Vacuum Brazing for Catalytic Converter Foam Structures

Lakshmi Vacuum Technologies partnered with a leading automotive components supplier to address a complex challenge: vacuum brazing of porous metallic foam structures inside catalytic converters. These parts required precise metallurgical bonding, uniform heating, and oxidation-free joints.

Background

The client needed reliable joining of metallic foams used in catalytic converter assemblies—components with high surface area and strict quality requirements.

3D porous foam structures
Zero oxidation tolerance
High-temperature process with strict control
Mass production across hundreds of parts

Technical Challenge

Maintaining temperature uniformity inside porous foam substrates
Preventing oxidation in complex geometries
Achieving repeatability across high-volume batches
Ensuring braze alloy flow inside microstructures

Lakshmi Vacuum's Solution

Lakshmi deployed its advanced VBF series Vacuum Brazing Furnaces, offering precision-controlled thermal profiles and deep vacuum levels as low as 10⁻⁶ mbar. The system included PLC-SCADA multizone controls and hands-on metallurgical collaboration.

Execution Strategy

Installed pilot furnace at client site
Conducted iterative brazing trials with customer team
Developed optimized thermal profiles for porous foam joints
Validated process across multiple geometries

Key Results

Distortion-free, oxidation-free braze joints
100% joint integrity in porous metal foams
Scalable batch processing with repeatability
Reduced utility and maintenance cost

Long-Term Impact

Consistency: Stable performance across millions of parts

Reliability: Furnaces running for 10+ years

Energy Efficiency: Modular design and low drift

Client Trust: Multi-plant rollout

Why Lakshmi Vacuum?

Specialized in high-precision vacuum brazing
Custom thermal process development with clients
Proven performance in foam brazing
Deep R&D and metallurgical support

Conclusion

Lakshmi Vacuum Technologies was instrumental in solving one of the most demanding brazing challenges in the automotive sector. Their engineering collaboration, furnace reliability, and metallurgical precision enabled the customer to scale production with full confidence.