Process for bonding zirconium and alloys thereof

Claim 1

IN A PROCESS FOR BONDING ZICRCONIUM AND ZIRCONIUMBASE ALLOY MEMBERS WHEREIN THE MEMBERS ARE COMPOSED OF A HIGHLY CORROSION RESISTANT ALPHA PHASE, THE STEPS COMPRISING, DEPOSITING A THIN LAYER OF FROM 25 TO 10,000 ANGSTROMS IN THICKNESS OF AT LEAST ONE ELEMENT SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF COPPER, CHROMIUM, IRON, MANGANESE, NIOBIUM, NICKEL, TITANIUM AND VANADIUM AND ALLOYS OF TWO OR MORE ON AT LEAST ONE OF THE MEMBERS AT THE SURFACES TO BE JOINED, PRESSURE BONDING THE MEMBERS BY PLACING THE JOINT SURFACES IN INTIMATE CONTACT WITH POSITIVE BONDING PRESSURE AND HEATING THE MEMBERS TO A TEMPERATURE IN THE RANGE OF FROM 1000*F. TO 1560*F. WHICH IS BELOW THE TEMPERATURE AT WHICH AN ALLOTROPIC TRANSFORMATION TO BEATA PHASE OCCURS WHEREBY A SMALL AMOUNT OF A JOINT ALLOY HAVING A LOWER TRANSFORMATION TEMPERATURE IS FORMED AT THE JOINT INTERFACE AND TRANSFORMATION TO SAID BETA PHASE OCCURS AT THE JOINT ONLY THEREBY PROMOTING DIFFUSION OF ZIRCONIUM AND GRAIN GROWTH ACROSS THE INTERFACE, MAINTAINING THE MEMBERS IN SAID TEMPERATURE RANGE FOR A LENGTH OF TIME OF FROM 30 MINUTES TO 7 DAYS WHICH IS SUFFICIENT TO PERMIT DIFFUSION OF THE JOINT ALLOY INTO THE MEMBERS, WHEREBY THE JOINT ALLOY IS SO DILUTED THAT THE BETA PHASE ALLOY AT THE JOINT REVERTS AT LEAST IN PART TO SAID ALPHA PHASE.