PATHS OF STEEL

presented as a public service by United [Music] Steel these are the Deep imaginative eyes that look for tomorrow this is the active inquiring mind in which the barriers of the future do not seem insurmountable these are the trained hands that may push back the horizons of service performed for Man by [Music] Steel from all over the country they come a physicist from California a ceramic engineer from Ohio a physical chemist from Massachusetts a metallurgist from Michigan an electronics engineer from Georgia what was the coefficient of expansion at 1500° hardness 320 brenell creep after 10,000 hours at 1500 F was 1% no longer is research the quest of individual men coordinated efforts of many Brilliant Minds 15 Mi east of Pittsburgh in monroville Pennsylvania a new neighbor has built a campus for research where inquiring minds seek the future Horizons of Steel this is the United States Steel Research Center on every hand there is evidence of the accomplishments of Steel science automobiles whose fenders and hard tops bear witness that research could and did develop a steel that could take the punishing stamping process indeed with an increase in strength and the buildings themselves there was a time when Architects wished the strength and trim appearance of Steel for building exteriors but steel unprotected could corrode until research found the answer in stainless [Music] steel it was not too long ago when much of the country's research was performed in makeshift home Laboratories and invention flourished in the attics and sheds of individual inventors like Bell and Edison now more than 2third of the nation's research and development is conducted by American [Music] industry where once the struggling researcher had to spend many preliminary hours to improvise the equipment for his experiments now the finest facilities are at his elbow typical of facilities many of which have been developed in the research center is this apparatus used in the study of surface films I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about you know something about it but when you cannot express it in numbers your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind it may be the beginning of knowledge but you have scarcely Advanced to the stage of science whatever the matter may be thus many years ago Lord Kelvin recognized one of the most important factors in the approach to research the development of accurate measurement many of the tools of measurement are produced in implicate designs in the center's own glass blowing [Music] Department some instruments are so minute that they are formed on a micro Forge Precision Tools whose formation can be observed properly only under a microscope [Music] sometimes the hand is too fast for the eye at the microscope and much too shaky so a unique micromanipulator has been designed which reduces manual movement 50 to 2500 [Music] times this is an x-ray microanalyzer in which an electron beam can be concentrated on a selected spot about 110 millionth of a square in this excites the atoms to emit characteristic x-rays thus revealing the composition of the spot a Beta Ray gauge is used to measure the thickness of metallic Coatings caution is exercised in the presence of radioactive materials which are finding increasing use in modern metalogical research [Music] one of the simplest means of characterizing the condition of a piece of structure itself this micro hardness tester designed and built at the research center combines a sensitive loading mechanism with a built-in microscope to select the spot to be tested and to make the micro hardness measurements this is the emission spectrograph it is an optical instrument used to determine the chemical composition of Steels ref factories slags ores and other materials used in the steel industry as a result of continued research the accuracy speed sensitivity and scope of spectrographic methods are constantly being improved the photographic record of the emission spectrograph is today as revealing to the metallurgist as is the xray to the surgeon finish the analysis on that heat I gave you Joe that's it is that the V right how's it seem good all falls in specifications how with the Chrome nickel Noy very good but these are the means not the end for the end as well as the beginning lies in the creative Restless imagination of men who have devoted their lives to the solving of scientific Mysteries hello go ahead how would you like to see some evidence that Bob and I have here on how those course Bay night structures form in lowo seals around 900 fine F that's what you were telling us about last week we find the transformes in the first stage a coarsely aular constituent somewhat resembling procto ferite forms just about as you uh suspected P then much later a second constituent begins to develop and this has an appearance something like extremely fine perlite we've got some electron micros here that confirm this rather nicely you see here's the uh coarse perite Rich bayite that comes out first and then the fine perlite that follows in the second stage of course in the uh Optical microscope you can't res resolve this perlite but here 20,000x in the electron micros you can see the laminations pretty clearly well it was long ago that we felt that the structure would prove to be L that's right that's right Dr Edgar C Bane once described the spirit that motivates this constant search as a noble discontent with things as they are we've just been showing yet some of those electron MOS that were taken last week you remember those oh that's fine um but there no there's one problem that should be solv that's how to get better coffee out of these machines you're right can something there the camaraderie of science touches on many subjects it may be thermodynamics or what happened to the Pittsburgh Pirates but the conversation is always animated and there's many a doodle or curve or equation on the paper napkins at lunchtime every problem solve produces many more in its place and the areas of research are unlimited among the major problems are the more efficient use of Natural Resources or scarce materials the conversion of what used to be waste and pollution into useful marketable chemical products and always the constant inquiry into the basic structure of Steel itself for steel is not just steel there are many many kinds of Steel now in use and many under development among the 90 odd naturally occurring elements there are around 26 common metallic elements that in principle might be allied with iron to form Steels with a wide variety of characteristics there are only 26 letters in the alphabet but combined in different forms they produce hundreds of thousands of words and yet there is one right word for the time and place so too there's a right steel for the time and [Music] place in probing the more efficient use of natural resources and to improve further the efficiency of Steel making facilities research scientists often work with models simulating operating conditions here they're examining the movement of a column of granular solids against an air stream in the study of potential improvements in Blast Furnace design and operation many plastic models are specially designed and built in miniature in order to analyze the patterns of turbulence for example in the flow of Open Hearth gases back edies had long been suspected but now such inefficiencies can be pinpointed with greater accuracy iron ore is one of the great natural resources of the earth yet there's an eventual limit to the availability of firm high-grade coarsely sized iron ore for blast furnace use some of it is too low in iron content and must be crushed and concentrated some of it is too fine and must be compacted or as they say agglomerated a major area of research is now devoted to learning how to turn lower grade iron ores into high-grade well compacted material for blast furnace use at the top of this small pilot centering plant at the research center is a rotating shallow pan Which is used to pelletize fine ores with the right water content and perhaps with suitable binders added the device actually tumbles fine or into little balls or pellets thus compacted the material is baked until it clinkers much like the familiar clinker in a coal [Applause] furnace the result is a strong conditioned material that reacts with great efficiency in the blast furnace blast furnaces like this diet [Music] while research is testing how most efficiently to change materials with the aid of heat it is also testing how to perfect materials that will resist Heat this is a brick a seemingly simple brick and yet it represents one of the largest single items among the auxiliary materials purchased in the making of steel whatever can be learned that will increase the useful life of a fire breaker can mean millions in the operating budget of us steel for there is enough brick in the lining of one Open Hearth furnace to build 75 six room houses and some of these bricks cost nearly $1 a piece how resistant can a brick be made to withstand temperatures as high as 3,000 de or higher how often can it survive Heating and Cooling and the attendant expansion and contraction in so-called spalling tests brick samp are terrifically heated one moment and then abruptly given a water and air spray peculiarly enough while the philosophy of research is highly constructive much of the application is destructive the research technition is forever breaking things the purpose being to find the breaking point the melting point the point of ultimate failure and then to find out why so the temperature is raised ever higher the test is much more severe than that of any actual operation first they develop a brick which they believe will do the job then they do their best to break it down the result is not alone a collapsed brick it's a knowledge of how far we've gone and how far we can yet go in the containment and application of intense heat coal is black you might say but not to the scientist who sees in the microscope minute layers of vegetation sedimented millions of years ago studying the content of various coals research pursues how best to blend coals for coking for the recovery of coal chemicals in the cooking process for the gases that used to escape from beehive ovens have now produced a whole new chemical world first it was tars nathene and creosol then solvents and the glittering Galaxy of D and [Music] Plastics so effective has been this field of research and development that a significantly increased part of Steel's future business May well lie in the production of coal chemicals extracted from gases produced in the making of metallurgical Coke by the distillation of [Music] coal you are here taking a seemingly microscopic look at the destructive head and jaws of a limnoria like other marine animals the Torito and the folad IT destroys wood voraciously gnawing endless paths through the toughest of wood fibers and costing the country of Fortune in damage but they shy away from creosote and other colar derivatives so this peculiar study is just another battleground of us steel [Music] research this is tin tin for plating tin is expensive scarce and the presently known areas of Supply might be cut off from our country although the so-called tin can is more than 99% steel much research has been devoted to more efficient use of this other element in combination with steel and in some cases to the entire elimination of tin in the production of certain cans and containers which used to require this metal fortunately us steel research had developed the electrolytic process of coating steel with tin before World War II so that by the time our tin supply lines were threatened a method had been found to reduce the consumption of tin for plating by nearly [Music] 50% This research goes right into the kitchen into the kitchen that is of us Steels tin plate research division different weights different Coatings and various lacquers applied to Tin plate are tested here more and more lacquers and other Coatings are being developed and tested against the day when the tin can might become completely and perhaps more beneficially the steel can conserving scarce tin for more vital uses progress in Canning research is already manifest in the fact that many Products Dry materials paints and less active food products need no longer be preserved in tin plate and are now packaged economically and durably in steel that is chemically treated or lacquered or [Music] both storage in hot rooms where the temperature is maintained at 100° helps to accelerate the testing porcelain enamel is low melting glass being a glass it has great resistance to corrosion and offers in addition to the advantages of its surface the warmth and decorative charm of a wide range of color the research job here is how to prepare steels for more efficient bonding with an ANL to avoid pitting chipping and other faults that have presented problems to the to the manufacturer and to the housewife one of the promising new developments has to do with a method of precoating steel sheets to improve the resistance of subsequently applied enamels to cracking and chipping in a torsion test which twists the enameled sheet it may be seen that there is noticeable Distortion before the enamel cracks [Music] off in combining alloying elements with steel the scientist is constantly on the alert to eliminate impurities for example the presence of hydrogen in certain Steels even though only five parts in a minion can have significant effect so penetrating is the search for such elements that in some studies steel is both melted and cast in a vacuum as in this 2B vacuum furnace whether or not Steel in 100 T batches will be commercially melted in vacuum extensive research in the small vessels is productive of much beneficial information and already the casting of Steel in vacuum has been achieved in large quantities with ingots up to 80 tons being cast in controlled vacuum with a result that hydrogen has been reduced to a level of about one part in a minion it's a long way from an 80 ton Ingot to one that can be held in the hollow of one's hand yet here is perhaps the birthplace of better steels for tomorrow the 2-b furnace screens the compositions for the next step in this case a 300 lb furnace in which steel is both melted and cast in a [Music] vacuum in developing new Steels the research people have built up a philosophy of alloying which enables them to forecast with amazing accuracy the properties which will result from new alloy compositions as well as the changes in the character of Steel which are produced in the course of heat treatment or by manipulation such as forging or rolling but from time to time the unexpected is observed and a better Theory and perhaps a new steel is the special reward of the research a classic demonstration illustrates the changed character that heat and manipulate in part to Steel in a testing machine two pieces of the same steel are fixed the missile shaped piece at the top has been hardened by Heating and quenching the dis shap plate at the bottom has been softened through heat treatment both are the same steel yet one pierces the other with ease [Music] the mechanical testing of Steel subjects it to every kind of engineering torture it may be fractured with standardized and carefully measured physical force or it's bent and rebent hundreds of thousands of times it's pulled apart by thousands of pounds of tension always probing the breaking point it's machined with microscopic examination of [Music] results one way or another this intense scrutiny assures us that the answers will be found that steel can and will meet the demands of Tomorrow it takes a combination of cure osity disciplined imagination and fine discrimination to guide the study of Steel performance in miniature and to project this experience into engines cables pressure vessels or structures of ever increasing capacity some of the most spectacular problems of the jet age are those that confront the steel metallurgist for progress in this age of speed hinges on our ability to create Steels which remain strong at ever higher temperatures here in what is known as the creep rupture laboratory the strength of steel is measured under conditions of tension and time and heat a thousand hours of stress under conditions of high temperatures and tension steel under stress is encased in small electric furnaces which if cutway would look like this while the heated steel is subjected to measured tensil pull anticipating the requirements of supersonic airflight [Music] structures some research testing assumes highly realistic proportions as does this dynamometer a giant machine especially designed by the research center to test railroad Wheels it can produce a brake load far in excess of that on each wheel of a 100 car Trin going 100 Mil hour hour what happens when the engineer applies the brakes at high speed what happens to the surface of wheel and brake shoe what happens in the heat transfer and expansion of Steel now the problems can be attacked with extreme thoroughness seeking steel and treatment to meet the challenge Alles of Greater loads and greater speeds another objective and a product of research as important as any new steel involves the development of men continuing their training in science and in technological processes here the objectives are the stimulation and refinement of curiosity and strangely enough the cultivation of restlessness for the nature of research is such that its future cannot be predicted if we are completely satisfied or if we contentedly get along with compromise research May hold no interest for us the essence of research is a Restless sense not dissatisfaction with what has been accomplished for of that research is proud but a sense of incompletion of perfection not yet attained in knowledge and in standards of living as well these are men who have indeed a noble discontent with the theirs is a restlessness that steel research would nurture for without that Restless urge our progress would cease [Applause] [Music]