The "Duty Cycle" of a machine is the length of time it will weld for before 'tripping' out to cool down. Basically, all machines have a Thermal Overload Protetector which kicks in to stop the machine before it overheats.
The Duty Cycle figure is quoted as a percentage eg. 10% at 100 Amps. This can be confusing as it's 10% of WHAT? Well, generally speaking it's 10% of a 10 MINUTE CYCLE ie.10% of 10 Minutes = 1 Minute of continuous welding at 100 Amps. Bearing in mind it's CONTINUOUS welding it's a fair amount of welding & you probably won't trip the machine out on most common car welding tasks. HOWEVER, different manufacturers use different figures & a lot of the DIY makers use a 5 MINUTE calculation instead of the 10 minutes (at 40C) benchmark.
Generally, if you are doing the odd repair at home don't even worry about Duty Cycle!
weldequip
The Duty Cycle figure is quoted as a percentage eg. 10% at 100 Amps. This can be confusing as it's 10% of WHAT? Well, generally speaking it's 10% of a 10 MINUTE CYCLE ie.10% of 10 Minutes = 1 Minute of continuous welding at 100 Amps. Bearing in mind it's CONTINUOUS welding it's a fair amount of welding & you probably won't trip the machine out on most common car welding tasks. HOWEVER, different manufacturers use different figures & a lot of the DIY makers use a 5 MINUTE calculation instead of the 10 minutes (at 40C) benchmark.
Generally, if you are doing the odd repair at home don't even worry about Duty Cycle!
weldequip