According to Golbey site Brazing department archives, Fives Cryo produced its 5,000th vacuum brazing exchanger on 12 April 2008, representing a total volume of 17,000 m3 since the CONSARC furnace was first put into operation. This facility is part of a cold box that includes two exchangers and a two phase distribution drum, produced for Saudi Arabia.
Brazing is a technique for assembling a large number of parts in a single operation, by melting a filler alloy positioned between the surfaces to be brazed. This operation is performed at the temperature below the melting point of the parts to be assembled, and may use various different heating techniques (flames, induction, salt baths, etc.).
In manufacturing an aluminium heat exchanger, vacuum brazing avoids any oxidation of the metal during the assembly operation and eliminates finishing operations, while maintaining the initial cleanness of the parts, with no risk of pollution.
After using salt bath furnaces, Fives Cryo changed to the vacuum brazing furnace technology in 1990 and now has two facilities for brazing exchangers of more than 18 m3.