Brazing Ceramics with Standard Alloys

Ceramics can now be metallized for brazing by a simple, cheap plating process.

A ceramic such as Alumina is plated with a metal and then the part can be brazed with common braze alloys and techniques as simple as an oxy-acetylene torch.  

Originally the thinking was that Titanium is beneficial in active braze alloys so it might be possible to work with material containing Titanium using standard brazing methods. This technique is currently used on Titanium Carbonitride and similar Titanium based materials. It also works well on materials that contain titanium such as grades of alumina with TiC added.

Because ceramics are so tightly bonded you do not need to effect much of the material to get a strong bond. Whatever you can attach to on the surface will serve as a solid anchor for the rest of the part. This has lead to directly effecting Alumina and Silicon as in Silicon Nitride.

Ceramics once regarded as non reactive can be made slightly reactive by the use of strong acids and a great deal of electrical energy applied in a manner consistent with standard electroplating tools and techniques.