What is the most common scenario for a eutectic reaction? And (for that matter) what constitutes a eutectic reaction?
If your heat treat operations involves vacuum heat treatments, you may already be familiar with this term. With the ability to truly make a bad day worse, this paper uncovers several examples of eutectic reactions, the costs that this “metallurgical experiment” can have on your load and furnace, and what steps you should take to prevent two mating metals from melting together. In this best of the web article, read about the eight examples of how barriers are used in real-world applications.
An excerpt: “To many people, the term ‘eutectic’ is not well understood. The best way to think of a eutectic is a metallurgical meltdown. A eutectic reaction occurs when two components with different melting points and surfaces free of oxides come in contact with each other in the vacuum furnace. This can create an atomic diffusion. For some materials, when a specific atomic composition is reached, they will melt at a temperature much lower than the melting point of the individual metals. If that temperature is reached or exceeded during the heat treating cycle, melting will occur at the contact points. This is referred to as a eutectic melt.”
Read the entire article from Solar Atmospheres, by clicking here: “Preventing Eutectic Reactions and Diffusion Bonding in Vacuum Processing“
