Morgan Technical Ceramics (MTC) announced that its Wesgo Metals site in Hayward, Calif., now offers custom brazing services, including active metal brazing, a process that allows metal to be bonded directly to ceramic without metallization.
Active metal brazing eliminates several steps in the joining process and creates an extremely strong, hermetic seal. MTC uses active metal braze alloys that can meet a wide range of service conditions, facilitating the joining of materials and components that could never before be accomplished. The process is especially beneficial in medical, aerospace and oil exploration applications. MTC has developed several braze alloy compositions, which will directly bond ceramic to metal or other materials, including graphite and diamond. Applications include brazing industrial diamonds onto ceramics or metal components for heat spreaders or ceramic windows, as well as brazing graphite to substrates such as titanium for incredibly stable ion traps. Alloy compositions vary and include those designed for use in a variety of settings, from very low temperatures to very high temperature applications, around 500 to 1000°C. MTC selects the alloy to meet the specific service temperature conditions as well as the requirements of all the components to be joined.MTC’s high end brazing services are used in the medical market for implantable hearing aids and minimally invasive surgical tools. For the aerospace industry, MTC offers compositions of ceramics ideal for brazing to metals for use in the extremely high temperatures found in modern day jet engines. Applications here include ceramic nozzles for turbine engines, new turbine vane systems and super alloy engine parts. The oil industry also uses MTC’s custom brazing services, for applications such as bonding metal drill bits with diamond or silicon carbide. “MTC has been perfecting active metal brazing for the past two decades, which adds to available material brazing options and facilitates cost-effective one-step joining,” said Tom Sandin, Wesgo Metals product manager. “We also develop our own brazing alloys, making us unique in the industry. Some of the newer applications, including brazing metal to graphite used in heat exchangers for cutting edge aerospace applications, simply would not have been possible if the components had to be metalized first to facilitate brazing.” In addition to its brazing capabilities, MTC offers complete in-house chemical and metallurgical testing to determine if active brazing is feasible for use in specific parts. MTC also conducts research on which of its braze alloy compositions would be best for a particular application. For more information, please contact Keith Ferguson at 650-208-0391 or Keith.ferguson@morganplc.com.
