Brazing, a method used to meld two pieces of metal together with intermediary filler—also known as brazing material—can be accomplished in several different ways. You’ll note that the type of heating used often identifies these different types of brazing, and that they vary widely in technique. Some methods of brazing involve heating only the joint between the two pieces of metal, while other methods involve heating the entire construction—consisting of the joint as well as both metal pieces.
Read on for a brief rundown of five common brazing techniques.
Induction brazing
This method of brazing involves introducing an electromagnetic induction into the metal, through the use of a coil. This method offers precise control over the temperature, and produces rapid results.
Dip brazing
With dip brazing, all pieces of the assembly are “dipped” into melted, molten braze material. This is commonly performed with an aluminum braze. The process of dip brazing uses capillary action to smoothly fill the joints, and can join pieces of metal in varying sizes and thicknesses.
Torch brazing
A flame is used for joint brazing in this technique, applying concentrated heat directly onto the joint area. The torch brazing process is easy to automate, and is thus especially useful when it comes to working through a large volume of assemblies. This is actually the most common method of mechanized brazing currently in use today.
Resistance brazing
Similar to induction brazing, this method relies upon heat from an electrical current. Resistance brazing is typically used for a simple joint brazing between highly conductive metals.
Furnace brazing
Like it sounds, this involves all of the pieces being placed into a “furnace” environment, usually powered by gas. This offers accurate control of temperature, and thus easily regulates the heating and cooling processes involved in the metal assembly.
One thing that all methods of brazing have in common is the use of lower-temperature heat than is utilizing in welding. While welding is another common technique for joining pieces of metal, it has downsides that brazing does not. The most prevalent of these is the effect on the metals involved; the extremely high temperatures can cause breakdowns in the mechanical properties of the metals, which can compromise the quality of the assembly. Therefore, brazing can be considered an optimal choice for this sort of metal assembly, as the materials have less of a risk of being compromised. And with so many different methods of brazing, you can safely assume that any sort of assembly can be accommodated.
Hi-Temp Brazing Inc. provides professional Dip Brazing Services . They are NADCAP accredited for 12 years in all requirements of aluminum dip brazing and related services.
