TIG welding-brazing process with high frequency induction hot wire technology was presented to create joints between 5A06 aluminum alloy and SUS32! stainless steel using ER1100 filler wire with different temperature. The joints were evaluated by mechanical test and microstructural analyses. The welding procedure using hot fiUer wire （400 ℃ ） significantly increases strength stability by 71% and average value of tensile strength by 30. 8 % of the joints, compared with cold wire. The research of microstructures in interfaces and welded seams reveals that using 400 ℃ hot filler wire can decrease the thickness of intermetallic compounds （ IMCs ） from 6 to 3.5 txm approximately, which is the main reason of mechanical property improvement.
Effects of Ni on microstructure and properties of aluminum-stainless steel TIG welding-brazing joint with Al-Si filler were studied. Different mass percentage of Ni powder was added in the flux separately. Results of tensile tests show that a significant improvement on mechanical properties of the butt joint is obtained using the modified flux. Moreover, obvious differences on microstructures of the interfaces were observed with Ni addition, that two intermetallic compound （IMC） layers at the interface change to one layer and the IMC thickness also decreases. Finally, effect mechanism of Ni was analyzed and discussed. Ni addition leads to an enrichment of element Si at the brazing interface, and furthermore suppresses the formation of intermetaUic compound. The reduction of IMC thickness is the main reason for the improvement of joint properties.
Dissimilar metals TIG welding-brazing of 5A06 aluminum alloy to SUS321 stainless steel has been carried out with Al-Sil2 eutectic filler metal and modified non-corrosive flux. The surface appearance and microstructures of the joint were analyzed and the average tensile strength of the joint was estimated. The results show that a sound dissimilar metals joint is obtained by TIG welding-brazing. Slag and residual flux on steel surface can be removed by sanding easily. The joint has dual characteristics： in aluminum alloy side, it is a welded joint, while in stainless steel side, it is a brazed joint. The whole interface layer, unequal in thickness at different position, ranges from 5 μm to 25 μm. The average tensile strength of the butt joint reaches 120 MPa and the fracture occurs at the interface layer.
Pulsed TIG welding–brazing process was applied to join aluminum with stainless steel dissimilar metals. Major parameters that affect the joint property significantly were identified as pulsed peak current, base current, pulse on time,and frequency by pre-experiments. A sample was established according to central composite design. Based on the sample,response surface methodology（RSM） and artificial neural networks（ANN） were employed to predict the tensile strength of the joints separately. With RSM, a significant and rational mathematical model was established to predict the joint strength.With ANN, a modified back-propagation algorithm consisting of one input layer with four neurons, one hidden layer with eight neurons, and one output layer with one neuron was trained for predicting the strength. Compared with RSM, average relative prediction error of ANN was ／10% and it obtained more stable and precise results.
Dissimilar metals TIG welding-brazing of aluminum alloy and non-coated stainless steel was investigated. The resultant joint was characterized in order to identify the phases and the brittle intermetallic compounds （IMCs） in the interracial layer by optical metalloscope （OM）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and energy dispersive spectrometer （ EDS） , and the cracked joint was analyzed in order to understand the cracking mechanism of the joint. The results show that the microfusion of the stainless steel can improve the wetting and spreading of liquid aluminum base filler metal on the steel suuface and the melted steel accelerates the formation of mass of brittle IMCs in the interracial layer, which causes the joint cracking badly. The whole interfacial layer is 5 -7 μm thick and comprises approximately 5μm-thickness reaction layer in aluminum side and about 2 μm-thickness diffusion layer in steel side. The stable Al-rich IMCs are formed in the interfacial layer and the phases transfer from （ Al ＋ FeAl3 ） in aluminum side to （ FeAl3 ＋ Fe2Al5 ） and （ α-Fe ＋ FeAl） in steel side.
