Investigation of the Heating Rate of Locally Fabricated Arc Welding Machine in Arochukwu Local Government Area Abia State Nigeria

The study adapted experimental research design to investigate the heating rate of locally fabricated Arc welding machine involving three welding machines. One control Arc welding machine system W1 without treatment and casing and two experimental welding machines W2 and W3 with varying lamina treatments, cooling systems and casing. The experimental Arc Welding Machines W2 was fabricated using coated copper wire while the experimental welding machine W3 was fabricated with aluminum wire after treatment using adequate vanishing with good cooling system. The control welding machine W1 was used intact as fabricated without treatment. Two Research Questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The instrument for data collection used was a standard Celcius scale calibrated thermometer with a range of 1000C. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the Research Questions and t-test analysis at 0.05 level of significance used to test the Hypotheses. The findings showed that the experimental welding machine systems W2 and W3 had lower mean temperature intervals and the corresponding test of hypotheses showed there was no significant difference between the mean temperature intervals of the two experiment welding machines W2 and W3 indicating that treatment positively minimized their heating rate equivalently. Furthermore, the study revealed that the control Arc welding machine W1 had higher mean temperature interval than the experimental welding machines W2 and W3 respectively and there was significant difference between the mean temperature intervals of the control system W1 and mean temperatures intervals of systems W2 and W3 respectively. This indicated that the treatment with adequate vanishing of transformer core Lamina and cooling systems had positive effects in reducing eddy current loss and minimizing rate of heat generation of locally fabricated Arc welding machines with no possible danger of overheating when properly cased than locally fabricated welding machine without adequate treatment. This can enhance the efficiency of locally fabricated Arc welding machines and eliminate electric shock hazard. It was recommended that fabricators of artisan Arc welding machines should ensure adequate vanishing of transformer core laminas with good cooling systems to enhance efficiency of locally fabricated Arc welding machines with proper casing. Furthermore, Physics and other relevant technical students should be funded to acquire skills of welding machine fabrications.