Welding process for ceramic bracket and metal groove

Abstract

The invention discloses a welding process for a ceramic bracket and a metal groove, and the welding process comprises the following steps: S1, polishing and cleaning, S2, cutting and assembling, S3, vacuum welding, S4, cooling, and S5, taking and inspection.The welding process for the ceramic bracket and the metal groove solves the problem that connection between a ceramic material and a metal material is difficult due to the difference between physical properties and chemical properties; the method has the advantages of simplicity and convenience in operation, high connection strength, suitability for extreme environments such as high temperature and high pressure and the like, and the metal groove can be fixedly assembled in the groove in the ceramic bracket through the soldering lug, so that the direct contact between the metal dental arch wire and the ceramic base groove is avoided, the friction force of the dental arch wire at the groove is reduced, and the size data and the strength are ensured; the purpose of orthodontic treatment is achieved by adapting to dental arch wires of different specifications, the treatment time is shortened, and the use effect of the product is improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of tooth orthodontics, and in particular to a welding process for a ceramic bracket and a metal groove. Background Art

[0002] In tooth deformity correction, ceramic brackets are usually connected to metal dental archwires to achieve the purpose of orthodontics. However, since the ceramic brackets have a concave structure and the archwire grooves are concave structures, it is difficult to fully polish them. Therefore, the inner surface of the archwire grooves is rough and has a large friction coefficient. When the dental archwire is installed in the archwire grooves for orthodontic treatment, the teeth are subject to large resistance during movement, which affects the orthodontic effect. At the same time, if the dental archwire is in direct contact with the ceramic bracket, ceramic cracking is likely to occur, which affects the service life of the ceramic bracket. At present, metal groove gaskets are fixed in the archwire groove of the ceramic bracket by gluing, but it is difficult to ensure the safety and hygiene of the glue, and it is also difficult to ensure the strength of the glue during long-term use. The metal groove is easily displaced due to aging and debonding of the glue, which affects the performance of the dental arch wire. Moreover, as the strength of the dental arch wire is continuously increased, it is more likely to cause the metal groove to debond and come into direct contact with the ceramic bracket, resulting in related problems of direct contact between the dental arch wire and the ceramic bracket.

[0003] The application publication number "CN 111732442 A" discloses a "seamless welding process for ceramic materials and metal materials". It mainly involves spraying welding materials on the ceramic surface and then welding the welding surfaces together. This not only requires ensuring the contact area between the spraying material and the welding surface, but also the welding firmness is easily affected by the loosening of the spraying material after welding. The authorization announcement number "CN 106392388 B" discloses a "ceramic and conductor welding process". It requires placing ceramics, solder, and conductors in a welding box, and sufficient inert gas is introduced into the box to ensure the internal pressure of the box. This welding method is prone to material movement and welding offset due to the introduction of gas. At the same time, the continuous input of inert gas during the welding process is also prone to causing gaps or bubbles at the welding position. It is difficult to ensure the firmness and stability of the ceramic bracket and the metal groove during orthodontic treatment. Summary of the invention

[0004] The present invention mainly solves the technical problems existing in the prior art, thereby providing a welding process for ceramic brackets and metal grooves which is easy to operate, has high connection strength, is easy to adapt to dental arch wires of different specifications to achieve the purpose and treatment effect of orthodontics, and effectively increases the performance and service life of ceramic brackets.

[0005] To solve the above problems, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions: A welding process for a ceramic bracket and a metal groove comprises the following steps: S1 Polishing and Cleaning: Polish the ceramic brackets and clean the surface of the ceramic brackets by a cleaning machine. S2 Cutting and assembly: Select welding materials with a thickness of less than 0.08 mm, and cut the welding materials into welding pieces by cutting jigs. Place the cut welding pieces in the middle of the bottom of the archwire groove inside the ceramic bracket by positioning tooling, and then assemble the metal groove onto the archwire groove of the ceramic bracket; S3 vacuum welding: put the ceramic bracket equipped with metal grooves and welding pieces into the quartz tube of the vacuum furnace for vacuum treatment, and the vacuum degree is less than 5×10 -3 Pa, and then slowly heat the vacuum furnace to 770℃-790℃, and then keep it warm for 10min-15min, and then continue to heat the furnace body to the melting point of the solder, and then keep it warm for 5min-8min; S4 Cooling: After the completion of step S3, the furnace body is allowed to cool naturally to 500°C, and after reaching 500°C, the furnace body insulation cover is opened to allow the temperature inside the quartz tube to quickly drop to room temperature through the temperature difference of the room temperature environment, completing the welding of the ceramic bracket and the metal groove; S5: After the quartz tube in step S4 cools down to room temperature, the vacuum state inside the quartz tube is released, and the welded finished product is taken out from the quartz tube. Then, the appearance, size and welding strength of the ceramic bracket and the metal groove after welding are checked.

[0006] The welding sheet material in the S2 cutting and assembling step is a silver-copper-titanium welding sheet, and the thickness of the welding sheet is 0.05 mm. The welding material is cut into welding sheets with a length of 1 mm-2 mm and a width of 0.4 mm-0.5 mm by a cutting fixture, and the metal groove is placed above the welding sheet.

[0007] In the S3 vacuum welding step, the furnace body is continuously heated to 865°C-885°C after the first heat preservation, and is kept warm for 5 minutes in the second heat preservation, so that the welding sheet melts and fully diffuses into the archwire groove, allowing the metal groove to contact the ceramic bracket through the welding sheet.

[0008] The metal groove is a trumpet-mouth structure, and the gap between the metal groove and the archwire groove inside the ceramic bracket is less than 0.1 mm.

[0009] After the S2 cutting and assembling step is completed, more than two ceramic brackets need to be neatly arranged on the ceramic plate, and then the arranged ceramic plate is placed in a quartz tube for S3 vacuum welding.

[0010] In the S1 polishing and cleaning step, the ceramic bracket needs to be polished by a ball mill using micron-grade diamond abrasives for 72 hours, and then the polished ceramic bracket is cleaned by an ultrasonic cleaner to remove grease and fine attachments on the surface of the ceramic bracket.

[0011] The ceramic bracket is an alumina ceramic self-locking bracket, the metal groove is made of 304 stainless steel, the vacuum furnace is a vacuum quartz furnace, and the ceramic plate is a 95-porcelain alumina ceramic plate.

[0012] The beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows: the welding process of the ceramic bracket and the metal groove is simple to operate and has high connection strength, and effectively increases the firmness and stability of the connection between the metal groove and the ceramic bracket; the selection of the welding sheet ensures that the welding sheet can be melted at a certain temperature without affecting the deformation of the metal groove, and at the same time, the molten welding sheet is sufficiently wet to fully penetrate into the two materials, effectively ensuring the high strength after welding; and the vacuum process design not only effectively removes the oxide film on the metal surface and improves the surface wettability, but also reduces defects such as pores and bubble inclusions at the welding joint, and reduces the ceramic bracket and the heat preservation through multiple heating and heat preservation. The thermal stress of the metal groove is reduced and the gas and oxide contained in it are effectively removed, ensuring that the ceramic bracket and the metal groove are fully contacted and welded through the melting of the welding piece, effectively improving the firmness and stability after welding; the cooling process adopts natural cooling to 500℃ with the furnace body, and then the furnace body insulation cover is opened and rapidly cooled to room temperature, which can allow the welding material to release residual stress by creep relaxation effect at high temperature, prevent stress concentration from causing brittle cracking of the product, and further improve the product strength, avoiding the problems of glue contamination, glue loosening or metal groove deviation caused by using glue to connect the metal groove and the ceramic bracket.

[0013] The welding of metal grooves reduces the friction resistance inside the archwire grooves in the ceramic brackets, avoids the increase in resistance to tooth movement during the orthodontic process due to excessive friction coefficient between the dental archwire and the archwire grooves, and ensures the effect of orthodontic correction. At the same time, the addition of metal grooves also avoids direct contact between the dental archwire and the ceramic bracket, allowing the metal grooves to be located between the dental archwire and the archwire grooves to increase the contact area, thereby reducing the pressure on the archwire grooves due to the dental archwire, and effectively preventing the ceramic bracket from cracking due to the continuous force of the dental archwire, ensuring the size data and strength that the ceramic bracket can withstand, and achieving the purpose and treatment effect of orthodontics by adapting to dental archwires of different specifications. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative work.

[0015] Figure 1 An exploded view of a welding structure of a ceramic bracket and a metal groove of the present invention; Figure 2 The figure is a temperature curve diagram of a welding process of a ceramic bracket and a metal groove of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] In order to make the technical means, creative features, objectives and effects of the present invention easy to understand, the present invention is further described below in conjunction with specific embodiments, but the following embodiments are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, not all. Based on the embodiments in the implementation mode, other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative work are all within the scope of protection of this patent. Example 1

[0017] like Figure 1 and Figure 2 As shown, a welding process of a ceramic bracket and a metal groove includes the following steps: S1 Polishing and cleaning: Use micron-grade diamond abrasives to polish the surface of the ceramic bracket 4 through a ball mill for 72 hours, and then put the polished ceramic bracket 4 into an ultrasonic cleaning machine for surface cleaning to remove surface grease and fine attachments, so that the light transmittance of the surface of the ceramic bracket 4 reaches more than 80%. The ceramic bracket 4 can be an alumina ceramic self-locking bracket, and the metal groove 1 can be made of 304 stainless steel.

[0018] S2 cutting and assembly: Select silver-copper-titanium welding materials with a welding temperature lower than 1000°C, good wetting effect in the molten state, and high welding strength, and the thickness of the silver-copper-titanium welding materials is 0.05mm, and use a cutting fixture to cut the silver-copper-titanium welding materials into welding pieces with a length of 1mm-2mm and a width of 0.4mm-0.5mm, place the welding piece 2 in the archwire groove in the ceramic bracket 4, and then embed the metal groove 1 of the U-shaped trumpet structure into the archwire groove, so that the welding piece 2 is located between the ceramic bracket 4 and the metal groove 1. After installation, the gap between the outer surface of the metal groove 1 and the inner surface of the archwire groove is less than 0.1mm, and the metal groove 1 and the archwire groove in the ceramic bracket 4 are as close to each other as possible, so that the welding piece 2 can fully fill the gap between the metal groove 1 and the archwire groove 3 after melting into liquid.

[0019] After the ceramic bracket 4, the welding sheet 2 and the metal groove 1 are assembled, the products to be welded are neatly placed on the 95% porcelain alumina ceramic plate, so as to put as many products to be welded as possible into the quartz tube of the vacuum furnace through the alumina ceramic plate.

[0020] S3 vacuum welding: Place the alumina ceramic plate and the products to be welded into the quartz tube of the vacuum quartz furnace for vacuum treatment. The vacuum degree is less than 5×10 -3 Pa is used to remove the oxide film on the metal surface, improve surface wettability, and reduce possible problems such as pores and bubble inclusions in the welded joint.

[0021] Then the vacuum furnace is slowly heated to 780°C at a heating rate of 6.5°C / min to reduce the thermal stress of the product to be welded, and is kept at 780°C for 10 minutes to keep the furnace temperature uniform, so that the gases that may be contained in the ceramic bracket 4 and the metal groove 1 can be fully released before welding, and the possibility of oxides can be removed to ensure the improvement of the product welding strength; then continue to heat to 875°C to reach the melting point of the welding piece 2, and keep it at 875°C for 5 minutes, so that the welding piece 2 is melted into liquid and fully fills the space between the metal groove 1 and the archwire groove 3, ensuring the welding contact area between the metal groove 1 and the archwire groove 3.

[0022] S4 Cooling: After the insulation welding is completed, the furnace body is allowed to cool naturally to 500°C, so that the welding material can release some residual stress by creep relaxation effect at high temperature, prevent stress concentration from causing brittle cracking of the product and improve the strength of the product. After reaching 500°C, the furnace insulation cover is opened to allow the surface of the quartz tube to be in direct contact with the external environment, and the circulation of the external environment air in the quartz furnace cavity accelerates the temperature of the quartz tube to drop to room temperature, completes the welding of the ceramic bracket 4 and the metal groove 1, and ensures the firmness and stability after welding.

[0023] S5: After the quartz tube in step S4 is cooled to room temperature, the vacuum state inside the quartz tube is released, and the welded finished product is taken out from the quartz tube, and then the appearance, size and welding strength of the ceramic bracket 4 and the metal groove 1 after welding are checked. Example 2

[0024] The welding process of the ceramic bracket and the metal groove is as follows: first, the silver-copper-titanium welding sheet 2 is selected as the welding material, and the silver-copper-titanium welding sheet 2 and the U-shaped metal groove 1 are sequentially assembled into the archwire groove 3 of the ceramic bracket 4, and then the entire ceramic bracket 4 to be welded is placed in a vacuum chamber with a vacuum degree of less than 5×10 -3Pa, slowly heat to 790℃ at a heating rate of 6.6℃ / min to reduce thermal stress, and then keep warm for 10 minutes to make the temperature inside the quartz furnace cavity uniform to remove oxides, and then continue to slowly heat to 885℃ at a heating rate of 6.4℃ / min and keep warm for 7 minutes, so that the silver-copper-titanium welding sheet 2 with a thickness of 0.07mm can be fully melted and diffused, and then slowly cool to 500℃ with the furnace, so that the welding material can release part of the residual stress by creep relaxation effect at high temperature, thereby improving the strength of the product, and finally open the insulation cover of the quartz furnace to rapidly cool the furnace body to room temperature, and then open the quartz tube in the quartz furnace to release the vacuum state to complete the welding of the ceramic bracket 4 and the metal groove 1, and finally check the overall size, appearance and welding strength of the ceramic bracket 4 after welding. Example 3

[0025] The welding process of the ceramic bracket and the metal groove is as follows: first, the silver-copper-titanium welding sheet 2 is selected as the welding material, and the silver-copper-titanium welding sheet 2 and the U-shaped metal groove 1 are sequentially assembled into the archwire groove 3 of the ceramic bracket 4, and then the entire ceramic bracket 4 to be welded is placed in a vacuum chamber with a vacuum degree of less than 5×10 -3 Pa, slowly heat to 770℃ at a heating rate of 6.4℃ / min to reduce thermal stress, and then keep warm for 10 minutes to make the temperature inside the quartz furnace cavity uniform to remove oxides, and then continue to slowly heat to 865℃ at a heating rate of 6.4℃ / min and keep warm for 5 minutes, so that the silver-copper-titanium welding sheet 2 with a thickness of 0.03mm can be fully melted and diffused, and then slowly cool to 500℃ with the furnace, so that the welding material can release part of the residual stress by creep relaxation effect at high temperature, thereby improving the strength of the product, and finally open the insulation cover of the quartz furnace to rapidly cool the furnace cavity to room temperature, and then open the quartz tube in the quartz furnace to release the vacuum state to complete the welding of the ceramic bracket 4 and the metal groove 1, and finally check the overall size, appearance and welding strength of the ceramic bracket 4 after welding.

[0026] When the insulation cover of the quartz furnace is opened to allow the furnace body to rapidly cool to room temperature, the air circulation speed inside the furnace body can be increased by exhausting air into the quartz furnace, thereby accelerating the efficiency of cooling the furnace body to room temperature after the insulation cover is opened, making it easier to perform heating and welding again.

[0027] When opening the insulation cover of the quartz furnace to allow the furnace body to rapidly cool to room temperature, a cooling water pipe can also be arranged inside the quartz furnace. The water pipe is a hollow tube that runs through the quartz furnace and fits with the quartz tube inside the quartz furnace. During the heating process, there is no cooling water inside the water pipe. When rapid cooling is required, the insulation cover of the quartz furnace can be opened again to introduce external cooling water into the water pipe for circulation, so that the cooling water circulates in the water pipe to speed up the cooling of the quartz furnace to room temperature, thereby accelerating the accelerated cooling of the quartz tube inside the quartz furnace to facilitate further heating and welding processing.

[0028] The beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows: the welding process of the ceramic bracket and the metal groove is simple to operate and has high connection strength, and effectively increases the firmness and stability of the connection between the metal groove and the ceramic bracket; the selection of the welding sheet ensures that the welding sheet can be melted at a certain temperature without affecting the deformation of the metal groove, and at the same time, the molten welding sheet is sufficiently wet to fully penetrate into the two materials, effectively ensuring the high strength after welding; and the vacuum process design not only effectively removes the oxide film on the metal surface and improves the surface wettability, but also reduces defects such as pores and bubble inclusions at the welding joint, and reduces the ceramic bracket and the heat preservation through multiple heating and heat preservation. The thermal stress of the metal groove is reduced and the gas and oxide contained in it are effectively removed, ensuring that the ceramic bracket and the metal groove are fully contacted and welded through the melting of the welding piece, effectively improving the firmness and stability after welding; the cooling process adopts natural cooling to 500℃ with the furnace body, and then the furnace body insulation cover is opened and rapidly cooled to room temperature, which can allow the welding material to release residual stress by creep relaxation effect at high temperature, prevent stress concentration from causing brittle cracking of the product, and further improve the product strength, avoiding the problems of glue contamination, glue loosening or metal groove deviation caused by using glue to connect the metal groove and the ceramic bracket.

[0029] The welding of metal grooves reduces the friction resistance inside the archwire grooves in the ceramic brackets, avoids the increase in resistance to tooth movement during the orthodontic process due to excessive friction coefficient between the dental archwire and the archwire grooves, and ensures the effect of orthodontic correction. At the same time, the addition of metal grooves also avoids direct contact between the dental archwire and the ceramic bracket, allowing the metal grooves to be located between the dental archwire and the archwire grooves to increase the contact area, thereby reducing the pressure on the archwire grooves due to the dental archwire, and effectively preventing the ceramic bracket from cracking due to the continuous force of the dental archwire, ensuring the size data and strength that the ceramic bracket can withstand, and achieving the purpose and treatment effect of orthodontics by adapting to dental archwires of different specifications.

[0030] What has been described above is only a specific implementation mode of the present invention, but the protection scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions that are not conceived through creative work should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A welding process for a ceramic bracket and a metal groove, characterized in that: The steps include: S1 Polishing and Cleaning: Polish the ceramic brackets and clean the surface of the ceramic brackets by a cleaning machine. S2 Cutting and assembly: Select welding materials with a thickness of less than 0.08 mm, and cut the welding materials into welding pieces by cutting jigs. Place the cut welding pieces in the middle of the bottom of the archwire groove inside the ceramic bracket by positioning tooling, and then assemble the metal groove onto the archwire groove of the ceramic bracket; S3 vacuum welding: put the ceramic bracket equipped with metal grooves and welding pieces into the quartz tube of the vacuum furnace for vacuum treatment, and the vacuum degree is less than 5×10 -3 Pa, and then slowly heat the vacuum furnace to 770℃-790℃, and then keep it warm for 10min-15min, and then continue to heat the furnace body to the melting point of the solder, and then keep it warm for 5min-8min; S4 Cooling: After the completion of step S3, the furnace body is allowed to cool naturally to 500°C, and after reaching 500°C, the furnace body insulation cover is opened to allow the temperature inside the quartz tube to quickly drop to room temperature through the temperature difference of the room temperature environment, completing the welding of the ceramic bracket and the metal groove; S5: After the quartz tube in step S4 cools down to room temperature, the vacuum state inside the quartz tube is released, and the welded finished product is taken out from the quartz tube. Then, the appearance, size and welding strength of the ceramic bracket and the metal groove after welding are checked.

2. The welding process of a ceramic bracket and a metal groove according to claim 1, characterized in that: The welding sheet material in the S2 cutting and assembling step is a silver-copper-titanium welding sheet, and the thickness of the welding sheet is 0.05 mm. The welding material is cut into welding sheets with a length of 1 mm-2 mm and a width of 0.4 mm-0.5 mm by a cutting fixture, and the metal groove is placed above the welding sheet.

3. The welding process of a ceramic bracket and a metal groove according to claim 2, characterized in that: In the S3 vacuum welding step, the furnace body is continuously heated to 865°C-885°C after the first heat preservation, and is kept warm for 5 minutes in the second heat preservation, so that the welding sheet melts and fully diffuses into the archwire groove, allowing the metal groove to contact the ceramic bracket through the welding sheet.

4. The welding process of a ceramic bracket and a metal groove according to claim 3, characterized in that: The metal groove is a trumpet-mouth structure, and the gap between the metal groove and the archwire groove inside the ceramic bracket is less than 0.1 mm.

5. A welding process for a ceramic bracket and a metal groove according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: After the S2 cutting and assembling step is completed, more than two ceramic brackets need to be neatly arranged on the ceramic plate, and then the arranged ceramic plate is placed in a quartz tube for S3 vacuum welding.

6. The welding process of a ceramic bracket and a metal groove according to claim 5, characterized in that: In the S1 polishing and cleaning step, the ceramic bracket needs to be polished by a ball mill using micron-grade diamond abrasives for 72 hours, and then the polished ceramic bracket is cleaned by an ultrasonic cleaner to remove grease and fine attachments on the surface of the ceramic bracket.

7. The welding process of a ceramic bracket and a metal groove according to claim 6, characterized in that: The ceramic bracket is an alumina ceramic self-locking bracket, the metal groove is made of 304 stainless steel, the vacuum furnace is a vacuum quartz furnace, and the ceramic plate is a 95-porcelain alumina ceramic plate.

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