Patent ID: 7411156

Claim:
An electric arc welding system in the form of a cell to create an alternating current as an arc at a weld station, comprising: a first welder with a first power supply, and first output leads connected in series with an electrode and a workpiece, to direct an AC current to the weld station; a first Hall effect current transformer configured to provide a voltage in a first line of the system proportional to the current of the first welder; a second welder with second power supply and second output leads connected in parallel with first output leads to direct an additional AC current to the weld station; a second Hall effect current transformer configured to create a voltage in a second line of the system, representing current levels in the second welder during a welding operation, wherein the AC current and the additional AC current are combined at the weld station instead of prior to a polarity switching network; a remote central control configured to generate non-time critical data including welding parameters for the first welder and the second welder; and a high speed logic interface configured to precisely switch polarity of the first power supply of the first welder and the second power supply of the second welder.