Manipulation of resonant elements in switching power supplies

Abstract

A system to generate weld power for a welding process comprises: a power supply including a power inverter having multiple switches controlled by multiple switching signals such that each switch is alternately turned ON and OFF within each switching cycle of one of the multiple switching signals, to supply a current to an output circuit of the power supply that is configured to convert the current to the weld power, wherein the power inverter includes a capacitor and a capacitor switch connected in series with each other and across a switch of the multiple switches; and a controller to monitor a weld parameter and control the capacitor switch to either connect the capacitor across, or disconnect the capacitor from, the switch continuously across multiple cycles of a respective one of the multiple switching signals, depending on whether the weld parameter meets a predetermined operating condition of the welding process.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.