Soldering alloy
AssigneeEdison Welding Institute, Inc.
InventorPeter Hall
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A new soldering technique and solder alloy for wetting and joining hard-to-wet materials including titanium alloys such as nitinol uses a solder alloy containing tin and an active wetting promoting element such as aluminum in the presence of ultrasound. As shown in the Figure, molten solder alloy (10) is applied to the hard-to-wet material (18) with the application of ultrasonic energy (14) which removes coatings (20) such as tenacious surface oxides to leave the base material (18) which is readily wetted by the solder alloy (20).
Claims23
A method for producing a solder wetted area on a hard-to-wet work piece comprising the steps of:
- a) heating sufficiently a soldering alloy consisting essentially of tin and an active wetting promoting element selected from the group of active wetting promoting elements consisting of aluminum, calcium, magnesium, silicon, and mixtures thereof to produce a molten solder alloy;
- b) contacting an area of said hard-to-wet work piece with said molten solder alloy;
- and
- c) applying sufficient ultrasonic energy to said molten solder alloy while contacting said area to produce a solder wetted joint area on said work piece.
A method for producing a solder wetter area on a hard-to-wet work piece comprising the steps of:
- a) heating sufficiently a soldering alloy consisting essentially of about 97 to about 98 weight percent tin and about 2 to about 3 weight percent aluminum as an active wetting promoting element to produce a molten solder alloy;
- b) contacting an area of said hard-to-wet work piece with said molten solder alloy;
- and
- c) applying sufficient ultrasonic energy to said molten solder alloy while contacting said area to produce a solder wetted joint area on said work piece.
A method for producing a solder wetted area on a hard-to-wet nickel-titanium alloy work piece comprising the steps of:
- a) heating sufficiently a soldering alloy consisting essentially of tin and an active wetting promoting element selected from the group of active wetting promoting elements consisting of aluminum, calcium, magnesium, silicon, and mixtures thereof to produce a molten solder alloy;
- b) contacting an area of said nickel-titanium alloy hard-to-wet work piece with said molten solder alloy;
- and
- c) applying sufficient ultrasonic energy to said molten solder alloy while contacting said area to produce a solder wetted joint area on said work piece.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.