Capacitor discharge joining of silicon carbide based ceramics

Abstract

A capacitor-discharge joining technique has been successfully used to join oxide ceramics using thin metal foils. In this study, silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic joints and silicon carbide-titanium diboride (TiB2) composite joints were produced using thin foils of Al, Ti and AlxNiyYz as interlayers. The bond strengths of the joints were assessed by shear testing and the interfacial microstructures of the bonds were examined by a scanning electron microscope attached with an energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer. It was found that the shear strength values were similar for SiC-SiC joined with Ti and Al interlayer and their shear strength were higher than shear strength of SiC/ TiB2-SiC/TiB2 composites joined with an AlxNiyYz interlayer. The bonding between SiC/TiB2-SiC/TiB2 composites with an Ti interlayer were very weak. Line scan analysis showed that Ti diffuses into SiC.