In the old days, I personally soldered 316 stainless very successfully using phosphoric acid as the flux. I don't know if you can use this in an assembly application, however, it is an option. Hope this helps... Dave Rooke Circo Craft - Pointe Claire ________ > Hi Christer - > > Good luck on soldering to the stainless steel - it's one of the > tougher materials to solder to and takes a very aggressive flux > chemistry. I can help out with your stainless steel questions - CRES > stands for Corrosion Resistant Steel which is a common acronym for > stainless steel. Your 18-8 description of stainless steel covers a lot > of alloys - 303 is a specific stainless steel alloy that is for free > machining applications. It has a lower sulfur content and a small > addition of aluminum to promote the free machining aspects. The CTE of > 303 is 16.4 um/mK in the 21-315 C envelope and 18.5 um/mK in the > 70-1000 C envelope. With the ceramic having a CTE 7.74 um/mK of your > assessment of the cracking cause sounds plausible. > > > Dave Hillman > Rockwell Collins > [log in to unmask] > > >______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ >Subject: Stainless steel >Author: [log in to unmask] at ccmgw1 >Date: 2/19/97 12:19 PM > > >Dear Technetters. > >We have been trying to solder a connector of plated stainless steel to a >ceramic substrate. We have not been sucessful so far. >Cracks occur in the solder joint after soldering. >We think the coefficient of thermal expansion in the stainless steel is >to high. >The material in the connector is CRES 303. (Acc to ASTM 484 and 582) >What material is the connector made of? The supplier is an american >company. > >The CRES 303 says nothing to me. >Is the material an ordinary 18-8 stainless steel (18%NI and 8%Cr)? >In that case the coefficient of thermal expansion is approx 18 ppm and >that could explain the cracks. > >Regards >Christer Marklund > *************************************************************************** * TechNet mail list is provided as a service by IPC using SmartList v3.05 * *************************************************************************** * To subscribe/unsubscribe send a message <to: [log in to unmask]> * * with <subject: subscribe/unsubscribe> and no text in the body. * *************************************************************************** * If you are having a problem with the IPC TechNet forum please contact * * Dmitriy Sklyar at 847-509-9700 ext. 311 or email at [log in to unmask] * ***************************************************************************