Method for brazing with simultaneous carburization

Abstract: The present invention allows simultaneous brazing and selective carburisation of ferric articles by wrapping the part of the article to be carburised in a carbonaceous material before brazing, the heat of the furnace serving to carburise the article by its action on the carbonaceous material.

Description: This invention relates to a heat treatment method by which the brazing of ferric articles and their carburization are simultaneously made, according to the preamble of claim 1. As a method for joining ferric machinery articles, it is known to braze them in a specific furnace atmosphere and without employing any flux. This kind of brazing method is free from adversely affecting qualities of articles to be treated, and suitable for treating a number of articles in succession. Carburization is also known to improve anti-abrasion and anti-fatigue characteristics of outer surfaces of ferric articles by having carbon penetrated from the outer surfaces and diffused inwardly to form hardened layers. Generally, the aforementioned kind of brazing and carburization are made separately in independent furnaces. However, an example is described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-3792, in which the brazing and carburization of ferric parts are made in a single furnace. In this instance, the parts are brazed in a brazing zone kept at about 1,120°C, and then, transferred into a carburization zone which succeeds to the brazing zone of the same furnace and which are divided to three zonal chambers each kept at about 1,000°C, 950°C, and 850°C. In said zonal chambers, in which a temperature of an endothermic or exothermic atmosphere gas is lowered stepwise to the above-mentioned degrees, carburization is made by adding a hydrocarbon gas to the atmosphere gas. This method is advantageous, compared to conventional two-process methods, since it does not require to heat articles once again from the begining for the carburization thereof, it minimizes installations, and it requires less manpower, whereby processing costs will be reduced. However, it is very difficult though not impossible to control a carburization atmosphere accurately under predetermined temperatures in each zonal chambers, or to control, in other words, gas potentials as desired in each zonal chambers, because the zonal chambers can not be exactly separated to each other. It is disadvantageous in this method that when an exothermic gas is added by hydrocarbon gas so that it can have a carbon potential of about 1.0% carbon and accordingly it can be effective to perform carburization, the chambers will be sooted. In another example in which the brazing and carburization are made simultaneously in a single furnace, its brazing has to be made at a temperature suited to carburization, viz., 900-950°C. This compels to use solders made from Cu or Ag alloys which have a low melting point, and excludes the employment of pure copper as a solder, although the pure copper is the most stable materials for brazing ferric or steel articles and inexpensive. It shall be noted also that the aforementioned conventional carburization methods are for making the carburization of the whole parts of articles, and that they do not aim to carburize selected parts only of the articles. As explained above, it is possible only with much disadvantages such as the occurrance of soot to control an exothermic gas so that it can have a carbon potential of about 1.0% carbon or to control an endothermic gas so that it can have a carbon potential of 0.9% carbon, if carburization is to be made at a brazing temperature suitable to the use of copper solders, viz., 1,120-1,130°C. The brazing is, therefore, conducted at said temperature range of 1,120-1,130°C first and separately from the carburization. Then, articles which have been brazed, are transferred to another chamber or furnace, whereby the articles will have been cooled. The articles are reheated to have a temperature suited for the carburization, that is, about 900-1,000°C, at which temperature an atmospheric gas can readily be controlled to have a carbon potential proper to the carburization. This way of processing looks like merely training a brazing furnace and a carburizing furnace. Especially when an elongated furnace with continuously moving conveyor belts is employed, it becomes more difficult to control a furnace atmosphere so that it has a constant carbon potential, because the temperature of such furnace atmosphere differs at each zones such as preheating, heating, and cooling zones, while a carbon potential is greatly dependent upon a temperature. Brief Description of the Invention In view of the above, this invention is to provide a method for carburizing of selected parts only of ferric articles, simultaneously with the brazing of said articles by copper solders in a conventional brazing furnace employing an exothermic gas atmosphere, in which method the carburization and the brazing do not impose any limitation or restriction to each other operations. Brazing of ferric or steel articles by copper solders is generally performed by elevating their temperatures in a furnace atmosphere of an exothermic gas made from LPG such as propane and butane, and then by having the copper solders melted at about 1,130°C on selected parts of articles to be brazed. Such gas is typically consisted of H₂ (8.74%), CO (8.75%), N₂ (73.29%), H₂O (0.86%), and CO₂ (8.37%). The gas atmosphere of such constituents is brought about to equilibrium in a brazing zone of about 1,100°C, and is then reductive to steel and copper, whereby molten copper spreads well over steel surfaces to be brazed and is well wettable with steel to produce good brazed articles. However, since a carbon potential the atmosphere gas of said constituents has against steel at 1,100°C is lower than 0.001% carbon, it can hardly be effective to make carburization even if it is added by hydrocarbon gas. JP-A-59-219466 discloses simultaneous carburising and brazing. However, carburisation is effected by gases, so that the parts of the article not intended to be carburised must be covered with a protective agent. Furthermore, the article must first be heated to melt the brazing material, subsequent to which the article is then transferred to the carburising temperature and carburised. Thus, this process is neither truly simultaneous nor can it provide selective carburisation. JP-A-62-80259 discloses carburisation without simultaneous brazing. The method disclosed comprises wrapping the article to be carburised in a solid carburiser consisting of about 70 percent charcoal and about 30 percent barium carbonate. We have now discovered that simultaneous brazing and selective carburisation of ferric articles can be achieved by wrapping the part of the article to be carburised in a carbonaceous material before brazing, the heat of the furnace serving to carburise the article by its action on the carbonaceous material. Thus, in a first aspect, the present invention provides a method for brazing and carburising a ferric article comprising brazing the article in a furnace with a suitable solder, especially copper solder, and carburising the desired parts of the article, characterised in that the parts of the article to be carburised are brought into contact with a material, whose constituents include carbon and oxygen, before introduction into the furnace, such that heat from the furnace causes carburisation of the article by its action on the material. The material preferably comprises carbonaceous fibres, although any suitable material may be used. It will be appreciated that the term "material" is not limited to solids or fabrics, although these are preferred, and may comprise suitable liquids or gels for example. One suitable gel might be a phenol-containing petroleum jelly. Preferred materials are selected from newspaper, cotton cloth, phenolic fibres, filter paper and/or carbonic phenolic fibres, as these naturally contain carbon and oxygen, and many other materials also containing cellulose, lignin and other carbohydrates, such as hemicellulose, starch, sugars and their derivatives, may also be used advantageously. The material is preferably wrapped about the part of the article to be carburised, and it is advantageous to wet the material before application to the article, as this ensures close association with the surface to be carburised, and helps to ensure even carburisation. It is preferable to dry the material after this operation to prevent excess moisture in the furnace. Any water may also slow down the process so that carburisation is not complete. It is also preferred to protect the material from the furnace gas by a suitable cover or sealant, such as described below. It is desirable to enhance carburisation by the provision of a catalyst, especially by soaking the material, such as newspaper in a solution of the catalyst, wrapping the article in the paper and then drying before heating. Thus, there is provided a method as described above, wherein a carburisation catalyst is provided, especially by wetting the material with an aqueous solution of the catalyst. The most preferred catalyst is barium carbonate. In an alternative aspect, there is provided a method for making brazing with carburising simultaneously, in which ferric articles to be brazed are covered at their selective portions to be carburised by oxygen contained organic materials, and then the articles are subjected to a brazing temperature of or higher than 1100°C in a reductive gas atmosphere in a heating furnace. Even under such circumstances of gas atmosphere which are most suitable for copper brazing but are not capable to make carburization, the carburization of ferric or steel articles,particularly carburization of selected portions of such articles is achieved in this invention. To wit, in this invention, those parts of articles to be carburized are coated or covered by such solid or liquid organic or carbohydrate materials which contain oxygen and produce CO and H₂ when heated, and the surfaces of the organic or carbohydrate materials are protected, after they have been dried, by metallic covers, ceramics of low permeability, carbonous heat-resisting coatings or adhesives. The articles thus prepared are subjected to brazing in a furnace, whereby they are brazed and their selected parts are simultaneously carburized. For example, an old newspaper is employed as carbohydrate materials. The paper which has been impregnated with a 5% aqueous suspension of pulverized barium carbonate (BaCO₃), is wound up or applied over parts of articles to be carburized. After the newspaper would up over the parts are protected by graphitic adhesives and dried, the articles are brazed and simultaneously carburized in an exothermic gas atmosphere in a brazing furnace. This gas atmosphere may be replaced by an endothermic gas, inert gas, or hydrogen gas. Newspapers which can be expressed chemically as C₆H₁₂O₆, are converted to CO and H₂ of about 50% each when they are hermetically heated to a high temperature. At the highest temperature of 1,130°C of a copper brazing operation, carbon potentials of newspapers thus thermally converted, are CO/CO₂=50/0.09, viz., about 0.97% carbon, which are proper for carburization. Carburization is made at a certain stage during articles proceed in a furnace and are heated and cooled from 900 to 1,130°C and then again to 900°C. For example, when a temperature curve of gas atmosphere in a continuous conveyor belt type brazing furnace is set to be most proper to copper brazing, the travelling time required for the conveyor belt to pass through the furnace is generally made 15 to 30 minutes. In other words, articles to be brazed and simultaneously be carburized pass through the furnace in 15 to 30 minutes. Although the articles are subjected to carburization for 4 to 5 minutes only among said 15 to 30 minutes, they are carburized well in this invention to have a carburization depth of 0.3 to 0.4mm, primarily on accout of the carburization being made in this invention at a temperature as high as 1,100°C, and preferably or additinally being assisted by a catalystic function by BaCO₃. This invention will be explained below more in concrete by the following example and with reference to the accompanying drawings. Brief Description of Drawings Fig. 1 is an explanatory side view partly in section of one of conventional continuous furnaces, which is employed to perform brazing and carburization simultaneously in accordance with this invention; Fig. 2 shows a temperature curve by which the furnace is operated; Fig. 3 is an explanatory perspective view of steel article which was treated in the following example; and Fig. 4 is a microscopic picture (X 100), showing carburized structures of the article at portion B thereof cut out vertically. Example A furnace for brazing steel articles by means of copper solders which is shown in Fig. 1, was employed. The furnace was mounted with an endless meshed conveyor belt made of a heat-resistant steel, and employed as a reductive atmosphere therein an exothermic gas prepared from hydrocarbon such as propane and butane. The furnace had a heating chamber 1, which was communicated to a cooling chamber 2. The conveyor belt 3 was circulated through the heating and cooling chambers, being driven by driving means 4. Articles 5 which were made of steel in this example and were to be treated in the furnace, were conveyed through the furnace, being mounted upon the conveyor belt 3. Numeral 6 is an inlet for sending into the furnace the above-mentioned atmosphere gas, while numerals 7 indicate an outlet for said gas. Brazing temperature was made 1,130°C at the highest, as shown in Fig. 2, and the articles 5 passed through the furnace in about 30 minutes. Constituents of the exothermic gas employed after it had been dehydrated by cooling it to 5°C, were as follows. CO%=8.75, CO₂%=8.37, H₂%=8.74, H₂O%=0.86, and N₂%=73.29 The gas having said constituents is reductive against steel, while its carbon potentials at 1,130°C are as low as 0.001% carbon only which are of decarburizing characteristics. Under the above conditions, to a side of a steel bucket a steel pipe which had been temporarily joined to said side, was fixedly brazed by a pure copper solder at A , as shown in Fig. 3, while the portion B of the pipe was carburized. The portion B of the pipe was wound up in a thickness of about 1mm by a newspaper impregnated with a 5% aqueous suspension of barium carbonate, and after said newspaper had been dried, its outer surface was protectively coated by graphitic adhesives and dried again. The steel bucket and pipe thus prepared and with the pure copper solder at the part A were travelled through the furnace under the heat curve shown in Fig. 2, primarily in order to copper braze the part A , while secondarily to carburize the portion B . The part A was brazed satisfactorily. In order to know how the portion B was carburized, the pipe was cut at C shown in Fig. 3. A microscopic picture of said cut-out portion of pipe was as shown in Fig. 4, in which a whitish part in the right side in the picture is a natural structure of the steel pipe, while a blackish part having a curved outline next to and in the left side of the whitish part is a cauburized layer having a depth of about 0.4mm. Further, in order to affirm effects achieved by this invention for the carburization, squeezing tests were made. The results are as shown in the following Table 1. As shown by the above Table 1, the pipe treated in accordance with this invention had a strength of about 1.77 times of the same pipe subjected to a conventional brazing heat treatment. In addition to old newspapers employed in the above example as a carburizing agent, other materials were employed as shown in the following Table 2 in which respective carburization depth is also given. As descrived above, this invention can be carried with conventional brazing furnaces without any addition or modification thereto specifically for the carburization. This is one of the advantages of this invention, compared to other prior methods for the simultaneous brazing and carburization. It is one of the advantageous effects of this invention that the carburization at a temperature as high as 1,100°C is effectively operable in a comparatively short period of time, compared to other prior methods for the simultaneous brazing and carburization in which the carburizing at such high temperature is impossible. Accordingly, this invention provides a novel brazing method accompanied with the simultaneous carburization, which is economic and requires less manpower.

Claims: A method for brazing and carburising a ferric article comprising brazing the article in a furnace with a suitable solder, especially copper solder, and carburising the desired parts of the article, characterised in that the parts of the article to be carburised are brought into contact with a solid or liquid material, whose constituents include carbon and oxygen, before introduction into the furnace, such that heat from the furnace causes carburisation of the article by its action on the material. A method according to claim 1, wherein the material comprises carbonaceous fibres. A method according to claim 2, wherein the material is selected from newspaper, cotton cloth, phenolic fibres, filter paper and/or carbonic phenolic fibres. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the material is wetted before application to the article, and dried before entering the furnace. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the material is wrapped about the part of the article to be carburised. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the material is protected from the furnace gas by a suitable cover or sealant. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein a carburisation catalyst is provided, especially by wetting the material with an aqueous solution of the catalyst. A method according to claim 7, wherein the catalyst is impregnated in the material. A method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the catalyst is barium carbonate. A method according to any preceding claim for brazing and carburising simultaneously, in which ferric articles to be brazed are selectively covered at the portions to be carburised by an oxygen-containing organic material, the articles then being subjected to a brazing temperature of, or higher than, 1100°C in a reductive gas atmosphere in a heating furnace.

Inventors: TAKAHASHI SUSUMU, TAKAHASHI, SUSUMU
Applicants: KANTO YAKIN KOGYO, KANTO YAKIN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1991
Main classification: B23K1
IPC codes: C23C8, B23K1, B23K31