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National Resources Planning Board 



of these materials in the United States, England, and 

 Geiinanj', as earlj' as 1910 to 1915. for higlily stressed 

 members of bridges and ships. Some 30 of these steels 

 are known at present, most of which were placed on the 

 market in the last 10 j-ears. The economic significance 

 of these steels is discussed in a later section. 



There are two ijnjiortant advances in the steel in- 

 dustry for which .iVjnerican research workers are almost 

 solely responsible. One, controlled grain size, is pri- 

 marily a metallurgical development. It was first called 

 to the attention of metallurgists by McQuaid and Elm 

 in 1922 and has received much attention in the past 

 15 years, with the result that grain size is now a part 

 of some steel specifications. Grain size affects machin- 

 ability, response to heat treatment, and the hardness 

 of heat-treated steels. It is controlled by appropriate 

 regidation of the melting process. The continuous-strip 

 mill, developed by the American Rolling Mill Company 

 in 1925 and 1920, has reduced the cost and improved 

 the quality of thin flat-rolled steel so much that auto- 

 motive design has undergone radical changes in the 

 past 10 or 12 years. This, too, is discussed later. 



Present Status of Research in the 

 Iron and Steel Industry 



Although metallurgists have been employed by 

 American steel companies and although sporadic re- 

 search has been undertaken by a few of the companies 

 for nearly 50 years, metallurgical research as an organ- 

 ized activity of the industiy became widespread only 

 about 15 or 20 years ago. Credit for the establishment 

 of the first research laboratory, designated as such, at 

 one of the larger plants is usually given to the American 

 Rolling Mill Company, which began research on ingot 

 iron as early as 1903; 6 years later 12 research workers 

 were employed there. 



Most of the smaller steel mills making a specialty of 

 the manufacture of alloy and tool steels employed one 

 or more research metallurgists between 1900 and 1920. 

 In many cases, however, these metallurgists were en- 

 gaged in "trouble shooting" rather than in research 

 work. Between 1920 and 1930 the value of research 

 as a separate centralized activity became apparent to 

 some of the larger companies; the Bethlehem Steel 

 Company began research on a large scale in 192G, and 

 Jones and Laughlin followed a year or two later. The 

 central research laboratory of the United States Steel 

 Corporation was established in 1928, although the 

 subsidiary companies, especially Illinois Steel Com- 

 pany and Carnegie Steel Company, had employed 

 metallurgists and other technical men for research as 

 early as 1908.'' 



* Private coramunlcntlon to American Iron and Stoel Institute. 



Purpose of Research in the American 

 Iron and Steel Industry 



As noted on the first page of this paper, most re- 

 search in the iron and steel industiy is on processes and 

 products for the purpose of improving methods of man- 

 ufacture and quality of product, reducing cost, and 

 developing new products and new uses and new markets 

 for old products. Despite frequent statements in the 

 popular press to the contrary, the iron and steel in- 

 dustry is highly competitive, and each company realizes 

 only too well that a competent technical sttiff is the 

 best insurance for keeping constantly abreast of, and 

 if possible ahead of, technical progress in the industry 

 as a whole. Furthermore, the whole industiy i-ealizes 

 that, despite the fact that modern civilization is built 

 upon steel, constant vigilance is necessary to prevent 

 undue inroads by competing materials. 



The teclmical staff of a steel company has another 

 duty, which is frequently overlooked ; viz, the job of 

 acting as consultant for the customer. Many small 

 steel consumers and some large ones as well — the rail- 

 roads are an outstanding example of the latter — have 

 for many years expected the steel industry to do prac- 

 tically all of their development work. 



For nearly a hundred years steel making and the 

 processing of steel into finished and semifinished prod- 

 ucts has been an art in which skills of a high order have 

 been developed. Despite the advancement of the art. 

 there are still so many variables in the manufacture of 

 iron and steel that even the most skilled man sometimes 

 has to depend upon "intuition" or a "hunch" to guide 

 him when he encounters conditions which do not fit 

 precisely into his practical experience. The result is a 

 lack of uniformity in quality which costs the steel 

 companies large sums of money because of rejections by 

 the customer. Variable quality in iron and steel has 

 always been a problem in the industry; since about 1920 

 it has been even more of a problem than before, as 

 customers' requirements have become increasingly 

 rigid year by year. 



One of the principal purposes of research by the steel 

 industry has been to investigate the causes of erratic 

 quality in the finished product and, by increasing 

 technical control of the various operations, to improve 

 the quality of the product and render it more uniform. 

 One-third of the money spent for research has been 

 used for this purpose. ° One of the most common 

 examples of the effect of research in improving quality is 

 the automobile fender. Had anyone suggestetl in 1925 

 making the torpedo-type fender — now used even on the 

 cheapest ears — by deep drawing sheet steel in one 

 operation, both steel makei-s and automotive engineers 

 would have questioned his sanitj'. 



• steel researeli tiudget for 1038 near last year's peak level. Slerl FartJ, No. 27, 4 

 (AuRust 19.38). 



