Mid Semester Mini-Project Report

Diffusion welding of Stainless Steel

Submitted by Anmol Jain (Entry No: 2009ME10561) Devendra kumar (Entry No: 2009ME10576)

Supervised by Dr. S. Aravindan

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical Engineering Department Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

February 2012

Introduction In the electronics and precision machining industries many parts, such as pressure sensors with diaphragms, bellows and steel belts, are manufactured by welding together thin metallic sheets. Recently, such parts and components are being made smaller to increase their energy efficiency and achieve greater compactness. This has created the need for an advanced welding method suitable for thin foil. However, it is difficult to weld such thin foil using an ordinary processing method such as arc welding or plasma welding, as molten metal is likely to drop down before solidification due to the wide heated area. The aim of our project is to devise a method to achieve diffusion welding of thin stainless steel foils. The practicability of achieving a lap-weld by lateral application of pressure will be investigated in the course of our experiment.

Introduction and Literature Review

Recently industrial product parts and components are being made smaller to reduce energy consumption and save space, hence creating a growing need for micro-welding of thin foils. As stated above Problem of welding foils by conventional liquid state welding methods like arc welding or plasma welding method is that molten metal drops down before solidification due to wide heated area. Another proposed method is using laser beam for more precision heat control. But such a set up is costly. Therefore we look into another possibility i.e using Solid State welding method Diffusion Bonding. Diffusion bonding as defined by kazakov[1]: Diffusion bonding of materials in the solid state is a process for making a monolithic joint through the formation of bonds at atomic level, as a result of closure of the mating surfaces due to the local plastic deformation at elevated temperature which aids interdiffusion at the surface layers of the materials being joined.

Benefits of Diffusion welding[2] 1. As there is no molten state it eliminates possibility of molten metal dripping down which was a drawback in case process like arc welding, plasma welding. 2. Process has ability to produce high quality joints so that neither metallurgical discontinuities nor porosity exist across the interface
3. With properly controlled variables joint would have strength equivalent to those of parent material. 4. Dissimilar materials (foils) can be welded using diffusion bonding.

Mechanism of solid-state diffusion bonding: The mechanism of solid-state diffusion bonding can be classified into two main stages. The stages in the mechanism are represented in figure 1.

1.

Figure 1 : Stages of diffusion bonding(Ref: http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk/phase-trans/2005/Amir/bond.html)

During the first stage, the asperities on each of the faying surfaces deform plastically under applied pressure. The micro plastic deformation increases until the localised effective stress at the contact area becomes less than the yield strength of the material at the bonding temperature. As the deformation of asperities increases, more metal-to-metal contact is established because of local disruption of the relatively brittle oxide films which generally fracture readily. In the second stage of bonding, thermally activated mechanisms (creep and diffusion) lead to void shrinkage and these increases further the bonded areas causing welding.

Literature: ABE Nobuyuki, Funada Yoshinori, Imanaka Takashi, Tsukamoto Masahiro[3] on their paper on Micro Welding of Thin Stainless Steel Foil with Direct Diode Laser propose a model for welding foils using elliptical

laser beam

In lieu with same setup but instead of using laser we will be using a roller to apply pressure and heating of foils for diffusion welding we have designed a set-up which is explained in the next section. We have also studied patents regarding welding of foil edges 1. Patent Number 5,490,626 by Kaminski[, An der Friedensburg4] Abstract: Regarding overlapping welding of foil edges by heating surfaces of foil uniformly and passing them between rollers. In order to achieve uniform heating of foil edges, logitudinal ribs were provided over entire width of heating surface. 2. Patent Number 5,246,527 by Bjorkman et al. Foil-Welding Arrangement [5] Abstract: Arrangement for foil welding using two cog wheels, between which foil webs are advanced and a heat source. the heat source is compromised of heating wire which is placed in close proximity of coating parts of the cog wheels and the ends of which are connected to a current source which functions to heat the wire to a temperature above softening temperature of foil webs. The cog wheels function as web-advancing mechanism and also as part of web-welding mechanism

Work Accomplished So Far

We have done the entire literature review and understood how we have to proceed for the accomplishment of the project. We have designed a solid works model as follows:

The two foils will be heated to temperature approximately 70-80 % of stainless steel melting temperature which is around 10571208 degree Celsius. Then a roller will apply required pressure on foils causing diffusion lap welding of foils.An arrangement for seperate heating and pressure chambers is being considered. Now we have to make setup of the following model in workshop and proceed for further experimental observation. Reference 2. Kazakov N.F(1985, English version), `Diffusion Bonding of Materials', Pergamon Press. 3. http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk/phase-trans/2005/Amir/bond.html 4. http://ir.library.osakau.ac.jp/metadb/up/LIBJWRIK01/jwri34_01_019.pdf 5. http://www.patents.com/us-5490626.html 6. http://www.patents.com/us-5246527.html