An aluminum brazing sheet having a multi-layer structure of two layers or more, an aluminum alloy brazing material being located on an outermost surface by being cladded on one surface or both surfaces of a core material, and the aluminum brazing sheet being applied to brazing in which the aluminum brazing sheet is bonded to a member to be brazed made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy without using a flux in a non-oxidizing atmosphere without decompression. The brazing material is made of an Al—Si—Mg—Sn brazing material containing, by mass %, 0.01% to 2.0% of Mg, 1.5% to 14% of Si, and 0.005% to 1.5% of Sn, and in observation in a surface direction before brazing, there are more than 10 Mg—Sn compounds with a circle equivalent diameter of 0.01 μm or more and less than 5.0 μm in the Al—Si—Mg—Sn brazing material per 10000 μm.sup.2 field of view.

In a film formation step of a brazing method, a metal brush formed by bundling a plurality of metal wires is brought into contact with a film formation target portion of a workpiece. Here, the film formation target portion is a portion that includes a joining target portion and a brazing-material-allowed portion but does not include an avoidance portion. In this state, the film formation target portion and the metal brush are relatively moved to each other. Thus, the metal film is formed on the film formation target portion. In a brazing step, the joining target portions are joined in a state where a brazing material is arranged on the joining target portion and the brazing-material-allowed portion.

The present invention relates to an air conditioner. The air conditioner according to the present embodiment has a refrigeration capacity of 7 kW to 11 kW, inclusive, and uses a refrigerant R32 as a refrigerant, and since a refrigerant pipe therein is made of a ductile stainless steel material having 1% or less of a delta-ferrite matrix structure with respect to the grain size area thereof, and includes a suction pipe guiding the suction of the refrigerant into a compressor and having an outer diameter of 15.88 mm, the refrigerant pipe can maintain strength and hardness as good as or better than those of a copper pipe, while also maintaining good processability.

The present disclosure provides an aluminium material for the manufacture of high-strength, soldered components, including an aluminium alloy. After soldering, the aluminium material is in materially-bonded contact with at least one solder layer. The object of providing an aluminium material is to provide not only good soldering properties and formability, but also high strength. This is achieved because the aluminium alloy of the aluminium material has a solidus temperature, and the aluminium material has an increase in yield strength compared to the state after soldering and cooling.

A brazing sheet may be used for brazing under an atmosphere of an inert gas without flux. The brazing sheet may include at least three layers. The at least three layers may include a core material, a brazing material layer, and an intermediate layer. The at least three layers may be cladded by an outermost layer of the brazing material layer. The intermediate layer may be disposed on a face of the core material. The core material may be composed of a first aluminum alloy including at least one of (i) 0.20 weight % to 1.0 weight % of Cu, (ii) 0.8 weight % to 1.8 weight % of Mn, and (iii) 0.25 weight % to 1.5 weight % of Mg. The intermediate layer may be composed of a second aluminum alloy including 0.20 weight % or less of each of Si and Fe and 0.10 weight % or less of each of Cu, Mn, and Cr.

A brazing material for brazing a brazed plate heat exchanger comprising a number of heat exchanger plates being provided with a pressed pattern of ridges and grooves adapted to provide contact points between neighbouring heat exchanger plates, such that the heat exchanger plates are kept on a distance from one another and such that interplate flow channels for media to exchange heat are formed between the heat exchanger plates comprises a brazing alloy comprising at least one melting point depressing element and metals resembling the composition of the heat exchanger plates. The brazing material comprises a mixture between grains of a melting brazing material having solidus and liquidus temperatures lower than a brazing temperature and a non-melting brazing material having solidus and liquidus temperatures above the brazing temperature. The ratio between the melting and non-melting brazing materials is such that an alloy formed by the melting and non-melting brazing materials has a solidus temperature lower than the brazing temperature and a liquidus temperature higher than the brazing temperature.

Producing welded connections between inner tubes and tube support plates of a tube bundle for a product-to-product shell-and-tube heat exchanger by means of an auxiliary device is described. A production method includes pressing the end face of a tube support plate against the end face of the inner tubes in the direction of the inner tube longitudinal axes during welding operations with a first form fit, which is effective both radially and axially, immovably fixing the number of inner tubes corresponding to the tube layout pattern to each other by a second, detachable form fit of the auxiliary device, making a circumferential round weld orbitally, starting from the plate inner bore and the tube inner bore, in a single pass and continuously from radially inside to radially outside, and detaching and removing the auxiliary device from the welded tube bundle.

A plate heat exchanger has two metal plates brought into abutment, with a solder material between the plates. The plates are heated up to a first temperature. The plates are placed into a mold, the mold surfaces of which have cavities for envisaged channel structures. Channel structures are formed by local internal pressure forming of at least one plate under pressurization by the tool. The plates are heated up to a second temperature. The plates are solder bonded at the abuted surfaces. A plate heat exchanger has two metal plates, wherein channel structures have been formed in at least one plate and the plates are bonded to one another by soldering away from the channel structures. Eutectic microstructures having a longest extent of less than 50 micrometers are formed in the solder layer.

Systems and methods to control fabrication of an assembly involve a first end sheet having an interior surface and an exterior surface, opposite the interior surface. A system includes interior sheets, the interior sheets including a first interior sheet at one end of a stack of the interior sheets and including a last interior sheet at an opposite end of the stack of the two or more interior sheets, the first interior sheet being adjacent to the interior surface of the first end sheet, and a second end sheet having an interior surface and an exterior surface, opposite the interior surface. The last interior sheet is adjacent to the interior surface of the last end sheet, and the interior surface of the first end sheet or the second end sheet includes venting features, the venting features including holes or slots to channel heat, gas, or vapor during a brazing process.

Aspects described herein include a method of fabricating an optical component. The method comprises electrically coupling different laser channels of a laser die to different electrical leads, testing a respective optical coupling of each of the different laser channels, optically aligning an optical fiber with a first laser channel of the different laser channels having the greatest optical coupling, and designating a second laser channel of the different laser channels as a heater element for the first laser channel.