Materials and Design 32 (2011) 26852694

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Materials and Design

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A new approach to joining of bulk copper using microwave energy

M.S. Srinath, Apurbba Kumar Sharma , Pradeep Kumar
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247 667, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Metallurgical joining of high thermal conductivity materials like copper has been technically challenging. This paper illustrates a novel method for joining of bulk metallic materials through microwave heating. Joining of copper in bulk form has been carried out using microwave energy in a multimode applicator at 2.45 GHz and 900 W. Charcoal was used as susceptor material to facilitate microwave hybrid heating (MHH). Copper in coin and plate forms have been successfully joined through microwave heating within 900 s of exposure time. A sandwich layer of copper powder with approximately 0.5 mm thickness was introduced between the two candidate surfaces. Near complete melting of the powder particles in the sandwich layer does take place during the microwave exposure leading to metallurgical bonding of the bulk surfaces. Characterisation of the joints has been carried out through microstructure study, elemental analysis, phase analysis, microhardness survey, porosity measurement and tensile strength testing. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern indicates that some copper powder particles got transformed into copper oxides. XRD analysis also reveals that the dominant orientation (3 1 1) in starting copper powder got transformed into a preferential orientation (1 1 1) in the joint. A dense uniform microstructure with good metallurgical bonds between the sandwich layer and the interface was obtained. The hardness of the joint area was observed to be 78 7 Hv, while the porosity in the joint was observed to be 1.92%. Strength character of the copper joints shows approximately 29.21% elongation with an average ultimate tensile strength of 164.4 MPa. 2011 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 21 October 2010 Accepted 11 January 2011 Available online 18 January 2011 Keywords: C. Joining F. Microstructure G. X-ray analysis

1. Introduction Permanent joining of materials has been one of the prime requirements in most of the manufacturing and assembling industries. The existing techniques like welding, soldering and brazing are being widely practiced in industries; however, they have their own limitations regarding processing time, materials to be joined and characteristics of the joint. Further, ease of processing and environmental hazards, are some of the issues that need to be addressed. Thus a more versatile, faster and cleaner process could have a huge impact on production. Investigations reveal that application of microwave energy as a tool in materials processing is not only a green manufacturing process, but also signicantly faster at relatively low investment. Microwave materials processing can give an alternative to high energy consumption heating techniques that are commonly used in industries. In microwave processing, energy is directly transferred to the material through interaction of electromagnetic waves with molecules leading to volumetric heating. Heat is generated internally within the material, instead of originating from the external sources, and gets transmitted outward. Hence, there is an inverse
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 1332 285421; fax: +91 1332 285665.
E-mail addresses: srinadme@gmail.com (M.S. Srinath), akshafme@iitr.ernet.in (A.K. Sharma), kumarfme@iitr.ernet.in (P. Kumar). 0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2011.01.023

heating prole, inside-out unlike in a conventional heating outside-in. Several authors have shown the use of microwave energy for wide ranging applications. In one of the premier investigations, Osepchuk has explained the basics of microwave heating and presented a brief history of the applications of microwave energy [1]. Later, the same author further explored the possible areas of applications of microwave power in details [2]. Signicance of microwave heating and its applications in processing of ceramics were then analyzed by Sutton in a landmark publication in 1989 [3]. The unique features of processing materials with microwave were lucidly presented. Later, Clarke et al. have shown the potentials and challenges of using microwave energy in materials processing [4]. Subsequently, application of microwave energy in material processing was reported in many areas including the new and unusual application like glazing of sprayed ceramic composite surfaces [5]. Microwave energy has been effectively used in the processing of different materials. However, majority of these applications was limited to processing of microwave absorbing materials (mostly, bio-materials, hydrocarbons etc.), ceramics and ceramic composites. Successful sintering of alumina with nearly full density at 1350 C after 50 min has been achieved using 2.45 GHz microwave and its comparison with conventional heating shows only 62% density at this temperature [6]. Metals and alloys, on the other hand, remained outside the applications envelop of microwave energy in materials processing for an uncharacteristically longer time.

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Recent research activities, however, indicate that it is possible to process metals under certain conditions. Many commercial powder metal components and their alloys have been sintered using microwaves. It has been reported that the powders with a composition of iron (Fe), copper (2%) and graphite (0:8%) have been sintered in a microwave eld at 1200 C for 30 min with excellent density [7]. The same authors also reported microwave sintering of cobalt metal powder in pure H2 environment with one atmospheric pressure at various temperatures-ranging from 900 to 1200 C for 10 min. The densities reported were 8700 kg/ m3 at 900 C to 8880 kg/m3 at 10001050 C and near theoretical density of 8890 kg/m3 at 11001200 C. Rodiger et al. had carried out sintering of hardmetals through 2.45 GHz microwave heating and reported sintering temperature of 1300 C in microwave process was achieved in $1.5 h with 1 kW power whereas conventional process took nearly 5 h to reach 1400 C with 4.5 kW. Platelets microstructure embedded in a ne-grained hardmetal matrix with an average size of 0.6 lm was obtained [8]. Prabhu et al. had examined the comparative sinterability of as received powder and activated tungsten powder in microwave. It was observed that the activated tungsten powder shows better densication because of reduced particle size and higher specic surface energy [9]. Mondal et al. have exposed different particle sized electrically conductive material like copper having varied initial porosity. The reported results indicate that the smaller the particle size with higher porosity, the higher will be the microwave absorption rate and hence heating is rapid [10]. Gupta and Wong reported the two-directional microwave assisted rapid sintering of aluminum, magnesium and lead free solder. The results revealed that the density of the microwave sintered and conventionally sintered samples are same whereas the marginal increase in microhardness with superior ultimate tensile strength of the microwave sintered aluminum and magnesium [11]. Microwaves have been efciently employed for joining of ceramic materials. It has been reported that sintered alumina and 30% zirconia ceramic composites were successfully joined by microwave hybrid heating at 2.45 GHz frequency and power 700 W [12]. The joints were fabricated with and without sodium silicate glass powder as an interlayer. The exural strength of such joints (with interlayer) was reported in the range of 28 MPa. Microwave joining of 48%alumina32%zirconia20%silica ceramics through suitable temperature control has also been reported which yielded joint strength in excess of about 107% of the base material [13]. However, application of microwaves in joining of metals is challenging owing to reection of microwaves by most of the bulk metals at ordinary conditions. Further, works have been reported on brazing of selected metals under specic conditions. Bartmatz et al. in the year 2000 have reported in the form of patent on brazing of titanium carbide tip to diamond cutter to enhance the properties of the cutter [14]. Braze powder was used as interface layer with microwave temperature upto 1000 C. In continuation of the previous study, Sallom et al. have reported the brazing of Gamma TiAl with Ag-based ller metal by microwave heating between 925 C to 1050 C in 5 min with 1 MPa load [15]. Budinger have reported brazing of nickel based superalloys with nickel based metallic powders in a multimode microwave cavity [16]. Particle size used in this work was about 44 lm. Results show the ner particle attained maximum temperature of 1140 C, whereas coarser particles were heated upto 827 C. This evidence shows that microwaves have greater susceptibility towards ner particle size. Successful joining of thin steel sheet in the thickness range of 0.10.3 mm using microwave was reported by Siores and Rego [17]. The authors showed that the localized arcing was enough to melt such thin test sheets by using a 2 kW multimode magnetron. Agrawal, on the other hand, has reported joining of regular steel and cast iron in a microwave eld within 23 min using a braze

powder [18]. However, no details on characterisation of such joints were reported. However, joining of bulk metallic materials using microwaves has hardly been reported. Sharma et al. have successfully carried out joining of bulk metallic pieces with fusion of the parent metals in a low cost home microwave system [19]. Joining of pure metals (copper), similar alloys (stainless steel to stainless steel), and dissimilar alloys (stainless steel to mild steel) in the bulk form have been reported. Further, the work has been extended for cladding/coating of metallic powder on bulk metallic materials in the same laboratory; the work has been led for patent [20]. Applications of copper in industries and researches have been enormous. Joining of bulk copper through conventional joining (welding) techniques, on the other hand, is difcult owing to its high heat conduction capability. The present paper reports on the results of an on-going project on joining and characterisation of bulk copper using microwave energy in a multimode applicator. 2. Experimentation Joining of bulk metallic materials using microwaves is difcult. Most of the metals do not allow microwaves to penetrate inside the bulk at room temperature owing to the presence of electroncloud. Heating in microwave processing is, on the other hand, due to microwave-material interaction at the molecular level. In order to overcome such processing challenges, a number of trials have been carried out. The following sections illustrate experimental procedures adopted for fabrication of the joints and different characterisation techniques employed to investigate the joint properties. 2.1. Material selection Copper is one of the most widely used metals in the manufacturing of electrical gadgets and components for aerospace industries. Moreover, copper poses signicant processing difculties in conventional welding practices. Localized heating and consequent melting of copper in conventional welding is complicated due to its high thermal conductivity. Thus, copper was chosen as the candidate material for joining through microwave heating. Trials were carried out with commercial grade copper (purity $ 99.9%) plates and coins having dimensions 15 mm 12 mm 4 mm and 18 mm 12 mm respectively. Commercially available copper powder with 99.5% purity and average particle size of $5 lm was used as a sandwich layer. Morphology of the powders used in the trials is shown in Fig. 1. Typical XRD spectrum of the copper powders is illustrated in Fig. 2. Three major peaks of copper with a dominating (3 1 1) structure are seen. An epoxy resin (Bisphenol-A, Blumer 1450XX) was mixed with the metal powder to make slurry so as to avoid collapsing of the sandwich layer. This low melting point epoxy comes out of the sandwich matrix much early during heating. The detailed specications of the material are as shown in Table 1. 2.2. Development of joints Interface surfaces of the bulk copper pieces were cleaned ultrasonically in an acetone bath prior to applying the sandwich layer (slurry). The prepared slurry was uniformly placed over the candidate surfaces between the two bulk pieces maintaining an average thickness of ve hundred micrometers. Experiments were carried out in atmospheric condition. It was observed that, microwave coupling has been signicantly improved by the use of epoxy resin. However, as the temperature rises, the resin gets burnt and thus fails to sustain the initial coupling with microwaves.

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to separate the charcoal powders and the sandwich powder layer. Principles of microwave hybrid heating were effectively used to join the metallic pieces. Charcoal powder was used as a susceptor medium to initiate coupling of microwaves which results in initial heating. The charcoal powders were placed as near as possible to the joint area so as to induce selective heating in the sandwich zone. The metallic powders get heated through conventional modes of heat transfer from the heated charcoal. Subsequently, the metallic materials at an elevated temperature start coupling with microwaves leading to further rise in temperature. The temperature rise is eventually sufcient to cause melting and fusing of the interfaces. Fig. 3 illustrates a schematic view of the experimental setup of the microwave hybrid heating used for joining of metallic materials. Microwave irradiation was carried out in a 1 kW multimode microwave system. Bulk pieces were exposed up to 900 s at a frequency of 2.45 GHz and a power of 900 W. Microwave processing parameters and other details are summarized in Table 2. 2.3. Characterisation of the joints
Fig. 1. Morphology of copper powder used in sandwich layer.

Fig. 2. Typical XRD Spectrum of the copper powder.

Joining of copper in bulk form was successfully carried out as discussed in the previous section. The copper joints were made into sections across the joint using a 200 lm thick diamond cutter, followed by mechanical polishing and etching. The joints were characterized through XRD, eld emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), microhardness, porosity measurement and strength test. The XRD patterns were obtained at room temperature in a Bruker AXS instrument with Cu-Ka X-ray. The scan rate was maintained at 1 min1 and the scan range was from 5 to 100. The analysis of the metallic joint microstructure was carried out using a eld emission scanning electron microscope at an acceleration voltage of 20 kV equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray detector (FEI Quanta 200 FEG-SEM, Czech Republic). The microhardness at different positions of the joints was evaluated by Vickers microhardness tester (Mini load, Leitz, Germany) at the load of 10 g applied for a duration of 30 s. The porosity of the joint area was measured using linear count method. The joined specimens were also subjected to standard tensile test using a universal testing machine. The specimens were prepared according to the ASTM Designation: E8/E8 M09 [21] standard having gauge length of 18 mm and width 3 mm. The schematic of a standard tensile specimen is shown in Fig.4. Specimens were subjected to uniaxial tension at ambient condition on a Hounseld Monsanto (H25KS/05) machine at a strain rate of 8.3 103 mm/s. 3. Mechanism of joint formation

Table 1 Details of the material used. A Base material (copper) Purity Micro hardness Ultimate tensile strength B Interface powder (copper) Purity Particle size C Epoxy resin Solvent Type

99.9% 70 5 Hv 284 MPa 99.5% $5 lm Ketones, Esters, GlycolEthers Bisphenol-A based

It has been already discussed in the previous section that, at room temperature, bulk copper reects microwaves owing to very low skin depth. The skin depth of copper can be obtained by using the relation (1) [22]. Accordingly, the calculated skin depth for copper is obtained in the order of $1.3 lm.

q pf lr lo

The depth of microwave penetration into the material (also called skin depth) is much lesser than the size of the bulk copper pieces used in the present work. This results in reection of microwaves from the target material. In order to avoid this problem, appropriate masks were prepared to seal the bulk metallic body using refractory brick material. A solid layer of graphite was used

where d is the skin depth in lm, q is the resistivity of copper (=167.3 lX mm), f is frequency of microwaves (=2.45 GHz, in the present study), l is the magnetic permeability = lrl0, l0 is the absolute permeability (=4p 107 Henries/m), lr is the relative permeability (=1, for copper). This computed depth is less than the size of bulk copper pieces used in the present work resulting in reection of microwaves. In order to avoid this problem, masks made of refractory brick

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Fig. 3. Schematic of microwave hybrid heating process for joining of metallic copper.

Table 2 Detailed specication and parameters used in microwave joining process. Applicator Microwave frequency Susceptor material Exposure time Exposure power Multimode 2.45 GHz Charcoal powder 300900 s 900 W

The skin depth of the heated copper particles increases further owing to increase in resistivity and decrease in permeability with continued heating as obtained from the relation (1). This leads to enhanced coupling of the metallic particles with microwaves resulting in high temperature and subsequent melting of the particles. The skin depth on the bulk pieces, on the other hand, does not change appreciably owing to the bulk effect (overall dimension is too large). Even the minimum dimension of the plate pieces to be joined (4 mm) is 3077 times larger than the skin depth of copper at room temperature ($1.3 lm). At the same time, the change in temperature of the bulk pieces due to the conventional modes of heat transfer will not be signicant owing to unfavorable conditions. The rise in temperature of the bulk copper pieces will thus be limited to a very thin layer which will get metallurgically bonded (fused) with the molten particles in the sandwich layer. Further, since the microwaves penetrate throughout the sandwich layer, volumetric heating takes place resulting in complete to near complete melting of the particles and subsequent wetting of the candidate surfaces. On cooling, the molten sandwich layer becomes the weld bead of the conventional metallic welding as shown in Fig. 5b. 4. Results and discussion Metallurgical bonding of thermally conductive materials through conventional welding processes is extremely difcult. In the present work, trials were conducted for joining of copper in the bulk form (coin and plate) using microwave hybrid heating. Metallurgical bonding has been achieved in this work. Joining process has been successfully carried out with controlled microwave irradiation as discussed. A few typical joints of copper plates and a scanning electron microscope micrograph of a typical section of a butt joint produced with an irradiation of 300 s is presented in Fig. 6a and Fig. 6b respectively. Good metallurgical bonding between the bulk metallic plates has been seen. The sandwich layer of the metallic powder has been observed to be completely fused. The area beyond the fused zone appears least affected by the heat of fusion as the rapid heating is initiated through the microwavemetal interaction. Results are discussed with suitable illustrations in the following sections. 4.1. Analysis on XRD spectrum A typical XRD spectrum of MHH induced copper joint is presented in Fig. 7. The spectrum indicates ve dominant copper peaks of FCC lattice. Some oxides of copper were also detected in the diffraction pattern. The joining was carried out in the atmospheric condition; consequently, the copper powder got partially oxidized and formed oxide of copper (CuO). It is well known that the metal oxides have signicantly different properties from those of the pure metals. Thus, the presence of copper oxide during

Fig. 4. Tensile strength test specimen of microwave processed copper joint.

material were prepared to accommodate the metallic pieces inside it, so that they are not directly exposed to microwaves. For initial coupling of microwaves with metallic materials, charcoal powder was used as a susceptor medium to facilitate microwave hybrid heating. The metallic body was suitably sealed from microwave exposure so as to avoid microwaves getting reected. A solid layer of graphite was used to separate the charcoal powders and the sandwich powder layer. Fig. 5 illustrates the interaction of microwaves with copper powder particles. Microwaves starts coupling with the highly absorbing material charcoal (susceptor) as soon as the irradiation is initiated. However, the bulk copper pieces remain largely unaffected by the microwave radiation owing to insignicant penetration of microwaves (skin depth $ 1.3 lm) relative to their sizes. The penetration of microwaves into the metallic powders, on the other hand, will be relatively better owing the small size of the particles. Considering a spherical morphology as shown in the Fig. 5a with diameters 5 lm (as used in the present study), the microwaves will penetrate through a signicant volume of $58.2 cubic lm, which is approximately 88.94% of the original volume of each individual particle. Thus, an interaction in the powder layer is likely to take place with microwaves. Further, the epoxy resin present in the sandwich layer absorbs some amount of microwave energy and gets heated up. Simultaneously, heat generated in the charcoal layer due to the microwave absorption gets transferred to the bulk metallic pieces and the metal powders through conventional modes of heat transfer.

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Fig. 5. Schematic of (a) interaction of microwaves with powder particles and the bulk, (b) fusion of molten particles and the bulk pieces at the interface.

microwave processing further facilitates enhanced coupling of microwaves with the powder resulting in faster heating and creates better bonding with oxide of copper (Cu2O) and bulk copper. Earlier, the importance of the presence of copper oxides during sintering of copper powders through microwave heating was also reported by Takayama et al. [23]. The peak corresponding to 2h % 18 (Fig. 7) indicates signicant transformation of copper into CuO during microwave irradiation too. Further, the major Cu-peak (corresponding to 2h % 43) with (1 1 1) orientation shows the maximum intensity; while the other minor peaks get signicantly attenuated. It is observed that the dominant (3 1 1) orientation in the starting copper powder got transformed into a preferential orientation (1 1 1) apart from some got transformed into (2 2 2) and (2 0 0) structures during microwave irradiation with lattice straining. This indicates the effect of microwave induced heating on change in structural orientation of copper. Straining of lattices during microwave irradiation has also been reported earlier [5]. The phases were also analyzed using relative peak intensities of the respective phases. Peak intensities of different phases and normalized intensity ratio (NIR) are shown in Table 3. The normalized intensity ratios were calculated by using the relation (2) [24].

transformed into copper oxide (Table 3), while the remaining metallic copper (%74%) exists in various structures (111, 200, 220, 222 and 311). 4.2. Observation on joint microstructure Microstructures of typical copper joints developed by microwave hybrid heating are illustrated through scanning electron micrographs in Fig. 8. The microstructures shown in Fig. 8a and b indicate complete melting of copper powder particles at the sandwich zone and good metallurgical bond with the bulk pieces. Homogeneous and dense joint interface of fused copper metal with negligible pores could be seen. The observed homogeneity of the joint is attributed to the uniform microwave heating throughout the sandwich layer, also called the volumetric heating. Initially, the susceptor material (charcoal), couples with microwaves that leads to rapid heating. This heat is transferred to the metallic powder particles in the sandwich layer within a short duration. Continued microwave exposure at elevated temperature enhances further microwave coupling and causes the powder particles to melt and subsequently wetting of the bulk interface. In the mean while, the temperature of a thin layer on both the bulk interfaces (adjacent to the sandwich layer) also increases owing to the presence of the heated powder layer. This facilitates better metallurgical bonding; and on cooling, a uniform joint is obtained as illustrated in Fig.8. A fully fused weld interface (WI) can be seen clearly (Fig. 8a). Fusing of both the base metal surfaces with the sandwich layer is clearly evident in the Fig. 8b. A well-bonded microstructure on the sandwich powder layer and powder-bulk interface shown in Fig. 8b is an indication of good joint efciency. It is observed that no cracks are visible even at 2000 magnication. The elemental distribution of the joint (Fig. 8) was analyzed through energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS).

NIRx

Ix Iback Ix Iy 2Iback

where Ix and Iy are the intensities of the x and y phases respectively and Iback is the background intensity (%69 counts, in this study). A similar calculation was carried out to evaluate Iy. Dominating peaks in the joint spectrum were considered in these calculations, which include (1 1 1) peak for copper and (1 0 1) peak for copper oxide. However, the NIR values do not indicate the exact amount of phases present in the joint, yet, provides relative representation of amount of phases. Thus, during microwave processing in the atmospheric condition, approximately 26% of copper powder gets

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M.S. Srinath et al. / Materials and Design 32 (2011) 26852694 Table 3 Relative phase intensities in copper joint. SI. No. 1 2 Phases Copper Copper oxide Ix 3400 Iy 1250 Iback 69 69 NIR (%) 73.86 26.14

copper oxide as observed through XRD (Fig. 7). Further, traces of carbon appeared in the spectra is attributed to negligible mixing/ diffusion of carbon from the separator sheet (graphite) at higher temperature during microwave irradiation. It is also possible that the epoxy used for making the slurry for the sandwich layer gets burnt at elevated temperature leaving some traces of carbon. 4.3. Observation on microhardness and joint porosity Measurement of microhardness of the microwave induced joint was also carried out on joint and on the base metal by using a load of 10 g for 30 s. The mean microhardness at the joint was observed to be 78 7 Hv as shown in Fig. 10. A narrow distribution of microhardness in the joint area is an indication of uniform fusion of the particles. A relatively wider band of microhardness along the joint interface accounts for presence of possible porosity and bulk material effect on the measurement. The base material, on the other hand, shows marginally higher microhardness owing to its higher purity level with less porosity. Average Vickers microhardness of the copper joints was found within 84% of the base metal (93 12 Hv), which is signicantly close. This can be partially due to the presence of copper oxide inclusions and a high degree of fusion indicating good bonding between the particles. Further, typical morphology of the indentations while measuring microhardness at different locations is illustrated through SEMs in the insets of Fig. 10. Largely well dened indentation geometry in the weld zone is indicator of well fused joint. However, occasional collapsing of the indentation geometry in the sandwich layer as seen in the gure is attributed to the presence of localized porous pockets and possible oxides and/or impurity. It is also an indication that the molten copper particles do not regain the ductility of bulk copper upon solidication following the end of microwave irradiation. The indentation geometry at the base metal region within 150 lm from the joint interface indicates the possibility of loss of ductility by the base metal copper to some extent. The measured microhardness value of the joint as well as base metal was observed to be higher than the starting copper pieces. The loss of ductility might affect the strength of the copper joints. Porosity of the copper joints was measured using linear count method. It was observed that the porosity in the joint region was 1.92%. An important observation in the joint area is the formation of round pores as observed in Fig.8. Round pores, in general, contribute towards higher ductility of the zone and hence higher strength than the materials having pores with sharp edges which are normally observed in conventional welding techniques [18]. The formation of round pores reduces the possibility of high stress concentration region, and the material tends to exhibit higher ductility and strength. Ductility is associated with shear stress; however, at the tip of sharp edges shear stress component are zero and tri-axial stress states are setup leading to brittle failure of the joint area. Signicantly sharp-edged pores are absent in the microwave induced metallic joints as observed in the microstructures presented in Fig. 8. 4.4. Observation on tensile strength In order to evaluate tensile properties of the joints, the microwave hybrid heating induced copper joints were subjected to

Fig. 6. (a) Typical view of a copper joint; (b) SEM micrograph of the joint.

Fig. 7. Typical XRD spectrum of the copper joint developed through microwave energy.

A typical EDS spectrum of the copper joint is presented in Fig. 9. The gure shows the relative presence of oxygen and copper material. The peaks in the spectrum indicate the weight percentages of the elements present in the joint which conrms the presence of

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Fig. 8. (a) SEM micrograph of the copper joint (WI: weld interface, BM: base metal, WZ: weld zone); (b) microstructure of the fused zone.

Fig. 9. Typical EDS spectrum of copper joint with relative elemental distribution at the joint.

standard tensile test as discussed earlier. A uniform strain rate of 8.3 103 mm/s was applied. The proof stress, ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and percentage elongation or ductility of the joint were recorded and presented in the Table 3. Fig. 11 shows the stressstrain diagram of microwave irradiated copper joints. Initially, upto the approximate stress of 70 MPa (Segment OA, Fig. 11), the work material exhibits the characteristics of a monolithic material and undergoes uniform strain as depicted by the linear relationship in the Fig. 11. Further increase in stress induces work hardening effect in the joint region and continues till the loading corresponds to the ultimate tensile strength of 164.4 MPa. The exponentially varying stressstrain characteristic (segment AB in Fig. 11) is attributed to strain hardening effect. However, the joints can no longer withstand further tensile loads. Loading beyond this limit results in sharp decrease in induced stress as a precursor to failure and eventually fails corresponding

to a stress of approximately 20 MPa (Point C, Fig. 11). It is clear from the stressstrain characteristics that the deformation of the joints is plastic mode dominated. The elongation of the joints (Table 4) subjected to tensile loading is obtained to be signicant (29.21%, Table 4), which is attributed to reasonably good fusion in the powder particles and metallurgical bonding. The fractured specimen during tensile testing was further characterized through scanning electron microscope. Typical SEM micrograph of a fractured joint is illustrated in Fig. 12. It is observed from the fractured topography that the failure of the joints was through mixed mode of failure. Evidence of both ductile and brittle modes of failure in the joint zone is clearly seen. Sharp honeycomb-like fracture morphology is the signature of brittle fracture (Fig 12). Occurrence of ductile failure is, however, characterized by the presence of microscopic concave depressions on the fracture surface as shown in Fig. 12. It is important to note that the

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Fig. 10. Vickers microhardness prole at various zones.

Fig. 11. Typical stressstrain behavior of the microwave induced copper joints.

Table 4 Observed average values of the joints during tensile tests. Sample Microwave induced Copper joints Proof stress (MPa) 71.8 Ultimate tensile strength (MPa) 164.4 % Elongation 29.21

brittle failure is dominant in the zone where total melting of the powder particles in the sandwich layer and subsequent resoilidication took place during microwave irradiation. The more elongated structures associated with ductile failure as seen in Fig. 12

are, on the other hand, largely located in the proximity to the particles remained semi-molten during irradiation. Thus, it is evident that, those few semi-molten (during irradiation) particles may contribute towards better tensile strength of the joints. The resolidied particles, it is observed, lose their ductility associated with metallic structures to some extent. The fact was also observed while studying indentation geometry as illustrated in Fig. 10. The change in tensile properties can further be attributed to the change in the orientations of the copper atomic structures as observed in the Fig. 2 and Fig. 7. As discussed earlier, the starting copper powder has the orientation of (3 1 1), while the copper in the fused joint layer (post microwave irradiation) records a dominating (1 1 1) orientation which primarily affect the strength and microhardness of the joint. The changes of orientation plane from (3 1 1) to (1 1 1) might cause lattice straining, which, in turn, inhibit crack

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Fig. 12. Microstructure of fractured area.

growth in the joint region. This results in increase in microhardness as well as tensile strength of the joint. However, as the applied load increases continually, the necking in the joint zone increases resulting in observed higher elongation. The induced brittleness on the sandwich layer is also explained by the presence of copper oxide and carbon in the fused zone as observed in the Fig. 7 and Fig. 9. This induced brittleness associated with microwave joining, could however, affect a loss of 40% of the original strength of the copper. It is worth mentioning here that the preliminary results show that the tensile strength of similar grade copper joints made through TIG welding was obtained as only159 MPa (a loss of 44% of the original strength), which inferior to the strength is obtained with microwave induced joints. Further investigations in this direction are being carried out. 5. Conclusions Joining of metallic materials in bulk form using microwave energy is challenging owing to reection of microwaves by bulk metals at room temperature. The present paper reports on the initial results of development of copper (99.9% pure) joint using microwave hybrid heating technique. Metallurgical joining of copper in bulk form has been achieved in this work. Metallurgical fusion in the joint area is near complete. Uniform microstructure in the joint region conrms the uniform volumetric heating throughout the joint. Bulk Copper joint with Vickers microhardness around 78 7 Hv has been obtained. Presence of oxygen leads to formation of copper oxide which facilitates better coupling of microwaves with the metallic materials. The work establishes the basis for potential metallic material joining in bulk form using microwave energy, which is eco friendly and fast. The major conclusions of the present work can be summarized as(1) It is possible to join bulk metallic materials (for example, copper), using microwave energy. (2) Microwave joining mechanism using microwave hybrid heating has been explained and demonstrated for copper, one of the difcult materials to weld. Smaller metallic particle (powder) size is favorable for better interaction with microwaves. (3) Homogeneous heating in the joint through metallic powder in the sandwich layer results in fusion of the powder particles and wetting of the bulk interfaces during microwave irradiation.

(4) Change of atomic structure of copper powder does take place during microwave irradiation; for example, Cu (3 1 1) gets transformed into Cu (1 1 1). Nearly 26% of metallic copper powder gets transformed into copper oxide during microwave irradiation at atmospheric condition. Presence of oxides in copper improves coupling of microwaves. (5) Microhardness of the microwave induced joint area is nearer (within 84%) to the bulk metallic material. (6) The microstructure in the joint is dense (porosity $1.92%). Predominantly round pores are formed at the joint zone produced using microwave energy. (7) The microwave processed copper joints exhibits signicant tensile strength with signicantly high elongation. This is due to near complete melting of powder particles followed by good bonding between the interface surfaces. Failure of the microwave induced copper joints is due to both ductile as well brittle modes of failure.

Acknowledgement Authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support received from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India, under the Project Grant No. FIG100445. Inputs from research student Dheeraj Gupta and undergraduate student Vipul have been duly acknowledged. References
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