Welding & Metal Fabrication: Brazing & Soldering

Brazing is a group of welding processes which produce coalescence of materials by heating them to a suitable temperature and by using a filler metal having a liquidus above 450oC and below the solidus of the base metals. Filler materials for brazing are covered by an AWS specification. They are classified according to analysis: aluminum-silicon, copper, copper-zinc, copper-phosphorus, copper-gold, heat-resisting materials, magnesium, and silver are the basic groupings.

Soldering is a process in which two or more metal items are joined together by melting and flowing a filler metal into the joint, the filler metal having a relatively low melting point. A solder is a fusible metal alloy with a melting point or melting range of 90 to 450°C, used in a process called soldering where it is melted to join metallic surfaces. It is especially useful in electronics and plumbing.

Soldering is a group of joining processes which produces coalescence of material by heating them to a suitable temperature and by using a filler metal having a liquidus not exceeding 450oC and below the solidus of the base metals. Like brazing and other joining processes, soldering involves several fields of science, including mechanics, chemistry and metallurgy. Soldering is a simple operation, consisting of the relative placements of the parts to be joined, wetting the surfaces with molten solder, and allowing the solder to cool until it has solidified.