Two Cracked Diodes Found In Zika Welding Machine
Zika welding machines are very expensive because they are heavy duty and they are so powerful when it comes to welding but when the user abuse the machine, it will go into shut down or even blow up some parts in the process. Take a look
There was no life in this machine when it was brought for repair and first thing to do is to take it apart and found out what went wrong.
The power was reaching the four main capacitors and the upper board was getting the voltage needed but it was dead.
I did the usual check: Mosfets, diodes and the main brain of the machine but everything checked fine except…..
I found two cracked diodes on the bottom side of the machine. When I say cracked that means this machine was over heating and then these parts blew up literally. The part number of these diodes: FR104 and they come with a 10K ohm resistor on the same line.
This is the location of these diodes and on the same line the 10K resistor which shows a sign of overheating but checked fine.
I have the same design welding machine and I used a BYV26E which are the same specification of the original cracked diodes.
Please click on the above photo to access the datasheet
These are the new replacement of these diodes. It was time to power on the machine and tests it out.
I power on the machine and it came on but something was wrong. The fan was running very slowly and was not producing enough air to cool down the welding machine. I called the customer and explained the new situation to him and to my surprise, he told me that he has been welding on that machine intensively for over a week and he could not hear the fan running.
I took the fan out for testing. Since it was running very slow I assumed it was not getting enough voltage so I tested that but the voltage reading there were 220 AC volts which is according to specifications. I dusted the fan coil and sprayed some lubrication oil there but it did not help so I decided to add a new working fan in there and test the machine.
The fan was spinning producing enough strong air to cool down the machine and I got the right voltage reading on the output terminals of the machine. I took it to my brother next door for an actual welding test and it worked like a charm.
Mission Accomplished.
This article was prepared for you by Waleed Rishmawi, one of our ‘Master Authors’ and currently working in the Bethlehem area of Palestine repairing electrical and electronic equipment.
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Note: You can check his previous article in Mariotti Dental Device Repair
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Parasuraman S
May 31, 2021 at 8:21 am
Two welding experts living side by side, VOW! One an electronic wizard and another one user expert! A good combination for welding together all defective welding machines! Well done, dear friend!
Waleed Rishmawi
May 31, 2021 at 2:49 pm
Parasuraman: thanks man for the encouragement. we work together for the good or man kind. LOL. have a blessed day
Albert van Bemmelen
May 31, 2021 at 1:08 pm
You obviously can write a very thick repair book on fixing Welding machines by now. And this particular machine obviously got overheated because the Fan no longer cooled the internal machine parts down. You again very quickly found the real cause of parts that needed replacements by experience in no time!
Waleed Rishmawi
May 31, 2021 at 2:51 pm
Albert: actually man people suggested to me to write a book and I got the same from you, that is such an encouragement I appreciate so much. have a blessed day
Yogesh Panchal
June 6, 2021 at 11:33 pm
Waleed,
Excellent! troubleshooting and repair.
Jai Etwaroo
June 10, 2021 at 6:26 am
Nice job Waleed , I have noticed that you have repaired many of this type of welders in the past .
Nenad Iliev
May 16, 2023 at 2:30 pm
Hello, I replaced these diodes in my welding machine but they failed again. The resistor is ok. I had cracked capacitors in the Zobel network of the MOSFETs. After replacing them, one of the MOSFETs failed. I've found some schematics of a similar machine that has a TVS diode connected to those two diodes but on mine it goes to a 100uH inductor and then to the main control board. After that it goes to a capacitor, which is not shorted. From where could this current be coming from that keeps burning the diodes?