Vacuum welding

The welding process ultimately produces strong, permanent joints formed by the interatomic bonds of the metals being welded. Great importance is attached to various advanced welding techniques. One type of such welding is vacuum welding, Provides heating to the component. This allows it to be used for joining critical components of devices and measuring instruments.

There are two types of welding: fusion welding and pressure welding. For this, the welding chamber is vented and filled with the necessary gas to create its own atmosphere. Argon is typically used, but helium, nitrogen, and mixtures of the two are also used. The argon is pumped under high pressure, up to 1 atm.

Welding is carried out in a high-pressure vacuum 10^-3-10^-4Pa. However, nitrogen is not used for welding steel, as iron and chromium nitrides formed at high temperatures make the weld porous and uneven. The selected special electrodes must ensure the quality of the weld: it must be ductile, resistant to cracking, dense, and have slag that can be easily separated from the weld.

Vacuum welding Melting is carried out using an electron beam method, using a special vacuum chamber setup, various devices for handling parts, an electron-optical system, and a pumping system. This setup performs circular axial welding and linear welding at a pressure of 5 x 10^-1-5*10^-3Pa. Vacuum welding This method is widely used in the production of rocket and space systems, propulsion systems, and microelectronics.

It is also very effective for welding refractory alloys, chemically active metals, and steel products. Vacuum welding pressure welding is a thermal diffusion welding performed under vacuum pressure of 10^-310^-2Pa. When welding dissimilar metals, the heating temperature is determined by the refractory metal or alloy. When joining difficult-to-weld materials, an intermediate spacer is used. This setup consists of a vacuum system, a system that creates the necessary pressure for operation, automation, and an electric drive. The advantages of this type of welding:

• there is no need to use solders, fluxes, electrodes, or protective environment;
• the part does not warp;
• in the connection zone the properties of the metal do not change;
• obtaining structures of various shapes;
• maintaining the accuracy of the product's shape;
• a wide range of thicknesses of parts to be welded.

Not long ago, the Moscow Higher Technical School – Moscow Power Engineering Institute developed a method vacuum welding A consumable electrode, which is interesting because the arc burns in metal vapor. This method is very practical for joining thick-walled non-ferrous alloys. It's a fairly productive method, and the quality of such a joint is very high, as the heating is very concentrated. Thus, thanks to advanced technology, vacuum welding allows you to achieve good results in strong and reliable connection of materials.