From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Technical report on the properties and suitability of 'Staybrite' steel.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 154a\1\ scan0046 | |
| Date | 30th December 1925 | |
| YC4111 R.{Sir Henry Royce} C. C. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} C. MOT. BY4/H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} 30.12.25. "STAYBRITE" STEEL. ------------------ With reference to Rl/M.17.12.25. we have been in touch with this steel for approximately six months but did not understand it was useful for such purposes as those tabulated in Rl/M.17.12.25. In order to prevent misunderstanding and make sure what the new material was useful for, we wrote to Messrs Firths as per attached copy of BY7/H.23.12.25. and received replies from Messrs Firths direct and from Mr.G.E.Wolstenholme, the director who is directly responsible for exploiting same, and attach copies of replies herwith. It will be seen that the new material is not one to replace Stainless Steel of usual type; as a matter of fact it is more after the nature of a stainless iron, and has properties similar to deep drawing mild steel, that is, it is a very ductile material and useful for drawing and pressing cold into various shapes such as tubes, deep vessels for containing acid etc. The steel is readily forged hot into shape, and could be used under certain conditions to replace mild steel forgings, but it is of course much more difficult to machine, more expensive originally, and not a good deal better from the point of view of its elastic limit or yield point. The Ultimate Tensile of the steel is 53 tons, but its Yield point is only 29.5, even in its higher tensile condition, while in softened condition the similar characteristics are - max.Tensile 48.6 tons, Yield Point 15.1 tons. It will be evident from a consideration of these physical characteristics that its high ultimate is the result of a hardening up of test piece as a result of deformation, and that its working value is only its Yield Point, and this is very low indeed in softened condition, and relatively low in hardened or higher tensile form. Contd. | ||