Intelligent control of vacuum aluminum brazing
- North Carolina A and T State Univ., Greensboro, NC (United States)
- Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, MI (United States). Ford Research Lab.
Vacuum brazing is a versatile modern day metal joining method. It usually includes vacuum producing, heating and residual gas analyzing systems. When used to join aluminum parts, the quality of the brazed joint is highly dependent on the residual gases in the vacuum, especially the residual oxygen and water vapor in the vacuum chamber which affect the formation of oxides. These vacuum environment brazing contaminants are reduced during the out-gassing processes of degassing and desorption during heating under vacuum. Exceeding the boundary limits of these contaminants causes unacceptable flow of braze filler in the joints during the brazing process. Identification of the quality control boundary for vacuum brazing of aluminum alloy makes computer control of vacuum brazing quality for aluminum alloys possible. The present study utilizes a residual gas analyzer (RGA) to monitor the partial pressures of residual gases during brazing. These data are transported to computer through the RS-232 interface port on the RGA, and used in real time to monitor the brazing quality by an algorithm based on the quality control boundary. If the quality is bad, the computer will send a ``hold`` signal to the heating system via another Rs-232 port until the environment is reestablished within the acceptable boundary.
- OSTI ID:
- 55378
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9310328-; ISBN 1-56676-232-4; TRN: IM9525%%51
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 1993 science and technology alliance materials conference, Greensboro, NC (United States), 27-29 Oct 1993; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Science and technology alliance -- Materials conference `93; PB: 459 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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