US1350359A - Alloy - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HUGH S. COOPER, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO ZIRCON TOOL 8c ALLOY CORPORATION, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

Patented Aug. 24, 1920.

ALLOY.

1,350,359, Specification of Letters Patent.

No Drawing. Application filed August 22. 1918.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HUGH b. COOPER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Alloys, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a high-speed cutting tool alloy comprising nickel, zirconium, aluminum and silicon, in the proportions substantially as hereinafter described and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In my Letters Patent of the United States No. 1,221,769, dated April 3, 1917, filed Oct. 30, 1916, I disclose the use of small percentages of zirconium together with a preponderating amount of nickel or cobalt to produce an alloy especially adapted for use in making high-speed cutting tools. In producing said zirconium-nickel alloy, I practised various methods of manufacture, one being the alumino-thermic method, and I have made many difi'erent species of nickelzirconium alloys, using nickel oxid, zirconium silicate, powdered aluminum, and an ignition powder, with and without a metal of the chromium group. In analyzing such alloys made from oxids obtainable on the market and casting the product in carbon molds, a small percentage of carbon and iron will usually appear. I

In making such alloys I found that a pre ponderating amount of nickel, together with silicon and aluminum, and one-half to fifteen per cent. of zirconium would yield a very hard and tough cutting-tool metal, and that a relatively small amount of zirconium was required where the aluminum and silicon together substantially exceeded the amount of zirconium used. Thus, in my application for Letters Patent for an alloy, filed Feb. 23, 1918, Ser. No. 218,791, I show that an alloy of approximately equal parts of silicon and aluminum, with the balance nickel, will be greatly improved for cutting purposes by the addition of one-half to about fifteen per cent. zirconium. I also found that an increased hardness was obtained with higher percentages of aluminum and lower percentages of silicon, and that the alloy may contain from one to ten per cent. silicon, one to twelve per cent. aluminum, and less than two per cent. of zirconium. Moreover, small Serial No. 250,929.

amounts of one or more of the metals of the chromium group, for example, tungsten may also be used with beneficial results.

One species of a composition which I have made and tested and found to give eflicient cutting service, contained 5.9% or approximately six per cent. of silicon, 1.9% or approximately two per cent. of aluminum, 1.8% of zirconium, 3.8% of tungsten, 6.8%

- of iron, .29% of carbon, and 76.2% of nickel.

Another alloy which also gave excellent cutting results, and in which the amount of ance nickel and showing a small per cent.'

of iron where baddeleyite was used.

It will be noted from the foregoing that a serviceable alloy for high speed cutting tools may contain a preponderating amount of nickel, one-half to two per cent. of zirconium, and aluminum and silicon together at least double the amount of zirconium. The aluminum and silicon may each constitute from two to eight per cent. of the alloy, but where a small amount of zirconium is used, not exceeding two per cent, the aluminum should not exceed ten per cent. and'the silicon should not exceed six per cent.

The most desirable alloys contain aluminum in excess of silicon. However, where the zirconium exceeds two per cent. and the silicon is approximately six per cent., the amount of aluminum must be reduced below ten per cent. and may be as low as two per cent. This is illustrated in the first species of alloy given above to show that the use of a larger proportion of zirconium than two per cent. is not prohibitive.

In producing the alloy, either pure oxid of zirconium, the native silicate, commonly called zircon, or the native oxid known as baddeleyite, may be used. The last two minerals can be used without purification and are mixed in the proper proportions with the oxid of nickel and powdered aluminum.

The natural silicate of zirconium contains from sixtyone per cent. upward of the oXid With the balance silica, and in the process 01' reduction, using alumnium as a reducing agent, the product Will contain zirconium, silicon and aluminum in various proportions dependent upon the proportions of the mixture. are used a small percentage of iron is usually present in the alloy, but this small content has no appreciable effect upon the cutting qualities or efficiency of the alloy.

Bya' preponderating amount of nickel I mean from seventy to ninety per cent., and in making the alloy by reduction With powdered aluminum if it is found that the alloy is too hard for the amount of nickel used,

more nickel is added after transferring the molten alloy to a standardizing furnace, and powdered tungsten may then also loe introduced into the alloy, if desired.

\Vhere the native zirconium minerals v (W hat I claim is: I

1. An alloy for high speed cutting tools containing a preponderating amount of nickel, Zirconium one-half to tWo per cent., and an amount of aluminum and silicon at least double the amount of zirconiuin.

I 2. An alloy for high speed cutting tools containing a preponderating amount of nickel, zirconium one-half to two percent, and aluminum and silicon each of the last tWo inetalsconstituting from 2 to 8' per centl of the alloy.

3. An alloy fol-high speed cutting tools containing a preponderating amount of nickle, zirconium not'less than one-half per cent, and from S to 16 per cent. of aluminum and silicon.

Signed at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga, and State'of Ohio, this 10 day of August, 1918. V

HUGH S. COOPER.