Partially alloyed filler sheet for brazing of Ti and its alloys fabricated by spark plasma sintering method

Partially alloyed filler metals in the form of powders and laminated foils were used for the brazing of Ti and Ti alloys to lower the manufacturing cost. In this study, by using a raw elemental powder mixture, a multi-component filler sheet with a nominal composition of 37.5Ti–37.5Zr–15Cu–10Ni was fabricated using a Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) machine in the temperature range from 650 °C to 785 °C for 1 min. As the sintering temperature was increased from 650 °C to 750 °C, the bending strength of the sheets tended to rise, but the bending strength at 785 °C was drastically reduced. The melting range of the sheets became similar to that of the as-cast alloy. The sheets sintered at 750 °C showed the highest bending strength of 259 MPa, which was much higher than that of the as-cast material, and the melting range of this sheet was from 800 °C to 852 °C. The relatively high strength of the sheet was due to the remaining elemental powders such as Ti or Zr, but the brittle intermetallics, such as Ti2Cu and (Ti,Zr)2Ni Laves phases, formed in the sheet during the sintering process deteriorated its mechanical strength. The partially developed eutectic phase between the remaining Ti or Zr powder caused the sheet to exhibit melting behavior similar to that of the as-cast alloy. The brazability of the sheet sintered at 750 °C was examined with commercially pure Ti at 870 °C for 5–60 min. The tensile strength of the Ti joint brazed for 30 min was 431 MPa, which was close to that of the base metal.