Liquid infiltrated powder interlayer bonding: A process for large gap joining

The liquid infiltrated powder interlayer bonding (LIPIB) process is proposed to make large gap, transient liquid phase joints. Some basic aspects of the LIPIB process are discussed. In the LIPIB process, a joint with high mechanical properties requires a low volume fraction of porosity in the powder interlayer and low concentrations of melting point depressants in the joint. To achieve the fully infiltrated large gap joint, it is essential to maintain an open pore structure at the initial stage of infiltration, while allowing complete elimination of pores behind the infiltration front. Approximate analytical solutions are applied to describe dissolution of capillaries and isothermal diffusional solidification during infiltration. Calculations based on the Cu–Ag binary system show that infiltration kinetics are strongly affected by the geometry of the capillaries. When the effective capillary size is smaller than the critical effective capillary radius at a certain infiltration temperature, the isothermal solidification time will be less than the time required for full infiltration, leading to an incompletely infiltrated powder interlayer. Full infiltration of powder compacts requires tight control of the rearrangement rate of the particles such that a relatively large capillary radius can be maintained to prevent diffusional solidification before full infiltration. Meanwhile, the rearrangement should be able to close the pores behind the infiltration front. Small amounts of chromium or nickel powder addition into spherical copper powders were found to affect the rearrangement significantly, whereas little effect was observed for irregular copper powders. Copper–copper square joints with clearance up to 22 mm have been successfully made.