4. Conclusion

Diffusion welding offers several advantages over conventional joining processes such as brazing or fusion welding:

• absence of microstructural discontinuities linked to melted (or heat-affected) zones. What's more, the entire structure is heated, which limits the problems associated with thermal gradients (residual stresses, shrinkage, etc.);

• assembly of complex internal and/or external structures; welding of interfaces that are inaccessible or difficult to reach using conventional mechanical processes, low thicknesses to be assembled with high thicknesses (material savings compared to material removal processes), simplified sandwich manufacturing approach... ;

• joining of materials that are difficult to weld (depending on material compatibility) using other methods (ceramic/metal,...