Soldering steel sheets using soft solders

Abstract

The paper contains strength tests results of joints soldered using lead and leadless soft solders. For tests lead solders types Sn63Pb37, Sn60Pb40, Pb60Sn40 and Pb48Sn32Bi and leadless soft solders types Sn96Ag4, Sn99Cu1, Sn70Zn30 and Sn96Ag3Cu1 were used. As basic joint material steel sheet of 1.0 mm thickness and zinc-coated steel sheet of 1.0 mm thickness were used. The size of test specimen was 100 × 20 mm. Two sheets were always cleaned and jointed together. For heating the propane-butane plus air flame was used. The tested assemblies were loaded using the universal tensile-strength testing machine until their failure. At the tests the force needed for assemblies’ failure and failure type (in the soldered joint, in the basic material) was recorded and the solder strength was calculated from the measured data. The test results show that for soldering of steel sheets as well of zinc-coated steel sheets of 1.0 mm thickness the joints soldered using the lead soft solder type Sn63Pb37 and the leadless soft solder type Sn96Ag4 were of the highest strength.