Which statement defines duty cycle?

• A. The maximum current the unit can deliver.
• B. The energy output per welding cycle.
• C. The number of minutes within a 10-minute period during which a welding power source can safely produce a particular welding current.
• D. The percentage of time the power source can be energized in a 10-minute interval.

Answer: (C)

Duty cycle is about how long you can weld at a given current before the power source overheats, within a defined time window. In practice, it’s specified for a 10-minute period, describing how many minutes you can actively weld at that current before needing to rest. The best statement captures this time-based limit directly: the number of minutes within a 10-minute period during which the welder can safely produce that current. This is the concrete way to express the same idea as a percentage, but in minutes it shows exactly how long you can be energized in the fixed interval. For example, a 60% duty cycle at a certain current means you can weld for 6 minutes in a 10-minute window and then must rest. The other phrasings touch on related aspects—like maximum capability or energy per cycle or simply a percentage—but they don’t convey the precise time-limited constraint as clearly as the minutes-in-10-minutes description.