Effizienzsteigerungen bei WIG- und Plasma-Schweißinvertern

The high electrical energy demand of welding inverters makes their energy efficiency a key quality feature, which is why measures to increase the energy efficiency were of primary interest for this TBI. Within the project, modern laboratory infrastructure of the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) was used to take measurements on an industrial-standard welding inverter. Based on these measurements, as well as literature and patent reviews, potentials for raising the energy efficiency were highlighted and possibilities for exploiting them were discussed. Due to the maturity of the current welding inverter technology, the greatest potential lies in transitioning to modern wide-bandgap semiconductors with accordingly adapted circuit designs and innovative control concepts. However, the limited adoption of these technologies in the field of welding inverters poses a barrier for the industry due to prolonged development cycles. Therefore, within the scope of this TBI modern digital methods such as Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing were demonstrated to accelerate the development process.