fast enough to avoid flux exhaustion, yet slow enough to provide a smooth increase in temperature and that prevents the work from becoming over-heated. If a single torch cannot achieve this type of heating rate, then some form of multiple-headed torch will be required.
It also has to be remembered that too large a flame may lead to overheating of the parts, which in turn leads to wastage of energy and possible undesir-able metallurgical changes in the parent materials. On the other hand, too small a flame will lead to unsound joints due to the assembly failing to attain a temperature that is high enough to cause the filler material to melt and flow into the capillary joint gap. In situations where it is required to flame braze aluminum and its alloys by hand, one has the added complication of the very narrow process window to contend with (see Chapters 1 and 9).
5.1.1.1 Handheld Torch Brazing Technique
Flame brazing by hand falls into six clearly defined steps:
1. Cleaning the parts prior to brazing 2. Fluxing the assembly
3. Assembling the parts 4. Heating
5. Quenching
6. Postbraze cleaning
It will be helpful to say a word or two about each of these steps.
5.1.1.1.1 Cleaning
The very first question that arises is, “How clean is clean?” For once the answer is very simple. A joint surface is considered to be clean enough if, during the brazing cycle, the molten filler alloy will flow over the surface, wet it, and make the joint. As a definition such a statement is close to being useless. One needs many more facts relating to the detail of the joint before deriving a realistic definition of cleanliness in a particular case.
For example, one has to know what is present on the surfaces of the materials that compose the joint and whether it is necessary for it to be removed before the joint can be made. It is self evident that in all cases, except the platinum group materials, and gold and silver, metals possess an oxide film at room temperature. Since oxides prevent the flow of molten brazing alloy from occurring, they must be removed. When brazing is to be carried out in air, generally this is achieved by using a flux. When brazing copper with copper-phosphorus alloys it is the phosphorus-content of the filler material that provides the fluxing action (see Chapter 10).
In many brazing processes fluxes are needed to maintain the surfaces of the joint in an oxide-free condition so that wetting can occur. If the capillary
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gap is very small, there might not be sufficient flux present in it to dissolve the oxide films present on the work. Alternatively, having dissolved the films, the flux’s own properties of melting range, viscosity, and surface tension may have changed in such a manner that the advancing front of molten filler metal is no longer capable of expelling the oxide-laden flux from the joint.
It is for this reason that in all cases where a flux has to be used, care has to be taken when the size of the joint gap is being decided. As we saw in Chapter 3, it is this consideration that provides another of the fundamental rules of brazing:
If a flux has to be used in the production of a brazed joint, the joint gap must never be smaller than 0.05 mm at any time during the process cycle.
If massive amounts of oxide are present on a component (e.g., the surface scale on a piece of steel), this should be removed before any attempt to braze the material is made. In such circumstances it might be considered natural to subject the part to abrasive blasting to remove the scale. Such a procedure would certainly remove the scale, but it might also render the part even more difficult to braze than it was originally. This would certainly be the case if the abrasive blasting were carried out with alumina or silica, the materials that are commonly used for this type of cleaning process. These refractory oxides will become easily embedded in the surface that is being abraded. The result is that the abraded surface will, in effect, become coated with a product that cannot be wet by conventional brazing procedures. In these circumstances one would have a surface that appeared to be clean; in reality this is simply exchanging one unsuitable surface for another. The message is clear: if abrasive blasting is to be used to remove surface coatings, it is necessary to ensure that should the abrading medium become embedded in the surface of the component, its presence will not prevent subsequent wetting by the molten filler material. If abrasion is a necessity, using tungsten carbide grit or iron- or steel-shot is strongly recommended.
Oil and grease are other materials that can inhibit wetting. These contam-inants are likely to be encountered with moderate frequency on the shop floor in a factory environment.
When a component that is contaminated with either of these materials is heated, the layer of oil or grease burns and a layer of carbon is produced on the surface of the part. When the filler material melts it will not wet the carbon-coated surface. As a result, the molten material draws itself into a sphere and a joint fails to be made. This process is widely described in the literature as the filler material balling up.
It cannot be overemphasized how important it is that the parts should always be degreased before they are assembled. Swilling or washing the component in a suitable organic solvent is the best solution for removing oil and grease. On the other hand, there are brazing situations where the pres-ence of a trace quantity of mineral oil left on a component is not a problem.
For example, in the reducing atmosphere furnace brazing of mild steel under
an exothermic atmosphere, any residual carbon left on the part after the oil has burned off will almost certainly react with certain of the constituents of the protective atmosphere within the furnace hot zone. This action produces a mixture of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gas, leaving the surface clean and capable of being wet by the molten filler material.
A generally unrecognized source of contamination of the surface of a component is the secretions that are exuded by human skin. These are quite heavily contaminated with sulfur-bearing compounds. There are cases on record where the fuel lines of rocket motors, made from pure nickel tube, experienced premature failure during induction brazing due to the inter-granular penetration of the nickel by sulfur derived from these secretions (see Figure 5.2). This problem was resolved by arranging for the operator to wear cotton gloves while handling the components.
These three simple examples are cited in order to show that clean means different things in different production situations. Generally it is sufficient to ensure the removal of excessive oxide scale, dirt, and oil before commenc-ing the brazcommenc-ing cycle. In some cases, even after completcommenc-ing these simple steps to clean the component, the brazing filler material still fails to wet the component. When this occurs, it is certain that during the preparation or processing you have failed to meet the requirements of one or more of the six fundamental rules mentioned in the Foreword to this book.
5.1.1.1.2 Fluxing
If the brazing of copper to itself is to be undertaken with one of the self-fluxing phosphorus-bearing alloys, this stage can be omitted. If copper is to be brazed to brass and a self-fluxing alloy has been selected, flux must be used (see Chapter 3).
Flux paste should be evenly applied to the mating surfaces of the joint and the area immediately adjacent to it, with particular care being taken to apply a generous quantity to any sharp edges or corners on the components in the vicinity of the joint. As a general rule, and if it is available, it is preferable
FIGURE 5.2
Photomicrographs of nickel tube sections showing severe intergranular penetration by sulphur (left) and freedom from sulphur contamination (right). (From Roberts, P.M., Production Methods and Machines, June 1967. With permission.)
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to use a factory-mixed flux, rather than make a paste by mixing the powdered product with water that contains one or two drops of a surfactant. By using a factory-made paste the consistency of the flux is always the same; this ensures both a consistent and reproducible fluxing action during the brazing process.
It is always true that the preapplication of flux to an assembly is better than applying the flux to the joint during the heating cycle by picking some up on the heated tip of the brazing alloy rod and introducing it to the joint.
This latter procedure, known universally as the hot rod technique, can only be recommended for the addition of extra flux to a joint during the brazing process.
5.1.1.1.3 Assembly
If brazing alloy preforms are to be used their point of location on the assem-bly will have been determined at the time the joint was designed. As stressed in Chapter 2, it is essential to ensure that the preforms are properly located at the point in the joint that is the last part of it to attain brazing temperature.
This will ensure that when they melt the filler material will wet the compo-nents and flow through the joint under the combined effects of capillarity and temperature gradient. If gravity can also be used to assist the flow of the molten filler material this is a bonus.
Once final assembly has been completed a further quantity of flux should be applied to the joint area, with special attention again being paid to any corners or sharp edges of the assembly.
While the ideal situation is for the parts to be self-fixturing, this is not always possible to arrange. Where external fixturing is to be employed, this will have been designed to satisfy all of the following requirements:
1. Easy to load and unload 2. Possesses a low thermal mass 3. Made of heat-resistant material
4. Designed not to obstruct access by the flame to the joint area 5. Designed to provide minimum contact with the components so as
to avoid acting as a heat sink
6. Designed to support the parts as far from the joint area as possible 7. Designed so that correct alignment of the parts throughout the braz-ing cycle is maintained by the judicious use of counterweights and springs
8. Designed so that the parts can move freely as they expand and contract throughout the duration of the total brazing cycle
See Chapters 2 and 7 for further comments on jigs and fixtures.
5.1.1.1.4 Heating
In Chapter 4 we examined the technical parameters that have to be satisfied when heating for brazing. We have seen that it is not always sensible to use the fuel gas mixture that will provide the highest intensity heat source, and it always needs to be remembered that the faster the joint is raised to brazing temperature the higher is the probability that it will become overheated.
Keeping the torch continually on the move will promote even heating. When natural gas-compressed air is the chosen fuel gas, maintaining the nozzle of the torch at a distance of between 75 and 100 mm from the work will also assist in the provision of the objective of smooth and even heating.
Suppose one component is substantially larger than the other or made from a material that has a much lower thermal conductivity than its fellow.
In both situations more heat will need to be directed toward this component in order to achieve the even rise in temperature that is required.
As we have seen, a molten brazing alloy will always flow toward the hottest part of a joint. This is a very important consideration and one that needs to be at the forefront of the operator’s mind when developing the heat pattern when flame brazing by hand.
As heating proceeds the flux begins to settle down and, in the case of many of the fluxes, becomes a thin, clear liquid. This is usually a sure indication that the components are getting close to brazing temperature, and the application of the brazing filler material can begin. The filler mate-rial should be placed in firm contact with the mouth of the joint, and it should melt as a result of the conduction of heat from the parts. The impor-tance of this aspect of the process cannot be overemphasized. It is funda-mental to the integrity of the finished joint that the filler metal is melted by heat conducted from the components and most definitely not as the result of application of the flame to the filler material. For this reason, in handheld torch brazing, filler material preforms that are located inside the joint are preferred. Such material can only be melted by thermal conduction through the components and never as the result of their being directly heated by the flame.
This recommendation might appear to be at variance with the text asso-ciated with Figure 1.5. The comment there relates to the use of mechanized brazing systems where precisely controlled heat patterns are necessarily developed during the setup of the machine and before the production brazing operation begins. Under these circumstances it is almost always possible to develop a heat-pattern over a number of preheating stations in such a manner that there is no risk of the filler metal preform being melted before the joint attains brazing temperature. In these circumstances the external location of a preform can be acceptable. With handheld torch heat-ing, it is the norm that successive joints are subjected to different heat patterns simply because the operator is not an automaton. It is therefore better to be safe than sorry, which is why filler metal preforms should be located inside the joints.
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5.1.1.1.5 Quenching
Once heating has been discontinued the assembly begins to cool freely in air. As soon as the alloy is seen to solidify and the joint has cooled to approximately 400ºC, it can be quenched by means of an air blast and then by warm water. The thermal shocks that the quenching in water provides are often instrumental in causing the majority of the flux residues to flake off. This process is beneficial, but water quenching should be avoided where the parent materials have widely differing coefficients of expansion or where one or both of the components have a large or a sudden change of section.
In these circumstances the act of quenching the part may well result in the production of stress cracks in either the parent metals or the filler alloy in the joint.
5.1.1.1.6 Postbraze Cleaning
If brazing with a flux has been undertaken its residues should always be removed. As we saw in Chapter 3, the fluoride fluxes that are commonly used with low-temperature brazing materials have residues that absorb moisture from the atmosphere. The resultant product is an acidic and rela-tively sticky mess. This by-product of the brazing process will promote corrosion of both the parent materials and the brazing alloy in the joint in the course of only a few hours. When brazing aluminum it is possible to use a noncorrosive flux. To some extent this description is misleading. Certainly such fluxes can be considered to be corrosive when molten or they would not be capable of removing the aluminum oxide from the surface of the components. Once they have cooled the residues of the so-called noncorro-sive fluxes recommended for brazing aluminum do not hydrolyze and can be left on the work (see Chapter 9).
Soaking the work in hot water using a stiff brush (if necessary) to remove any remaining flux best carries out final cleaning. If the residues prove troublesome to remove, immerse the components in a warm 5 to 10% solu-tion of sulfuric acid for 2 to 3 minutes; when the parent materials are other than aluminum and its alloys, immerse the components in a hot (75ºC) 10%
solution of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide [NaOH]) for a similar period.
After this treatment the parts must be rinsed in running water and further brushed as required. The use of sodium hydroxide for the cleaning of alu-minum should be avoided. These materials react with one another very violently, and hydrogen is generated as a by-product of the reaction.
A high degree of operator skill is required if all these stages are to be completed efficiently. Perhaps the major shortcoming of flame brazing by hand relates to the fact that regardless of the operator’s skill, he is unable to control the time taken to produce a part, and hence the overall output rate. Also operators who possess the requisite manual skills are becoming increasingly difficult to find, and even if found they will command a rela-tively high rate of pay. The trend in manufacturing industry is away from flame brazing by hand and toward mechanized flame brazing wherever a
technically and commercially viable process can be developed. In modern industrial practice some 80% of all mechanized brazing systems that process the parts in air employ flame heating. As a result, the various automation techniques used in such systems are well-developed and widely used. We shall consider this other and very important aspect of flame brazing tech-nology in Section 5.2. Before doing so, however, it will be helpful to sum-marize the points covered above in this section.
5.1.1.2 The Ten Golden Rules for Successful Handheld Torch Brazing