Impact of the Winding Arrangement on Efficiency of the Resistance Spot Welding Transformer

Gašper Habjan,Martin Petrun

doi:10.3390/en12193735

Abstract

In this paper, the impact of the winding arrangement on the efficiency of the resistance spot welding (RSW) transformer is presented. First, the design and operation of the transformer inside a high power RSW system are analyzed. Based on the presented analysis, the generation of imbalanced excitation of the magnetic core is presented, which leads to unfavorable leakage magnetic fluxes inside the transformer. Such fluxes are linked to the dynamic power loss components that significantly decrease the efficiency of the transformer. Based on the presented analysis, design guidelines to reduce the unwanted leakage fluxes are pointed out. The presented theoretical analysis is confirmed by measurements using a laboratory experimental system. The presented experimental results confirm that the proposed improved winding arrangement increased the efficiency of the transformer in average for 6.27%.

Highlights

Resistance spot welding (RSW) systems have a very important role in modern industry.Considering the automotive industry alone, their importance is striking, as nowadays three new cars are produced every second worldwide [1,2]
The negative consequences include increased dynamic power loss inside the windings and the iron core as well as non-uniform distribution of magnetic flux density inside the core, which can lead to local saturation
The theoretical analysis was confirmed by experimental results

Summary

Introduction

Resistance spot welding (RSW) systems have a very important role in modern industry. Considering the automotive industry alone, their importance is striking, as nowadays three new cars are produced every second worldwide [1,2]. An interesting fact is that three to five thousand welding spots are required to produce a contemporary personal car. Such a high amount of welding spots requires, on the one hand, the use of fully automated welding systems that are based on robot arms and on the other hand consumes large quantities of energy. RSW systems can be generally divided in two groups—systems that produce AC and systems that produce DC welding currents. Nowadays the DC RSW systems are generally replacing the older

Methods

Results

Conclusion