Electric Arc Furnace
Melting and mixing metals for alloy creation
Ongoing
Many devices for semiconductor fabrication, aerospace, and other areas operate at high temperatures and with vacuum. To withstand high temperatures it is necessary to use a brazing alloy for welding. Brazing alloys act as a high temperature glue that hold machine parts together.
The Solution
An Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) is the best way to create these brazing alloys. It works by placing the metals you want to melt between two electrodes that run a very high voltage current between them. The electricity arcs onto the metal and heats it beyond its melting point. When multiple metals are put in the chamber, you can create alloys.
The first protoype has been designed, machined and assembled. It has a movable tungsten electrode on the top, which is great for mixing the molten metal and evenly distributing the heat. We have a water cooled copper crucible that holds the melting metals and acts as the second electrode. We designed the chamber to hold vacuum, so we can pump it full of argon, limiting unwanted oxidation during the melting process.
We are currently doing preliminary testing on the EAF. We plan to make the Cusil ABA brazing alloy consisting of 63.0% Ag, 35.25% Cu, and 1.75% Ti.