A User Looks at the Semiconductor Converter

As one of the largest users of power converter equipment in the world, Alcoa has had a profound interest in the development of the semiconductor power converter. This paper reviews the application of large converter equipment, starting with the first major unit installed in the United States at Alcoa´s Badin Works in North Carolina, and traces operations to the present. Advantages of the silicon equipment as compared with other methods of power conversion, as well as some of the engineering problems encountered, are described from the user´s viewpoint.