General Brazing Rods & Brazing Flux

Welding Supplies Direct offer a wide range of general brazing rods for joining various materials. Our range includes silicon bronze, nickel bronze, copper phosphorous rods, silver solder & many more. In addition to this, we are able to advise and pair your choice of rod with a suitable flux for your brazing application.

What is a brazing rod?

A brazing rod is a type of filler metal that is used to join two pieces of material together. These rods are designed to have a lower melting point than the base metal that is being brazed therefore, the base material itself will not melt. The solder melts into the braze joint via a process called capillary action which, in short, means the metal will flow in to the joint with no assistance.

Brazing rods can be used to joint a wide range of metals, including bronze, brass, stainless steel, mild steel and cast iron. It can even be used to join various nickel alloys.

What is silver solder?

Silver brazing rods are a very popular choice when brazing. Common applications for silver solder include jewellery making, joining of copper & brazing gold. One of it's main purposes in industry is joining stainless steel to stainless steel; for example: thin walled tubing is commonly used to manufacture frames for bicycles & motor cycles. Thin walled tubing can be difficult to weld due to the heat from a welding arc causing the wall of the tubing to cave in due to excessive heat. Silver soldering can overcome this issue by utilising more generalised heat and a brazing rod with a silver content which has a lower melting point than the stainless steel.

Silver solder is available in a range of silver contents. Popular grades include 30%, 40%, 45%, 50% & 55% silver content.

What are copper phosphorous rods?

In short, copper phosphorous rods are used mainly to braze copper and brass. It is not to be used to braze steel. Why? The phosphour content causes high levels of embrittlement due to the iron content in the steel.

Industries such as HVAC & refrigeration commonly utilise copper phospshorous rods.