US1701299A - Tantalum-alloy pen - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 5, 1929. 1301,299

E. W. ENGLE El AL TANTALUM ALLOY PEN Filed May 27, 1927 TANTAL UM T'UNG srazv 774N77 L UM TUNG'STEN fiy: MM, @Wwm mama Feb. 5, 1929.

UNITED STATES-PATENT orrlca.

EDGAR W. ENGLE, OF LAKE FOREST, AND MINER I. AUSTIN, OF WAUKEGAN, ILLINOIS,

ABBIGNOBS 'IO IANS'IEEL PRODUCTS COMPANY, INC.,- 01" NORTH CHICAGO, ILLI- N018, A CORPORATION 01 NEW YORK. i

'IANTALUM-ALLOY PEN.

Application filed lay 2'! 1927. Serial No. 184,563.

This invention relates to ens and instruments adapted for writing, rawing and the like. More particularly our invention relates to an alloy of tantalum and a metal of 5 the chromium group. We have found that this alloy is especially suitable for this purpose in that the alloy, hereafter defined, retains the hardness, toughness and non-corrosive properties of tantalum, with the in- 1 creased elasticity, flexibility and resiliency imparted to the tantalum by the addition of the element of the chromium group which'is preferably tungsten.

Tantalum has been suggested as a suitable metal for making pens, drawing instruments and the like, and considerable experimentat-(iion and commercial use has been made of this 1 ea.

To render the tantalum harder, it has been 90 treated with iron, oxygen, hydrogen, silicon, boron, aluminum, titanium, tin, carbon, etc., but none of the proposed treatments has been successful as is evidenced by the fact that tantalum pens are not employed extensively or manufactured on a commercial scale. The

hardening substances heretofore used have p had a tendency to make the metal so brittle that it could not be successfully worked, and

the permissible quantities of these added ele- 80 ments had to be carefully chosen and the additions regulated to a very fine degree.

The object of this invention is to provide a tantalum-alloy pen which will combine the non-corrosive properties, the hardness and $8 toughness of tantalum with pronounced elasticity, flexibility and resiliency by the addition of a metal of the chromium group.

. A further object of the invention i's-to provide a tantalum-tungsten pen with a hard- 40 ened tip.

Other objects will be apparent as the description of our invention proceeds. r

In the accompanyin drawings which represent preferred embo%iments of our inven- 5 tion,

cially alloys in which the tungsten content exceeded two or three percent. B an extensive research on this subjecta met od for reparing such an alloy has been develope intimatel mixing powdered tungsten with powdere tantalum, compressing the powder into a rod and sintering this rod by an electric current in a substantial vacuum. This rocess, however, forms no part of the present invention, and further descrlption of it is A pen may be pre ared, as shown in Fig. 1,

with the shank 10, t e nib'portion 11 and the olnt 12 all of the tantalum-tungsten alloy.

Although tantalum is not nearly so expen sive as gold, it costs more than steel, and our invention may be applied to a modification, as illustrated in Fig. 2, where a shank 14 is of'steel and is welded to the tantalum-tungsten nib 15 referably by electrical resistance or spot wel ing. 7

In the same way the pen may be pointed with iridium, iridosmium or other ti 16 by spot welding said tip to the point of t e 'Another method of providing a hardene tip is to merely heat the tip of the pen to a temperature above a dull red in the presence of air, hydro en .or other suitable gas. The alloy has the pro erty of tantalum whereby this treatment ma es the tip extremely hard,

. and ifcare is used, the tip may thus be hard Fig. 1 represents a conventional pen made entirely of our tantalum-tungsten alloy, and

Fig. 2 represents an embodiment wherein the shank may 50 the tantalum-tungsten alloy, and the point of iridosmium.

Heretofore alloys of tantalumand tungbe of-steel, the nib portion of ened without aflecting the physical properties of the nib portion. A more practical and preferred method of hardening the point would be to dip the point in white hot NaCO, treat theheated tip with NaGN, or carbonize the .tip in some other conventional method.

sten have been very diflicult to obtain-, -espe' The pen prepared by using this alloy has a high degree of springiness and hardness, is one of the most resistant known to the corrosive action of chemicals and the elements,

may be manufactured as cheaply as an ordinary steel pen and will'be equall as service able and Satisfactory as the gol now used on fountain pens.

While We have described particular alloys,

it is understood that the percentages may be varied and additional substances-added to the alloy without departing from the spirit of our invention. We are not limited to the a nib comprising about 90% tantalum an 10% tungsten.

2. A pen having a nib comprising about ninety per cent tantalum and tenper cent 20 tungsten and having a hardened point.

In witness whereof, we hereunto subscribe our names this 20th day of May, 1927 EDGAR W. ENGLE.

" MINER M. AUSTIN.

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