Effect of surface treatment on fatigue life of postceramic soldered joints

This research investigated the effect of surface treatment on the fatigue life of metal-ceramic postsoldering.

Twenty cylindric specimens were cast in a metal-ceramic alloy. All specimens received appropriate heat treatment simulating ceramic application, although no porcelain was applied. Each specimen was cut in half to form two half specimens. The 40 half specimens were randomly assigned to one of the four treatment groups, which differed in the type of surface treatment performed on one end of each half specimen (joint surface) prior to soldering: (1) aluminous oxide pink stone; (2) 50-micron aluminum oxide sandblasting; (3) brown rubber point; and (4) gray silicone wheel followed by pink silicone wheel. All surface treatments were performed for 30 seconds. The half specimens were then steam cleaned, aligned, indexed, and oven soldered with #650 postceramic solder. The soldering of two half specimens formed a complete test specimen, and a total of 20 postceramic soldered specimens were prepared. Following soldering, a 241.1 MPa fatigue stress was applied to each solder joint during specimen testing. The test variable was the number of stress cycles required to fail each specimen.

All specimens failed adhesively at the joint interface between the solder and parent metal. There were significant differences in the number of stress cycles to failure between groups 1 and 2, groups 1 and 4, and between groups 2 and 3.

The load cycle to failure for postceramic soldered joints was affected by the metal surface treatment.