Enhancing the CuCrZr/316L HIP-joint by Ni electroplating

Highlights: • The quality of CuCrZr/316L HIP-joint can be enhanced by nickel electroplating on CuCrZr and 316L. • Nickel layer can prevent the occurrence of nickel-poor region in 316L and protect CuCrZr from oxidation. • A Charpy Impact Value as high as 111.5 ± 3.3 J/cm² can be obtained by HIP at 980 °C, 140 MPa for 2 h. • At high temperature, CuCrZr is easily oxidized even in the situation of a high vacuum degree of 2 × 10⁻⁵ Pa. - Abstract: The quality of CuCrZr/316L joint is crucial for the safety of ITER hypervapotron cooling structure and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) is an important bonding technique for this structure. In this paper, the authors present a finding that the CuCrZr/316L HIP-joint can be enhanced by nickel electroplating on 316L and CuCrZr. A Charpy Impact Value as high as 111.5 ± 3.3 J/cm², which is more than two times the value in a published article, is obtained. The influence of nickel electroplating is twofold: (1) it can prevent the occurrence of nickel-poor region in 316L and the formation of ferrite; (2) it can protect CuCrZr from oxidation during the heating stage of HIP. However, tensile test is not as effective as Charpy Impact Test in characterizing the bonding quality of the CuCrZr/316L HIP-joint. The surface treatment employed in this study is amenable to batch-scale industrial manufacturing at low cost.