At Altair Technologies, we routinely braze ceramics, particularly Alumina, but can also braze Zirconia, Quartz, Fused Silica, BeO, AlN, Si, SiC and other ceramic-like or composite materials.
Brazing is a liquid phase process that is a well-established technique for the joining of ceramics. The brazing process can be readily adapted to the mass production of components, such as those used in the electronics and automotive industries.
To encourage wetting of ceramics (see Blog Post on Wetting) we either metalize the ceramic, typically with Moly-Manganese (Mo-Mn) or use an active metal alloy to induce wetting. Both produce ultra-high vacuum seals or braze joints.
Active braze alloys are constantly undergoing changes and modifications in composition to meet the increasing requirements to permit metals to be joined to ceramics without the need for metallization of the ceramic surface. Altair Technologies maintains close contact with the cutting edge of this technology in which commercially available active metal braze alloys are mainly based on the Ni, Ag, Cu or Ag-Cu eutectic systems with added titanium.