Sheilding and Filtering Techniques to Protect Sensitive Instrumentaiton from Electromagnetic Caused by Arc Welding

Abstract

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) caused by arc welding is a concern for sensitive CANDU instrumentation and control equipment, especially start-up instrumentation (SUI) and ion chamber instruments used to measure neutron flux at low power. Measurements of the effectiveness of simple shielding and filtering techniques that may be applied to limit arc welding electromagnetic emissions below the interference threshold are described. Shieldingconfigurations investigated include an arrangement in which the welding power supply, torch (electrode holder), interconnecting cables and welder operator were housed in a single enclosure and a more practical configuration of separate shields for the power supply, cables and operator with torch. The two configurations were found to provide 30 dB and 26 dB attenuation, respectively, for arc welder electric-field emissions and were successful in preventing EMI in SUI set up just outside the shielding enclosures. Practical improvements that may be incorporated in the shielding arrangement to facilitate quick setup in the field in a variety of application environments, while maintaining adequate EMI protection, are discussed.