BlueBraze a silver brazing alloy.It is the first time that a brazing alloy manufacturer has managed to reduce the level of silver significantly while maintaining all existing properties. This provides significant cost and environmental benefits, Umicore says.
“Markets have been demanding a reduced proportion of silver in brazing alloys for a long time in order to save costs,” said Dr Hartmut Schmoor, head of BrazeTec.
BlueBraze is a silver brazing alloy with improved flow characteristics and a low melting point. It is suitable for any steel, copper and copper alloys, nickel and nickel alloys, and can be applied to any brazing process as well as to induction heating.
The new alloys replace the brazing alloys BrazeTec 4576 and 3476 and are available as wire and rod (diameter 1,5mm and 2mm). BlueBraze alloys are suitable for the use in the HVACR industry (heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration).
BrazeTec sources a large part of silver for brazing alloys from its in-house precious metals recycling. By both reducing the proportion of silver in BlueBraze alloys and using recycled sources BrazeTec is helping save precious resources.