Advanced Joining Technology: Simple, Strong, and
Secure
Industrial Productivity/Manufacturing Technology
Originating Technology/ NASA Contribution
The space-age materials that NASA employs in its spacecraft
and satellites have different attributes than the building
materials that can work for Earthly uses. These materials
do not behave like the typical construction materials,
and therefore, require new methods for construction.
Work done at NASA’s Langley Research Center in
the realm of active solder joining has led to a new,
self-bonding solder that enables high conductivity,
as well as the metallic joining of carbon and ceramic
materials to a wide range of metals. The original work
involved evaluating high- and low-temperature joining
technologies for joining carbon composite structures
for use in thermal management and reusable launch vehicles.
The initial plan for this innovation was to lower the
weight of battery packs in satellites. It was a success.
NASA scientists found use for this technology in fabricating
a thermal management package for battery compartments
in the Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites, but
it is also being used by the Agency for space radiator
panels. Because it is light, simple to use, and economical,
NASA will likely find other uses for this solder, just
as outside of the Space Agency, this unique bond is
finding many practical applications.
Partnership
Materials Resources
International (MRi), of Lansdale,
Pennsylvania, teamed with researchers at Langley through
a Phase II Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) contract. MRi technologies and products center on materials,
systems, and services for joining difficult-to-join
materials, dissimilar metals, intermetallics, and ceramics
to metals. The joining of such materials is a growing
market with application in the electronics, aerospace,
power-generation, automotive, chemical-processing,
and process machinery industries.
MRi’s work with the resulting technology, S-Bond active
solder, was so successful, that in 2002, it created
a second company devoted just to this work. S-Bond
Technologies LLC (SBT) now handles the manufacturing
and distribution of this product.
Product Outcome
Commercial development of S-Bond has been progressing
for nearly 10 years with emerging applications in thermal
management components for electrical packaging, lasers,
high-power electronics, ceramics, graphite, carbides,
armor, and many other general industrial applications,
including the joining of aluminum structures. The main
focus of SBT, though, is on electronic packaging and
thermal management.
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Pictured here
are titanium sensor housings for down-hole
drilling, with S-Bond-joined ceramic-metal
seals on the viewing end of the sensor heads. |
Market potential for S-Bond is strongest as a metallic-joining
compound that can bond most inorganic materials in
an economic, low-temperature, one-step joining process.
Market applications include the joining of thermal-management
devices that require high-thermal conductivity, the
joining of electronic packages that use new ceramics
and composite materials, as well as a host of other
joining applications where adhesives or conventional
solders will not work.
S-Bond works at low temperatures, in air, without flux,
and without metallization. It joins all metals, most
ceramics, glasses, and metal matrix composites. It
can be applied with a variety of methods, including
brushing, ultrasonic bath, dipping, thermal spraying,
foil or press, and friction transfer, to name a few.
Combined with its use of low soldering temperatures,
these methods of application make S-Bond very easy
to work with. Temperatures for creating the bond can
be so low that they can even be achieved with the use
of induction, hotplate, or flame. Additionally, S-Bond
alloys are lead-free, making them more environmentally
acceptable than many traditional solders.
The technology has a growing market demand. From 1997
to 2004, the company has seen sales of over
$1 million, and it has emerging electronic packaging
markets that hold the potential for sales of over $10
million in the next 3 years.
S-Bond has also been used in space radiators that use
carbon composite, graphic foam, and thermal graphite
materials for thermal management. In addition, it has
been used in circuit board heat transfer panels for
cooling of satellites and high electrical density avionics,
as well as providing pipe joining for satellite thermal
control. It is also available for use in space structures
where carbon composite and light metal joining is required.
S-Bond® is a registered trademark of S-Bond Technologies
LLC.
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