How is the duty cycle of a welding machine rated?

How is the duty cycle of a welding machine rated?

• A. 1 Minute
• B. 5 Minutes
• C. 10 Minutes
• D. 60 Minutes

Answer: (C)

Duty cycle is about how long you can weld at the machine’s rated current before it overheats, evaluated within a fixed time window. That window is traditionally 10 minutes. The duty cycle is expressed as a percentage of that 10-minute period. For example, a 60% duty cycle means you can weld for 6 minutes within the 10-minute window, then you must pause to cool. If it’s 100%, you could weld the full 10 minutes without a break. Because the standard rating uses a 10-minute window as the reference, stating the duty cycle in terms of that 10-minute period is the correct convention. The other time frames aren’t the standard basis for duty cycle ratings.

Duty cycle is about how long you can weld at the machine’s rated current before it overheats, evaluated within a fixed time window. That window is traditionally 10 minutes. The duty cycle is expressed as a percentage of that 10-minute period. For example, a 60% duty cycle means you can weld for 6 minutes within the 10-minute window, then you must pause to cool. If it’s 100%, you could weld the full 10 minutes without a break. Because the standard rating uses a 10-minute window as the reference, stating the duty cycle in terms of that 10-minute period is the correct convention. The other time frames aren’t the standard basis for duty cycle ratings.