Welding operations produce gaseous and aerosol by-products that can have adverse health effects. A laboratory furnace study was conducted to aid understanding of the chemical and aerosol behavior of a widely used, self-fluxing brazing alloy (89% Cu, 6% Ag, 5% P) that is also used with a supplemental fluxing compound to prevent oxidation at the molten metal surface. The results indicate that the aerosols generated by the alloy are transient (produced over a short duration of time) and are associated with mass transfer of phosphorus species from the molten metal surface to the surrounding gas. In contrast, when the alloy was used in conjunction with the supplemental fluxing compound, a relatively nontransient, submicron-size aerosol was generated that was several orders of magnitude higher in concentration. Thermodynamic equilibrium analysis suggests that fluoride (a major constituent in the fluxing compound) played a significant role in reacting with the brazing alloy metals to form gas phase metal fluoride compounds that had high vapor pressures when compared with their elemental or oxide forms. As these metal-fluoride vapors cooled, submicron-size particles were formed mainly through nucleation and condensation growth processes. In addition, the equilibrium results revealed the potential formation of severe pulmonary irritants (HF and BF3) from heating the supplemental fluxing compound. These results demonstrated the importance of fluxing compounds in the formation of brazing fumes, and suggest that fluxing compounds could be selected that serve their metallurgical intention and suppress the formation of aerosols.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering, 4676 Columbia Parkway, R5, Cincinnati, Ohio 45226
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.