Welding Lead Wire Size

These cables are used by professional welders for secondary voltage resistance welding leads and as a power supply for welding tools and applications that.

Welding lead wire size. For determining proper welding cable size you need to add together the full lengths of the electrode cable and the work cable. However this is improper terminology as the ground lead only applies to the primary side of the welding circuit i e the incoming power cable. For efficient performance the nfpa 70 national electrical code 210 19 a note 3 recommends branch circuits be sized to prevent voltage drops exceeding 3 percent. American wire gauge awg ratings for welding cable sizes.

As an example let s assume you have a 400 amp power source at 60 duty cycle and need a total combined length of electrode plus work cables of 100 feet. These charts show. The important specs to go by when choosing the appropriate wire that is suitable for your applications are the wire gauge amp voltage rating and the length needed. Note these last two items are often incorrectly referred to as the ground cable and ground clamp.

Welding machines require their rated input voltage to maintain output welding amperage and duty cycles. So size your extension cord wire for minimum voltage drop. Awg ratings for welding cable size will have three numbers that give the rating for the cable overall the number of strands and the rating for the strands themselves. This article breaks down the composition.

Note that welding polarity does not affect the size of cable needed. Figure 5 is an example of a chart for selecting the proper welding cable size. It includes the power source electrode cable electrode holder or tig torch or wire feeder and gun electrical arc work cable and work clamp. Thus a welding cable size of 2 awg 625 30 has a total cross sectional area of 2 awg made from 625 strands rated at 30.

Wire cable your way offers a wide selection of flexible copper welding cable at the lower prices around sold by the foot so that you can get exactly what you need without wasting dollars. Welding cable and battery cable are similar in their applications but differ in terms of their construction allowing for one type of cable to be more useful than the other in certain unique situations. Figure 3 illustrates the welding circuit.