Design and characterization of novel iron‐based amorphous brazing foils based on thermodynamic predictions

Abstract

Amorphous brazing foils facilitate the brazing process due to their high flexibility. Nickel‐based amorphous brazing foils are already in industrial use. However, as the raw material price for nickel is continuously increasing, more cost‐efficient iron‐based amorphous brazing foils are currently the focus of research. In this study, three alloys in the quinary system iron‐nickel‐chrom‐silicon‐boron will be investigated, which, according to previous predictions of newly developed thermodynamic databases, should exhibit an increased glass forming ability. The production and the characterization of the new iron‐based foils will in turn serve to validate the newly developed thermodynamic databases. With one of the alloys, a new iron‐based partly amorphous brazing foil can successfully be produced, but the other two alloys are too brittle for the brazing process. The results of this study not only show that the newly developed thermodynamic database of the quinary iron‐nickel‐chrome‐silicon‐boron alloy system can provide suitable prediction on the microstructure and melting behavior of the corresponding alloys, but also that it is possible to produce a quaternary iron‐based partly amorphous foil.