Designing for Preforms - Introduction

From bicycles to electronics -- whatever your products may be -- they can benefit from the accuracy and purity of Lucas-Milhaupt braze preforms.  Economy in use is gained by getting the correct size and shape for your application.  An edgewound washer, an arc ring, a stress relieved ring -- whatever the shape -- it is manufactured by Lucas-Milhaupt and in many cases only by Lucas-Milhaupt.

Designing for Braze Preforms

A brazing preform is any shape of a filler metal so fabricated that it can be easily and conveniently placed in the assembly prior to the brazing operation.  Virtually all high production applications can be designed to take advantage of alloy preplacement.  The filler metals used range all the way from the soft solders to alloys of silver, gold, aluminum, copper and brass.  There are different types of preforms, each more adaptable for particular applications.  Their intended use, in turn, determines their selection.

Development of the preformed shape for brazing and soldering was, of necessity, coincident with the use of automatic methods of heating.  It is impractical and usually impossible to handfeed the braze alloy to the stream of parts emerging from a conveyer belt furnace, a gas-air turntable, or to work inside the induction coil.  Further, the preform assists automatic heating to fulfill its three-fold purpose; namely speed production, reduce and stardardize costs, and obtain uniform results of high quality in brazed products.  How to accomplish these results is outlined on suceeding pages.



Examples of the variety of brazing preforms available.

 A noteworthy article is "What to Consider when Using Brazing Preforms" publish in the Welding Journal, September 2006 (subscription required).