the contact tips. Many of the pulsed adaptive arc issues that Miller is having today were on their their pulsed equipment made a decade earlier.

Watch out for the next new pulsed power source within 24 months after the introduction of the Accupulse. I guess some one in marketing at MIller thinks the best way to get rid of their numerous, pulsed electronic issues is to place the power source in a new blue box and give it a new blue name

During the last decade, MIG power source manufactures have found a home for electronic chips and printed boards. These companies quickly found out that with "electronics", they could triple the cost of their MIG equipment.

You can pay $2000 or $12000 for a MIG powere souce and on steel welds you wont attain a benefit from the $12000 power source. The high cost of electronic MIG equipment today strikes me as strange, as the implementation of electronics into most other manufacturing products has typically ended up lowering the cost of the product.

UNNECESSARY MIG POWER SOURCE COMPLEXITY. Panasonic proudly informs the welding public. "To cover all weld application possibilities, our Panasonic MIG equipment has a data base of "four million patterns" of various weld wave forms". It's ironic that in a decade, I have yet to see one of their MIG power sources out perform the traditional lower cost, more rugged CV, MIG equipment on a steel weld. By the way every MIG weld application in the world only requires 4 weld settings, I dont know what Panasonic needs with the other 3,999,997 wave forms.

taken from- http://www.weldreality.com/flux_cored_pipe_welding.htm

By supermechanic (**)

Date 11-06-2005 01:31

please don't quote Ed Craig here, he gets enough play on his own site.