Recently, a leading manufacturer of high-value parts for the aerospace industry ran into a cleaning challenge – namely, the cleanliness of parts going through its vacuum brazing process. The existing process was falling short – and experiencing a high field failure rate. Compounding the challenge was a large variation of aluminum alloys and forming processes of the parts.
The customer engaged with Hubbard-Hall, charging us with improving aluminum surface conditions prior to vacuum braze. Given the stakes involved with high-value parts, the customer was extremely – and justifiably – particular. Based on our previous successes in cleaning difficult aluminum applications, Hubbard-Hall welcomed the challenge.
Working in our facility in Inman, South Carolina, we set to develop a process to clean and de-ox various aluminum parts by conducting braze joint x-section analysis. This “home-field advantage,” which Hubbard-Hall makes available to every customer, enabled us to rapidly establish the best process, document cleanliness, and process enough parts to build complete units for final testing.
Over a day-and-a-half, multiple formulations were tested on a wide variety of parts. Based on its final readings, the company reported a 4X improvement in part cleanliness with Hubbard-Hall’s process compared to its previous process. Building on this success, the company asked Hubbard-Hall to author new specifications for existing and new process lines.
Our experts have years of expertise and knowledge on cleaning aluminum, for more resources and stories from the field, check here.
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