What is the highest amount of amps I can get on a single phase welder?

[Thebeast]

What is the highest amount of amps I can get on a single phase welder?

Seen some welder which are both 240v and 3 phase so not quite sure if the max amps it says it does would mean I’d have to swap onto 3 phase to get that amperage

 

[Fazerruss]

Oxford (made by TecArc) do some big amperage single phase welders. I have a 330 amp Oxford MIG but I think they may do a 400

 

[Richiew]

If you are welding really thick plates, you are better off with stick.

 

[northwest]

If it is of Chinese manufacture you can get really high amperage welders.

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

If you are welding really thick plates, you are better off with stick.

Strong Disagree.

MIG is just so much more productive than stick in terms of material deposition rate and workflow.

A big MIG running solid 1.2 wire is about 2× to 3× as productive as Arc, MIG using a metalcore wire can achieve close to 5× the deposition rate of Arc.


Edit:
You can "dig" deeper with Arc for a given amperage to get good penetration, but if OP is buying a high output MIG welder that's up to the job, then that's a moot point.

All the other complications of welding thick plate, like weld prep, pre/post heat, interpass temperatures, etc. are equally applicable to all welding methods, so you just have to "pick a poison" and design your welding procedure around the technique you're using.

 

[arther dailey]

depends on supply 16amp/32 amp etc.

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

depends on supply 16amp/32 amp etc.

For the "biggest" single phase welders available, like the Oxford MultiMIG 411 OP would probably need a 64A socket on a dedicated circuit fed from a 50A Type C breaker.

At that point you have to check what amperage supply you have, older connections may only have a 60A cut-out fuse... So adding a 45A load would be really pushing it.

I would certainly want a decent industrial sparky to do the load diversity calculations and make sure that I wasn't going to blow the DNO's fuse.

 

[Erie Fred]

What is the highest amount of amps I can get on a single phase welder?

Seen some welder which are both 240v and 3 phase so not quite sure if the max amps it says it does would mean I’d have to swap onto 3 phase to get that amperage

What are you trying to do ?

 

[Thebeast]

What’s the difference

What are you trying to do ?

not trying to do anything just interested mate

 

[Thebeast]

What’s the difference between 400 amp on single phase vs 3 phase?

 

[Erie Fred]

What’s the difference

not trying to do anything just interested mate

It makes a difference.
A big difference.

 

[Thebeast]

It makes a difference.
A big difference.

Would you mind explaining? im just interested in what the difference is since both are same amperage

 

[Erie Fred]

Would you mind explaining? im just interested in what the difference is since both are same amperage

I'm not writing a book just for you.

Give us some more information, and we will try to help guide you.

 

[Thebeast]

I'm not writing a book just for you.

Give us some more information, and we will try to help guide you.

No worries that’s totally fine :-) I have no information. I was just generally interested in the differences

 

[Erie Fred]

I have a Lincoln Tm-400 stick machine single phase to over 400 amps of output, they also made them at 650 amps, again 650 amps.

 

[Thebeast]

I understand they can have higher amperage but a welder at 400 amp single phase vs 400 amp 3 phase. What difference does that make? Iv heard it’s more cost effective on 3 phase

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

What’s the difference between 400 amp on single phase vs 3 phase?

In terms of welding very little.

At most a single phase machine might have a lower duty cycle (% of time it can weld Vs cooling down, when running at maximum power).

But practically:

1) Some parts of the welding machine will be designed slightly differently to account for the lower supply voltage (and significantly higher current draw).

2) The circuit supplying the machine also needs to be rated for a much higher current, which:

• requires substantially thicker (and more expensive per metre) cabling,

• will need the electrician installing it to put more thought into the overall design of your electrical supply (to do things like make sure you won't blow the main fuse on your supply if someone decides to boil the kettle and microwave their lunch in the canteen, whilst another person is welding).

So in practice:
› If a 3-phase supply is available it will almost always be a better option to power high-output welding plant,
and
› If a 3-phase supply isn't available, using a generator to run a 3-phase welder can often still be preferable and cost effective (depending on your electricity supply).

 

[not done it yet]

What’s the difference between 400 amp on single phase vs 3 phase?

400A is 400A whichever/whatever its source might be.

 

[Thebeast]

In terms of welding very little.

At most a single phase machine might have a lower duty cycle (% of time it can weld Vs cooling down, when running at maximum power).

But practically:

1) Some parts of the welding machine will be designed slightly differently to account for the lower supply voltage (and significantly higher current draw).

2) The circuit supplying the machine also needs to be rated for a much higher current, which:

• requires substantially thicker (and more expensive per metre) cabling,

• will need the electrician installing it to put more thought into the overall design of your electrical supply (to do things like make sure you won't blow the main fuse on your supply if someone decides to boil the kettle and microwave their lunch in the canteen, whilst another person is welding).

So in practice:
› If a 3-phase supply is available it will almost always be a better option to power high-output welding plant,
and
› If a 3-phase supply isn't available, using a generator to run a 3-phase welder can often still be preferable and cost effective (depending on your electricity supply).

This makes sense thank you mate

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

I understand they can have higher amperage but a welder at 400 amp single phase vs 400 amp 3 phase. What difference does that make? Iv heard it’s more cost effective on 3 phase

Single phase machines:

1) cost more to buy (and are less available second hand) because they're less common,

2) require more costly electrical installations to supply them with power,

3) can be less electrically efficient (although this is less of an issue with modern inverter machines, than old-school transformer types),

4) can have a worse power-factor (again less of an issue with modern machines), increasing electrical disturbances from running the machine, which can push up your bill when running on an industrial supply which is metered for both consumption and Power-Factor.

Each of those alone will only cause a small increase in costs, but added together (especially 3 & 4) can begin to push up the running costs if you're operating a welder day-in-day out.

So it becomes about being on top of your costings, and working out what the right balance is for your business (or wildly out of control hobby activities ) to avoid wasting money.

For workshop with no three phase:

- If they need a 400A MIG at full power once a month, buying a smaller single phase MIG to do the day-to day, and hiring in a generator and three phase MIG for the day when needed might make most sense...

- If they need it for 45 min once a day, it might make sense to buy a big single phase welder, or have a small single phase MIG, but buy a used generator and three phase MIG rather than hire...

- If they need to run multiple MIG's at +400A, three shifts a day, seven days a week, then moving units or paying for a new electrical supply would suddenly start to look like it's worth the trouble.