Brazing

The typical sequence on a machine begins with manual or automatic loading of parts onto fixtures. These parts are pasted by one or more automatic applicator guns. The guns, generally mounted on slides, apply a premeasured deposit of paste alloy to each joint. After pasting, the parts index again through a series of natural gas/air burners. The burners progressively heat the assembly to the liquid temperature of the filler metal. Following heating, the part indexes through a series of cooling stations. Both air and water are used to solidify the alloy and bring the part and fixture back to room temperature. The finished part is then automatically ejected or manually unloaded by the operator.

The hand torch is the traditional heating method used in brazing, and in spite of the ever-increasing tendancy to mechanise brazing processes, probably a greater volume of work is still carried out by this method than by any other. Hand torches are most efficiently employed for low volume production, for short runs of changing work, brazing a number of widely separated joints on massive assemblies and for location brazing.

Modern induction heating provides reliable, repeatable, non-contact and energy-efficient heat in a minimal amount of time without flame. Solid state systems are capable of heating very small areas within precise production tolerances, without disturbing individual metallurgical characteristics.