silver solder Ti

[agent141]

I have a question on silver solder.. can you silver solder a Ti sleve onto a steel tube .. any replys are welcome.

[Tony Montana]

I'm not sure if by 'silver soldering' you mean actually using low temp silver solder or brazing with a silver bearing alloy. These are commonly and incorrectly interchanged.

I spent several years working in the custom bicycle business where the use of titanium and torch brazing are commonplace (but not at the same time). As of a few years ago no one in that industry was brazing or soldering Ti though. Apparently there are special fluxes and filler metals (most are silver bearing) which would allow torch brazing of Ti but I've never seen it done. The difficulty arises due to the oxide layer which forms very quickly even at room temperature.

It is frequently furnace brazed under inert gas or vacuum conditions for aerospace and other applications though.

[NC Cams]

I second the comments about the oxide problem. As soon as you get the Ti hot enought to get teh solgef to flow, it probably won't gond due to the oxide layre that forms. We had horrible problems with that when trying to weld steel tips to Ti stems of race engine valves.

Best bet is to Tig weld them what you're trying to bond in an inert atmosphere.