A welding system having a welding gun, comprising a casing that is grounded through
a ground conductor, and a monitoring device, which detects the resistance of the
ground conductor. A blanking device deactivates the monitoring device during the
welding operation to reduce the danger of shut-downs through the ground integrity
monitor. It is proposed to either deactivate the measuring circuit of the ground
integrity monitor or to switch off the welding power interruption associated therewith
as long as a welding current may flow or is flowing through the ground conductor.
The monitoring device is deactivated or blanked out only for an essentially negligible
fraction of the entire time, and there is no danger of any impairment of safety
due to this short-term deactivation.
