The Effect of Selected Process Conditions on Microstructure Evolution of the Vacuum Brazed Joints of Hastelloy X Nickel Superalloy Sheets

High temperature vacuum brazing is a well-known and commonly used method for joining of nickel based elements and subassemblies of gas turbines, both for stationary and aviation applications. Despite the fact that currently used brazing filler metals meet stringent requirements of aviation and energetic industries, a lot of effort is spent on improving operational properties of the joints through modification of chemical composition or brazing process parameters. This paper aims for both of these aspects – its purpose is evaluation of the impact of filler metal composition, brazing gap width and process conditions on the microstructure of joints between sheet metal elements made of Hastelloy X nickel superalloy. Two different Ni-based filler materials (BNi-2 and Amdry 915) were investigated, based on the results of light and scanning electron microscopy evaluations, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and hardness measurements.