Development of chemically produced hydrogen energy-based impact bonding process for dissimilar metals

There has been a growing demand in the fabrication of dissimilar metal parts for application in the automotive, aerospace, defense, chemical and nuclear industries. Welding of dissimilar materials can be accomplished via impact welding, which can minimize the formation of a continuous inter-metallic phase, while chemically bonding dissimilar metals. This paper discusses an innovative technique for bonding dissimilar metals by chemically produced hydrogen energy by reacting aluminum powder and water. Experiments were carried out to study impact bond characteristics using copper and stainless steel cylindrical billets. The influence of nosed flyer billet angle and billet mass on bonding characteristics were studied. The test results have demonstrated that the nosed flyer billet angle has significant influence on wavy bond patterns at the interface. Among the three flyer billet nose angles of 9°, 12° and 15°, the billets with a flyer angle of 15° resulted in a complete wave morphological pattern along the whole sample cross-section. This study shows the potential of developing a cost effective system/machinery where discrete metal parts can be bonded at near net shape.