Soldering Inconel and ceramics

**prickerbush** · May18-09, 10:51 AM

i am doing some research for my university involving soldering an Inconel to a ceramic. i am new to soldering in general, and im new to this lab. the inconel is nickle-chromium (dont know the composition) and i think the ceramic is Ti-oxide/Zn-oxide/Zirconium-oxide or something. basically, im having trouble getting them to bond. right now im using a 51.5-48.5 indium-tin solder. and im using a brazing furnace to run tests.

i am just wondering if anyone has any experience in this field and if they could give me a little help for my research like what filler material to use, what flux, heating rates, cleaning of the samples, anything. i cant find too many papers covering this topic.

thank you!

**Astronuc** · May20-09, 06:12 PM

I'm familiar with brazing Inconels to other Inconels and stainless steel, but not ceramic.

If one is searching use braze or brazing Inconel to ceramic rather than soldering.

One should really know the type of Inconel since Ni-Cr contents can vary widely, and one should know the ceramic composition as well. The flux or brazing compound must be chemically compatible with the Inconel and ceramic (metal oxide) substrates.

**prickerbush** · May20-09, 07:16 PM

inconel is Inconel 600 (72-14-8 Ni-Cr-Fe or something close to that) and the ceramic is titanium oxide, lead oxide, and zirconium oxide, if that helps. currently we using an argon environment for the brazing.

we have been putting a small piece of the In-Sn solder between the inconel and ceramic, wrapping it in copper wire, then putting it in the tube furnace. do you think think this method is effective? should we apply the solder to the inconel first, then put on the ceramic, then put it in the furnace to facilitate diffusion? my professor is leaving it up to me to find a solution, but i really dont have any experience with soldering.

thank you very much!

**Widefoot** · Jun4-09, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by prickerbush

inconel is Inconel 600 (72-14-8 Ni-Cr-Fe or something close to that) and the ceramic is titanium oxide, lead oxide, and zirconium oxide, if that helps. currently we using an argon environment for the brazing.

we have been putting a small piece of the In-Sn solder between the inconel and ceramic, wrapping it in copper wire, then putting it in the tube furnace. do you think think this method is effective? should we apply the solder to the inconel first, then put on the ceramic, then put it in the furnace to facilitate diffusion? my professor is leaving it up to me to find a solution, but i really dont have any experience with soldering.

thank you very much!

If you're allowing the copper wire to touch the indium solder, the
copper may contaminate the solder. It might be better to find
another wire to use for binding the parts (perhaps Ti?).

A very good info source for Indium solder use is www.indium.com, and
this page: http://www.indium.com/techlibrary/applicationnotes.php
may be helpful.

Even better: http://www.indium.com/products/solde...onmetallic.php

**Rafa** · Jul8-09, 08:12 AM

This is a paper about joining between supealloys and ceramics materials. The paper's language is spanish.

http://boletines.secv.es/upload/2009....200039647.pdf