The open hearth furnace consists of a big brick room with a low arched roof. It is charged with pig iron and scrap through doors in the side walls. Through openings at one end of t...
Sulphur is another impurity and high sulphur is even a greater detriment to steel than phosphorus. High sulphur up to 0.09 per cent helps machining properties, but has a tendency t...
SULPHUR is another element (symbol S) which is always found in steel in small quantities. Some sulphur is contained in the ore from which the iron is smelted; more sulphur is intro...
If the nickel content of this steel is eliminated, and the percentage of chromium raised slightly, an ideal transmission-gear material is obtained. This would, therefore, be of the...
Certain steels have a very low rate of expansion and contraction in hardening and are very desirable for test plugs, gages, punches and dies, for milling cutters, taps, reamers, ha...
The highest grades of carbon or tempering steels are to be recommended for tools which have to withstand shocks, such as for cold chisels or punches. These steels are, however, par...
Carburizing, commonly called case-hardening, is the art of producing a high-carbon surface, or case, upon a low carbon steel article. Wrenches, locomotive link motions, gun mechani...
Vanadium has a very marked effect upon alloy steels rich in chromium, carbon, or manganese. Vanadium itself, when combined with steel very low in carbon, is not so noticeably benef...
The material used for all connecting rods on the Liberty engine was selected at the option of the manufacturer from one of two standard S. A. E. steels, the composition of which ar...
The crankshaft was the most highly stressed part of the entire Liberty engine, and, therefore, every metallurgical precaution was taken to guarantee the quality of this part. The m...
Armor plate makers sometimes use the copper ball or Siemens' water pyrometer because they can place a number of the balls or weights on the plate in locations where it is difficult...
Water annealing consists in heating the piece, allowing it to cool in air until it loses its red heat and becomes black and then immediately quenching it in water. This plan works...
The bessemer process consists of charging molten pig iron into a huge, brick-lined pot called the bessemer converter, and then in blowing a current of air through holes in the bott...
The fourth method of manufacturing steel is by the electric furnace. These furnaces are of various sizes and designs; their size may be sufficient for only 100 lb. of metal--on the...
PHOSPHORUS is an element (symbol P) which enters the metal from the ore. It remains in the steel when made by the so-called acid process, but it can be easily eliminated down to 0....
Phosphorus is one of the impurities in steel, and it has been the object of steel makers for years to eliminate it. On cheap grades of steel, not subject to any abnormal strain or...
MANGANESE is a metal much like iron. Its chemical symbol is Mn. It is somewhat more active than iron in many chemical changes--notably it has what is apparently a stronger attracti...
Manganese adds considerably to the tensile strength of steel, but this is dependent on the carbon content. High carbon materially adds to the brittleness, whereas low-carbon, pearl...
Silicon prevents, to a large extent, defects such as gas bubbles or blow holes forming while steel is solidifying. In fact, steel after it has been melted and before it has been re...
SILICON is a very widespread element (symbol Si), being an essential constituent of nearly all the rocks of the earth. It is similar to carbon in many of its chemical properties; f...
Steel that has been hardened is generally harder and more brittle than is necessary, and in order to bring it to the condition that meets our requirements a treatment called temper...
One of the most important means of investigating the properties of pure metals and their alloys is by an examination of their heating and cooling curves. Such curves are constructe...
It is especially important to prevent decarbonization in such tools as taps and form cutters, which must keep their shape after hardening and which cannot be ground away on the pro...
Heat slowly and uniformly to 1,450 deg.F. and forge thoroughly. Do not under any circumstances attempt to harden at the forging heat. After cooling from forging reheat to about 1,4...
Plain water, salt water and linseed oil are the three most common quenching materials for case-hardening. Water is used for ordinary work, salt water for work which must be extreme...
The heat-treating department of the Brown-Lipe-Chapin Company, Syracuse, N. Y., runs day and night, and besides handling all the hardening of tools, parts of jigs, fixtures, specia...
It is considered good practice to quench alloy steels from the pot, especially if the case is of any appreciable depth. The texture of carbon steel will be weakened by the prolonge...
Tungsten, as an alloy in steel, has been known and used for a long time. The celebrated and ancient damascus steel being a form of tungsten-alloy steel. Tungsten and its effects, h...
Crucible steel is still made by melting material in a clay or graphite crucible. Each crucible contains about 40 lb. of best puddled iron, 40 lb. of clean mill scrap--ends trimmed...
Copper-plating has been found effective and must have a thickness of 0.0005 in. Less than this does not give a continuous coating. The plating bath used has a temperature of 170 de...