Product Stewardship

Inverter Technology: Energy Efficient Welding Equipment

Lincoln Electric is committed to optimizing its product offerings to provide effective solutions for our customers and lower the carbon footprint of our products.

In the last decade, we have been transitioning our conventional welding machines to digital, inverter-based technology. Today, 85% of our equipment product families are inverter-based, compared with 30% ten-years ago.

Inverter-based technology delivers numerous benefits:

• 20% to 26% less energy consumption versus conventional equipment
  • 20% less energy consumption when comparing a DC-400 conventional welding machine to a Flextec^® 500/500 inverter-based machine performing under similar conditions
  • 26% less energy consumption when comparing a conventional Powertec^® 305c to an inverter-based Powertec^® i320 performing under similar conditions
• Lower energy intensity reduces greenhouse gas emissions
  • A typical inverter welding machine will use 1,526 KWh less energy per year to operate as compared with a conventional machine
  • Each inverter machine has the same CO₂-reducing capacity as a 1.3-acre forest
  • Transitioning 5 conventional welding machines to 5 inverters will reduce GHG emissions at the same rate as taking 1 automobile off the road
  • Customers can identify the energy savings they can achieve by adopting inverter technology by using our inverter energy calculator, which can be found HERE.

To date, the cumulative impact of our shift towards inverter-based technology has generated energy savings of more than 305 megawatt-hours, which is comparable to taking 46,000 average passenger vehicles off the road each year. The GHG reduction is equivalent to planting 78 million trees in a forest spanning 260,000 acre—an area roughly the size of San Antonio, Texas.

CrossLinc Technology: Safety and Efficiency On Work Sites

Lincoln Electric is committed to developing equipment and technologies that maximize worker safety, workplace efficiency and weld quality.

When welders operate in an expansive construction site that can be multiple levels above ground, maintaining a safe, efficient and productive welding schedule can be challenging. Throughout the day, welders need to stop and adjust the voltage and wire feed speed settings on their equipment and these interruptions result in lost time, and put welders at risk of falling due to a bulky welding control cable running along the floor near the welding machine.

Lincoln Electric’s CrossLinc™ Technology addresses safety and rework to help create a safer and more efficient workplace.

For example, welders using a single four-rack Flextec® 350X inverter system with CrossLinc technology can save a typical company as much as $26,570 per year when operating five days a week over a span of 50 weeks. This savings is based on four employees working all four arcs with four setting changes per day, and workers spending an average of 15 minutes walking back to the rack to change the settings.

CrossLinc effectively eliminates the walk, which not only increases efficiency and productivity but also reduces the risk of falls associated with that 15-minute walk.

VRTEX^®: Virtual Reality Welding Training Simulators

Our VRTEX virtual reality welding training simulators offer instructors and welders an innovative solution for faster and more efficient training while reducing material use, waste, and energy intensity.

Immersing students in virtual welding applications that offer high-quality graphics, accurate sounds, and real-time prompts and scoring allows students to get hands-on welding training prior to transferring to live-arc, real world welding.

By incorporating virtual welding training with traditional welding training, educators and customers administrating welding courses achieve:

• Lower training costs;
• Accelerated training times;
• Higher student certification rates;
• Improved student safety as virtual welding eliminates the use of metal (electrodes and coupons), sparks, heat, shielding gas, or weld fume removal;
• Reduced overall energy consumption by requiring less energy than a traditional welding machine, feeder and weld fume control system; and
• Real-time performance assessments and greater engagement

We make it easy for customers to adopt VRTEX:

• VRTEX is offered in nine languages
• Customers can calculate their own ROI of investing in the solution HERE
• VRTEX curriculum helps integrate the solution into welding training programs

Who uses VRTEX?
VRTEX is used in high school, technical and community college welding programs, within skilled trade organizations and associations, in military, and across companies representing a broad array of end markets.