ABSTRACT

Electrical transition joints (ETJ) are used for welding aluminum to steel in reduction cells. ETJs can experience temperatures up to 600°C which can cause strength loss and resistance increase. This results from formation of brittle, high resistance Fe-Al intermetallics at the bond. Over the time required for mechanical failure to occur, the resistance can increase dramatically. The increase can be altered by inserting a titanium or chromium interlayer. Compared to BiClad, the temperature at which resistance begins to increase is raised significantly with a titanium interlayer. As-manufactured, resistance of a standard BiClad specimen is 40.0 m-ohm, chromium interlayer ETJ is 55.8, and titanium interlayer ETJ is 44.4. After 188 hours at 500°C, the bi-clad had fallen apart, the chrome interlayer ETJ resistance had increased to 11,250 and the titanium interlayer ETJ exhibited no change.

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