Objective: A customer working in the Oil and Gas industry is looking for a new brazing method to improve their process and have better control and results.
The client needs to heat a special wire assembly which includes stainless steel outer jacket, an inner gold wire, and a glass center conductor. They used resistance brazing, but the parts are expensive, and the need for reliable and safe technology is apparent.
Brazing with induction heating is the recommended method for this kind of application. Although the productivity rate is low, the implementation of induction brazing will increase the volumes and have fewer losses.
Industry: Oil and Gas industry
Equipment: The lab unit we used for the test was UltraHeat SM – 5 kW with reduced power. We consider the appropriate heating power supply is a compact UltraHeat S series – 2 kW.
Process: For this application test, we accepted the challenge to brazing a very tiny area of the tube – it is 0.50-1″ (1.27-2.54 cm) in length. The dimension of the stainless steel tube is 0.0625” (0.159 cm) OD and of the gold tube – 0.011” (0.028 cm) OD. Additionally, we had to use a braze alloy.
The key requirements were a max temperature of 1250°F (~677°C) and a max heat cycle of 5 seconds. During the test, we achieved a heat cycle of ~5 seconds with 600 W power and 1112°F (600°C).
Benefits: In this kind of wire brazing application, one of the most important things is time. For this process, we achieved a short cycle time with the induction heating, and this will allow optimizing technology. In the future production process could be automated.
Reference Info: Application Note 3463-7119
Read more about other induction brazing applications.
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