Centorr Vacuum Industries received orders for six high-vacuum furnaces for the precision processing of metals in heat treating, annealing and brazing applications. With sizes from 12 x 12 x 24 inches to over 48 x 48 x 48 inches and from 1 cubic foot to over 100 cubic feet, Centorr’s Workhorse furnaces can handle a variety of customer loads in either high vacuum or partial pressures of inert gas. The furnace design has a refractory-metal hot zone and high-vacuum pumping system for the processing of advanced materials requiring an extremely clean high-vacuum environment.

Experiments were undertaken to develop the best process for brazing Hast X alloy for an aerospace application.

Question: I've heard that argon can be a dangerous gas to work with in my brazing operations. I don't understand how this can be since argon is known to be an inert gas and appears to be quite safe to use. How can it be dangerous?

Let’s finish the discussion we started last time. As shown in Table 1, it is important that you look at the surfaces that you want to braze together and decide if they meet the design criteria needed for brazing.

Problem: We are getting into 3D printing of components. Because of the size of the finished component, our 3D-printing equipment only allows us to 3D print smaller subsections of the finished product and then join them together to make the final assembly.

The definition of brazing is taken from the first edition of the Brazing Manual published by the American Welding Society (AWS) in 1955. At the time, these engineering groups were only working with the British system. Therefore, they were only specifying temperature via Fahrenheit, with no consideration for metric units. Thus, 800°F was a nice, even number and a very convenient number to use to separate the two joining methods of soldering and brazing.

Brazing is a very important metal-joining technique that continues to grow in usage each year in many industries around the world. Most people are familiar with welding and soldering, but many are not familiar with where brazing might fit into the overall metals-joining landscape.

Solar Manufacturing shipped a vacuum heat-treating furnace to NexGen Advanced Fuel Systems, an Allied Power Group Company, based in Houston, Texas. NexGen, a gas turbine component overhaul facility, ordered the furnace to help increase capacity and reduce turnaround time for its heat-treating and brazing operations. Built specifically to heat treat land-based turbine equipment, with attention to specific cooling requirements required by NexGen’s customers, the furnace includes a Solarvac Polaris control system and a graphite hot zone that can accommodate loads up to 48 inches wide x 48 inches high x 72 inches deep. It has a maximum load weight capacity of 6,000 pounds and a maximum operating temperature of 2400°F.

Some of the brazing paste we purchased has separated, showing a layer of liquid above the brazing material in the containers.

Welcome to my part of “Technical Talk,” where we will discuss brazing, a very important metal-joining technique that continues to grow in usage each year in many industries around the world. Most people are familiar with welding and soldering, but many are not familiar with where brazing might fit into the overall metals-joining landscape.