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Enhancing Aluminum Alloy Brazing Joint Strength by Using Zn-Al-Cu Filler Metal

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Abstract

It is difficult to select a suitable filler for brazing of 6XXX series aluminum alloys due to their low solidus temperature. In this paper, five kinds of Zn-Al-Cu filler alloys were developed for high-frequency induction brazing of 6A02-T6 aluminum alloy. The nominal liquidus of filler metals ranges from 465.6 to 509.3 °C. The phase compositions of the filler metal are Al + Zn, CuAl2, CuZn4, and Al4.2Cu3.2Zn0.7. The results show that reliable joining of 6A02 aluminum alloy is achieved with novel Zn-Al-Cu filler metal under suitable processing parameters. A transition layer was formed at the brazing interface due to the interdiffusion of Zn and Al, which was the reason for metallurgical bonding. The addition of Cu to form intermetallic compounds was found to contribute to the improvement of joint strength. But too much Cu will increase the brittleness of the joint. The optimal composition of filler metal in this study is Zn-36Al-22.7Cu (wt.%). The maximum shear strength of the joint reached 101.3 MPa when brazing at 530 °C for 90 s with the Zn-36Al-22.7Cu (wt.%) filler metal.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51875037), Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (No. 3192021), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. FRF-GF-19-002A).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Gaoyang Yu, Haodong Sun, Shuhai Chen, Tianpeng Zou, Jihua Huang, Jian Yang & Zhiyi Zhao

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  1. Gaoyang Yu
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  2. Haodong Sun
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Correspondence to Shuhai Chen or Zhiyi Zhao.

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Yu, G., Sun, H., Chen, S. et al. Enhancing Aluminum Alloy Brazing Joint Strength by Using Zn-Al-Cu Filler Metal. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 31, 2410–2418 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-021-06370-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-021-06370-3

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