Liquid Phase Bonding of 316L Stainless Steel to AZ31 Magnesium Alloy

The excellent corrosion resistance, formability and strength make stainless steels versatile for diverse applications. However, its high specific strength and good crashworthiness make it suitable for transportation and aerospace industry. On the other hand, the need to reduce the weight of vehicle and aerospace components has created renewed interest in the use of magnesium alloys. Due to their differences in physical and metallurgical properties, bonding of the 316L steel and AZ31 magnesium alloy using conventional fusion welding methods encountered many limitations. Therefore, the use of liquid phase forming interlayers is required to overcome the differences in their properties, eliminates the need for a high bonding pressure to achieve intimate contact between the bonded surfaces. Both Cu and Ni interlayers successively formed a eutectic phase with magnesium. The formation of intermetallics and Mg diffusion caused the eutectic phase to isothermally solidify with increasing bonding time. The formation of ternary intermetallic phases (λ1 and B2) impaired the bond shear strength particularly at the end of the isothermal solidification stage where no eutectic phase was observed. However, the joints showed a higher shear strength value of 57 MPa when bonding with Cu interlayer at 530°C for 30 min compared to 32 MPa when Ni interlayer was used at 510°C for 20 min.