Improved Braze Joint Quality through use of enhanced surface technologies Award Number: DE-EE0007681 CX(s) Applied: A9, B3.6 Buildings Technology Office Date: 8/15/2016 Location(s): WI Office(s): Golden Field Office
Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance
August 22, 2016
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Improved Braze Joint Quality through use of enhanced surface technologies
Award Number: DE-EE0007681
CX(s) Applied: A9, B3.6
Buildings Technology Office
Date: 8/15/2016
Location(s): WI
Office(s): Golden Field Office
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to provide federal funding to Trane, Inc. to improve manufacturing techniques related to metal brazing used in heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R) equipment with the goal of reducing the leakage rate of finished joints thereby reducing the amount of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) emitted into the atmosphere.
Activities associated with the proposed project would include engineering, characterization, fabrication, in-lab testing and evaluation of experimental braze alloys and phobic and philic surfaces. Engineering, fabrication, testing and evaluation of alloys would be completed in Trane, Inc. offices, labs and manufacturing facilities in Columbia, SC, LaCrosse, WI, and Tyler, TX. Fabrication, sanding, cleaning, characterization, wettability testing, and evaluation of experimental surfaces would be undertaken at the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana, IL. The facilities in which lab work would occur are purpose-built for the type of activities being proposed; therefore, no change in the use, mission or operation of existing facilities would arise out of this effort and no physical modification of existing facilities or construction of new facilities would be necessary.