US1221769A - Alloy. - Google Patents

Description

- UNI J STATES 1m ornion."

mien s. comma, or CLEVELAND, onr nssrenon TO THE coorun coMrAnY, or

CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION'OF OHIO. v

ALLOY. v

110 Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HUGH S. COOPER, a

citizen of the United. States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Ouyahoga' and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Alloys, of

which the following is a specification.

lasting cutting edge and is suitable for This invention consists of an alloy of zirconium and nickel or cobalt, with or without the addition of another metal, all'substantially as herein" shown and described particularly pointed out in the trical resistance, and when heated to about 1150 0. there is formed on the outside a thin adherent coating of oxid which prevents further oxidation of the metal.

. Where a small percentage of zirconium is used, for example two to ten per cent, and the balance nickel, the alloy takes-afine and knives, razors and other cutlery. In an alloy of zirconium and nickel comprising eight per cent. to fifteen percent. of zirconium and the remaining per cent.'nickel or cobalt, the melting point of the alloy is decreased below that of nickel, or about 1400 (3., and

the electrical resistance increased compared with nickel, whlle an increase in hardness and resistance to oxidation and corrosion is also effected. Cutlery made of the alloy remains bright and clean even under the action of acids found in such fruitsas lemons. oranges, etc, and, cutting tools or implements made therefrom are far superior to steel tools. The alloy "may be forged or worked atred heat, and is also applicable ances, such as electric toasters, irons,

"and furnace wind1ngs. In produclng the to electrical uses. That is, it may be used with advantage in thermo-electrie unctions,

and as a resistance element in heat ng applie Specification of Letters Patent. 4

the market at a stoves, a very low melting able for use without purification.

7 Patented Apr. 3, 1917. Application filed October 30, 1916. Serial No. 128,404.

Where the zirconium content is increased to say sixteen to thirty per cent, the hardness of the alloy isgreatly increased. For example, with twenty-five to thirty per cent. of zirconium and the balance of nickel, the alloy is of exceptional utility when formed into cutting tools. For example, a tool of.

this alloy easily cuts glass. The melting point and tensile strength is lowered by increased amounts of zirconium, and the alloy cannot be worked by ordinary methods in volviug forging, drawing and rolling, but

may be cast to produce lathe or cutting tools i for working alloy steels, cast iron, drill rod and bronze. Even high speed steel is easily I cut at a higher speed than with the tools now in use, and without appreciable wear or loss in temper of the cuttlng tool.

The high speed steels now used in making cutting tools contain iron, tungsten, a small amountof chromium or Vanadium, and more or less carbon. Care is necessary in grinding tools made of high speed steel to prevent burning of the tool, and loss in temper and 'dulling'of the cutting edge alsotakes place when operating the cutting tool at high I speed. My alloy is free from carbon and iron and I have found by exhaustive tests that it is impossible to burn a tool ,made of my alloy, elther when cutting at a high speed or in grinding the tool, and that no special care need be taken in grinding operations. I have also :found that the wear in grinding is only about one-tenth of that of the best high speed steel, which means a great saving in material, and that thetool remains white notwithstanding grinding orhigh speed operations. Moreover, my alloy can be, manufactured at a lower cost than tungsten steels, as a zirconium ore with an: om'd content of about 73% is obtainable in much lower price than tungsten ores. I

With the zirconium content increased to sixteen to thirty per cent. the alloy is given I point, approximately 1150 0., and where 1t is necessary to operate tools or dies of this alloyage at a red heat an additional metal may be incorporated to raise the melting point of the alloy to the proper degree necessary to insure hardness at higher temperatures. For this purpose a small amount of one or more of the-metals of the chromium group may be advanta geously added, and in my experiments and tests molybdenum appears togive the best,

results of any of the metals of the chromium group, and I have made alloys with various percentages of molybdenum up to thirtymember of the same five per cent. with as high as twenty-five per cent. of zirconium and the balance nickel or cobalt. For general use, however, only a sufficient amount of molybdenum or its equivalent need be added to establish themelting point of the alloy at about 1600 C. as I find this to be sufliciently high to impart the necessary heat resisting qualities for nearly every practical purpose, and at the same time low enough so that the worn or used tools may be easily remelted and cast into bars or tools for further use. This alloy possesses sufficient tensile strength so that it is possible to permit the tool to be used with a long overhang. 'An alloy of this type is preferably composed of about ten per cent. molybdenum, twenty-five per cent. zir- 0031111111, and sixty-five per cent. nickel or co a t.

Iron cannot be used to replace the nickel or cobalt in the alloy as the alloys of zirconium iron which IIhave made aretoo soft for the purpose stated. Titanium (another oup as zirconium) may be alloyed with nickel, butthis substi- 'tute does not yield advantages comparable with zirconium, and nickel has proven superior to cobalt. v These alloys have the peculiar property of self-hardening and are ready for use when casted; that is, no treatment is necessary before use nor are they improved by any tempering process known to me.

.alloy takes a beautiful polish which is not .aflected bygases of the atmosphere,-nor corroded by al alis or cold concentrated nitric, sulfuric, hydrochloric, or. boiling sulfuric acids, or cold dilute acids. f

Chromium, uranium, or tungsten may be added to zirconium and nickel or cobalt and in this way make ternary and quarternary alloys of perhaps greater hardness than the above, and I have made alloys containing zirconium-nickel and tungsten, with as high as twenty-five percent. tungsten, and also uranium but so far the increased cost has not been overcome by a 'suificiently better alloy to justify the use of these added elements.

I have found it is possibleto produce these alloys by, various methods,- one being the alumino-thermic method, and a typical exelementcomposed of an allo The mg amount of nickel, and zirconium, and

ample for the reaction in an alloy containing about twenty-five per cent. zirconium may be.

' If the ore is substituted for the oxid of zirconium a correspondingly larger amount must be used.

What I claim is: j

1. An alloy comprising zirconium and a preponderating amount of nickel and cobalt, the zirconium content being not less than about two per cent. and not more than about forty per cent. of the composition.

2. A cutting tool composed of a self-hard- 8'0 cup 1101: thirty five per cent. 0 the comthe properties of nickel or cobalt, and two to I thirty per cent. of zirconium.

6. An alloy for cutting tools consisting of nickel and a metal havingthe properties of zirconium or titanium.

7.-A-cutting tool composeolof an alloy containing two per cent. to thirty per cent. of zirconium and a metal having the properties of nickel or cobalt. 1

8. An alloy containing eight per cent. to fifteen per cent; of zirconium, with fifty or more per cent. of nickel.

9. A cuttingstool or electrical resistance containing a pre onderating amount of nickel and eight to fteen per cent. of zirconium.

10. An a-lloy composed mainly of nickel not more than thirty-five per cent. of zirconium, and one or more of the metals of the chromium group.

11. A self-hardening cutting tool composed of an alloy containing a preponderatnot more than thirty five per cent. of one or more of the metals of the chromium group. I

12. An alloy composed of nickel, zirconium, andten per cent. to thirty-five per cent. of one or more of the metals of the chromium group.

13. An alloy composed of two per cent. to

thirty-five per cent. of zirconium, a metal one or more metals'of the chromium group, 14. An alloy composed of nickel and'zirhaving the properties of nickelor cobalt, and 1 1 conium and one or more of the metals of the chromium group, in which the proportion of nickel exceeds the zirconium and the proportion of zirconium exceeds the metal or metals of the chromium group. A 15. An alloy composed of nickel and zirconium and mol bdenum, in which the proortion of. moly denum is less than twentyve per cent. and the zirconium sixteen to thirty er cent.

16. cutting tool composed of an alloy containing nickel, sixteen to thirty per cent. of zirconium, and ten to twenty-five per cent.

of molybdenum;

twenty-five per cent. ofvzirconium, and ten percent. of a metal having the property of mol bdenum.

S1gned at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga, and State of Ohio, this 26th day of October, 1916.

' 1 HUGH S. COOPER.

of nickel, twenty-fi ve per A. cutting tool made of an alloy com-