Induction brazing of thin-walled pipes from AISI 304 steel using copper-based solder

Pipes made of austenitic stainless steels are widely used in automotive industry. They are connected together or to other components by different joining technologies. The quality of produced joints is often critically important for passenger safety assurance. The joint lifetime is significantly influenced by their corrosion behaviour. The paper deals with induction brazing of thin-walled pipes from austenitic stainless steel using high corrosion-resistant Cu-Ni solder. To design appropriate parameters of induction heating, the effective method of numerical simulation of induction heating using the software ANSYS was applied. Simulation model for evaluation of electro-magnetic and temperature fields in the process of induction brazing of exhaust pipes from AISI 304 steel using copper-based solder was developed and verified by experimental temperature measurement during pipe induction heating. Based on performed numerical experiments and results of numerical simulations, appropriate parameters and operating diagram for the induction brazing of thin-walled pipes of the AISI 304 steel using copper-based solder were suggested. (paper)