US1346188A

US1346188A - Firearm and alloy for making same

Info

Publication number: US1346188A
Application number: US319822A
Authority: US
Inventors: Frank A Fahrenwald
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1919-08-25
Filing date: 1919-08-25
Publication date: 1920-07-13
Anticipated expiration: 1937-07-13

Description

To all whom it may concern: I Be it known that I, FRANK A. FAHREN- WALD, acitizen of the United States, resid- I ing at Cleveland, in the county-oi Guyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement-in Firearms and Alloys for Making Same, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description. f

, This invention relates to firearm and ordnance and has for its particular object the provision of a metallic alloy for use in the construction of the same which shall. be

more resistant to corrosion by the combustion products of theexplosive, as well as less corrodedv by atmospheric conditions, salt solutions .(such as sea water or sweaty hands), than anything previously used for the purpose, as well as having suflicient mechanical strength to endure the strains to which such devices are subjected, and at the same time being sufliciently soft and workable for manufacturing purposes.

It is well known that powder gases, particularly those of the present day smokeless and high explosive powders, are extremely corrosive-to steelbarrels so that the latter become rapidly etched and pitted. This circumstance has greatly shortened the life of sporting arms and has rendered very onerous the maintenance of-military arms of all calibers, since not only have the metals heretofore employed sufl'ered greatly by the instant erosion of the hot gases but the powderresidues are of an equally great ,cor-

rosiveness and cannot be removed by mere h sical. means nor even b a sin le a 1iation of chemicals. Unlesis such a firgzii'm be cleaned within at least an hour after each shot,t'he barrel interior becomes noticeably etched, and even a few verysmall pits seriously impairs the accuracy of the gun. Likewise the exteriors of the barrels and the surfaces of the operating mechanism become rapidlylfiorroded by atmospheric influences and s used at the present day are jacketed with some alloy which will keep the lead from melting and will engage the rifling properly.

ture, velocity and pressure, thus producing f Specification of Letters Batu t. Application meanu m a, 1919. Serial No.

I contact unless frequently oiled. Furthermore, most high velocity rifle bullets PATENT ounce;

thev phenomenon known as Fmetal fouling," which means a slow accretion inside the bare rel of substance taken from the bullets, which always interferes seriously withv the accuracy, and frequently leads to bursting of theb'a'rrel: j

Numerous alloys have. heretofbre heen known which would resist the chemical. action to the necessary "extent, (such. as alloys of platinum, gold-palladium, and the meat-am lgam like precious metals), but the physical requirements of firearms metal are also pe-' culiarly exacting since it-must be sufficiently soft and uniform to permit of ready boring and rifling of the barrel and fashioning of v the operating mechanism, and yet possess sufiicient toughness-and mechanical strength to resist the explosion pressures and the mishaps to which such. devices are necessarily sub'ected in use.

The ob ects of my invention are, there-- fore, the provision of an alloy for the purposes stated having the requisite chemical resistivity coupled with the necessary physical strength; the provision of an alloy which shall not be subject to metal fouling; the provision of an alloy which can be readilyforged, machined 'and worked into shape; the provision of an alloy of reasonably low alloy wor able process; while fu'rtherobjects and advantages ofmy invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.

My improved alloy consists essentially of one or more iron' roup metals combined with one .or more c romium group metals. Carbon and silicon may be present in case their quantities are small, say, .5 or less; a small amount of manganese is preferably employed because of its value in scavenging oxygen and sulfur and because of the fact that better castings are secured with its use. The tensile strength of the alloy can be increased slightly by.the addition of a small amount of copper, tatalum, vanadium, zirconium, or titanium, although the strength of the simpler alloy is sufficiently great so thatno particular advantage is secured by their use. All these minor modifications fall within the scope of. my generic idea and the presence or absence of these additional substances does not modify my invention.

As examples of alloys which embody my which can be made by a simple and Nickel 55 (10-55; a Chromium -15 8-20 Iron 30 282-25; Iron 75 60-90 lChromium 25 (1040) Nickel 85 (70-95 Chromium 15 (-30 Nickel 90 (85-95) lTungsten or molybdenum 1O 5-15) Iron 90 (80-95), {Tungsten or molybdenum" 5-20) Any two iron group metals..- 9O 75-95) {Tungsten or molybdenum 10 5-25) Any two iron group metals 70-90 g Chromium and one other metalv from chromium group 10-30, ron or nickel 70-90 75, Cobalt 5-20. Chromium or tungsten 5-25,- It will be understood that the foregoing position within that group theses indicating the permlssible varlatlons. I

invention, I will instance the following, the first column indicating the preferred com-. and the paren formulas are not intended to include all the ingredients present in the alloys, s1'nce small amounts of carbon, silicon, and manganese will almost always be present, and small quantities of certain addltional metals may sometimes be added such as copper etc. as has already been" suggested. It is only necessary that the percentage of carbon and silicon be kept sufliciently low, such as .5% or less of each, to prevent the metalfrom being too hard to work, and that sulfur and phosphorus be avoided.

The requirements of dlfi'erent guns are so various, especially when low 1ntrms1c value is considered as a requirement, that no one alloy can be denominated a preferred species for alluses, Thus thealloy of group a containing nickel 5 5%, chromium 30% and iron 15%,-exh1b1ts every desirable chemical and mechanical property in the highest degree. It can be made wlth comparative ease in the electric furnace.or by the alumino-thermic method 11; makes a good casting, can readily be forged or rolled at a bright red heat, and can be bored, turned, rifled, and shaped without difiiculty. The gases and residues of smokeless powder do not etch it even n days of neglect, rain does not rust 1t, and polished barrels buried in the ground for weeks exhibit only a slight superficial tarnish which can be wiped off with the hand.

Bullet jackets of iron, nickel, or their alloys do not foul it, and its tensile strength is so high that it compares well withthe steels ordinarily used. This alloy is good enough for almost every purpose but can be only slightly improved by the addition of a little molybdenum or tungsten which will still further increase the chemical resistivity.

- The only drawback is that it is unnecessarily good for some purposes. For example in a .22 caliber boys rifle, the bursting strainsare so small as to be withstood by any metal which is stron the mechanical shocks 0? cheaper allo s can be found which will possess chemica resistivity without such an excess of mechanical strength.

For example the percentage of iron can be increased as shown under a or the nickel portion that nickel is superior to iron in chemical resistivity. Owing to the hardening effect of chromium thereon the proportion of the latter is decreased. It will be understood that cobalt can be employed in substitution for iron or nickel or-in'addition thereto, although no advantage in its use ofi'sets its high price.

If tungsten or molybdenum be emplo ed in place of chromium in c, I secure the a loy shown at d which is also hard, strong and chemically resistant; or if the chromium in 6 1s replaced by tungsten or molybdenum I secure the alloy. shown at e which is also of value for firearms. In these cases the amount of thetungsten-like metalis decreased owing to its hardening effect.

I fin'd the ternary alloys better than the binary alloys for this purpose, wherefore I prefer the compositions shown in a, f, or g, or one made by adding tungsten or molybdenum to b or c. In fact for some purposes the very best alloy appears to be a quaternaryas produced by adding tungsten or molybdenum to a or chromium to f. I do, however, find that the essential elements are those contained in the iron and chromium groups of the periodic table and that at least one metal from each group should be used;

also the chromium group metal should occur to an amount of at least about 5% and should not go above about 25% unless the iron group metal be iron alone and the chromium group metal be chromium alone in which case the percentage of the latter can be increased up to about 40% without rendering the alloy too hard to work.

enough to resist use. Other and It will be understood that while my-im- I proved alloy is specially devised for manually portable arms such as rifles and shotguns it is equally good for pocket devices such as revolvers or for ordnance of large sizes; that the barrels can be made from a singlehomogeneous piece of the material, or

that a composite ingot may be made, or a built up barrel employing my improved alloy as a lining; that my alloy can be used for lock mechanisms equally with the barrels'; and that I desire my claims taken in the broadest sense that their language will support.

' Having thus described my invention what I claim is 1. A firearm barrel made from an alloy of one 'or more iron group metals combined with one or more chromium roup metals.

2. -A firearm barrel made l r om an alloy of one or more iron group metals combined with one or more chromium group metals,

the latter being present to an amount of at least 5%.

3. A firearm barrel made from an alloy of two iron group metals together with at least one chromium group metal. 20-

4. A firearm barrel made from an alloy of two iron group metals together with chromium and another metal from th chromium group.

5.'A firearm barrel made from an alloy containing at least 5% of chromium, at least 5% of nickel and not more than 90% of iron.

6. A firearm barrel made from an alloy containing between 5% and 25% of one or more metals of the chromium group combined with metals of the iron group, not more than 90% of the whole alloy being iron.

7. A firearm having a barrel composed of or lined with an alloy of iron, nickel and chromium wherein the chromium and nickel each comprises not less than about 10% of the whole.

8. A firearm having a barrel composed of I or lined with an alloy of iron, nickel and the balance mostly chromium.

9. A firearm having a barrel composed of or lined with an alloy of iron, nickel and chromium, wherein the iron constitutes not over about 40%, chromium between 15% and 20% and the balance mostly nickel.

10. A firearm having a barrel composed of or lined with 'an alloy of iron, nickel and chromium wherein the iron constitutes about 30%, the chromium between 15% and20% and thebalance mostly nickel.

11. A firearm having parts made ofan alloy containing less than about 80% of iron alloyed with more than 10% of nickel and at least 8% of chromium.

12. A-firearm having parts made of an alloy comprising between 8% and 20% chromium, together with between about 25% and about 80% iron, the balance being principally nickel.

13. A firearm having parts made of an alloy whose principal ingredients are iron,-

' alloy containing less than 80% of iron combined with more than 10% of chromium, the balance consisting largely of other metals from the iron and chromium groups.

15. A firearm having parts made of, an alloy containing less than 90% of iron combined with at least 5% of a metal from the chromium loy consisting principally of other metals from the iron and chromium groups.

16. A firearm having a barrel composed of or lined with an alloy containing between 30% and 90% of iron, and at least 10% of chromium, any remainder of the alloy consisting principally of nickel.

17 A firearm having a barrel composed of or lined with an alloy containing not over 90% of iron and not less than 10% of portion of between 75% and 90% combined with chromium group metals, chromium itcup, any remainder of the al- I self constituting at least one-half of the balance.

21. A firearm barrel made of an alloy containing iron combined with at least ten per cent. of one or more of the metals nickel and chromium.

22. A firearm barrel made of analloy containing between about twenty-five per cent. and about ninety per cent. of iron, the balance being principally nickel and chromium and carbon being present .to. an amount not greater than two tenths of one per cent.

23. A firearm barrel made of an alloy characterized by the presence of more than ten per cent. of one or both of the metals nickel and chromium.

24. A firearm barrel made of an alloy containing one or more iron group meta-ls alloyed with such an amount of chromium that the total amount of non-ferrous metal in the alloy shall constitute at least about ten per cent. of the whole.

25. A firearm barrel made of an allo of one or more iron grou metals wit chromium, the amount of c romium bein such as together with the non-ferrous meta of the alloy shall constitute at least ten per cent. of the whole.

26. A firearm barrel made of an alloy consisting essentially of iron with either or both nickel and (or) chromium, the highest limit ofchromium being about twentyfive per cent. and the highest limit of iron being about ninety gel cent; and the lowest limit of nickel or c romium or some combination of the two being not less than 10 about ten per cent.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature.

FRANK A. FAHRENWALD.