Re: Does welding equipment need calibration
I am full of welding questions today.....do the meters for feed speed, voltage and current levels of a GMAW, FCAW or GTAW welding equipment require periodic calibration?
In my experience, highly skilled, coded, welders get a 'feel' for the settings on the equipment, to suit the weld type, materials, preparation etc. Therefore, the dials, gauges etc are really only indicators of the actual settings - to get them in the right 'ball park' as it were. After that it becomes a case of experience to get the weld flowing right etc. to produce a good weld.
With less skilled welders, the value dialed in would be more important to good welds. In that case, a verification against a calibrated meter should suffice. So, lets say a rotary switch allows a range of currents to be dialed in, 0-150A in 10 amp increments, then over the range the equipment is normally used, those steps in current could be checked against the meter...