Laser brazing for high performance hermetic seal of aluminum products

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Summo Steel Corp. explore the feasibility of laser processing technology that potentially provide high performance aluminum (Al) based hermetic seal for air condition (AC) application used in Canada. The Al provide low weight as alternative to the steel components with benefit of reduce the fuel consumption of the vehicle. The potential usage of a laser technique will provide following advantages to the competitiveness of typical existing manual brazing technology: (1) fast and effective of join formation with potential automation; (2) minimum flux contamination compare to the traditional manual brazing; (3) potential automation to improve process consistency and quality; (4) minimize heat distortion of the parts during processing and (5) minimize Al oxidation at high temperature using shielding gas during laser processing, therefore, reduce excessive heat upon joining. The laser brazing has been suggested as a promising alternative for next generation of product for Summo Steel Corp. Summo is actively seeking to engage in research collaboration with Prof. N.Zhou's Center for Advance Methods Joining (CAMJ) at the University of Waterloo to study the feasibility of laser brazing process, in order to form high quality Al/Al alloy joint with minimum use of flux. The proposed project will explore the laser brazing process parameters, mechanical properties of the joining seal will be evaluated based on the Al alloy coupons and brazing filler/flux to be defined and provided by Summo as initial feasibility study.