ON THE VACUUM BRAZING OF STAINLESS STEEL WITH

COPPER AND ITS ALLOYS

Venkat Ramani
PLASVAC ENGINEERING SERVICES
D-30/B, Diamond Park, GIDC Naroda,
Ahmedabad 382 330, Gujarat, India

ABSTRACT

Vacuum brazing is one of the important methods of joining metal to metal in the manufacturing of
components for use in ultra high vacuum systems. In vacuum brazing, the filler material flows into the
joint by capillary action and the brazing is mostly done under stress-free condition. Reduced effects of
atmosphere, better temperature uniformity, non-requirement of flux are salient features of a typical
vacuum brazing process. This paper addresses the metallurgical aspects involved in the vacuum
brazing of copper with stainless steel, including the effect of filler material. Observations from the
vacuum brazing of Stainless steel with Copper and Copper-Chromium-Zirconium alloys are presented
and discussed.


1. INTRODUCTION

Metal joining is necessary for components too complex to machine. Brazing is one of the numerous
metal joining processes, having a wide range of applicability and utility [1]. Brazing joins parts by
heating them to a temperature, usually above 500C, and applying a filler material that has a melting
temperature below that of the metals to be joined. Brazing has several advantages. Dissimilar metals
can be joined. Assemblies can be brazed in stress-free condition. Complex assemblies can be brazed
in several steps by using filler materials with progressively lower melting temperature. Materials of
different thickness can be joined as can cast and wrought metals. Non-metals can be joined to metals
when the non-metals are coated or metallized. Metallurgical properties of base materials are not
seriously disturbed and brazed joints need little or no finishing. Brazing is done using a torch or in a
furnace. Other methods include dip, resistance and induction brazing. Torch brazing usually joins
small materials that do not oxidize at brazing temperature or can be protected from oxidation by use of
flux. Torch brazing is done in air and is by far the most common of brazing methods. Furnace brazing
is practical if the assembly is self-jigging or can be pre-assembled and placed in a jig. Additionally, it
should be possible for placing the brazing material in contact at the joining locations and all the parts
could be taken uniformly to the brazing temperature. Furnace brazing is suited to realizing complete
brazed assemblies, in a single shot. It does not require a very skilled operator.

Furnace brazing can be done in air, but it is more relevant to providing a protective atmosphere or
vacuum environment. The type of atmosphere required depends on filler metal and base materials.
Base metals with easily reducible oxides need combusted natural gas, cracked ammonia or hydrogen.
The vacuum furnace brazing method of material joining offers many important advantages. During the
vacuum brazing process, the assembly goes through a bake-out that removes oxides, oils, and other
contaminants from the parts to be joined, more effectively than chemical cleaning. This bake-out is
able to reach machined part crevices, the internal dimensions of tubing, and short capillary tubes.
Generally, no flux or other contaminants need to be removed after the vacuum brazing process. This
cosmetic benefit has particular importance for the sophisticated users as well as the instrument and
medical device industries. Vacuum brazed assembly is metallurgically consistent. This means the
assembly has consistent tensile strength throughout. Not only is the strength of the bonded area greater
than alternative metal joining methods, the overall assembly strength and ductility are enhanced. Thus,
an often-overlooked ability of vacuum brazing is to simultaneously combine three metal treatments -
bonding, cleaning, and heat treatment - in one process [2]. Today, due to increased awareness and
availability of facilities, assemblies are vacuum furnace brazed for a wide variety of the metal working
industries, including those for aerospace, aircraft, nuclear fusion and fission, medical, food handling,
dairy, and ultrasonic equipment manufacturing

Vacuum brazing can be considered to be a three-step process. The first step in vacuum brazing is the
positioning together of parts to be joined. Because of tight tolerances, many components fit tightly
together and are ready for brazing filler material to be applied to the joining area. More complex
components are assembled with special fixtures, tack welding, staking, or a combination of these
methods. The second step is applying the braze alloy to the joining area. Most braze joint areas lend
themselves to a slurry of braze alloy powder and a gel binder. Other alloy forms, such as wire or foil,
can be manually applied to the braze area. The final step, vacuum furnace treatment, is a programmed
computerized cycle based on the component material, size or quantity of assemblies, and alloy
composition. The vacuum thermal process includes a heat up, preheat, holding period, braze alloy
solidification, and quenching. Vacuum brazing doesn't just join metal components, it also enhances the
quality and value of the resulting assembles. This paper addresses the metallurgical aspects involved in
the vacuum brazing of copper with stainless steel, including the effect of filler material. Observations
from the vacuum brazing of Stainless steel with Copper and Copper-Chromium-Zirconium alloys are
presented and discussed.


2. THE FACILITY

The features of the Vacuum brazing furnace used are given in Table 1. Prior to each campaign of
brazing, the furnace is cleaned up thoroughly to reduce the effects of previous brazing campaign. In
the brazing cycles conducted for this work, typically, the temperature of the furnace was raised, from
room temperature, to 800C in 2 hours. It was held at 800C for 30 minutes, and then taken to 850C
in 10 minutes. After maintaining the furnace at a temperature of 850C for 5 minutes, the furnace was
allowed to cool naturally the temperature came down from 850C to 750C in 10 minutes, and then
to room temperature in about 4 hours. The environment was a variable in this work as given in Table
2. The focus of this work was on Vacuum Brazing of Copper and Copper-Chromium-Zirconium with
Stainless Steel, with particular emphasis on brazing strength and vacuum leak tightness. Samples used
in this work were made of OFE Copper (from NFTDC, Hyderabad), Cu-Cr-Zr (from Thyssen,
Germany) and SS304L (Jindal). Copper-Silver filler material (Cu 67%, Ag 33%) was used in all the
studies. All the raw materials used were tested for physical and chemical properties to ensure that they
are within their specifications.

Table 1 : Parameters of Vacuum Furnace

Material of Construction : SS304L
Size (Hot zone dimensions) : 600 mm (L) x 250 mm (B) x 300 mm (H)
Maximum Furnace Temperature : 1100C
Ultimate vacuum : ~10
-5
mbar (cold); ~ 10
-4
mbar (hot)
Type of Furnace : Front Loading
Evacuation : Diffusion Pump 3000 l/s; Roots (375 m
3
/hr); Rotary Pump (125 m
3
/hr)


3. BRAZING TRIALS AND OBSERVATIONS




















Plan View

Elevation
Type 1 Type 2
Figure 1: Two Types of joints used in this study for brazing evaluation
SS Tube
Copper
Plate
Two types of joints, shown in Figure 1, were prepared for the trial studies. The two joint types
typically represent (or can easily be extended to represent) most of the joints used in UHV components.
Type 1 is relevant Vacuum atmosphere interface and hence all the brazing trials of this type were
subjected to Helium mass spectrometric leak test. Type 2 is a joint is relevant to cooling applications
and the contact area is important. Table 2 summarises the details of conducted trials and observed
results.

Table 2 : Summary of Brazing trials and observed results

Trial Plate &
Geometry
Brazing
Furnace
Environment
Strength of
joint : UTS
(kg/mm
2
)
Joint Leak
Tightness
General Remarks
1 Cu, Type
1
Vacuum, 10
-4

mbar
22.0

Better than 10
-
9
std cc/s
Clean, Uniform joint
2 Cu, Type
2
Vacuum, 10
-4

mbar
21.5

Clean, Uniform joint
3 Cu-Cr-Zr,
Type 1
Vacuum, 10
-4

mbar
24.0

Better than 10
-
9
std cc/s
Clean, Uniform joint
4 Cu-Cr-Zr,
Type 2
Vacuum, 10
-4

mbar
23.0

Clean, Uniform joint
5 Cu, Type
1
Argon, 10
-1
mbar
21.0

Better than 10
-
8
std cc/s
Uniform joint, black
patches
6 Cu, Type
2
Argon, 10
-1
mbar
20.0

Uniform joint, black
patches
7 Cu-Cr-Zr,
Type 1
Argon, 10
-1
mbar
22.0

Better than 10
-
8
std cc/s
Uniform joint, black
patches
8 Cu-Cr-Zr,
Type 2
Argon, 10
-1
mbar
21.0

Uniform joint, black
patches
9 Cu, Type
1
Hydrogen, 10
-1
mbar
19.0

Better than 10
-
7
std cc/s
Uniform joint, black
spots
10 Cu, Type
2
Hydrogen, 10
-1
mbar
18.5

Uniform joint, black
spots
11 Cu-Cr-Zr,
Type 1
Hydrogen, 10
-1

mbar
20.5

Better than 10
-
8
std cc/s
Uniform joint, black
spots
12 Cu-Cr-Zr,
Type 2
Hydrogen, 10
-1
mbar
20.0

Uniform joint, black
spots
13 Cu, Type
1
Vacuum, 10
-1
mbar
17.0

Worse than
10
-6
std cc/s
Non-uniform, black
patches
14 Cu, Type
2
Vacuum, 10
-1
mbar
16.0

Non-uniform, black
patches
15 Cu-Cr-Zr,
Type 1
Vacuum, 10
-1
mbar
18.0

Better than 10
-
6
std cc/s
Non-uniform, black
patches
16 Cu-Cr-Zr,
Type 2
Vacuum, 10
-1
mbar
17.5

Non-uniform, black
patches


4. DISCUSSION

It is evident that, from the observations reported, that the quality of brazing joints made in high vacuum
conditions is superior to that made in low vacuum, or hydrogen environment. Reduction of the oxygen
level is key to achieving best quality and consistency in brazing of stainless steel with copper and Cu-
Cr-Zr alloy. The oxidation effect is discussed below. The surface cleanliness is also discussed.

4.1 Oxidation

Achieving and maintaining the necessary level of cleanliness is much more difficult for brazing
stainless steel components than brazing steel components. The chromium in the stainless steel forms a
much more stable oxide at a much lower oxygen level than iron. The lower the free energy, the more
stable the oxide is and more difficult it is to reduce. The oxides present on the surface must be reduced
prior to the part reaching the melting temperature of the filler metal. In a vacuum system, the reduction
is achieved by reducing the partial pressure of oxygen at an elevated temperature.

4.2 Dew Point

The presence of too much water vapour or oxygen in the system will prevent the reaction from
proceeding. The dew point is used to determine the amount of water vapour in the system at given
conditions. An atmosphere that has a dew point below the equilibrium dew point for a given
temperature will result in the reduction of the oxide. The typical dew point required for brazing
stainless steel joints in hydrogen is 15C. The time at which the oxides must be reduced is when the
parts are approaching the maximum temperature for brazing. Hence, the dew point must be below the
equilibrium value at around that temperature.

4.3 Clearance

Selecting the correct brazing alloy requires an understanding of the assembly application as well as
metallurgical expertise, because of the tolerance requirements for braze joint clearance. An assembly
should have a joint clearance of 0.03 to 0.06 mm. As the braze clearance range widens, joint strength
decreases drastically. Vacuum brazing utilizes capillary action to draw braze alloy into the interface
between parts. Capillary action is reduced to nil at around 0.06 mm gap or greater; gravity takes over,
and a failure of brazing occurs.

4.4 Surface Cleanliness

A brazed joint is formed by the filler metal melting and flowing via a capillary effect into the pores of
the closely fitted surfaces of the joint to form an alloy of the metals upon solidification. The key to
successfully achieving a good brazed joint is surface preparation. The presence of contaminants or
oxides prevent the filler material from coming into contact with one of the surfaces to be brazed. In the
case of oxides, the pores of the surfaces to be brazed will be sealed and this prevents the capillary
action and, ultimately, the brazing from occurring. Hence the initial cleanness of the metal to brazed is
extremely important and it is equally important that this clealiness is maintained throughout brazing.

4.5 Removal of brazing joint and Re-brazing

The filler material melts at a lower temperature than the parts being joined and diffuses into the metal,
creating the non-corrosive bond. After brazing, the transgranular diffusion of individual elements forms
a new alloy that requires a higher remelt temperature than that of the original braze alloy.


5. CONCLUDING REMARKS

Vacuum brazing of Stainless steel with Copper and Copper-Chromium-Zirconium alloys and the
achieved brazing joints are discussed. Adequate care in preparation and maintenance of low partial
pressure of oxygen during brazing process were found to be the key factors, in getting successful joints.

6. REFERENCES

[1] M. M. Schwartz, Brazing, ASM International, 1987

[2] D.V.R.K. Sastry et al., Vacuum Brazing of Copper Alloys with Stainless Steels, p. 445, Proc Nat
Symp on Vacuum Science and Technology and Vacuum Metallurgy, IVSNS-2003.