Microwave brazing process

Abstract

A process for heating a braze alloy by microwave radiation so that heating of the alloy is selective and sufficient to cause complete melting of the alloy and permit metallurgical bonding to a substrate on which the alloy is melted, but without excessively heating the substrate so as not to degrade the properties of the substrate. The process entails providing metallic powder particles having essentially the same metallic composition, with at least some of the particles being sufficiently small to be highly susceptible to microwave radiation. A mass of the particles is then applied to a surface of a substrate, after which the mass is subjected to microwave radiation so that the particles within the mass couple with the microwave radiation and sufficiently melt to metallurgically bond to the substrate. The microwave radiation is then interrupted and the mass is allowed to cool, solidify, and form a solid brazement.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.