Industrial Research 



293 



Some early experiments made in England while 

 molybdenum was a "rare" and expensive metal, 

 coupled with the chemical and metallurgical similarity 

 of tungsten and molybdenum, suggested the use of 

 molybdenum as a substitute for tungsten in making 

 high-speed steel. Research at Watertown Arsenal, un- 

 dertaken from the strategic-materials point of view, 

 showed it to be more potent than tungsten in high- 

 speed steel, weight for weight, and when "bugs" cropped 

 up due to certain idiosyncrasies of the molybdenum 

 steels, these accessory problems, too, were solved. 

 Coincidentally, research on molybdenum steels for auto- 

 motive and aircraft use had developed such properties 

 and created such a demand for the metal that its 

 production had risen and its price had fallen to a point 

 where it was cheaper to make a tool steel with molyb- 

 denum than with tungsten, though the demand for 

 tool steel alone would not have produced a great volume 

 of production or a significant drop in price. Foreseeing 

 this situation, metallurgists who made tools and tool 

 steels stayed with the problem of overcoming the 

 difficulties and utilizing the advantages. As a result 

 molybdenum high-speed tools are proving so satis- 

 factory that there is today no apprehension whatever 

 about a wartime shortage of tungsten. Indeed, mo- 

 lybdenum itself is among the materials that Americans 

 are requested not to export to nations that practice 

 aggression against weaker nations and bomb noncom- 

 batants. Research has shifted the situation from one 

 where only 10 years ago ' our lack of tungsten was a 

 serious strategic liability to one where our abundance 

 of molybdenum is a strategic asset. 



Nor did research on cutting tools stop there. Ce- 

 mented carbides of tungsten, tantalum, and the like 

 have been developed, by long and patient research 

 backed by ample capital, into tools the cutting power 

 of which surpasses that of high-speed steel tools as 

 much as those surpassed the carbon-steel tools. In 

 consequence materials formerly classed as nonmachin- 

 able, even with high-speed tools, now are cut readily. 

 As for materials still untouchable by the carbide tools, 

 we have artificial abrasives developed by electro- 

 chemical research, and marvelous machine tools for 

 machining by grinding, which make it feasible to shape 

 almost any metallic product, no matter how hard it 

 may be. 



Not only has research developed the cutting tools, 

 but the metals to be cut have been modified, without 

 much sacrifice of essential mechanical properties, so 

 that they may be more readily machined. Beside the 

 older free-cutting steels and leaded brasses, we now 

 have stainless steel plus seleniimi, copper alloys plus 

 telluriimi, aluminum alloys with a variety of additions. 



' Taylor, R. Strateelc raw mattrials. Meltti and Atloys, I .& l\97t) . 



and recently carbon and alloy steels plus lead, each of 

 which additions increases machinabUity, often without 

 material sacrifice of mechanical properties. 



Every one of these developments in machining and 

 machinability, outside of the work of Watertown 

 Arsenal, was carried out by private capital for the ulti- 

 mate purpose of private gain, and all utilized the 

 brains of many research workers and the best of modern 

 equipment. Many of the projects were costly to 

 carry out and quite beyond the scope of the average 

 individual investigator unable to command ample re- 

 search facilities, and equally beyond the scope of most 

 university laboratories. 



Joining of Metals 



Second only in unportance in fabrication to the 

 machining of metal parts is their joining. Welding 

 has grown from a rule-of-thumb operation employed 

 for unimportant joints, to one that can be, and often 

 is, of hair-trigger accuracy, controlled by devices of 

 great precision, for example in the assembly of auto- 

 mobile bodies. Welding of rails into long lengths, of 

 ships, of structural steel (with avoidance of the noise 

 of riveting), of jointless pipe lines, of airplane-engine 

 supports, and of fuselage and wing structures is a 

 commonplace today. Even the welding procedures 

 stiU carried out by hand are systematized, the worlonen 

 being carefully chosen, trained, and tested for ability, 

 and the welds subjected to X-ray and other tests to 

 insure soundness. 



Hand in hand with the mechanical developments in 

 all the dozen or more different welding methods has 

 come a recognition of the metallurgical principles in- 

 volved, the development by metallurgists of steels 

 suitable for welding, and of fluxes and fluxing methods, 

 all to the end that reliable welds may be made con- 

 sistently. Mechanical, electrical, and metallurgical 

 engineers have all cooperated in these advances. 



Another important method of joining is by copper 

 brazing in some suitable reducing atmosphere. This, 

 and the analogous processes of bright annealing and 

 clean hardening of steels in controlled atmospheres, 

 have been developed through the joint efforts of the 

 chemist and the metallurgist. 



StiU another valuable means for joining a wide variety 

 of aUoys is the relatively new family of silver solders, 

 materials characterized by ease of application, joint 

 strength, and ability to withstand elevated tempera- 

 ture. The expense of using silver as an important con- 

 stituent of the solder is fully justified. 



Outstanding Work in the Steel Industry 



Since steel is the most important member of the fam- 

 ily of alloys the bulk of metallurgical research relates to 

 steel. 



