Schlagwortarchiv für: Furnace

The Theory and Practice of the Flame- and Furnace-Brazing of Aluminium 

Footer-Brazing-Seminar-2018

Dates: October 8 & 9, 2019 in Hanover/Germany 

Purpose of the Seminar: 
The language of the seminar is English. It will take place in the Conference Center and laboratories of SOLVAY GmbH, in Hanover, Germany. It will provide information concerning the manufacturing practices commonly used for brazing operations and, in particular, will address the three fundamental aspects of the industrial-scale brazing of aluminium. These are:

  • The flame brazing of aluminium.
  • Controlled Atmosphere Brazing (CAB) of aluminium heat exchangers with non-corrosive fluxes (NOCOLOK® Flux).
  • The methodology of how to ensure that the brazing process selected is, indeed, the one that represents ‘best practice’.

Who should attend this two-day seminar? 

  • Technical staff who need to have a specific understanding of either one or both of the fine details of the technology of the brazing of aluminium with flames, and/or the NOCOLOK® furnace brazing process.
  • Design and production engineers who are fabricating, or who are intending to fabricate, aluminium pipe-work assemblies and/or condensers and/or evaporators.
  • Production Engineering Department Managers whose duties include day-to-day responsibility for the brazing of aluminium
  • Quality management personal of all levels in all departments including design, production, customer contract negotiations and standards including ISO 9001:2015

eabs-youtube

Watch the video of the Solvay Technical Training Seminar

Here you can find the detailed seminar program and registration.
And here the hotel booking form.

The Theory and Practice of the Flame- and Furnace-Brazing of Aluminium 

Footer-Brazing-Seminar-2018

Dates: October 9 & 10, 2018 in Hannover/Germany 

Purpose of the Seminar: 
The language of the seminar is English. It will take place in the Conference Center and laboratories of Solvay GmbH, in Hannover, Germany. It will provide information concerning the manufacturing practices commonly used for brazing operations and, in particular, will address the three fundamental aspects of the industrial-scale brazing of aluminium. These are:

  • The flame brazing of aluminium.
  • Controlled Atmosphere Brazing (CAB) of aluminium heat exchangers with non-corrosive fluxes (NOCOLOK® Flux).
  • The methodology of how to ensure that the brazing process selected is, indeed, the one that represents ‘best practice’.

Who should attend this two-day seminar? 

  • Technical staff who need to have a specific understanding of either one or both of the fine details of the technology of the brazing of aluminium with flames, and/or the NOCOLOK® furnace brazing process.
  • Design and production engineers who are fabricating, or who are intending to fabricate, aluminium pipe-work assemblies and/or condensers and/or evaporators.
  • Production Engineering Department Managers whose duties include day-to-day responsibility for the brazing of aluminium

eabs-youtube

Watch the video of the Solvay Technical Training Seminar

Here you can find the detailed seminar programme and registration.
And here the hotel booking form.

The Theory and Practice of the Flame- and Furnace-Brazing of Aluminium 

 
26081-Footer-Brazing-Seminar-2017
 

Dates: September 5 & 6, 2017 in Hannover/Germany 

 
Purpose of the Seminar: 
The language of the seminar is English. It will take place in the Conference Center and laboratories of Solvay GmbH, in Hannover, Germany. It will provide information concerning the manufacturing practices commonly used for brazing operations and, in particular, will address the three fundamental aspects of the industrial-scale brazing of aluminium. These are:

  • The flame brazing of aluminium.
  • Controlled Atmosphere Brazing (CAB) of aluminium heat exchangers with non-corrosive fluxes (NOCOLOK® Flux).
  • The methodology of how to ensure that the brazing process selected is, indeed, the one that represents ‘best practice’.

Who should attend this two-day seminar? 

  • Technical staff who need to have a specific understanding of either one or both of the fine details of the technology of the brazing of aluminium with flames, and/or the NOCOLOK® furnace brazing process.
  • Design and production engineers who are fabricating, or who are intending to fabricate, aluminium pipe-work assemblies and/or condensers and/or evaporators.
  • Production Engineering Department Managers whose duties include day-to-day responsibility for the brazing of aluminium

eabs-youtube

Watch the video of the EABS Technical Training Seminar

Here you can find the detailed seminar programme and registration.

The Theory and Practice of the Flame- and Furnace-Brazing of Aluminium 

 

Dates: September 6 & 7, 2016 in Hannover/Germany 

 

Brazing Seminar NOCOLOK

 

Purpose of the Seminar: 

This technical training seminar will be presented in the English language at the Conference Centre and laboratories of Solvay GmbH, in Hannover, Germany. It will provide information concerning the manufacturing practices commonly used for brazing operations and, in particular, will address the three fundamental aspects of the industrial-scale brazing of aluminium. These are:

  • The flame brazing of aluminium.
  • Controlled Atmosphere Brazing (CAB) of aluminium heat exchangers with non-corrosive fluxes (NOCOLOK® Flux).
  • The methodology of how to ensure that the brazing process selected is, indeed, the one that represents ‘best practice’.

Who should attend this two-day seminar? 

  • Technical staff who need to have a specific understanding of either one or both of the fine details of the technology of the brazing of aluminium with flames, and/or the NOCOLOK® furnace brazing process.
  • Design and production engineers who are fabricating, or who are intending to fabricate, aluminium pipe-work assemblies and/or condensers and/or evaporators.
  • Production Engineering Department Managers whose duties include day-to-day responsibility for the brazing of aluminium

eabs-youtube

Watch the video of the EABS Technical Training Seminar

Here you can find the detailed seminar programme and registration.

Article from the Newsletter of our sponsor Solvay Fluor:
New glass brazing furnace in the NOCOLOK Technical Center

Many visitors to seminars, trade shows or videos are already familiar with the test glass brazing furnace in the NOCOLOK Technical Center. The unique furnace now has a big brother. All components of the new test furnace, except for the radiant heater, were developed in own production at Solvay.

The fluorine research workshop in Hannover has done an excellent job, “The construction of such a furnace is only possible with the tremendous expertise of the colleagues in the test workshop,” says Andreas Becker, a Solvay Fluor research employee. “With the new glass furnace, it is possible to braze larger objects, such as aluminium wafers for refrigerant test series for automobile producers.”

Specially developed software can capture every stage of the brazing process as high-resolution images – so that not even the tiniest detail of the brazing process can escape the testers. The new furnace saves energy and time – test brazing series with larger objects no longer require the much larger Camlaw brazing furnace at the Technical Center.

The next stage of development is already being planned: in a unique process Solvay’s glass blowers have succeeded in forming a square glass body, which offers even more space for larger items.

An overview of all services from the NOCOLOK Technical Center is offered in the new brochure, which is available for download.

HF can potentially be formed during the flux brazing process. HF is very toxic, irritating to the eyes, skin and respiratory tract and cause severe burns of the skin and eyes. The threshold limit value (TLV) for HF is a ceiling concentration of 3 ppm (2.3 mg/m3), a concentration that should not be exceeded during any part of the working shift.

Drying ovens can be electrically heated or gas fired. In gas fired drying ovens, it is possible that any flux particles entrained in the moist air and passed through the high temperature flames may generate HF. The concern here is not so much with employee exposure, but that HF may be released into the atmosphere.

Similarly, flux particles coming in contact with the hot flames in a flame brazing station may also generate HF. Suitable local exhaust systems must be in place to capture vapors and fumes that may contain HF.

It is known that one of the components of the flux, KAlF4, has a measurable vapor pressure and the rate of evaporation increases rapidly once the flux is molten. With regard to CAB brazing (furnace brazing) where traces of moisture are always present even at below –40°C dew point, a number of compounds can be formed in the system K – Al – F – H – O. To our knowledge there has been no academic effort to create a thermodynamic model of this system. Thus, it is impossible to predict which compounds will and will not exist, and in what temperature or humidity regimes. This is why more than one mechanism has been proposed for the generation of HF, but no unique reaction mechanism has been identified:
3KAlF4 + 3H2O → Al2O3 + K3AlF6 + 6HF
2KAlF4 + 3H2O → 2KF + Al2O3 + 6HF

While the evidence above points to gas phase reactions between flux fumes and water vapor for the generation of HF, Thompson and Goad1) proposed that AlF3 dissolved in the flux melt is subject to hydrolysis according to:

2AlF3 + 3H2O → Al2O3 + 6HF

What is clear is that in all cases, HF is shown as a reaction product. As for the quantity, Field and Steward2) have indicated that the amount of HF formed is typically 20 ppm in the exhaust of a continuous tunnel furnace. Solvay’s own research work showed that even when flux on aluminum is heated in a bone-dry nitrogen atmosphere, a small quantity of HF is still generated3). A source of hydrogen must be made available for HF to be formed even under bone-dry conditions and this might include reduction of aluminum hydroxide, degassing of furnace walls, leakage or other less obvious sources. The work showed that even under ideal conditions, it is virtually impossible to avoid some HF formation. The graph below shows the relationship between dew point and HF formation:


The amount of HF generated depends on several factors such as:

  • Flux load going through the furnace – flux loading and component throughput
  • Temperature profile – heating rate and time at temperature
  • Furnace atmosphere conditions such as nitrogen flow and dew point

The HF is exhausted together with the nitrogen stream and absorbed by the dry scrubber.



1) Thompson, W.T., Goad, D.W.G., Can. J. Chem., 1976, Vol. 54, p3342-3349
2) Steward N.I., Field D.J., SAE 870186, 1987
3) Lauzon, D.C., Belt, H.J., Bentrup, U., Therm Alliance Seminar, Detroit, 1998

How to obtain?

A lot of information can be gained from heat exchanger brazing cycle temperature profile. It is probably one of the most important pieces of information that the brazing engineer can use to fully understand his process. A temperature profile will provide information such as heating rate, maximum peak brazing temperature, time at temperature, temperature uniformity across the heat exchanger and cooling rate. No other tool can provide so much information.

The simplest method for obtaining a temperature profile is to attach thermocouple wires to various parts of the heat exchanger and graphing the resulting profile on a chart recorder. The disadvantage of this method is that the thermocouple wire must be long enough to traverse the length of the furnace. One must also ensure that the wire does not become entangled in the mesh belt.

The second and more common (also more expensive) method of obtaining temperature profiles is with the use of a thermally insulated data pack. The data pack is a stand-alone unit capable of withstanding brazing temperatures. The thermocouples wired into the data pack are attached to various parts of the heat exchanger. The data pack then travels on the belt with the heat exchanger through the brazing furnace. At the end of the run, the data stored in the data pack is downloaded into a computer where graphs can be generated. The sophisticated software allows the user to determine quickly a number of parameters such as maximum temperature reached by each thermocouple.

Recent advances in thermal profiling allows getting information in real time. The thermally insulated data pack transmits data in real time from inside the brazing furnace to a computer situated outside the furnace using the latest radio telemetry technology. Changes to the furnace settings can now be seen instantly1.

Heating Rate

A minimum average heating rate of 20°C/min up to the maximum brazing temperature is recommended. With very large heat exchangers such as charge air coolers, lower heating rates may be used, but with higher flux loadings. Once the flux starts to melt, it also begins to dry out. With slower heating rates, it is possible that the flux can be sufficiently dry as to loose its effectiveness when the filler metal starts to melt or before the maximum brazing temperature is reached.

Heating rates up to 45°C/min in the range of 400°C to 600°C are not uncommon. One could say that the faster the heating the better. However, temperature uniformity across the heat exchanger must be maintained especially when approaching the maximum brazing temperature and this becomes increasingly more difficult with fast heating rates.

Maximum Brazing Temperature

For most alloy packages, the recommended maximum peak brazing temperature is anywhere from 595°C to 605°C and in most cases around 600°C.

Temperature Uniformity

During heat up, there may be quite a variation in temperature across the heat exchanger. The variation will tighten as the maximum temperature is reached. At brazing temperature it is recommended that the variation should not exceed ± 5°C. This can be difficult to maintain when larger units are processed which have differing mass areas within the product.

Time at Temperature

The brazed product should not remain at the maximum brazing temperature for any longer than 3 to 5 minutes. The reason is that a phenomenon known as filler metal erosion (core alloy dissolution / Silicon penetration into the base material) begins to take place as soon as the filler metal becomes molten. And so the longer the filler metal remains molten, the more severe the erosion is.

The graph below shows an actual temperature profile for a heat exchanger brazed in a tunnel furnace. One characteristic feature of all temperature profiles is where the curve flattens out when approaching the maximum peak brazing temperature (area shown in blue circle). The plateau in the temperature profile is associated with the start of melting of the filler metal at 577°C, known as the latent heat of fusion. It is called latent heat because there is no temperature change when going from solid to liquid, only a phase change.

Temperature profile for a heat exchanger brazed in a tunnel furnace.

1 D. Plester, Datapak Ltd., International Congress Aluminium Brazing, Düsseldorf (2002)

Furnace atmosphere

The recommended furnace atmosphere conditions necessary for good brazing are as follows:

  • Dew point: ≤ -40°C
  • Oxygen: < 100 ppm
  • Inert gas: nitrogen

The most common source of nitrogen is that generated from liquid nitrogen storage tanks. A typical nitrogen gas specification from a liquid source indicates that the moisture content is <1.5 ppm (dew point = -73°C) and an oxygen level of <3 ppm. In brazing furnaces however, the normal atmospheric operating conditions almost always exceed incoming nitrogen contaminant levels. This is due to water and oxygen dragged into the furnace by the incoming products, by the stainless steel mesh belt and by the potential back-streaming of factory atmosphere through the entrance and exit of the furnace. The latter will occur when the exhaust and incoming nitrogen are not properly balanced.

Many furnaces are equipped with dew point and oxygen measurement devices. It is important that the measurements are taken in the critical brazing zone of the furnace because this is where these impurities will reach their lowest concentrations. Measuring dew point or oxygen levels anywhere else in the furnace may be of academic interest, but will not represent actual brazing conditions.

Dew Point Measurement

Measuring the moisture content in the critical brazing zone of the furnace has always been a key indicator of the quality of the brazing atmosphere. Moisture can substantially influence the quality and appearance of the brazed heat exchanger as well as the first time through braze quality (% rejects).

Chilled Mirror Technology

One of the more common principles of measuring dew point is using chilled mirror technology. The measurement of the water vapor content of a gas by the dew point technique involves chilling a surface, usually a metallic mirror, to the temperature at which water on the mirror surface is in equilibrium with the water vapor pressure in the gas sample above the surface. At this temperature, the mass of water on the surface is neither increasing (too cold a surface) nor decreasing (too warm a surface).

In the chilled-mirror technique, a mirror is constructed from a material with good thermal conductivity such as silver or copper, and properly plated with an inert metal such as iridium, rubidium, nickel, or gold to prevent tarnishing and oxidation. The mirror is chilled using a thermoelectric cooler until dew just begins to form. The temperature at which dew is formed on the mirror is displayed as the dew point.

The advantage of the chilled mirror dew point meter is that it is an absolute measurement with high precision. However, this measurement technique is sensitive to pollutants and corrosive contaminants which, in the brazing process, include KAlF4 condensation and trace amounts of HF gas. Consequently, the mirror requires frequent maintenance and replacement. “Dirty” mirrors can lead to false readings.

Coulometric Measurement Principle

The principle of operation for measuring is that an electrolyte is formed by absorption of water on a highly hygroscopic surface (e.g. P2O5) and the current level obtained to electrolyze the surface is proportional to the water content. The advantage of this principle of operation is that it is insensitive to aggressive media. The disadvantage is that the precision is not as high as chilled mirror technology. Some heat exchanger manufacturers have reported good success using this measurement principle in their CAB furnaces.

Relationship between dew point and moisture content

The relationship between dew point and moisture content is not linear. It is important to note that small changes in dew point will result in large changes in actual moisture content. This is evident from the graph shown below.