Background
The development of the flux heat transfer industry requires the lowest possible final cost to manufacture high quality materials and components, heat exchanger brazing being most often produced in an atmosphere of nitrogen and containing the least possible amount of oxygen impurities. This process is known as controlled atmosphere brazing ("CAB") and also includes Al-K-F based fluxes, such as applied Nocolok flux, which are decomposed by adding a brazing flux, dissolved to remove oxide films to form a wet, molten solder.
Post-braze flux residues, however, are generally considered to be detrimental to heat exchangers because they may spread over brazed aluminum surfaces or plugged internal channels, thereby preventing efficient heat exchange with the heat exchanger. The fluoride flux post-braze residue adheres tightly to the surface of the aluminum component, does not readily dissolve, for some complex structures such as honeycomb, complex or narrow passages in the heat exchanger, and can only be mechanically wiped off, easily retaining a large residue, and is difficult to clean completely. And in the brazing process with the brazing flux, a large amount of toxic gas is generated, and the health and safety of operators are seriously damaged. In addition, during the brazing process, the flux remaining inside the tubes accelerates the corrosion rate of the material, resulting in perforation of the heat exchanger, reducing the service life of the heat exchanger.
In the 70's of the 20 th century, vacuum or inert gas shielded brazing processes were emerging. The process utilizes the diffusion phenomenon of magnesium and the characteristic that the magnesium is easy to volatilize from the aluminum-magnesium alloy and pierce through an oxide film on the surface of the aluminum-magnesium alloy to enable the brazing filler metal to flow. The process eliminates the necessity of removing residues after the brazing of chlorides and fluorides, and reduces the influence of brazing and corrosion on aluminum alloy and heat conduction of a radiator. However, the requirements for the vacuum degree and the oxygen content of the brazing process are strict, and the development is slow for a while. In recent years, the requirements for the degree of vacuum and the oxygen content are reduced due to the addition of an intermediate layer or a covering layer and the addition of Bi and Mg elements to a brazing layer, and a fluxless brazing technology is developed and is expected by customers. However, these fluxless brazing techniques have drawbacks and need to be improved,
WO 2010052231 a1 and CN 103347643 a provide a flux-free material structure, respectively, both of which are flux-free material with the brazing layer on the outermost side, and when the oxygen content of the brazing atmosphere is high, the brazing layer contains magnesium and diffuses for a long time to form a large amount of magnesium oxide, and also to hinder the fusion of the brazing joint. In addition, although the requirements on the vacuum degree and the oxygen content are high, the requirements are that the vacuum degree and the oxygen content are several ppm, the oxygen content outside the brazing piece is several ppm, the inner part is a closed space, the outer part is equivalent to an open space, the outer space of the brazing piece is infinite relative to the inner space, so that the inner part is welded well, the outer part is oxidized seriously due to the relatively high oxygen content, a thicker oxide film is formed, the welding quality is poor, and the bottleneck problem of the prior brazing flux-free industry is solved.
In response to this problem, it is a critical need in the industry to develop a new method for reducing or eliminating the effect of oxide film. US2015053751a1 discloses a method of alkaline cleaning, but the material alloy is free of magnesium, there is no volatilization of magnesium and no reaction of several ppm of oxygen or water vapor outside the braze, it is difficult to remove the effect of oxygen in the outside space on the oxide film, resulting in braze still being unsatisfied.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a method for preparing alkali-washing brazing flux-free or vacuum brazing sheets, which overcomes the defects in the prior art.
The alkali-washing brazing flux-free or vacuum brazing material comprises a brazing layer and a core layer;
one side or two sides of the core layer are brazing layers;
preferably, the brazing core further comprises a brazing inner layer, wherein the brazing inner layer is arranged between the brazing layer and the core layer;
the core layer is as follows: 1xxx or 3xxx or 5xxx or 6xxx or 7 xxx;
the term 1xxx represents aluminum alloy 1-series alloys, i.e., commercially pure aluminum;
the term 3xxx stands for aluminum alloy 3-series alloys, a series of alloys with aluminum manganese as the major element;
the term 5xxx stands for aluminum alloy 5-series alloys, a series of alloys with aluminum magnesium as the major element;
the term 6xxx stands for aluminum alloy 6-series alloys, a series of alloys with aluminum, silicon, magnesium as the main element;
the term 7xxx stands for aluminum alloy 7-series alloys, a series of alloys with aluminum, zinc, magnesium, copper as the major element.
The brazing layer comprises the following components in percentage by mass:
5-15% of Si, less than 0.3% of Fe, 0-2% of Mg, 0-5% of Zn, 0-0.3% of Bi0 and the balance of aluminum;
when the brazing inner layer is arranged, the brazing inner layer comprises the following components in percentage by mass:
5-15% of Si, less than 0.3% of Fe, 0-2% of Mg, 0-5% of Zn, 0-0.3% of Bi0 and the balance of aluminum;
the brazing layer comprises the following components in percentage by mass:
si3-11%, Fe not more than 0.3%, Bi0-0.3%, Zn 0-1%, and the balance of aluminum;
preferably, the brazing layer comprises the following components in percentage by mass:
si 3-10%, Fe not more than 0.3%, Bi 0-0.2%, Zn 0-1%, and the balance of aluminum;
more preferably, the brazing layer contains the following components in percentage by mass:
4.5 to 10 percent of Si, less than or equal to 0.26 percent of Fe, 0 to 0.15 percent of Bi0, 0 to 1 percent of Zn, and the balance of aluminum;
the multi-layer aluminum alloy brazing flux-free material comprises the following components in percentage by weight:
the composite ratio of the brazing outer layer is 0.1-10%, and the preferred composite ratio is 0.2-5%;
the composite ratio of the brazing layer is 5-20%, and the preferred composite ratio is 6-12%;
the balance is the core layer composite ratio.
The composite ratio refers to the percentage of each layer of material in the aluminum alloy composite material, namely the percentage of each layer of thickness in the total thickness.
The total thickness of the alkali-washing brazing-flux-free or vacuum brazing plate is 0.1mm to 3 mm;
the preparation method of the alkali-cleaning brazing-flux-free or vacuum brazing sheet comprises the following steps:
casting an ingot by using alloy casting equipment, carrying out homogenizing annealing on the core layer and the brazing layer at 480-500 ℃ for 1-2 h respectively, then carrying out hot rolling to form a sheet, welding the layers together, carrying out hot rolling at 480-500 ℃, then carrying out cold rolling, and finally annealing, wherein the annealing temperature is 350 ℃, and the annealing time is 1-2 h, so that the product can be obtained.
The alkali-cleaning brazing-flux-free or vacuum brazing sheet is suitable for preparing a heat exchanger.
The mechanical property of the alkali-washing brazing flux-free or vacuum brazing sheet can be ensured, the possibility of alkali washing can be realized in large-scale production, the alkali-washing aluminum alloy needs economic scale, the large-scale production in batches is met, an oxide film is removed, and the condition that no brazing flux exists and good welding can be realized under the inert gas atmosphere or vacuum brazing condition is ensured.
For the aluminum alloy brazing flux-free material produced in large scale, a plurality of steps are required for treatment, rolling oil is more or less remained in the rolling process, and surface treatment is required before welding, wherein the treatment method comprises the following steps:
(1) cleaning oil stains on the surface: cleaning the surface of the alkali-washed brazing-flux-free or vacuum brazing sheet by using an organic solvent such as alcohol, acetone and the like;
(2) and (3) alkaline washing, namely washing the product in the step (1) by adopting an alkaline liquor component with the following mixture ratio: 0-5 wt% of sodium gluconate, 0-5 wt% of sodium pyrophosphate, 0-10 wt% of sodium carbonate, 0-3 wt% of sodium phosphate and 0-10 wt% of sodium bicarbonate;
then adding 0-1 wt% of NaOH and 0-5 wt% of sodium silicate, preferably the weight content of NaOH is less than 0.5%, adding sodium silicate can play a role in inhibiting corrosion, controlling reaction rate and preventing over-high alkalinity from reacting with silicon.
The cleaning temperature is 30-90 ℃, and the cleaning time is 20-90 seconds;
(3) cleaning with a complexing agent, namely performing complexing cleaning on the product in the step (2) by adopting a saturated EDTA solution or a saturated isopropanol solution;
(4) acid washing, namely, adopting nitric acid solution with weight concentration of 0.05-1% to carry out acid washing on the product obtained in the step (3), cleaning residual oxides and impurities on the surface, or neutralizing alkali;
(5) and (3) washing with water to remove acid, such as surface sediments, further cleaning the surface by a spray gun washing method during washing with water, removing surface sediments, and then cleaning the surface with alcohol.
The invention has less corrosion to silicon particles, does not generate blackening phenomenon, can remove oxide films, has more uniform surface reaction, thus the clearance of parts after stamping is more uniform, and ensures good weldability. No impurity ions are attached to the surface. The strong base cleans the corroded silicon particles, the blackening phenomenon is obviously generated by the reaction of the strong base and silicon, and a large amount of corrosion products are obviously deposited on the surface of the aluminum alloy.
The invention utilizes medium-strength alkaline salts to replace strong alkali, and thoroughly overcomes the defects of non-ideal strong alkali cleaning effect, serious pollution, high risk and the like. Because the strong base not only reacts with alumina, but also easily reacts with silicon, the strong base makes the part surface corrode very unevenly, is difficult to guarantee good brazing gap, through utilizing medium strength alkaline salt, greatly reduced basicity at first does not react with silicon, has realized the naked hourglass of silicon granule again, secondly the reaction is even, and reaction rate is not too big again, can control, has guaranteed good brazing gap.
From the actual situation, the method for cleaning the aluminum alloy brazing flux-free or vacuum brazing parts greatly improves the quality qualification rate of the brazing flux-free or vacuum brazed welding seams to more than 98 percent; the fluidity of the brazing material is also increased, through experimental comparison, alkali washing is not carried out, a surface oxidation film hinders the flow of the brazing liquid, and a T-shaped experimental welding joint is shorter; as shown in fig. 3, the oxide film severely impedes the flux flow and does not allow the flux to contact the aluminum substrate. After the alkali washing method is used, the oxide film is removed, the bare leaked silicon and the aluminum alloy matrix have lower melting points and do not have the oxide film to hinder the fluidity, and the volatilization of magnesium also promotes the flow of the brazing liquid. Therefore, the T-shaped experimental welding joint is greatly lengthened, and a good effect is achieved as shown in FIG. 4.
examples 1 to 10 and comparative examples 1 to 2
TABLE 1
The cleaning method comprises the following steps:
(1) examples 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and comparative example 1 use alcohol, examples 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and comparative example 2 use acetone to clean the surface of the flux-free or vacuum brazing sheet;
(2) washing the product in the step (1) by alkali by adopting the components in the mixture ratio of examples 1-10 in the table 1; then adding sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate according to the mixture ratio of the embodiment, wherein the cleaning temperature and the cleaning time are shown in the table 1;
(3) cleaning with a complexing agent, namely performing complexing cleaning on the product in the step (2) by adopting a saturated EDTA solution or a saturated isopropanol solution;
(4) acid washing, namely, carrying out acid washing on the product obtained in the step (3) by adopting a 0.1 wt% nitric acid solution, and cleaning residual oxides, impurities and neutralizing alkali on the surface;
(5) and (3) washing with water to remove acid, wherein if the flow rate is slow in the alkali washing process, the surface precipitate cannot be removed, a step of surface cleaning is added during the water washing process to remove the surface precipitate, and then the surface is cleaned with alcohol.
As can be seen from the above table, the corrosion of the examples 1-10 to silicon particles is small, the blackening phenomenon is not generated, the oxide film can be removed, the surface reaction is relatively uniform, the gaps of parts after stamping are relatively uniform, and the good weldability is ensured. Comparative example 1 is a comparative example in which no complexing agent is added, and aluminum ion precipitation on the surface affects subsequent welding, and comparative example 2 is a comparative example in which corrosive silicon particles are washed by strong base, the blackening phenomenon is obviously generated by the strong base compliance reaction, and the deposition surface is obvious.