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| Actually, PowCon was bought by the company that owns Miller, Illinois Tool Works, a/k/a IndoChina Thug welders. ITW had some big plans, buying up not only PowCon, but Hobart Bros as well, in generally the same time frame. ITW soon learned Linciln had some very big lawyers, and ITW found itself defending a nasty monopoly suit. ITW settled the suit by disolving PowCon and Hobart Bros, and selling much of both companys to Thermal Dynamics. ITW very cleverly, in the process of disolving PowCon & Hobart Bros, managed to loose a lot of the engineering documents.
Shortly after Thermal bought PowCon and Hobart Bros, Thermal went into Bankruptcy reorganization. Pretty much of what ITW hadn't lost in transferring the companys to Thermal was dumpstered by Thermal. Thermal came out of Bankruptcy a seriously downsized company intent on moving 100% of manufacture to China. Their new plant is now nearing completion in China, after a lot of difficulty. Within a year, Thermal's US presence will consist of a bunch of minimum wage employeed in a west coast warehouse, breaking down containers, and reshipping boxes to customers and dealers. Parts will be handled in the same manner, and technical support will probably be provided by a Hindi speaker in India. Good luck keeping the purple machine working.
Pow Con definitely didn't invent the INVERTER. The technology was invented during World War II for aircraft electrical systems. PowCon was an early user of the technology in welding machines, employing the components available at that point in time, PC Boards and components soldered to them. Your contention Miller copied PowCon's patent is ludicrous, Miller had passed PowCon's design by a full generation of electronics when ITW acquired PowCon. ITW's sole purpose in acquiring PowCon was minimizing competition in the cheapest way possible.
Since PowCon has disolved, there are 2 sourses of parts available. One is from the company that bought the rights to manufacture boards & components from Thermal, and the other is rebuilders working from basement workbenches. Given the design and components used, I'll refrain frombuying any PowCon machines, so you can buy a few more on ePay.
As to your contention PowCon made the sweetest stick machine, let me know when you'd like to drop by, I'll be happy to let you burn some rod with a Lincoln rotary. Feel free to bring your PowCon along for comparison, I have 3Ø available. | |
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powcon welder
