Self-brazing Mechanism of Aluminum Alloy at Medium Temperature

Abstract

ZnCl2 and SnCl2 were added to the AlF3-CsF eutectic flux, which can be used for connecting aluminum alloy sheet by self-brazing at medium temperature. The influence of the amount of ZnCl2 and SnCl2 and the size of the T-joint area on the interface microstructure and the self-brazing joint mechanical properties was investigated. The interface microstructure, chemical compositions, defects and tensile fractography of the self-brazing joints were analyzed by metallographic microscope, scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The results show that the joints are soundly bonded when both the mass fractions of ZnCl2 and SnCl2 are about 4%; the replacement reactions between Zn2+, Sn2+ of flux and Al atoms of base metal occur during brazing, then the liquid metals of Sn and Zn appear, a great degree of Zn which has high solid solution with Al spreads rapidly to the base metal; Sn is distributed along the interface forming a low melting point metal layer with Zn and Al; the brazing of joints with small area can be realized easily; there are a lot of dimples on the fracture surface and the tensile strength of the brazing joint reaches (58±5)MPa.

Keywords

• aluminum alloy
• medium temperature brazing
• self-brazing flux
• interface reaction