Industrial Research 



163 



Organization of Research in the Steel Industry 



Owing to the wide variation in size of the individual 

 units of the American iron and steel industry, and to the 

 diversity of processes and products, there naturally can 

 be no standard of organization. In small plants, a 

 technical staff of 2 to 20 men can handle all the routine 

 metallurgical, chemical, and mechanical testing — and 

 occasionally supervise inspection as well — and can plan 

 and carry out a considerable amount of valuable 

 research work in improving processes and materials. 



The large companj' with a central research laboratory 

 emploj's 50 to 75 men in this laboratory and frequently 

 20 to 50 additional men in various plants — or depart- 

 ments if there are onlj^ 1 or 2 plants. The large, well- 

 balanced research laboratory — of which there are a 

 number in the United States — employs metallurgists, 

 physicists, chemists, mechanical and ceramic engineers, 

 and a number of other technically trained men, one- 

 quarter or one-third of whom hold doctorates. For 

 example, one has a staff of technically trained men — 



skilled in methods of measuring and controlling high tempera- 

 ture; in methods for the eUicidation of the constitution and 

 behavior of refractories and slags; in thermodynamic analysis of 

 the chemical reactions involved in the making of iron and steel; 

 in the methods of identification and control of the structure of 



steels and conversant with the relations between structure and 

 the useful properties of steels. 



Large steel-plant research laboratories act as training 

 schools, transferring metallurgists and other technical^ 

 trained men from the various plants or subsidiary com- 

 panies to the central laboratory for a year or two of 

 what amounts to intensive graduate training, thus 

 giving these men a broad view of research as it is 

 undertaken for the good of the company as a whole. 



One of the most important things encountered in 

 organizing and operating a large research laboratory is 

 the choice of problems. Most directors of research 

 adopt the general principle that the solution of the 

 problem should be applicable to the company as a 

 whole, leaving to the metallurgists of the various plants 

 or subsidiary companies the problems of more restricted 

 application encountered in their particular plant, with 

 the proviso, of course, that the staff of the central 

 laboratory should always be available for consultation, 

 if necessary, even on minor difficulties. 



The staff of the central laboratory of a company that 

 makes steel also frequently cooperates on problems with 

 the research staff of the company that fabricates the 

 steel and of the company that uses the fabricated 

 article. An excellent example of such cooperation is in 



Figure 41. — Austempering of Steel, American Steel and Wire Company, Worcester, Massachusetts. (Subsidiary of United States Steel 



Corporation) 



321835 — 41- 



