US1346189A - Firearm and alloy for making same - Google Patents

Description

. FRANK a. AHEENWALD, or CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OHIO.

FIREARM A'ND ALLOY roit Maxine SAME.

No Drawing.

. T 0 all whom it may concern."

Be it known that I, FRANK A. FAHREN- WALD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland Heights, in the county of Cuyahoga 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. 1

This invention relates to fire arms and ordnance and has for its main objects 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 the explosive as well ,as less corroded by atmospheric conditions, salt solutions, (such as sea water or perspiration) than anything now in use for the purpose; which shall compare favorably with the steels at present used inrespect to mechanical strength, resistance to mechanical erosion, and ease of working; which shall not be unduly high in intrinsic value; and

whose coefiicient of heat expanse shall be very small. 5

It is Well known that the steel ordinarily used in the manufacture of fire-arms of all calibers, such as sporting and military rifles, pistols and heavy ordnance, iseasily rusted by exposure to the atmosphere,'is seriously corroded by ocean spray or sweaty hands, and is rapidly attacked by the combustionproducts of the explosives, both solid and gaseous, .especially the residues from the use of smokeless powder. Firearms in which such explosives are employed must be cleaned within at least one hour after every shot in order to avoid serious pitting, which is extremely detrimental to accuracy; and mere mechanical cleaning is not siiificient, but chemical means must be used to neutralize the injurious elements of the powder residue. This condition is so marked that the advertising pages of all sporting and hunting periodicals of the present day are loaded with notices of cleaning compounds and solutions devised for this pur; pose.

forts to produce a propellant which would have no harmful after-effect on the barrel mmune to these corrosive agenciies.

Application filed 0'ctoberJ15, 1919. Serial No. 330,943.

Furthermore, the manufacturers of gunpowders have'been-untiring in their ef- Specification of Letters latent. Patehted J l 13 .1920

I have devised these=alloys more particularly for the barrels, I also find them valuable in connection with the operating mechanism, particularly 0f automatic rifles 'or machine guns for reasons which will hereafter apcar.

As set forth in my application No. 319,822

filed August 25, 1919, the desired combination oflphysical and chemical properties is found in alloys made by combining chromium with iron or with one or more irongroup metals, with or Without other chromium-group metals. However, those alloys are more resistant chemically than is necessary for many purposes,-and I have found it possible, with some saving inexpense, to produce an alloy omitting chromium which will be sufliciently incorrodible for most purposes and, in fact, superior in some respects. I have discovered that either pure nickel or pure cobalt is much more resistant than iron to the above-described chemical action of explosives and their residues, and that either nickel or cobalt in the forged condition is of higher tensile strength and elastic limit than iron, and can be as readily machined or otherwise worked. -These metals are constantly being produced in larger quantities and at lower prices, and considering their higher resistance to the corroding influences met with in operation, v

their use at the present prices is clearly warranted in many guns. Itis well known .that in many sporting arms the amount of metal employed is only about five pounds, and a price-of from one hundred to one thousand dollars is demanded. These metals can be alloyed together in all proportions and such alloys are even superior in most efi'ects to the pure metals for use in firearms.

However, purenickel, pure cobalt, and their alloys, possess a chemical resistivity which is needlessly high for most firearms and I have discovered that several metals can be added to these with the production of alloys which I still possess chemical and physical properties far superior to those of steel, and with a comparatively small intrinsic value. Thus manganese or copper or both can be used upto a total of about 50% of the whole, and in combination with one or metals is still sufliciently marked to be of value in case the total proportion of iron be not greater than about 90%. When less than about 10% of nickel or cobalt (either or both) is employed in conjunction with iron, it is necessary to add chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, vanadium, niobium, tantalum, titaniumor zirconium in order to afford additional chemical resistance; and while it is perfectly possible to do this, still the expense is considerably increased (unless by the use of some of the alloys mentioned in my former application) while such substances as titanium, zirconium, niobium and tantalum have such a combined effect with carbon and silicon as to produce extreme hardness and brittleness, unless precautions are taken to restrict the carbon and silicon to extremely low limits, which is itself a diflicult and expensive requirement.-

For certain high pressure arms, however, I find it quite advantageous to replace a part of the nickel or cobalt with substances from the titanium, Vanadium,or chromium groups, but keeping the lron content sufliciently high so that, with a small amount of carbon present, the alloy may be heat-treated to adjust its tensile-strength, elastic-limit, and shock-resistance.

As examples of alloys which I have found particularly valuable for fire-arm use I will instance the following:

titanium or vanadium group 3% to 8%; carbon and sllicon less than .5%.

Any of the iron group elements in the above formulae may be replaced to a considerable extent by copper manganese, or chromium-group-metals without exceeding the limits of my invention. For example I have ,used Monel metal with excellent results, Fe,

5; Cu, 35; Ni, 60.

Alloy No. 1 as above mentioned is designed more particularly for the inexpensive popular arms'such as the cheaper revolvers, boys rifles, and farmers shotguns. For small arms the excellence of the alloys increases with increase of the nickel and cobalt content, while for heavy ordnance I esteem most highly the alloy indicated at (7 .F or certain purposes, howe v81, the alloy indicated at (3) above is superior to any other known composition. In the construction of double-guns (or arms'with: 'an even greater multiplicity of barrels) those barrels are sometimes bored in a single block and are at other times made separately and secured together with their bores 'parallel (or at a definitely predetermined angle) by brazing or soldering them rigidly together or to a.

.. accurate arms of this type but theabove objections have hitherto prevented the demand from being supplied.

I have discovered that the very low coefficient of thermal expansion of alloys containing nickel and iron in the proportions of 36% to 64%,.overcomes the above objection to such double-guns or plural-barreled rifles, and that by the use of this alloy it is .possible not only to make a double-rifle which shall be incorrodible and untarnishable, but-which shall avoid the inaccuracies due to unequal expansion to which previous devices of this nature have been subject,

In automatic, self loading, or so-called machine guns it is also possible by the use of this alloy to operate with much less clearance between moving members, and thus not only to overcome the defects known as jamming but also to increase greatly the accuracy of the arm. Owing to the great rise in temperature of machine-guns when operated constantly over long periods, it has heretofore been necessary to make the parts very. loose and with large clearances, with the result that they rattle andshake and are deficient in accuracy. This nickel-iron alloy has a lower coefficient of expansion than any other known metal or alloy (excepting certain compositions of platinum and iridium too expensive to e considered in this connection) and I have found that by its use, the expansion and Warping of the barrel is greatly decreased and the lock and operating mechanisms will bear the same relation to each other at all times, as well as being immune to corrosion by all ases, liquids, andmesidues met'with in practice.

I have discovered that the additional of small amounts of metals from other groups than the iron group will not destroy this property, rovided only that the above proportion be preserved between the nickel and the iron. Thus I may add up to, say, 10%

of cop er or manganese or chromium or other e romium-group metals, or up to about 5% of vanadiumor titanium-group metals without greatl increasing the coefficient of expansion, an 'with a high increase in the chemical resistivity.

These alloys may be prepared most readily in small quantities by melting the'pure ini v gredients 1n anelectric vacuum furnace; but

rifled, andotherwise fashioned in the same manner as ordinary steel. Excess of carbon and silicon is particularly to be avoided -when metals from the vanadium and tiv tanium groups are present.

Sulfur and phosphorus should be avoided in all cases.

All these alloys herein described and intended to be atented and secured in and by these Letters atent are characterized by the possession of a base of-iron-group metal and yet by the possession of at least about 10% of some substance other than iron itself; thus securing hardness, strength, and cheapness (which the brass -or bronzeculverins of an earlier day did not possess), combined with incorrodibility which is lacking from the steel and iron guns of the present day. These alloysvare useful for and practical in all firearms from a pocket pistol to a naval gun. All the above described metals and alloys are intended to be included in the claims hereto annexed nor do I restrict myself to any features or limits mentioned in these specifications except as specifically recitedin the claims. 1

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is: 1

1. A firearm having parts made of a metal or alloy of which at least 10% of the whole is iron-groupmetal and at least10% of the whole is other't han iron itself. v

2. A firearm havin parts made of a metal or alloy of which at east about 60% of the whole is iron-group metal and at least 10% of the whole is other than iron itself;

3. A firearm having arts made of a metal or alloy of which at east about 20% consists of one or more iron-group metals of greater atomic weight than iron.

4:. A firearm having parts made of a metal 'or alloycontaining nickel and iron 'inthe pro ortion of approximately 3.6 parts of me el to 64 parts of iron. I

' 5. A firearm having parts made of a'metal ,or alloy containing nickel and iron in the proportion of approximately 36 parts of iron ,to the vanadium group in the periodic table.

8. A firearm having parts made of an alloy containing at least about 10% of one or more non-ferrous metals of the iron groupitogether with not more than a preponderance of one or more metals lying adjacent to the iron group in the periodic table.

9. A firearm having parts made of an alloy of which at least one-fourth consists of non-ferrous metals of'theiron group.

10. A firearm having parts made of an alloy containing not less than about 90% of iron-group metals of which not more than about 7 5% of the whole is iron.

.11. A multiple barreled firearm-having its barrels made of an alloy containing nickel and iron in the proportion of substantially 36 parts of nickel to 64 parts of iron.

12. A multiple barreled firearm having its barrels made of an alloy containing between 60 and 70 parts of iron together with between 40 and 30 parts of a non-ferrous netal of-the iron group.

13. A machine gun whose working parts are made of an alloy containing about two parts of iron to one part of a non-ferrous metal of the iron group.

14. A firearm having parts made of an alloy containin a preponderance of iron .group metals 0 which not more than about of the whole is iron and which contains at least about 5% of a metalor metals from a group or groups lying between the group and the scandium group n the perio ic table, the remainder consisting of about 5% each.-

In testimony whereof non-ferrous metals of the iron group and carbon and silicon being present to less than