The short answer is insufficient current density. The reason why can be very complex and could take a skilled technician or properly trained welding engineer up to three days or more to resolve. If it was simple and obvious you would have figured it out yourself by now. The quick fix is to raise the percent heat setting five percent or increase one or two taps (adding around 3000 amps).
The root cause could be many things and is probably a combination of several things. First check the machine joints and make sure they are clean and check the percent heat settings and TX tap setting and make sure you have enough ability to move this up if needed. Check for electrode temperature and electrode mushrooming. Higher temperature impeads current while mushrooming decreases current density. Make sure the current density is the same and that the pressure is lower not higher. Increasing the force (pressure) will decrease the resistance and require more heat (amperage). Increasing the time is not recommended at all. This indicates the TX is not the right size.
Another solution for when the TX is too small or you are not getting enough amps is to file the electrodes sharper. This will increase the current density. The problem with this approach is that you will have other issues.
Do not go by how the weld looks. This is not acceptable. The only acceptable test is to destructively test the parts and record the data and weld schedule settings. Also check the weld schedule that you were using before. Don't use a weld schedule from a different machine because it could be very different in size and TX windings.
Be mindfull of downtime as you do this. The quicker you are back into production the better. We can rent you the right gear or visit on short notice so call if you need more help quickly. Also we have seen machines that lose output in the seventy percent to one-hundred percent range and think this could be from the TX getting saturated or tired or the controller going out.
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