Brazing Timeline
Years 1900-2000
1900
- E. Fouch and F. Picard develops oxyacetylene torch in France.
1901
- Soon after Charles Picards invention of the oxyacetylene blowpipe in Paris France, the invention was tasked to make a repair on a cast iron part of an acetylene pump. Quite by accident, the filler metal was high in Silicon, which prevented the formation of excessively hard white iron.
1905
- Oxyacetylene torches introduced commercially for cutting.
1910
- Charles Hyde of Great Britain is issued a patent for brazing steel tubes. By clamping two pieces into position, copper is placed in the joints as metallic strips, plating or powder mixed in a paste. Heated in a hydrogen furnace (oxygen-free atmosphere) and by capillary attraction flows copper into the joint.
1913
- Avery and Fisher develop the acetylene cylinder in Indianapolis, Indiana
1920s
- Bundy-Weld of Bundy Company, Detroit Michigan uses sheetmetal coated with a copper paste and is rolled tightly around itself and placed in a furnace. The brazed joint is formed into one piece tubing.
- Using soldering irons, soldering makes the interconnection using the point-to-point wiring method.
1920
- Torch brazing in full swing using silver and gold filler metal and mineral fluxes as protective cover.
1921
- Leslie Hancock pioneered flame cutting machine where the burner followed the path of a magnetized stylus tracking around the contour of a metal template. The stylus is propelled by a gramophone motor.
1925
- Standardization of “Hose Connections for Welding and Cutting Torches and Regulator” is presented in a standard approved by the AWS Board of Directors.
1929
- General Electric experiments with “Controlled-Atmosphere brazing”, using hydrogen gas for copper to steel brazes.
1930s
- Advancements in protective atmospheres that dissociate chromium oxide from the surface of stainless steel are performed in furnaces without the mineral flux and were found in laboratories with no commercial equivalence.
1933
- English Antiquarian, H. A. P. Littledale patents the "Littledale Process (British Patent No. 415,181 dated 1934)", following the same approach that Pliny and Theophilus wrote about from the past two millenniums. Mixing copper salts with seccotine glue ultimately would produce the following reaction {CuO+C -> Cu + CO} which is where brazing would theoretically be reached. The temperature the reaction takes place: 850C.
1937
- Norman Cole ad Walter Edmonds, both metallurgists from California, granted a Patent for their alloy named Colmonoy. Colmonoy is derived from the letters from both mens' last name COLe and edMONds and allOY.
1938
- A. F. Wall purchases Colmonoy and renames it Wall-Colmonoy and moves the operation from California to Detroit.
1939
- Floyd C. Kelly of G.E. publishes "Properties of Brazed 12% Chromium Steel" as an
early investigation of the strength of brazed joints. He highlights three models:
- Single lap tensile specimen
- 45 degree vee type tensile specimen
- Butt brazed tensile specimen
- Ultrasonic fluxless soldering is patented in Germany from an idea conceived in 1936.
1940s
- Little advancement was made in brazing as there were no dry-hydrogen facilities for brazing stainless steel and vacuum furnaces were not developed yet.
- First mass soldering technique, Dip Soldering, is used for Printed Wiring Boards (PWB) to keep up with the development of electronic equipment such as, Television, radios, etc.
- Germany was using 85Ag-15Mn as best high temperature filler metal available for the war effort. The brazement was used to braze hollow sheetmetal blades for the turbine rotors and stators.
1945
- After World War II, the Allies brought from Germany the alloy combination, 85Ag-15Mn which has a 1760°F brazing temperature.
- In 1945, after World War II, the Military Government of Germany released a report detailing the development and production on joining ceramic-to-metal vacuum tubes by scientists in Germany. The same scientists six years earlier received patents in the United States of America and assigned to General Electric Company . This method, known as Active Metal Brazing (AMB) , is for joining ceramic-to-metal and is making advances as ceramics are becoming more common in industry, such as automobile engines, hybrid microelectronic packages, and medical products [2012] . AMB first started as sintering a refractory powder on ceramic and subsequently brazed or soldered. Later the active braze alloy (AgxCuy) is doped with Titanium having a vacant d electron shell which increases the ability to react with other non-active materials such as ceramic.
1946
- Sprayweld Process (US Patent No. 2361962) is introduced using alloy powder spraying which could produce a smooth weld deposit.
1947
- Nicrobraz, developed by Robert Peaslee (Wall Colmonoy) begins the use of nickel braze filler metal in conjunction with a hydrogen furnace. A fledgeling aircraft engine industry could use this new technology to braze stainless steel tubing for connecting injectors to injector pumps on the 18 cylinder "reciprocating engines" Prior to this invention, the braze metal (85Ag-15Mn [BAg-23] 1760 degrees F) was blowing out of the tubes when the engine experienced a hot shutdown.
1948-1949
- Curtiss-Wright Corp. looks at brazing for strong, lightweight durable assemblies.
1950s
- Wave soldering is introduced to keep up with the demand of Printed Wiring Boards used in the electronics age.
1950
- Commercialization of Nickel-based filler metal is beginning to make headway into the market.
- Research on testing of brazed joint begins as serious endeavor for the next ten years.
1955
- The American Welding Society issues the Brazing Manual (First Edition) and characterizes brazed joints as either "good" or "bad".
1956
- Dr. W. H. Chang publishes "A Dew Point-Temperature Diagram for Metal-Metal Oxide equilibria in Hydrogen Atmospheres".
1957
- Braze repair process for cracks in jet engine combustion chambers and transition ducts.
1958
- AWS Committee on Brazing and Soldering is formed to develop a test for evaluating the strength of brazed joints. Robert Peaslee (Wall Colmonoy) proposes testing in the Welding Journal.
1960
- The Cold Wall-vacuum furnace is developed. (Same furnace design as of today)
1963
- The Brazing Manual (Second Edition) characterizes braze joints as either "recommended" or "not recommended".
- Fusewelder Torch (US Patent No. 3172605) is developed by Wall Colmonoy for sprayweld and surfacing.
1969
- First Brazing Conference sponsored by Wall-Colmonoy GB, is held in London where 150 were in attendance. The US provided 50 attendees and the 100 came from the UK. Evolving from the conference was the creation of several European Brazing Societies: British Association for Brazing and Soldering Society (E.A.B.S.), which includes a French, German and Netherland society. The following year the AWS C3 Conference committee held the first American brazing and soldering conference. The significance of the two brazing and soldering conferences was to pull from the desk drawers all of the research and development and get that information out to the rest of the world.
1970
- First AWS International Brazing Conference was held in conjunction withe welding conference. Twenty-four papers on brazing technology were presented creating a much need interest in the process and industry.
- As miniaturization developed from the pressure to increase component densities, Surface Mount Technology is developed. This required new ways to make soldered joints, including the development of vapor phase, infrared, hot gas and other re-flow technologies.
1991
- Brazing Handbook (Fourth Edition) shows data of filler metal and base metal failure transition which was located approximately between 1T and 2T of sheet thickness. The key to braze strength is the overlap of the joint and is used for design data (Factor of Safety).
1996
- Over 7 Million brazements are produced in the aircraft industry alone throughout the U.S. and Canada.
- Over 132 Million units of brazed automotive part are produced.