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

• Main Authors: Gašper Habjan, Martin Petrun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-09-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: dc-dc converter; resistance spot welding; transformer; efficiency; dynamic power loss; design
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/19/3735

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%.