Industrial Welder Panel Wire Feed Size

By tradingpaint Date 10-22-2003 12:15

A quick question and hopefully not too dumb. We are an automotive OEM and have purchased a industrial resistance welder to weld axle slugs. The weld controllers have 400A disconnects. How do I size the incoming wire? My charts show 500 MCM wire, but everyone I talk to has a different answer

By ssbn727 (*****)

Date 10-22-2003 13:07

Hi Tradingpaint!
When you mentioned 400 amp disconnects are you referring to cable disconnects? I say this because, that may be the problem...
You may be looking at a wire chart instead of looking for a welding cable chart... I'll get back to you later today so that I could steer you in the right direction... Of course, there are others here that will also be able to help so, talk to you later!!!

Respectfully,

SSBN727 Run Silent... Run Deep!!!

By tradingpaint Date 10-22-2003 13:15

Yes, I was looking at a wire chart. Never have seen a welding cable chart. The welder will only be cycling for 2 - 2.5 seconds then be idle for about 10 seconds. I am concerned about my wire size from the buss plug to the top of the welder disconnect. Wire to the transformer is already taken care of. I wanted to make sure that I have an adequate ampacity, but not waste money