Patent ID: 7937968

Claim:
A method for bonding components made of quartz glass using a substance to substance bond by forming an SiO 2 -containing bonding mass between connecting surfaces of the components, said method comprising the following steps: (a) providing an aqueous slurry with a solid fraction of amorphous SiO 2 particles, said solid fraction having an SiO 2 content of at least 99.9 wt-%, the amorphous SiO 2 particles having particle sizes in a range of up to 500 μm, and the amorphous SiO 2 particles that have particle sizes in a range of between 1 μm and 50 μm constituting a majority by volume of the solid fraction, said aqueous slurry being derived by wet comminution of amorphous SiO 2 starting grains; (b) forming a slurry mass between the connecting surfaces which are fixed in position with regard to each other; (c) drying of the slurry mass; and (d) solidifying the slurry mass by sintering and vitrifying the sintered slurry mass so as to form the SiO 2 -containing bonding mass, the components to be bonded each having an SiO 2 content, and the bonding mass having an SiO 2 content differing from the SiO 2 content of the components to be bonded by at most 3 wt-%; wherein the sintering is performed at a first heating temperature in a sintering furnace in which the components to be connected are placed and homogeneously heated; and wherein the vitrification is performed at a second heating temperature higher than the first heating temperature using an additional directional heat source whose maximal heating effect is limited locally to the slurry mass.