Patent ID: 8153933

Claim:
A welding control apparatus used for arc welding with a single carbon dioxide gas or a mixed gas mainly containing the carbon dioxide gas being used as a shielding gas, comprising: a droplet separation detecting unit that detects separation of a droplet from a tip end of welding wire; and a waveform generator that alternately generates a first pulse for separating the droplet and a second pulse for shaping the droplet and outputs the generated pulse to a welding power source, and if separation of the droplet is detected, immediately switches a current value of the first pulse to a predetermined value lower than a value measured upon the detection of separation, the waveform generator generating a third pulse having a pulse shape different in at least one of a pulse peak current and a pulse width from the second pulse to output the generated third pulse to the welding power source after a base time of the first pulse if separation of the droplet is not detected within a peak period, a falling slope period, or a base period of the first pulse, and if separation of the droplet is detected after generation of the third pulse, switches a current value of the third pulse to a predetermined value lower than a value measured upon the detection of separation.